There are a lot of reasons that experiencing a faith transition is hard. An altered belief system can leave you feeling untethered in a million ways as you realize how much of your daily life is affected by those beliefs.  Going about the business of readjusting not just your routines, but the way you interact with people and approach the world is a painful process that leaves you feeling raw and vulnerable.  This is particularly the case when it comes to navigating familial relationships. Will your family judge you?  Will they still love and accept you?  How much can you tell them about your transition? Do you tell them what you’ve learned about church history?  Will you tell them how your beliefs in God have changed?  Will you expose them to your new unheterodox behaviors, like drinking coffee or wearing tank tops? Are you being authentic if you don’t do anything of these things?

It is a tough road to navigate, and the hard truth is that it can, and does, tear families apart.

This is why I’m so excited about my friend Dr. Kristy Money’s new podcast.  Dr. Money is a psychologist, and over the past few years, she has dedicated her professional energy toward helping Mormons, former Mormons, and all those in between navigate these waters.  She has recently partnered with Lauren Ard and Carol Lynn Pearson to create the Healthy Mormon Journeys Foundation. Her new project is the Healthy Mormon Journeys podcast, which is not just interviews but gives people a chance to call in and seek for advice on navigating their own faith transitions, or the faith transition of a loved one.

Please check out the website.  As I looked through it, I started to understand the gap it is filling for our community and the needs it is going to meet.  The Mormon world has a plethora of material out there that focuses on faith transitions.  But, pretend as they might otherwise, the other podcasts out there that “focus” on helping people with faith transitions really have more of an agenda to point out everything that is problematic with the church and its history.  I don’t want to seem overly critical, but there is a lot of “let’s talk about the moment you knew Joseph Smith was a liar.”  It ends up being a heavy-handed conversation that is way less about helping people navigate the waters than it is about launching a certain narrative about the church. But we don’t really need that, do we?  We know what causes faith transitions.  Because we’ve had faith transitions.

Healthy Mormon Journeys is different.  They’ve just begun, and already there are podcasts here that a person experiencing a faith transition could send to their very believing family members.  There are conversations here that can help them all find common ground. It is not about examining all the troubled aspects of church history, it is about determining when and if you can discuss those issues with your loved ones.

We need this. Faith transitions come with a lot of pain for every person connected to them.  We need something to help us focus on healing and peace and love.  Healthy Mormon Journeys is here for this.

Check out their website.

Check out their Facebook page.

Check out their launch event.

Leah Marie earned a BA in Political Science, and a Masters in Public Administration. She is currently working towards her PhD in Public Policy. She is wife to an English professor, and mother to 3 beautiful boys.

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