And Yet, We Believe

What does it mean, to say the Church is scaffolding? Harold B. Lee introduced this idea ~60 years ago, and it's been important to both of us as our faith matures. Basically, the Church is the scaffolding we stand on while we build something eternal: our individual relationship with God, maybe, or Zion, the beloved community.

"Pain is the rent we pay for being human." Richard Rohr
We're all trying to navigate the suffering that will inevitably be there and, at the same time, trying to figure out how to mourn with others, comfort others, and bear their burdens too. In this episode, we chatted about ways to do that, different perspectives on suffering, and some do's and don'ts of mourning with others.

When we talk about the "wilderness" in a Latter-day Saint context, it's always something bad. But in this episode, we discuss how being spiritually in the wilderness doesn't mean being lost. It's a path without any shortcuts, and it can lead to a deeper, more loving faith.

Do we really believe in ongoing restoration and revelation in our church? The idea of change can be really scary for a lot of people. We try to stay on the side of excitedly looking forward to change and progress. That can be hard when things seem to move slowly... and that's where hope comes in. When we say nothing will ever change, all we are doing is putting God in a box and telling Them that we have enough information and doctrine now. Let's break that box open and see what else They have in store for us!

With Mothers Day coming up this weekend, we wanted to take a moment to celebrate this cherished doctrine--that we have a Heavenly Mother, and that She is involved in our lives. We talk a LOT about how this doctrine isn't a secret, or fringe, and talking about Her is fine... We use official Church sources and reference prophets and apostles. The Gospel Topics essay about Heavenly Mother, published by the Church, is here: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/mother-in-heaven?lang=enghttps://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/s...
We also mention this article I put together a while back, titled "100 References to Heavenly Mother in General Conference," which is exactly what it sounds like. Find that here: https://www.rogerpimentel.com/p/100-heavenly-mother-general-conferencehttps://open.substack.com/pub/rogerpi...

Can you have doubts if you have faith? We talk all about it in this episode.

In this episode, we talk about Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and others in Church history (and our own ancestral histories!) that did great things--but also deeply problematic things. If you've ever crashed headlong into uncomfortable pieces of Church history, you'll resonate with what we talk about here.

In this episode, we talked all about gender norms. We grew up with some pretty explicit roles and norms. What about you? Are they still being upheld in your families and lives, or have you started to break the gender norms down like us?

Of all the episodes to have issues with our audio, it happens on the one about perfectionism! We thought it was poetic beauty, so we are leaving it. The audio does kick in so stay with it! It just won't align with the video. Sorry!
In this episode, we dive into the challenges of perfectionism in our church culture.

Women's experiences and voices at church are such important topics. We know that women all over the world are having any number of experiences at church. And all are valid and important to hear.