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John Dehlin’s Internet Thoughtful Faith Mormon Manifesto

In 2005, before I started Mormon Stories, got excited and inspired about what the Internet might do for Mormonism. This is the letter I sent to friends and family. Just thought I’d share…if for no other reason that it shows where my mind was before I started Mormon Stories.

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August 11, 2005

Sunstone/Dialogue Boards, BCC Folks, LDS Bloggers, Friends and Family,

Below is what I’m calling my “Thoughtful Faith Modern Mormon Manifesto” (for lack of originality). Consider it a proposed 1st draft blueprint for what we might do collectively in the Sunstone/Dialogue/Bloggernacle realms over the next 10 years.  I’ve also copied it to my web site for future easy reference.

This will take at least 15-30 minutes to read.  If you think you might not have time or interest in reading below, check out the following before you make that decision:

Did that help?  Was I able to at least convince you to give me at least 15 more minutes?

If not, I totally understand.  Please feel free to COMPLETELY ignore….I am including you only because you may end up hearing about some of this over time (as family or friend, or as we try to implement?). 

But you might also decide that you want to play a part. 

Also, as far as the Dialogue/Sunstone boards go, I’m sure I’ve left a ton of people off the list, so please forward liberally as you so desire (or not, as the case may be).

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OK…..to begin, I have a few questions to ask all Sunstoners, Dialoguers, and Bloggernacle’ers….and generally anyone who considers them self a “thinking Mormon” or a “liberal Mormon” or even an “open Mormon”…

  1. What’s our Purpose? Do we, as somewhat open-minded, somewhat thoughtful LDS folk, have a unifying purpose?  And is this purpose actually productive–or are we just engaging in mental #$@! (if you will pardon the expression)? 

    While I am no expert, I suspect that Sunstone and Dialogue in the 80’s and early 90’s may have lost focus on this purpose a bit, and this may have led to the Sunstone or Dialogue “stink”, as Dan [Wotherspoon] has referred to it at times.  While I believe that this damage IS reparable, I also believe that we can never afford to let this happen again.

    I know the answer from my perspective.  My purposes are as follows:
    • To encourage a “dialing up” of the intellect as a part of the overall development of LDS folk (acknowledging that it’s only a part, but still a very important part)
    • To create a community which will act as a “safety net” or “safe house” for all the thousands of LDS folk who each day stumble onto anti-Mormon literature, or anti-Mormon web sites, or even just factual church history…which begins to lead them out of the church, and into a life that is potentially self-destructive, and familially (I know that’s not a word)  and socially destructive as well.  I don’t hate or even begrudge the leaders of these “anti-” sites/movements.  In reality, I respect them a great deal (some of them are cc’d here).  A wise man once said, “A skeptic is an idealist who has been burned”.  Another said that “Atheism is often born out of integrity.”  As people seek to find truth, and become disappointed or disillusioned, they abandon all hope/faith in one fell swoop.

      But there are ways to know the “facts” and “history”, warts and all, and even to see the social pitfalls of the Church, while still deciding that staying in the Church is the best path for further enlightenment and service.  Most of you are living testaments to this idea.  And just like many of you have helped me through this maze, I now want to turn around and help others find this path, just like Ted Lyon, and Bill Bradshaw, and Clayton White, and Lynn England, and Leonard Arrington, and T. Edgar Lyon, and Lowell Bennion, and Lamond Tullis, and Richard Poll, and Eugene England, and Michael Quinn, and Lavina Fielding Anderson, and Grant Palmer, and my Mom and Dad and wife, and countless others have helped me to do over time.  This is my goal–and I believe that this is your goal as well (most of you, anyways).
  2. Lasting Impact, vs. “Archive-o-rama”: Towards this purpose, what can we do to make our collective contributions/efforts more permanent/lasting/impactful….vs. becoming written, rewritten, and regurgitated ad infinitum, not to mention forgotten….and then archived and lost in magazine piles and blog archives over time? 

    Now that we know the basic facts about the black issue, the polygamy issue, the Book of Abraham issue, the “Peep Stone/Magic” issues, or the 1st vision issue…..and hundreds of people each day are discovering these issues for the first time….how do we connect them with the existing facts/articles that have already been written….and save them AND US the time of having the same tired conversations over and over again?  This is what FARMS and FAIR are trying to do, but I’m not convinced that being apologetic (though tough to define) is the way to go. 

    I do believe that WE can do this, if we unify, prioritize it, and do it right.  But right now, much of this super-important history and knowledge is resting in the fortress of magazine archives, old blog archives/threads, and impenetrable web site catalogues.
  3. New Media, New Formats and the Generation Gap: Over the past 35 years, we’ve made some progress with the written word, Internet, and now blogs, but how can new technologies, and new formats, help us achieve 1 & 2 to an even greater extent than it has thus far?  We know that there is a “generational issue” with subscribers and participants in Dialogue and Sunstone being largely “chronologically gifted” (shall we say).  So how do we reach out to the “new generation”?  How do we penetrate not just academics, but college students, and young married couples, BEFORE they stumble on the wrong things and spiral into destruction (as they are doing now in decently large numbers)?  Are there new media, and new formats, that can take the facts and truths behind Sunstone, Dialogue, and the Bloggernacle and blast them into the mainstream?

    For me, the most critical elements to this mosaic are the following:

For me, the community cannot be left to the Internet alone.  Blogs and email lists can provide some great community, but I am a firm believer that the issues of trolls, anonymity, the anti-Mormon phenomenon, along with the often coarse discourse that can accompany the “shield” of distance….will always make web communities a little bit inferior to plain old human social interaction.  We are human, after all……no matter how “cyber” or “cyborg” we become.

So what if every major geographic area w/ critical mass of LDS folk had a “community group” called “A Thoughtful Faith”, or “Mormons with Questions”, that was advertised across all our collective web sites, blogs, and written publications, and in the local papers?  This is how grass roots movements start.  This is how communities get built.  IN PERSON.  I love the Internet, but in my opinion, the personal connection is irreplaceable.  I will be working with others to start a pilot group in Logan, UT, and I would love others to volunteer to start something similar in their areas.

So here are some ideas on how we can “raise up a thoughtful, faithful generation”…..

CREATING a podcast is SUPER easy, and virtually free.  All you need is: a computer, a broadband connection to the Internet, a combination microphone/ear phone like this , some free recording software like this , and if you want to interview or join with other people in your conversation, this program called Skype will help (it lets you do high-quality chat over the Internet long-distance for FREE).  Oh…it doesn’t hurt to have something interesting to say.  :)  

The rest is easy (but I won’t go into it here).

And now, to my last point…..

Organize, Organize, Organize (maybe even divide and conquer): The final point I want to make is the following: (and if you made it this far, remind me that I owe you an ice cream next time you see me).   To do this, we will all need to combine forces and ORGANIZE.  Of course we can continue to do our own things (publications, blogs, etc), but if we can unify as well as federate, we can put all our collective writing and thinking and talking efforts towards a common, unifying, and PRODUCTIVE goal…vs. just more and more and more writing and talking that ends up in a magazine pile or in a blog archive.

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Please think about this, and consider for yourselves whether you think this is a pursuit worth doing.  Perhaps you are already doing it.  Or perhaps you think I am crazy.  Or perhaps you like these ideas, but have no clue if they are actually doable.

As for me, I can already taste these things coming to fruition.  So what I want to know is, who wants to be a part?  Who’s in? (ok…ok….I know I tend to get overly-excited, or overly-dramatic at times.  Call it (somewhat) youthful irrational exuberance).   :)

Regardless, I’d love to know your thoughts.  And Steve/Aaron….this is what I’d love to blog about, if you think it’s worthwhile on BCC.  :)

John Dehlin

http://www.mormonstories.org
http://www.mormonpodcasts.org

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