Tune in today at 1pm MST to join John, Jenn and Maven, from Mormonism Live, for part one of Maven’s Mormon Story. Her story begins in rural Utah, next door to Fundamental Mormons, and later serving an LDS mission.

In part 2, join John, Jenn and Maven as we explore the Making of Maven. She takes us through her faith crisis and reconstruction with touching stories, beautiful insight and hope.

Show Notes:

Part 1:

Download MP3

 

Part 2:

Download MP3

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21 Comments

  1. JG May 19, 2022 at 7:32 pm - Reply

    “I feel like the church instilled in her [his wife] to be deeply suspicious of me and their sexual drives. Now, that same suspicion is in bed with us every night. I hate it, and I wish we could just enjoy having sex without all the suspicion about who’s thinking what.” Quoted by Tina Schermer Sellers in Sex, God, and the Conservative Church: Erasing Shame from Sexual Intimacy.

    • Sher P July 19, 2022 at 4:37 am - Reply

      Within 10 minutes Maven says the Church is perfect and then when she gets LDS education she says that the Church isn’t perfect…and blames it on cognitive dissonance… definitely ready to be an LDS stay at home wife…

      Dippy and believes that LDS church believes in racial equality..which LDS historically bows down to ANY government that it practices under…which is good because racist LDS principles were shut down by a FACTUALLY based American public and non partisan government..

      Terribly hokey..best to teach your own children that facts aren’t facts cause one chooses to feel that they aren’t facts.

      Suggest she take fundamental logic so she can construct a logical basis if which to speak…

      Yowser..

    • Maven September 23, 2022 at 12:56 pm - Reply

      Looks like a great resource! I’ll check it out!

  2. Judy Noall May 19, 2022 at 10:15 pm - Reply

    Amazing story of Maven’s. You are quite marvelous young woman. May the rest of your life be filled with all things good.

    • Maven September 23, 2022 at 12:56 pm - Reply

      Thank you, Judy!

  3. Maui May 20, 2022 at 3:47 pm - Reply

    Maven, thank you. I found so many relatable themes and valuable takeaways. Your story of remarkable. Thank you.

    • Maven September 23, 2022 at 12:57 pm - Reply

      Thanks, Maui!

  4. Nan May 21, 2022 at 11:14 am - Reply

    Maven, you are such a gift to those who listen to Mormon podcasts. I’ve not even finished the first part, but wanted to share that I had the same experience when I covered my face with the veil. In fact, there was ( is) a large painting of a woman’s figure where I was working at the time I prepared to go to the temple. The figure in the painting was nude, had ample breasts and pubic hair, but her arms, legs and head were faded out. It bothered me very much that this woman figure was just a sexual thing, had no identity and also had no mind, no limbs, essentially no way to defend or protect herself. I submitted to the business leadership that She (It) needed to be taken down, but was dismissed as not understanding “good art”. The following week I went to the temple for my endowment and intimately understood the woman figure as I pulled the veil over my face.
    Thank you, Maven, for expressing our shared experience in such a meaningful way.

    • Maven September 23, 2022 at 1:03 pm - Reply

      You’re welcome, Nan! I hope you are feeling more visible each day as I am. And not for anyone else but ourselves.

      Your story with the painting is interesting. Isn’t it funny how much we are taught that it’s stuff like that painting that’s demoralizing and sexualizing women, as if the Church was something different and elevating, when it was the same thing all along!

      Purity culture and raising women to only find value and worth based on the man they belong to and the children they bear for him is the other side of the same coin of objectifying women and their bodies, but I couldn’t see it.

  5. Barbara May 22, 2022 at 12:26 pm - Reply

    Maven, I thoroughly enjoyed both of your podcasts! They were both very informative, instrumental, and relatable to me. I am a current member of the LDS Church and have been since birth so over 60 years. I’m a divorced woman in the LDS church. With inactive children adult children. So I haven’t felt like I fit the mold for many years. So hearing your stories even though they differ from mine, it’s the LDS community and facade that I feel like I have to pretend to be at times, that affects me daily. So your bravery of putting your life out there in a podcast was very refreshing very articulate very informative and again honest. Thank you thank you for being who you are!

    • Maven September 23, 2022 at 1:05 pm - Reply

      Thank you Barbara!

      Being a single woman in the Church is a challenge no matter how we arrive at it, with different things being judged about us. I’m glad part of my story spoke to you.

  6. Glenn May 24, 2022 at 4:48 pm - Reply

    Maven – When you mentioned you didn’t want to be known as a virgin and went out of your way to give a false impression. Do you think that were on some level protecting yourself from something you didn’t want?

  7. Allie May 25, 2022 at 10:38 am - Reply

    Maven – I loved your story. Every word. Thank you for sharing, thank you for your vulnerability, and thank you for taking up space and giving a voice and an example to people (esp women) who feel like they aren’t allowed to do that. Wonderful interview.

    • Maven September 23, 2022 at 1:08 pm - Reply

      Thank you Allie. I find a lot of joy in being able to share my opinions without guilt for having them. Such a normal thing to be glad about! But anything new can be amazing when you’re not used to it I guess!

  8. Dr. Sam Lyman May 25, 2022 at 12:21 pm - Reply

    Thank you so much for sharing your story Maven. You are an amazing young woman and shared so important insights from your journey. May you continue to thrive and know you and your story are of value, even to those you might never meet. Thanks again, Sam

    • Maven September 23, 2022 at 1:15 pm - Reply

      Thank you, Sam!

  9. Buraianto June 21, 2022 at 5:34 am - Reply

    Maven, excellent observation an vs information about Helen Mar Kimball. Thank you.

    Coincidentally, I had read Exodus 4:24-26 just a couple of days ago and recognized a parallel. The story, according to the notes of the NET Bible: Moses is struck deathly ill by God, and his wife correctly identified the reason as that Moses had not circumcised his son, against the commandment. So she cut off the son’s foreskin and threw it at the feet of Moses, whereon he was healed.

    The parallel is the idea that God curses us with illness due to disobedience, and heals is when we obey. This thinking is apparently well entrenched in Christian and Jewish thinking.

  10. Sher P July 19, 2022 at 4:02 am - Reply

    Wow, love to hear this podcast, the reviews are so glowing .. God Bless America for allowing religious freedom in this Country so that a woman can choose a loving, inclusive God that please a woman’s right for dignity and determination of meeting life’s challenges well beyond a fragile woman’s right to discern she is a second class spirit in eyes of God–certainly not in the eyes of the Savior…. LDS certainly does not know the Christian God of our Fathers…always always hard to listen to a Cult’s apologetic rhetoric.

    • Maven September 23, 2022 at 1:14 pm - Reply

      I don’t think God blessed America to allow religious freedom. It was a value of many of the founding fathers as they rightly saw that religion in government would always inevitably end with unrighteous dominion as we are seeing happening now with Christian extremists successfully relegating women to second-class citizens by removing their basic human right of bodily autonomy.

      I am grateful that the country allows me to reject an abusive God outright, and I will continue to fight for that freedom as I fear it’s getting more likely that Christians will try to take that away if they can.

  11. Josh September 22, 2022 at 7:34 pm - Reply

    I can’t imagine being neurotic AND (ex)Mormon… Neurosis is enough of a challenge.

    • Maven September 23, 2022 at 10:56 am - Reply

      Josh, I am so sorry you currently struggle with this. Neurosis IS a big challenge, and I can’t imagine being both neurotic AND ex-Mormon either. It sounds terrible! Losing my neuroticism has been one of the biggest perks of leaving the many harmful doctrines and teachings of Mormonism! Though I suppose it would STILL be worth leaving, even if it took more time and effort to make the neuroticism go away.

      As for the implication that being ex-Mormon is a challenge comparable to neurosis, I’d have to disagree. It’s a whole new wonderful world on this side of things! The main challenge I find being an ex-Mormon is seeing the harm it continues to cause its members, including friends and family of mine, as well as society at large.

      People worry on my behalf for the rare hater or troll I get, but compared to the real challenges I just mentioned, something as mundane and common as a small-minded man on the internet getting so upset over a woman speaking up about her lived experiences in a controlling, patriarchal corporation that he feels compelled to waste his energy finding a way to insult her and tear her down as if that’s going to teach her a lesson or silence her, just doesn’t compare, you know?

      In fact, since the majority of my life has been doing just that–silencing myself and deferring to opinions of males with self-proclaimed, undeserved “authority” over me–it actually gives me a certain sense of thrill and accomplishment to put them back in their place and call out their shitty, sexist behavior for what it is.

      It helps me know I’m exactly where I need to be to make the world a better place for women and girls like my nieces, and often even the daughters of the very men who seek to cut me down. It’s a worthy cause.

      Thanks for checking out my story, Josh. And thanks for making my day!

      -Maven

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