John Dehlin

Introducing the Mormon Transitions Project

[00:00:01] Hello everyone, My name is John Dehlin. It is September 16, 2015 and I'm very excited to welcome you to what I'm sort of naming as the launch of the Mormon Transitions Project. I'll start with a little bit of background. Many of you know that I went through an LDS faith crisis around 2011, 2001, 2002 time frame when I was serving as an LDS seminary teacher in Seattle, Washington, working for Microsoft.

[00:00:29] During that time, I, I learned about many incredible progressive Mormon pioneers. For those of you who are watching this presentation on YouTube, you'll see this big list of the types of people that influence me and organizations from B H Roberts to Dialogue to Sunstone to all sorts of websites like Postmormonext, Mormon.org, new Order Mormon. There have been so many resources that have been available, scholars and historians, to help progressive Mormons struggle with and deal with things like a faith crisis, progressive issues in the church, etc. But by 2005, after I had left Microsoft, I just sort of looked around and noticed that even though the Internet was emerging, you know, new Mormon history and progressive Mormon thought had not yet penetrated broad Mormon consciousness.

[00:01:21] And I felt like this is a problem because I found out that too many people were kind of suffering in silence. You know, gays, feminists, intellectuals, people of color, people who really rever science, but felt conflicted between their faith and knowledge. So many people were struggling. So around 2005, about 10 years ago, I launched Mormon Stories podcast, which was this effort to sort of open up the discourse, to invite people to be interviewed and to discuss difficult issues that we weren't able to talk about in church. And if you think about all the many faces, those of you again who are watching through YouTube will see all these faces, people that maybe were introduced to for the first time through Mormon Stories.

[00:02:02] You know, Richard and Claudia Bushman, Tom Phillips, Michael Coe, Greg Prince, Grant Palmer, you know, brooke and John McClay, Michael Quinn, Jeremy Reynolds, Carolyn Pearson, Benji Schwimmer, Hans and Brigitte Matson, Kate Kelly Terrell and Fiona Givens, Christina Clark, Brett Metcalf. So many people came onto Mormon Stories and were able to share their knowledge, share their expertise and share their experiences. It's been an amazing ride and I'm so grateful for all the people that have come on Mormon Stories podcast. If you look about where we are sort of on the 10 year anniversary of Mormon stories, we've recorded over 570 episodes, all of them in audio, with several more released on our YouTube video channel.

[00:02:47] We've had millions of downloads of our MP3, literally millions. We've had over 3 million downloads just over the past year alone of our MP3s. Many of our episodes are downloaded upwards of 80 to 100,000 times per episode. And Mormon Stories, gratefully, 10 years later, remains one of the most downloaded podcasts, if not the most downloaded podcast in Mormonism.

[00:03:10] But one of the things that almost happened almost immediately was that tens of thousands of people began to reach out seeking support from me for their struggles in their Mormon transitions. And also, you know, thousands of you stood up to support me to help Mormon Stories become more successful.

[00:03:32] So in 2009, I realized that to be able to help all these people who are struggling, I would, you know, be benefited by going back to school to get my PhD in clinical and counseling psychology. So I started that in 2009. In 2010, I formed a 501c3 nonprofit called the Open Stories Foundation. And from there, many new and exciting things emerged.

[00:03:54] Through the osf, we created several very successful podcasts, including Mormon Matters Podcast with Dan Witherspoon, a thoughtful faith podcast that's now run by Gina Colvin, Mormon Mental health podcast that Natasha Alver Parker has been leading. We created Mormon Story Sunday School with Jared Anderson that now is no longer an OSF project, but Jared continues to do great work there. We created Gay Mormon Stories podcast with Dan Daniel Parkinson, My Cousin Mormon Studies Podcast is up and running with Brett Metcalf. And we even created a Mormon Stories version of a podcast in German that a good friend created as well. And so I can't tell you how exciting these projects have been.

[00:04:33] We believe that they've made a big difference. In addition, it's been so exciting to see so many other podcasts emerge. Mormon Expressions Podcasts, Feminist Mormon Housewives, Infants on Thrones, the Cultural Hall, Mormon Expositor, My Book of Mormon, Year of Polygamy. These aren't Open Stories foundation projects in any way, but they have been really important contributors to the Mormon discourse over the past 10 or so years. And there are many other great podcasts and blogs as well. Two of the most important things that have emerged over the past 10 years, I believe, are the Mormon Think website and the CES Letter from Jeremy Runnels. Again, these are not OSF projects in any way, but we feel like they are very important contributors that are worth noting in this conversation about what's happened over the past 10 years.

[00:05:20] In addition to the podcast that we created in the osf, we created at least two major Facebook communities. The Mormon Stories Podcast Facebook Community, which now has over 7,000 members. It's one of the largest Facebook communities in Mormonism that I think exists. And then the Thoughtful Faith Podcast Facebook community supports both Mormon Matters podcast and A Thoughtful Faith. It's got over 2,000 members, it's strongly moderated, it's well moderated and those people are doing a great job. There we go. Very proud of that work. In addition, starting in 2011, I teamed with others to create over a hundred Mormon stories Facebook communities on Facebook. These were local communities in places like New York and Washington D.C.

[00:06:03] and Boise and Southern California and Houston, even London and other types of places in Sweden. These communities, many of them are thriving and doing very well. Phoenix is one of one of the many really thriving communities out there. You can find these communities along with many other post Mormon, ex Mormon, progressive Mormon communities on Mormon spectrum. I have to give a shout out to Allison Udall and Steve, my friend Steve Holbrooke, who have worked really hard with others to get Mormon Spectrum up and running. Check them out. That's been a really important contribution to Mormonism that we feel like Mormon stories at least helped seed or incubate to some extent.

[00:06:44] In addition to the podcasts and the Facebook communities and the in person communities through the osf, we've conducted some very important Mormon themed social science research that's been published now in peer reviewed journals. For my master's thesis, I conducted the only known study of a psychological treatment for religious obsessive compulsive disorder, which is called scrupulosity. That work's been published. Thanks to your support, we've published at least eight or nine peer reviewed journal articles on the Mormon LGBT experience for gay, lesbian, bisexual Mormons. Here on the YouTube presentation are just a list of four of the main publications that have now been published from this research.

[00:07:23] And of course through several important collaborators, including Hans Mattson and several friends who wish to remain unnamed, we teamed with Marlon Jensen, sort of behind the scenes to create a survey of over 3000 disaffected and disbelieving Mormons and ex Mormons. This data was gathered and then we were invited to church headquarters to present this research to general authorities and executive directors of major committees in the church. And we were told that this survey was being conducted again back in 2011, 2012 to help convince general authorities in the church to support this project of creating, you know, essays that were open and more candid about the problems within the church.

[00:08:10] And we were so thrilled to be a part of that initiative at the time. And we, you know, are so excited. You know, Mormon Stories, the Open Stories foundation, and all who have contributed over the years. We're so excited to see how the LDS Church has responded to our efforts.

[00:08:27] All of you know that the LDS Church has put out these gospel topic essays that we believe, you know, many people contributed to an influence, but we know that we were at least one major factor in the creation of these essays. We're very happy at the changes of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute. We believe that those reflect the church leadership, listening and paying attention and wanting to do a better job with their apologetic resources and information.

[00:08:53] We believe that, you know, we were consulted by early consultants of FAIR Mormon, and those consultants asked us how we would recommend Fair Changing. We know that those changes were recommended to FAIR and that FAIR has indeed made many positive changes that we think has. Has led to sort of improvement overall in LDS apologetics worldwide. And I was really delighted when I first interviewed Terrell Givens. He confided in me the Deseret book wouldn't even carry many of his books that he had published.

[00:09:23] After we interviewed Terrell and Fiona Givens multiple times, we were so thrilled to see them getting picked up by Desiree Book and the LDS Church to promote their work as well. I have been so honored to partner with Natasha Hilford Parker over the past several years. She's created this phenomenal organization called the Mormon Mental Health association, which is training mental health professionals who serve Mormon populations to do a better job. That's been a really exciting thing to help support. Although that's Natasha's work, it's not an Open Stories foundation project.

[00:09:55] And then finally, In August of 2015, I got my PhD in clinical counseling Psychology. So that's official. So the beginning of this presentation is sincerely just to give a thanks to all of you who have supported us. This has not been anything other than a community effort. Thousands and even tens of thousands of you have participated in making all this successful. And I think this is something that we've done together. So what have we done? Well, if you look at the presentation on YouTube, I've got some bullets here. We think that together, us with the many other people that we mentioned at the beginning of the presentation and others that haven't been mentioned, we believe that over the past 10 years, we've built a pretty significant global awareness of the difficult issues faced by LDS Church members, historical issues, social issues, etc.

Open Stories Foundation's Work and Impact

[00:10:43] We believe that we've helped tens of thousands of Mormons wake up to begin taking control of their lives and to find community and support. We believe that we've gotten the LDS Church to acknowledge and respond to many problems that they were ignoring. For decades, they were punishing people for talking about these problems. Now they're acknowledging it through the Gospel Topic essays, through leadership and general authority awareness, through trainings that we know are going on throughout the church. We know that general authorities are aware of these problems. We know that they're scared of podcasts and of websites and resources like CES Letter and Mormon Think and other places.

[00:11:18] We know that because Elder Ballard just recently gave a presentation to the Utah area South, where he mentioned podcasts and other web resources as being very influential. And we're very proud to be on their radar. We believe that the LDS Church has fundamentally altered its discourse about people struggling with faith crises. Again, that was reflected in Elder Ballard's talk where he's calling on faithful LDS members to no longer ostracize and marginalize and demonize people who have doubts and questions, but instead to take their doubts and questions seriously. We feel like that's due to these combined efforts. We believe that LDS apologetics are more humane, they're more subdued, they're more civil.

[00:11:56] And we believe that these essays that the Church has released, the Gospel topic essays, are actually now becoming the instigators for many more people awakening and becoming aware of the difficulties within the LDS Church. And then, most importantly, we feel very proud that, that we've created so many communities on Facebook, in person, elsewhere, for progressive and post Mormons to get together to support each other and to help begin sort of healing and growing. Now, we know that there are other organizations that have created these communities as well, like exmormon.org, postmormon.org, et cetera. But we feel like together we've done a lot of great things.

[00:12:36] Now the thing that we're most proud of, I think, is that tens of thousands of Mormons have now become awakened due to our collective efforts. And I can't tell you the most gratifying thing that I experience is when someone comes to me and says, john, I just want you to know that you gave me my life back. Or the work that you and others have done has given us our lives back. And we can now decide how we want to spend our time, what we want to believe, what we want to do with our money and how we want to raise our children, or how we want to live our lives in ways that feel healthy and authentic to ourselves and that aren't toxic or unhealthy.

[00:13:11] So we're super proud of this. But one of the most important things and the reason for this presentation with Mormon transitions is because I think it's very obvious and clear that we have only begun to scratch the surface. And what do I mean by that? Well, number one, there are too many Mormons that are still unaware and are still struggling. Most LDS Church members to this day are still oblivious to all of these resources. They're oblivious to Mormon stories podcast, to CES letter, to MormonThink, to all the cool podcasts out there, to all the communities, to Mormon spectrum, to all the different resources. Most members still have no awareness, especially if you consider internationally.

[00:13:52] Most of these resources that I've just talked about are not translated into foreign languages. They're not available, you know, to other countries. And so there's just so much work to be done to increase the awareness and the penetration of these resources into the broad LDS Church membership.

[00:14:11] Middle way or progressive Mormonism is still fraught. Thoughtful faith Mormon matters and stale DS are still doing a great job, but it's still very difficult to try and hold that middle way within Mormonism, to be progressive, but also to stay in the church.

[00:14:26] Many aren't able to do that, but some still are, and there's still a lot of work to be done there. And then finally, if you look at all the podcasts and websites out there, they're really focused on two main things. They're focused on making people aware of the difficult issues within Mormonism and then helping people process, you know, their anger and their frustration and their sadness with the information and the situations that they uncover.

[00:14:53] But one of the things I think that we all can sort of acknowledge is that many of us who've experienced a faith crisis, even those of us who have left the church still feel stuck in anger, in sadness, in paying too much attention to Mormon issues. And to the extent that we're stuck or angry or hyper focused on Mormonism, you know, that's the extent to which we're still defined by the LDS Church and by Mormonism. And many of us don't want to be defined by the LDS Church anymore, even if we maintain some of ties to Mormonism. But even more importantly, one of the most important areas of religious research to come about in the 21st century, in the 20th century, comes from the Pew Research Center.

[00:15:35] If you look at a study that they've conducted called Americans America's Changing Religious Landscape, we find something very important. We find out that over one in five US Citizens know no longer identifies with any church. These groups, called the nones N O N E S are the fastest growing of all religious groups in the United States. If you look at this chart here on my YouTube presentation, you'll see that just between 1970 and 2015, we've seen a hundredfold of multiple, multiple.

[00:16:10] We've seen significant growth with, across all age groups, people who are no longer affiliating with religious groups. And this is very significant. Religiosity is in the, is in decline in the developed world. If you look at Western Europe, if you look at parts of developed Asia, if you look at the United States and Canada, you'll find that religiosity just is in decline. It's not just a Mormon problem, it's a worldwide problem.

[00:16:34] And this specifically applies to Mormonism in some very important ways. We know that worldwide inactivity in the LDS Church is around 70%. In other words, only 30% of those across the world who have been baptized LDS remain members.

[00:16:49] We know that only one in three of all the U.S. citizens. I'm sorry, we know that over one in three of all U.S. citizens who are raised Mormon no longer identify as Mormons. So one thing is all the people who are baptized in the church who have left. But what's even more significant is people who are raised in the church are leaving. And if you are raising your children Today in the LDS Church, you have a greater than 1 in 3 chance that your children, or at least some of your children are going to be leaving the church.

[00:17:18] That represents a 36% disaffection rate for Mormons raised in the US today. Again, that's from the Pew Foundation. The Pew also says that just across the millennials, you know, across all religions, that 36% of millennials in the United States today are religiously unaffiliated.

[00:17:38] And that's a significant number. So we see that the, the more we advance in time, the younger generations are just finding religious religions, and specifically Mormonism, just untenable, uninteresting, dissatisfying. And that's just the reality. We heard from Greg Prince on, on Radio west just a few weeks ago that 50% of Mormon returned missionaries are leaving the church within five years of returning from their missions. That's a significant statistic.

[00:18:09] And we, we realize that Mormonism's growth in the developed world has stalled and that the LDS Church is hemorrhaging the members of those who were born in the church across US, across Canada, across Europe and across developed Asia. The church is shrinking in parts of Asia, in Western Europe. And again, if it weren't for the birth rate in the United States and Canada, the church would be shrinking here as well.

The Problem of Unmet Needs During Religious Transition

[00:18:33] So why is decline in religiosity, and specifically in Mormonism, a problem? There are many people out there who are like, this is awesome, case closed, we don't need any more discussion. But the truth is, there are two main reasons why I see this as a problem. Number one, religion has traditionally been an important contributor to health and well being in humanity. I'm a psychologist, I have a PhD in psychology. Psychology, even though it tends to be secular in many ways, acknowledges that people who are part of a religious tradition tend to be happier and healthier. And I will tell you that they've teased out the reasons for that.

[00:19:07] And the number one reason that we've been able to tease out is community. Religions provide social opportunities. They provide you opportunities to receive service when you're sick or when members of your family have need. They provide you with opportunities to give service. They provide you with support in raising your families. They provide you with motivation and inspiration. They provide you with encouragement. And they also provide you with many important sort of components of basic, healthy, happy human living. They provide you with identity. They provide you with a sense of morality. You may disagree with the morality, but at least it gives you some form of morality.

[00:19:41] Religion gives you a sense of meaning and purpose. It helps you deal with the need for spirituality or for sort of participation or tapping into something bigger than yourself or something more significant. And it provides a set of existential answers that many people find satisfying. And those things are not to be sort of dismissed. Those things are important. And today people who are leaving these religious traditions are finding these holes open up inside and they're having to figure out how to fill them in addition.

[00:20:12] So one of the points that we are sort of that motivates the Mormon Transitions Project is that these benefits should be enjoyed by the non religious as well. These are not things that should be sort of capitalized on and taken over by religions. Religions don't own families, they don't own morality. They don't own raising children. They don't own community. They don't own morality. They don't own spirituality. Even non religious people should be able to engage in these things as well. But a second major reason why Mormon transition sort of is existing is because religious faith crises can lead to significant psychological distress. I've already started doing a literature review on this fact, and the literature is very clear that going through a religious transition leads to higher emotional distress, depressive symptoms, mood disorders, generalized anxiety.

[00:21:01] It leads to lower self efficacy and it can lead to lower life satisfaction for many people and it can lead to lower levels of happiness. It can also disrupt families, it can lead to divorce, it can disrupt your social networks, and it can lead to suicidal ideation and in the worst cases, suicide. So religious faith crises are on the rise and they're also very significant in terms of causing problems psychologically and in one's quality of living. Now, it's important to acknowledge that a faith crisis can also lead to improved health, happiness, better relationships. But research and evidence based approaches are needed to help us understand how we can turn this lemon into lemonade.

[00:21:41] Because not everybody finds that joy and happiness once they leave their religion. So what can we do about this? The first thing that we're going to do at the Open Stories foundation is we're going to continue creating awareness on the difficult issues. So through Mormon Stories Podcasts, Mormon Mental Health, Gay Mormon Stories, Mormon Mormon Studies Podcast, several new projects that are in development that I'm not going to talk about here, we are going to continue creating awareness of the difficult issues. In addition, we're going to continue supporting Mormon Matters, A Thoughtful Faith and Stale ds because we know that those are helping people in very effective ways who are trying to stay and live deep, rich, healthy, meaningful lives within the LDS Church.

[00:22:20] To the extent that that's possible, those people are figuring that out. But what we have left, what do we do with those who are left, those who are leaving, those who want to leave, or those who we know will leave as people continue to flee from Mormonism and from the various religious traditions within the United States and in the developed world? Well, that's why we're launching the Mormon Transitions Project.

[00:22:44] So what is the Mormon Internet been very helpful with over the past 10 years or so with transitioning Mormons? Helping share information, helping people process that information, and helping people vent their anger. It's done a great job of that. It's also helped people form basic levels of community, whether it's online communities, the various forums out there, whether it's face to face communities. We're starting to see and we've seen many great things happen in this regard. What I believe the Mormon Internet has yet to satisfactorily provide are resources for two things. For healing from the trauma and the difficulties of a faith crisis. And growth, growing, becoming happy and healthy, thriving after you've decided that you either go to leave orthodoxy or leave the church altogether.

[00:23:34] And in many instances, what's most needed are people being able to sort of leave, talking about Mormonism thinking about Mormonism altogether. And that's something that, that we have not done a good, done a good job of supporting. And so a huge remaining need for progressive and post Mormons is content. That's content in communities that are focused on healing and growth. Questions like, how do I emotionally and psychologically heal from the pain caused by Mormonism? How do I build a strong marriage and new relationships after I no longer am attending church? How do I raise healthy and strong children and families after I've left the church?

[00:24:11] How do I deal effectively with believing family and friends and community? If you're single and you're a post Mormon, how can I find and date, find a social group and find someone to even date and partner with and potentially marry who sort of comes from my background as a post Mormon who understands what I've been through? And most importantly for those who are interested, how do I leave all this Mormon, Mormon stuff behind and just focus, focus my life on joy and happiness?

[00:24:41] And then finally, as we mentioned, one of the most healthy things that I think people can do is sort of graduate from Mormonism to a happier place. And for some people, leaving Mormonism behind altogether is the most important thing that they can do, but they don't know how. And many people are kind of stuck, stuck.

[00:25:02] And then finally, one of the most important things we want to think about, one of the most important needs is how do we provide more content and community for people outside of us speaking United States, Canada, Western Europe. There's so many people who speak foreign languages, so many people in the developed world who are Mormon, who are lds, who do not have, you know, or former lds, who do not have the resources they need to provide support. So what's Mormon transitions all about? We want to fill four primary needs. We want to conduct academic research that supports Mormons in transition. We want to create new content for people in Mormon transitions.

[00:25:37] We want to create new communities, and finally, we want to provide new services to support healing and growth within progressive and post Mormons. So let's talk about the research. I believe that one of the most effective ways to start is to gather data. We did this with the Scrupulosity project. We did this with the LGBT work that we did. We did this with the why Mormons? Question Survey. But you know, if we want to understand what causes people to embark on an LDS faith crisis or transition, what are the costs and benefits of a religious transition within Mormonism? How does it affect people emotionally, psychologically?

The Case for Research and Community Building

[00:26:14] How does it affect them individually and as families? And most Importantly, if we want to find out what are the decisions that mortal Mormons in transition make that lead to optimum healing and growth and that minimize pain, suffering, sadness and stagnation, what are those decisions? We want to gather that information as a research project.

[00:26:35] I am, I am helping to collaborate with Utah State University on the development of a postdoc and a specific research project to help answer these questions. And then once we've gathered this data, we want to publish it in articles, peer reviewed, we want to publish it in books and ultimately we want to develop guides for individuals and for those receiving sort of mental health services on sort of optimal interventions for progressing to health and healing as a transitioning or post Mormon based on empirical data. So evidence based support in navigating a Mormon transition. So that's the research that we want to do. Second is we want to create new content.

[00:27:13] So today I'm launching a new podcast. I've not even recorded of the first episode yet. This is sort of the first episode. It's going to be called Mormon Transitions Podcast. It's going to have a very practical focus. It's going to be on saving and improving marriages, on raising children, on dealing with family and friends, on helping transitioning Mormons heal, get better mental health and, and progress and grow and thrive as a progressive or post Mormon. We want to bring on people who have either successfully or unsuccessfully navigated their transitions. We'll talk about sexuality, mental health, we'll talk about communications, marriage, raising children, morality, you know, insight, science, whatever it is.

[00:27:58] We're going to talk about anything that relates to helping people transition healthily through Mormonism. And we're also going to bring on experts, mental health experts, scientists, anyone that we can bring on who can be an expert on helping us figure out how to navigate this journey in the most healthy ways. We also want to launch a blog called Mormon Transitions Blog where I'm going to bring on 10 or 20 of the most thoughtful progressive minds in progressive and post Mormon and we are going to blog about tips and tricks and stories about how to transition in healthy ways. There are other important projects in terms of content that are in development that are going to be announced, but I will not announce those now.

[00:28:39] The third thing that we want to do with Mormon transitions is help foster new and better communities focused specifically on Mormon transitions. So we have the Mormon Stories podcast community where you can vent and talk about difficult things. We have the, you know, a thoughtful faith community where you can talk about staying in the church. What we don't have is a community that's focused on helping people. People heal, helping people get unstuck, helping people grow and thrive, and helping people mostly who want to move past Mormonism. So what we're going to do is we're going to create a Facebook community that's focused on that. We won't entertain their potshots at church leaders, you know, excessive discussions about church history.

[00:29:21] It's going to be specifically focused on helping people heal and grow as transitioning and post Mormons. Through these communities, through this Facebook community and through other communities, we hope that people find role models, we hope that people find mentors. We hope that they gain new friendships and relationships. And then what we want to do, we talked about Mormon spectrum before.

[00:29:43] We want to help encourage people to create Facebook communities in their local cities. So in Phoenix and Salt Lake, in Logan, in Southern Utah, In London, in D.C. we want people to create or consider creating Mormon transitions communities. And these communities can set aside ex Mormon communities, post Mormon communities, Mormon stories communities, or whatever. But the difference is these are going to be communities where people feel safe going, where they won't have to worry about people being too negative, being too caustic, behaving in ways that are uncomfortable or unhealthy. If the communities decide that they want to manage them in any specific way, that's up to the communities.

[00:30:25] But the purpose of these communities are going to be very specific. It's going to be how do we heal together, how do we grow together? And it's going to, hopefully these communities will take on a sense of positivity, of growth, of healing and health. And they can be a place where a lot of the negativity, a lot of the processing, a lot of the, you know, unhealthy stuff can sort of not be a part or at least be not explicitly part of the community itself. So there's a lot of work we need to do to figure out what these communities are going to look like.

[00:30:57] They won't be owned by, by me or the Open Stories Foundation. These are all going to be locally owned and run. But I just want to see the idea of there being communities that feel safe and healthy for people who are trying to transition and in ways that lead to healing and growth.

[00:31:16] And then the final thing, there are many sorts of resources that we want to create and to provide to people. We want to provide mental health professionals, psychologists, marriage and family therapists who specialize in faith crisis navigation to do individual therapy, work, couples therapy, couples therapy, work therapy with families. And so what we're going to do is we're calling on any mental health professional that really wants to be a part of this endeavor to please contact us and we will refer people to you to the extent that you're engaged with our community. We want to start holding conferences across the world and workshops that are specifically around marriages and raising children and healing and growth and mental health and wellness and fun and joy.

[00:32:01] We want to start creating those activities. We want to hold weekend retreats where couples and singles can get together, support each other, make friendships, single again singles, people who aren't married yet can find and date other people, develop friendships and relationships, and even get married with people who are trying to deal with these same types of things. We want to author books and create new multimedia resources focused on transitions. And again, we want to create more resources for single and post Mormons. So I, you know, again, my name is John Dehlin. I just finished my PhD in clinical and counseling psychology. I want to make a promise to you.

[00:32:38] This is what I did, you know, in 2010 when I started the Open Stories Foundation. This is what I did in 2005 when I started Mormon Stories. What I like to do is make a promise to my listeners and then invite people who are interested to join with me in an endeavor together. My promise is, is that, that now that I have my PhD, now that you've supported me through that, I'm willing to spend the next 35 years of my life supporting Mormons transition in healthy ways and in some cases, completely out of Mormonism altogether.

[00:33:10] That's what I'm willing to do. I enjoy this work. I love it. It makes me super happy. It makes me feel fulfilled. So I'm willing to do that. I'm willing to give my time and my talents and energy to this Mormon Transitions Practice project. I, I commit to leading it responsibly, giving it responsible stewardship. The Open Stories foundation has a fantastic board of directors. We have accountants, we have governance people who help us make sure that our T's are crossed and our eyes are dotted. I promise to continue financial transparency. The extent to which I draw income from these efforts, I will make that fully public.

[00:33:43] I will not hide that. I will let people know where the money is coming, where the money is going and how it's being used. And what I promise most of all is, is that I will use all my time, energy, resources and talent and the support that I get to help thousands and tens and thousands of you who are needing support, who are interested to transition in a healthy way to get the resources you need to get Mental health support to get communities that you need, to get podcasts and blogs and information that you need to be successful. So what am I seeking in return?

[00:34:14] I'm looking for around 500 people total who are willing to partner with me. These can be couples, these can be individuals. But this is what I need from you. I need your ideas. I need to know what your needs are. I need volunteers. I need people to come on the podcast experts to have me interview them about healthy transitions. I need people who have great stories about navigating their marriage or raising their children or whatever they've done sexually issues to come on Mormon Transitions podcast so that I can interview them and share your stories and your tips and your tricks with my listeners.

[00:34:50] So we also need writers as we're going to be creating this blog. We need people who are great writers who can share their experiences and tips and tricks with the world. Again, we need mental health professionals who are catering to people transitioning in Mormonism. Please reach out to me. I want to.

[00:35:07] I want to work with you and refer people to you. We need mental health professionals in every city in the United States. We need people who are willing to create informed communities. We talked about these Facebook communities on Mormon Spectrum, new Mormon Transitions communities that people may create, other communities that exist that really want to take on sort of a healing and a growth perspective and a mentality. I need you to reach out to me and, and as people come to me and say, hey, I want to join a local group, I need people to be able to refer them to. So to the extent that you want to create Mormon Transitions Facebook groups, add them to Mormon Spectrum, let me know about them.

[00:35:47] Then I will refer people to your groups so that you guys can focus on healing and growth. I hope to team with others here in Cache Valley to create a Mormon Transitions group. I've got buddies and so Salt Lake City right now who want to create Mormon Transitions groups. I know friends in Phoenix who want to create Mormons Transitions groups. And I hope that there'll be Mormon Transitions groups everywhere. They don't have to be named Mormon Transitions. We just need more groups that are specifically focused on healing and growth.

[00:36:14] And that's what we need. I also, with the Open Stories foundation, really need volunteers and partners. I need a chief operating officer, somebody to help me manage all these projects. We need people to help us think about strategy operations. We need graphic design support. We need marketing support. We need technology support. We need all sorts of support. If you're interested in sort of joining us as volunteers, we need support running events because we want to do more events, more writing, etc. Please reach out and join the Mormon Transitions movement. And what I can promise is all this content and resources that we create, and we're going to create it for ourselves.

[00:36:54] So these 500 individuals that partner with me, we're going to create this content for ourselves, we're going to create these communities for ourselves. But then we plan to share this with the bigger world. But the first thing we're going to do is make sure that these meet our own needs.

[00:37:10] So what am I asking? If you want to join up in this new Mormon transition sort of initiative, Please go to mormontransitions.org There's a little button up at the top, right? You can click on it. There's different options. What I'm looking for are people who are willing to give some type of monthly financial support to this project. So I'm going to be spending, you know, hundreds of hours every month creating content and community and resources for you. That's what I'm going to be giving to you. And this is a leap of faith for me. This is how I'm going to be feeding my family, purchasing insurance for my family, sending my kids to college, all that stuff.

[00:37:49] I'm not getting rich off of this. I'm going to have a modest, reasonable, respectable income for somebody doing what I'm doing. If you, you know. But I need support to be able to do all this. I need people to make it possible. So if you will financially support $10 a month, $25 a month, $100 a month, thousand dollars a month, whatever you are able to give, I will give you my life, in essence, to create the materials and the community that you need to support you in your transition. And what I need are people to support this financially and people who are willing to partner in terms of effort and energy and talents to this endeavor.

[00:38:29] So go to mormontransitions.org if you want this support. If you're interested. If you want to partner and team with us, subscribe there. You can also email me@mormontransitionsmail.com I would love to get your ideas, learn about your, your talents and abilities, and where you're willing to volunteer and partner. That would be exciting. Um, we are going to be, in late October, we are going to be holding a retreat for the founders of Mormon Transitions. So I imagine I envision, you know, maybe a hundred people attending this retreat.

Vision and Commitments Going Forward

[00:39:03] And what we will be doing is we will be forging friendships, we will be having fun. We will be brainstorming on new ideas, new opportunities. We'll be dividing up efforts, we'll be dividing up responsibilities, and we're all going to be just having a blast together, changing the world. And so, again, if you want to attend this retreat, if you're interested, what you need to do is sign up with Mormon Transitions, become a subscriber, email me and let me know, and we'll get you to the retreat.

[00:39:31] And just to close, I just want to say I'm so grateful for all your support with Mormon Stories and the Open Stories foundation over the past 10 years. I think that what we're going to do together with Mormon Transitions over the next 30 years is going to be much more significant because it's not just about learning things and processing them. It's about connecting with others who are struggling, healing together, and then growing. Growing in ways that I don't think we even understand yet again, if people aren't interested in this project, that's totally okay. There's a thousand things I can do with my time and my money and my talents.

[00:40:06] This is what I feel passionately about. There's nothing that I would enjoy more than teaming with you to do this. So if people sign up for it and join in, we're going to do great things together. If not, I'll do something else. But if you want, if you believe in this vision, if you want to be a part of it, please go to mormontransitions.org and subscribe. Email me at mormontransitionsmail.com and I just want to say I think that what we can do together over the next 30, 35 years is going to eclipse the amazing things that we've done over the past 10. So thanks again to everyone who supported us in the past, and I look forward to teaming with you in the future, to making Mormon Transitions super successful. Thanks so much and we'll talk to you soon. Bye.

Transcript © 2026 John P. Dehlin. All rights reserved. Brief quotations are welcome with attribution and a link to mormonstories.org; all other use requires written permission.