The State of Utah has a significant suicide problem. We are number 5 in the nation for overall suicides and are leading the nation in suicides for individuals ages 10-17. There has been a lot of debate as to why that is and in my opinion a lot of defensiveness in looking at what the actual problem is. Today we explore the suicide problem by responding to a YouTube video put out by South Paw Media and Jacob Hansen, in which an attempt is made to take away all accountability from the LDS church and the LDS influenced culture of Utah. The video being discussed can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GAJNXIvrUc&t=18s
Related to this episode I am conducting some research on the cultural influence on the suicide problem in Utah. I am trying to gather information from as many people as possible. Please take a few minutes to fill out the survey and share it with others. They don’t need to be from Utah or LGBTQ to fill it out. I need information from all people. The survey can be found at: https://goo.gl/forms/ukPwYwHXoArlM4TJ3
Episode thumbnail art by:
Photo by Sweet Ice Cream Photography on Unsplash
Website background art and facebook cover photo art by Jamie Webb https://www.instagram.com/jamie.webb.art/
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
So it all comes down to a doctrinal change? That’s how you show love? Really?! If you think the church is true, then you know only God can change doctrine. This one has not changed since Adam. If you believe the church is purely a man made institution, then why not find a different church? Did Jesus love the woman caught in adultery? He sure did. But he didn’t change his mind about it being sin. The arguments made by Bill Reel make no sense.
What points of Bill Reel do not make sense to you. A random blank statement like that carries now weight. Unless Bill Reel chimed in on this podcast in the last 20 minutes – which I didn’t listen to. I could be wrong, but BR have never heard BR chime in on a sub-podcast at the end.
Also to the host. I had to bail on this near the end. Like I said with about 20 minutes left I stopped it. I left the podcast for one reason. It got really hard to listen to. While I may not agree with all your points but I respect your opinion – and you don’t need my permission to have “your opinion.” However, I would make one suggestion. Go listen to Bryce Blankenagle in his Naked Mormonism podcast. He is crisp and clear. Your podcast had a large rambling feel to it. Bryce writes out his podcast and then reads it. Know where you’re going and write it out then read it on mic. When you have some years in you like BR or RFM then you can fly by the seat of you pants.
Perhaps I am wrong but for me you are not polished. I’m not expecting perfection but would you rather a friend tell you at the beginning of school that your zipper is down or get home from school and have your parent tell you and realize its been down all day.
Ricardo, give the hosts a break. It’s only his second podcast. The names that you suggested he listen to have hundreds of podcasts and are well-polished. come back after 10 or 20 episodes and he will have developed more skill. It doesn’t change his message. Ad hominem, Shoot the messenger because we don’t like his message.
Hmmm I don’t think I did ad hominem – My intent was not to shoot the messenger. I pointed him to Bryce. Bryce specifically states in his podcast that he writes it out and reads it. I understand that polished comes with time and stated that. With time and polish comes the ability to come off written script and still sound polished. Until then my suggestion was to write it out. I didn’t state I didn’t like his message. you say “we” – perhaps you don’t like the message. I stated I agree with much of it but got lost in the ramblings and suggested he write out his podcast to be more concise.
Oh and yes those that have 100’s – interestingly though is Bryce’s first 5-10 episodes still sound great. (note the first 2or 3 were re-recorded)
To the host – My objective was not to be a prick. My apologies. I think Bryce is a good template. Write it out. But this is your gig. Do what you want.
James, you don’t just leave the LDS church sometimes formerly known as the Mormon church, especially if you were born and raised in the church. If you do you become the apostate member of the family. You are always labeled as such for the rest of your life. You become a project. You are preached to buy some of your family members. If leaving the church ends up in a mixed faith marriage then you become a special project. You receive special home teachers now known as ministers. Your spouse receives special attention and council from his or her bishop or stake president. The full-time missionaries all of a sudden start to show up at your door at random times when before you rarely saw them at all. you are excluded from some family events. You may be disowned by your own children or siblings based upon the fact that you may be a bad influence on them or their children. Even if you don’t say or do anything that would suggest that. if you are employed by the church or one of the churches universities you risk the possibility of losing your employment, benefits, health insurance. If you are a student at one of the churchs universities you risk not graduating from school and losing your credits that you have paid for and earned up to that point.
You can leave the church but the church won’t leave you alone.
As far as the woman caught in adultery. She was doing something that was also illegal. She risked being stoned to death which is what they were going to do. do you agree that she should have been stoned to death? If she had had any children from those relationships they could have been baptized into the church at age 8. In the case of same-sex relationships the church punishes children for the sins of their fathers. in other words we believe that children will be punished for their own sins and also for the sins of their parents if the parents are homosexual, even if it is a legal and lawful marriage. I have a hard time believing that Jesus would have prevented the children of a homosexual couple from coming into him and being baptized.
One this about this study, the total number of Mormons per country isn’t the important figure, it’s the percentage of the population by county. This map is from 2014, but it’s still relatively recent: http://www.city-data.com/forum/utah/2250518-percent-lds-county.html
The video didn’t link to the study in question, so I can’t check it for myself, but if the researcher really is looking at raw numbers of Mormons that’s *really* bad science.
Suicide in Mormonism is not seen as serious as other groups where in other backgrounds suicide makes you go to he’ll while in Mormonism you can still be saved which takes away any fear of suicide.
This was painful to listen. The harm the church does isn’t intentional, but it is undeniable. In a way we are all just people doing the best we can. God is paving the way to make it more acceptable, till then we all need to be patient and do our part to move the ball in the right direction.