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About

Mormon Discussion Inc. was founded by Bill Reel in 2012 and became a federally recognized non-profit in 2014.   Our mission is to provide resources and tools namely through podcasts that assist folks navigating a spiritual transition and/or deconstructing spiritual systems and actively engaging in human development.  What started off as a single podcast has grown into 11 different Podcasts.  We are the home of podcasts including Radio Free Mormon, Mormonism Live, Marriage on a Tightrope, Mormon Discussion, Almost Awakened, Emancipate Your Mind, Rameumptom Ruminations and many others.  We also offer presentations, a local support meetups, as well as documents and books geared to help the folks on the journey.  You can reach us via email MormonDiscussionsPodcasts AT Gmail Dot com.

 

 

 

19 thoughts on “About”

  1. StephenWight

    Hi Bill. I have been catching up on your podcasts and find that it is more reliable to download them from this website than to use iTunes/iPhone. As is typical, you tend to hear peoples complaints rather than praise so that will be manifest here, as I do like 90% of what you produce. One assertion you make that keeps coming up that I am wondering from where you get your information has to do with the state of the wives/children of polygamous husbands/fathers. All my father’s family were Utah pioneers with many direct-line and peripheral polygamous families and, despite not performing a vigorous study among my family members, have not seen the horrendous conditions that you describe in your podcasts. However, I am unsure if you are lumping pioneer polygamy in with the modern day variety. I have read some studies of pioneer polygamy (Kathryn Daynes “More Wives Than One”)and in conjunction with my own anecdotal personal pioneer history, I believe the condition of wives/children compares favorably with that of monogamous families, AT LEAST. As a matter of fact, perhaps for the children, the family situation was even more favorable as the children often thought fondly of their father’s other wives as Aunt “so and so” etc and this added to their extended family. Indeed, in many situations these wives comforted one another during absences of their husbands in Church work, including missions, etc. Also, some of the wives were freed up to do other activities e.g. midwifery, etc. which involved a lot of travel and time away from home as in the case of my great++ grandmother You will always be able to find examples of poor situations in polygamous & monogamous relationships but you need some real statistics to work with to be factual. For the anecdotal references of poor situations of polygamous unions one can just as reasonably throw in anecdotal evidence of poor situations of monogamous unions and good polygamous unions. Today (6/17/15) PF Stack had an article in the SLT “Bad marriages had women running to and away from Mormon polygamy, historian says” of an address by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich that challenges the assertions you have been making (including the disparaging remarks GA husbands made regarding their wives which monogamous husbands of the time were just as likely to make). I would give consideration to having Laurel Thatcher Ulrich and Kathryn Daynes on your program to to lend balance to the disparaging remarks you have been making in regards to the family conditions of early LDS polygamous families which tens of thousands of current LDS (if they know their family history)would having to be scratching their heads over upon listening to some of your podcasts. Otherwise, keep up the good work!

  2. John Draper

    My name is John Draper. I would like to offer up myself as an author interview on your podcast. I just published my first novel, A Danger to God Himself. It’s about a Mormon missionary who goes insane on his mission—schizophrenia. I started the novel eight years ago with the intent of skewering Mormonism through it. In fact, I felt led by God to write the book. Best laid plans. The book does skewer religious certainty, but in the process of writing it, my religious certainty suffered a protracted, though not entirely unpleasant, death.

    So it goes, as Vonnegut says.

    I’m not bitter or anything. Actually, it was kind of liberating. And I got a great book out of it. This book has everything! Sex! Comedy! Drama! The God of the universe striking people dead!

    I also got a new perspective on how God works through people and through artists.

    I’d love to talk about the eight-year process of writing my book and losing my religion, which were inextricably linked.

    The novel is narrated in the first person by Kenny, the missionary who watches his companion, Jared, succumb to schizophrenia. At first, Kenny and others assume that the voices Jared hears and the visions he sees are from Heavenly Father.

    But as Jared gets sicker and sicker, Kenny has to rethink his whole view of God and how God does or doesn’t interact with the world. He sees there’s nothing he—or God—can do to stop Jared’s descent into madness. Kenny’s journey became my journey: theist to, at best, deist.

    For me, the clincher didn’t come from all the many books I read on Mormonism. It dawned on me because I spent time around Mormons. I continued to invite in the missionaries. Also, I attended a Mormon church under cover. There, I’d see people stand up in the congregation and tearfully say how much they loved the Savior and how far they were from living up to his teachings, sounding for all the world like Evangelicals.

    How can they have a relationship with God? They believe wrong things!

    The truth, I came to see, is that they have every bit of a relationship with God as I had—which is to say . . . none.

    I wasn’t any closer to God than they were. I didn’t hear His voice any more clearly than they did. What’s more, I concluded that it’s impossible for anyone to have a relationship with God. God is not interested in having a relationship with us. If He were, he’d stop being silent and invisible. He wants us to have relationships with one another. He wants us to sacrifice for one another. However, he can’t give us the power to make those sacrifices. If He did, they wouldn’t be sacrifices. Sacrifices have to cost you something.

    Likewise, I saw that God couldn’t inspire me to write this book. He doesn’t inspire artists. If He did, the work wouldn’t be their own. And, in fact, writing the novel was bloody hard work—hardest thing I’ve ever done. Where was God?

    We’re on our own, which is not to say that God doesn’t exist. He does, I believe. He’s just hands off.

    So what good is God then? I came to see that God doesn’t have to be of some use to me to be God—as a person or as an artist.

    Life wouldn’t be life without struggle. Art wouldn’t be art without struggle. The essence of life and art is struggle—and overcoming.

    This is the essence of what I’d like to talk about on your podcast.

    Look forward to hearing from you

    John Draper
    [email protected]

  3. Artin Arakelian

    Hi Bill,
    I have no intention to discourage you to believe in Supernatural.
    But I had admit I was greatly entertained listening your podcasts last week while I was traveling through SL & Las Vegas.
    The sad element in this all is that you already know what the reality of the matter is and still pursue to believe in a Supreme Being, (that is not the worst part).

    Everything I listened, from “My Testimony” to your interview about how you became LDS bothered my conscience, gave me some literal pain. A guy as bright as you leading a deceptive life equaled to the setting of “SmallVille”.

    Let’s look at your belief in “SuperNatural” being….If you believe in that God then you have a pretty good competition from my end, I can believe in “Lucifer”, “Astrology”, “Unicorns”, “Aliens” and whole lot more fantastic, unrealistic elements…

    Sad thing is none of these are real, it’s all in our imagination, so much so that you can get up at 3AM and attribute a thought to one of your Ward Member…..
    I have a better Lottery type encounter in my life that I used to attribute to a “Divine Intervention”;
    I met Mssionaries 35 years ago, it was an unbelievable setting, I had nothing, except a my coat and few Francs in my pocket, fast forward to today, I drive a Range Rover, have Homes in Park City, and Houston’s most attractive neighborhood, not only that I run a million dollar business. What is God’s share in my Wealth and health? A fat zero, I would not give accolades to imaginary beings, who are not liable to any testing or seeing…

    I can see you have a great heart and want very little to help people….But you are on a fantastically imaginary road where nothing you believe meets any type of reality.
    I was on a David Copperfield Show in Vegas, I could not imagine a better Magic show, it was well beyond fantastic, what you believe is a very bad imitation of David Copperfield Show, you have nothing visual to ascertain any part of your belief, and get this; when you see the evidences of contrary, which proves the Hoax you brush them aside, like “Book of Abraham Papyrus”, Brodie’s Book, and how these misogynistic Men of LDS Brass treat LGTB people, they are the most brutal suckers of life, they like to suck the life out of people until the last person is alive.

    I know, I realize I am a very comfortable place to see all these stuff, but I’ve been where are you now…..When I realized what kinda charlatanism I was following it didn’t take me long to punt the whole thing.
    If you are thinking about your family, I can tell you this; they’d be very grateful for you later on leading them out of this mental darkness…

    Just listen to John Larsen’s Podcasts, he is the most brutally honest guy in the business you are in.

    I wish you well though, whatever you are doing but give yourself a chance to live a real life, far from Magic and MakeBelieve….
    Artin Arakelian

  4. Chris

    Your drivers should stop listening to your podcast and start paying attention to the roads. Your driver swerved into my lane and almost crashed into my car with my kids in the vehicle. Then your driver decided to flip me off. You should probably do a little bit more investigation into your drivers before you just slap your logo on to anybody’s vehicle. Your driver is a real piece of work.

    1. Bill

      If this was yesterday, That was me. you were in my blind spot and sadly I tried to get over not seeing you there. That said, I never flipped you off and was sorry that it happened. My apologies to you and your family.

  6. Sarah Bringhurst

    Thank you for creating this podcast! I have only listened to a couple of them but after reading your bio, I know that I am like you. I’m ecstatic to find a community of likeminded saints. The true kingdom of God is about to come forth!!!! I will be following.

  8. Andy Anderson

    Bill,

    Hope you are well. I really enjoy your work. About a week ago I signed up as a premium subscriber ($5 a month). I’m not sure, but I don’t believe I was ever asked to provide a username and password. I think my subscription entitles me to access to the “premium” episodes. How do I access them. My email under the subscription is [email protected].

    Please advise,

    Andy

  9. Brock Lenox

    Bill perhaps you will remember “the elephant in the room” dialogue that you and I had some years ago. I, having read of your pending disciplinary trial, find myself saddened that you have continued to make decisions that have jeopardized your membership in the church. It is a sad and unfortunate time for you and your family. I wish you had been wiser. I hope you will consider carefully and perhaps contemplate upon some of the experiences you said came about from our conversations. Hard to do, I know, but give it a thought.

  10. Wes Brewer

    Dear Bill,

    I am hesitant to type this but I will, because I don’t quite know what to say. I watched your episode with John Delynn. My heart went out to you, and I have been emotionally moved by what you are experiencing. I believe your intentions are good. You seem to be a very very very expressive person, and someone with a vastly vastly open mind, and someone who deeply cares for people. What a weight this must be upon you. Your podcast with John affected me deeply. It got me questioning things deeply. Like “what is truth” – “when is it appropriate to label someone a liar” – “when does someone actually “lie.” The podcast was shocking, and I could tell you were trying to do what you felt best. I pray that you will somehow benefit from this experience. I just wanted to let you know that I care about you, even though I don’t know you. I asked myself, “When does someone actually “know” if something divine is true.” – not just “believes” it to be true, or is “convinced” it is true, but actually “knows.” – I found this answer, and peace yesterday in reading Howard W. Hunter’s comments about “Faith & Testimony” found in Chapter 21 of the manual “Teaching of the Prophets” – This chapter is probably the best sermon regarding “knowing” & “doubting” and “faith” that I have ever found. The conclusion came for me in that you “know” when a prayer of yours is answered. That is enormously simplistic and “black and white,” but it puts us in a spot with God, to determine whether He as answered, and whether we have “got it.” – Basically – prayer is a seriously “big deal.” I personally have had prayers answered, and because of that I can with complete honesty say I “know.” – Scriptures teach that Satan desires to turn our hearts away from praying. Reading this chapter again today was so enlightening to me. It’s a gem and thought it may help you as it helped me. I wish you the very best in all you do Bill. Please know you are loved.

  11. Sydney Smith

    Bill,

    I listened to you’re Excommunication process a while back and thought you brought up some interesting points to the stake counsel. Have any of the counsel questioned the points that you brought up? That would have been a real eye opener if I hadn’t heard these questionable things.

  12. Jason Ford

    “Thoughts and prayers and names on Temple Rolls is literally the absolute least one human can do for other humans who are burdened or afflicted”- Bill Reel

    You may want to rethink your thought process.

  13. Clay

    Hello,

    Please let me know what talk one of your little snippets is from, I really wanna hear the whole thing! Where it’s like, “first let me change the question. There are no homosexuals in the church”.

  16. Austin Alpeter

    Church Statistics!

    Hey Bill, I enjoyed the episode about church statistics yesterday. I took your work and did some calculations regarding expected deaths and expected reported deaths. From there we can assume how many records were removed. I then took those removed records + total expected deaths to give us a better number of what actual growth would look like. From what I can tell the church is over-counting membership by 1.4 Million (just since 2000) since the uncounted deaths compound year over year. Might catch up to them in 30 years. It also looks like they only netted +13K members in 2020 (.09% growth)

    All of this is assuming activity rate is around 33% but that can easily be adjusted if you have more info. Let me know if you’re interested in looking at the data. Just reach out.

  17. Garry Martin

    RFM I enjoy your programs but I wish you would switch over to video it would be a 100% better

  18. Shelby Hohsfield

    Hi there!
    I’m still trying to figure out if we jive or not 🤔. I am an exmo who left the church over 22 years ago. I wore all religious hats (agnostic, Sunday Christian, want-to-be Buddhist, etc) during that 20+ year time. I had some pretty big things happen and came to God in a whole new way. Everything changed. Since my coming to a Christ, I now help exmos who are not ready to give up on Jesus relearn basic Christian beliefs after leaving the church. It can be very confusing because the terminology is the same and the meaning is soooo different. I can’t quite tell what side of all this you are on, but I have a feeling we could be of benefit to each other. I’d love to connect. My podcast/blog is Finding Faith Above. You can find me on all the platforms under Finding Faith Above as well as at my own website. I look forward to hearing from you.
    Thanks, Shelby

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