Losing Faith When Your Child’s a Mormon Missionary: Julie and Jill Durrant | Ep. 1737

Jill and Julie Durrant share their Mormon upbringing and the challenges they faced within the faith. They discuss the expectations placed on Mormon children and the milestones they must achieve to be considered successful in the community. Julie's scrupulosity and the patriarchal blessing she received add to her struggles. Jill talks about the superiority you can feel as a Mormon and the cognitive dissonance she experienced when her sister, Alli, came out as a lesbian. Jill went on a mission to find answers about her siblings, and Julie's faith crisis begins in earnest after talking with her son, Tom. They discuss the complications of navigating family dynamics and the difficulty of leaving the church. Ultimately, the Durrant family's story is one of resilience, growth, and learning to navigate the complexities of life within and outside of Mormonism.
Chapters
00:00:00 Introduction
00:04:00 Julie’s early scrupulosity, triggered by a patriarchal blessing.
00:13:00 Choosing cosmetology over college
00:16:00 Meeting Ed & other Mormon milestones
00:27:30 Daughter Jill’s experiences growing up in Mormon family
00:30:30 LDS Expectations & Superiority
00:35:30 Daughter Alli comes out as lesbian (10 years ago)
00:51:45 Super faithful son, Tom shocks family when he leaves the Church shortly after a successful mission
01:02:00 2015 as a watershed year for Mormonism
01:08:00 Jill becomes more motivated to be faithful, Jamie goes on a mission to Dallas
01:13:00 Jamie experiences tragedy and trauma on her mission.
01:23:15 Jamie’s exclusionary Temple marriage
01:29:00 Julie’s increasing worries about her children
01:34:15 Jill serves an LDS mission during COVID, Home MTC, starting mission before the Temple
01:50:00 Jill’s mission experiences, good & bad
02:14:30 Julie’s faith crisis begins in earnest, finds Latter-Gay Stories Podcast
02:34:00 Julie wonders why Alli & Tom didn’t tell her about issues but understand now why they couldn’t
02:52:00 Julie and Ed keep up appearances at Church while Jill serves
03:09:15 Jill comes home, realizes something had changed
03:14:00 Julie schedules appointment w/Stake Pres to protest assignment to study the Family Proclamation
03:18:00 Jill doubles down on religiosity, moves out of her parents home
03:35:30 Brad Wilcox talk in 2022 severely damages Jill’s testimony
03:51:30 Jill talks to her family about her faith crisis, they apologize, acceptance
03:56:00 Coming out on Facebook together w/loving reception.
04:01:00 Julie & Jill both express more happiness
04:04:50 Telling other family. Reconciliation
04:09:00 Tolerating vs. Accepting vs. Celebrating someone (at PRIDE)
04:12:00 Replacing the Proclamation on Family
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Mormon Stories Podcast is the longest-running and most successful podcast in Mormonism - hosted by Dr. John Dehlin. At Mormon Stories we explore, celebrate, and challenge Mormon culture through in-depth stories told by members and former members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We also occasionally interview scholars, authors, LDS apologists, and other professionals. Our overall mission is to: 1) Facilitate informed consent amongst LDS Church members, investigators, and non-members regarding Mormon history, doctrine, and theology, 2) Support Mormons (and members of other high-demand religions) who are experiencing a religious faith crisis, and 3) Promote healing, growth and community for those who choose to leave the LDS Church or other high demand religions.
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