Episode 218: Faith, Control and Identity—The Impact of a High Demand Religion | A Conversation with C.A. Larson

At Last She Said It

Cynthia Winward

Religion & Spirituality, Feminism, Motherhood, Ldswomen, Spirituality, Lds, Thechurchofjesuschristoflatterdaysaints, Mormonwomen, Religion, Marriage, Mormon, Faith

5 • 900 Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2025

⏱️ 89 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Therapist C.A. Larson defines a high-demand religion as “a religious group that exerts significant control over its members' beliefs, behaviors, and daily lives. These groups often require strict adherence to doctrine, discourage independent thinking, and use social, psychological, or spiritual pressure to maintain compliance.” In Episode 218, C.A. joins Susan and Cynthia for an exploration of high-demand religions and the impact they can have on their members’ mental and spiritual health. Though individual experiences will vary, this discussion zooms out to highlight the significant overlap between characteristics of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other churches that fit the high-demand criteria.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The fear-based compliance, like, it affects so many aspects of our lives.
0:06.3	Like when we give our authority to an external source, we often look to them to make all our decisions.
0:12.9	There is also a sense of belonging that is lost if you see things differently than the majority of your faith community.
0:19.0	This can ignite fear because we worry if we don't obey
0:22.0	these guidelines, we fear punishment, and bad things will happen to us. And this is religious
0:26.9	abuse, and it's based on fear. Hello, I'm Cynthia Winward. And I'm Susan Hinkley. And this is
0:36.9	at last she said it. We are women of faith discussing complicatedward. And I'm Susan Hinkley. And this is at last she said it. We are Women of Faith
0:39.1	discussing complicated things. And the title of today's episode is Faith, Control, and Identity,
0:46.5	The Impact of a High Demand Religion, a Conversation with C.A. Larson. Welcome back, CA.
0:53.8	Welcome. Thank you. It's nice to be here. It's always nice to
0:58.1	have our resident therapist come back on and give us more goodies to think about. And I think
1:04.2	it was our last episode. You came on episode 194. And that one was called religion, spirituality, mental health.
1:13.3	Well, it was a combo of all that.
1:15.2	Oh, my, I think was actually the title, religion, spirituality, mental health, oh my.
1:20.2	Because we kind of packed a lot in.
1:22.0	But one of the things there we couldn't pack in and we decided we would have you back on next season, which is today,
1:29.3	was to talk about kind of the control part of it, the abuse part. Am I going to say the A word
1:36.9	right away abuse? I mean, high demand religions, that's who we are, that we're part of that.
1:43.7	So we're going to just just cram it all in again,
1:46.3	another hour with you, CA. So thanks again for being here with us so much. Thanks for having
1:52.8	me. I appreciate it. So do you want to go ahead and give us a less sloppy intro than what
1:58.1	I just said to our topic today and then we'll jump in?
	...

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