West Point Mormon Questions Church & Military Service - Austin Wheeler | Ep. 1987

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 5.2K Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2025

⏱️ 238 minutes

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Summary

Austin Wheeler shares his personal journey navigating Mormonism, military culture, and faith deconstruction. He recounts growing up in the church, his early experiences with trauma, and how Mormonism influenced his views on violence and masculinity. After a series of life events—ranging from military service at West Point to his mission in Taiwan—he confronts the toxic elements of both the military and the church, including dehumanization and harmful beliefs. Ultimately, he reflects on how his experiences shaped his disillusionment with Mormonism, his struggles with identity, and the deep questions about purpose and meaning that arose as a result. Show Notes: https://www.mormonstories.org/questioning-mormon-and-military-service/ ___________________ 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 as well as 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 3. Promote healing, growth and community for those who choose to leave the LDS Church or other high demand religions 🤝Help us continue to deliver quality content by becoming a donor today One-time or recurring donations: https://donorbox.org/mormon-stories?default_interval=m Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mormonstories Venmo: https://account.venmo.com/u/mormonstories Paypal: https://paypal.me/mormonstories Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx6OgmoqJbOVRq-Lv1P7SzA/join Our Platforms: 🌐Mormon Stories Blog: https://www.mormonstories.org/episodes 🎙️Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mormonstories ✳️Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4sDzk7dRjODTSEqzZKZJzk?si=148b0efc1ccc4404&nd=1 🍎Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mormon-stories-lds/id312094772 🖼️Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mormstories 📱TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mormonstoriespodcast 🎮Discord: https://discord.com/invite/kuX5p6yyjF Contact us: 📧 [email protected] 📬PO Box 171085, Salt Lake City, UT 84117

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome to another show Mormon stories podcast. I'm your host John DeLinn. It's
0:04.9	January 15th, 2025. And today we are continuing our series on Mormon stories about Mormons in the military.
0:14.1	We are super excited to have with us in studio, Austin Wheeler. Hey, Austin. Hey, how you doing, John? So glad you
0:20.5	could join us. Austin served
0:22.9	full-time in the military for about six and a half years, including attending West Point. He was in the Army.
0:30.6	He also wants to share his perspective on, you know, Christianity, Mormonism, military service, you know, issues like violence, but also, you know, Christian nationalism.
0:45.5	And I assume kind of the Desnat culture, but also just, you know, modern themes around aggression and violence and that sort of thing.
0:58.7	And there's also many traditional themes around faith and, you know, Mormon church culture, etc.
1:07.9	So you're in for a real treat today.
1:14.4	There's also, just as a trigger warning, there's also some themes of abuse in this story. And it's going to be a great episode. I've got Margie here
1:21.3	with me in studio. Hey, Margie. Hi, Margie. And we're ready to roll. So, Austin, did I forget
1:26.6	anything in the intro in terms of major themes?
1:29.3	No, no.
1:30.2	Anything to clarify, I'm sure I'll do as I'm talking through the story.
1:35.6	Okay.
1:36.1	All right.
1:37.3	We were asking you right before, kind of if there were any specific interviews on Mormon Stories podcast that made you interested in applying.
1:47.0	And if I remember right, you mentioned specifically the Paul brothers.
1:51.0	You kind of had some strong feelings around that interview, specifically when I asked them
1:58.0	the question about Christian nationalism.
2:00.0	And then you also mentioned growing up with Jesse Hildebrand.
2:05.1	And so that also was influential to you.
	...

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