Why I Stay Mormon in 2025 - Proving Contraries w/ Dave McKenzie | Ep. 2004

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 5.2K Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2025

⏱️ 276 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After being inspired by the Mormon Stories Paul brothers episode, Dave courageously shares his powerful journey through faith, family struggles, and self-discovery. From his upbringing in a traditional Mormon household to navigating complex questions about church history, LGBTQ+ issues, and personal loss, Dave's story is one of resilience and hope. He reflects on his brother's tragic passing, his evolving beliefs, and why he ultimately chooses to stay active in the church today. Tune in for a heartfelt conversation about faith, doubt, and finding meaning through it all.

Show Notes

YouTube

00:03:12 Dave’s intention for coming on Mormon Stories

00:08:03 Dave’s mormon story begins - explaining family background

00:13:41 Story of backpacking with his brother and having an accident

00:24:46 Dave’s mission to Warsaw, Poland

00:34:50 Life after his mission - dating and marriage

01:01:05 Dave’s experience with a Roman Catholic woman that inspired him - introduced him to interracial marriage

01:13:30 Dave thought “If I remain silent now, I am a hypocrite to my own testimony” (regarding his friend leaving the church)

01:21:04 Why do we call it going down the rabbit hole when it is actually coming out into the light?

01:45:00 “Does God help amputees?” argument

02:00:50 “There has to be recognition that what we were taught was not the truth”

02:17:30 Why John Dehlin does Mormon Stories

02:46:17 Elder Holland “greatest missionary of all time” experience

02:59:55 Dave discusses the Book of Mormon

03:36:44 Dave’s younger brother, Dan, passed away in 2023

03:44:19 What are the main reasons that he chooses to stay active in 2025?

04:01:26 What is his response to the fact that the church does a lot of harm to people as well? How does he personally work through this

04:11:30 Dave feels that there are real advancements being made in the church currently

04:20:24 Conclusion

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Mormon Stories podcast. I'm your host,
0:04.0	John DeLinn. It's February 26th, 2025. And today we are going to be having a classic Mormon
0:11.0	stories interview where we interview someone who is an active, faithful attending member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who is aware of all the problematic history and the social issues, but has developed kind of a nuanced or progressive testimony, I would say, and who has chosen to remain affiliated and attending the church. So think Patrick Mason, think the
0:41.3	Paul brothers, think Dan Witherspoon, Jim Bennett, in the sense that Mormon Stories has always
0:49.9	tried to have people along the faith spectrum and we uh, and we value those types of discussions.
0:57.2	I don't see Mormon stories as being anti-Mormonism as anti-LDS. I'm actually don't have as a
1:03.8	motivation eroding faith or taking people out of the church or keeping them in the church.
1:09.6	I literally just want people to know
1:12.2	as much truth as they want to know and find as much healing and joy as they want to feel in or out
1:17.6	of religion, full stop. So today's interview is with Dave McKinsey. Hey, Dave.
1:28.3	Hey, John.
1:28.9	Thanks for coming on.
1:30.1	Oh, it's a pleasure.
1:30.8	Thank you for having me.
1:31.7	Yeah.
1:33.3	And is it true that the Paul Brothers interview was a motivator for you to apply?
1:38.2	Yeah.
1:38.5	So watching that, gosh, was it September of last year, I think somewhere around there.
1:52.0	I felt like they did a lot of good for those of us who understand some of the complications of the history and the doctrine and theology of the church. But there were a lot of frustrations as well.
1:55.0	I gathered that maybe they were still a little young in their sitting in the crucible,
2:03.4	as it were, in understanding some of these complications.
2:07.8	And it didn't necessarily allow for the type of conversation that it possibly could have been.
	...

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