Postmormon Postmortem

Epizody

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  What Do You Know Wednesday: How Mormonism Became McDonald's 07.10.2026 29min

  Jess explains Church Correlation to Hannah, and the closest comparison she could find is McDonald's.Before 1960, Relief Society, Primary, and Sunday School ran their own curriculum, magazines, conferences, and administrative structures. Missions published their own magazines. One Mexican mission spent around 360 missionary hours every month producing one of them. Lessons written in Utah landed strangely abroad, and the Relief Society schedule covered only eight months of the year until 1980 because it was built around North American summer vacation. Then headquarters built a system, complete with master curriculum charts.Correlation solved real logistical problems for a church going global. It also moved decisions about curriculum, publications, and programs toward the center. In 1970, Relief Society reported about 338,000 members and roughly 301,000 magazine subscriptions. The Relief Society Magazine ended that year anyway. Five years later, Belle Spafford said women were still writing to ask for it back.Plus: Harold B. Lee's "program of defense," a 1962 article titled "Elimination of the Insignificant," and Hannah's case for the Mc Haggis.SUPPORT THE SHOWVenmo: @postmormonpostmortemPatreon: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem
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  Mormon Church Tells Members to Oppose Idaho and Nevada Abortion Ballot Measures 05.10.2026 17min

  On September 16, the Mormon Church sent a letter to all 1,300 congregations in Idaho telling members to oppose the Idaho Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act, an abortion ballot measure. Five days later, 339 congregations in Nevada got a letter with the same instruction and the same wording about voicing opposition "in a respectful manner." Missouri and Virginia also have abortion measures on the November ballot. The Church has not weighed in on either one.This Mormon Monday, Jess and Hannah go through both letters, including the Idaho sentence that cites the Church's own 2024 neutrality statement. Then they go back to October 2016, when First Presidency letters told members in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Colorado how to vote on recreational marijuana and physician-assisted suicide, and set each one beside the Republican Party position on the same issue.You'll also hear about Prop 8: the 2010 California FPPC finding that the Church reported $36,928 in non-monetary contributions late, and the $5,539 fine that followed. Plus the legal line between the Johnson Amendment (candidates) and IRS lobbying limits (ballot measures), and what changes when one letter is read from the pulpit in 1,300 congregations.Is the Mormon Church politically neutral? Jess and Hannah leave that one with you.Support the Show:venmo: @postmormonpostmortembuymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.com
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  Adam-God: When Mormon Revelation Becomes False Doctrine 04.10.2026 41min

  Brigham Young said God revealed that Adam is our Father and God. In 1976, Mormon president Spencer W. Kimball denounced the Adam-God theory as false doctrine. How do you know which prophet to trust?In April 1852, Brigham Young told General Conference that Adam is "our Father and our God." Wilford Woodruff and Hosea Stout both recorded it in their diaries, and Heber C. Kimball and apostle Franklin D. Richards backed it up. Orson Pratt told the Twelve it contradicted scripture, and the pressure to defer followed. In 1873 Brigham said God had revealed the doctrine to him, and related teaching appeared in the St. George temple's Lecture at the Veil. Then Mormon theology changed, Mark E. Petersen said Adam was not our God, and Spencer W. Kimball denounced the idea in 1976. This episode traces the Adam-God theory from the Journal of Discourses to General Conference and asks what happens when a prophet is wrong about whether something came from God.Support the show: venmo: @postmormonpostmortembuymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.comNew episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting.
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  Mormon MTC Sex Abuse Scandal: Who Gets the Benefit of the Doubt? 03.10.2026 48min

  Former Mormon MTC president Joseph Bishop became the subject of a sex scandal after a former sister missionary, McKenna Denson, secretly recorded him in 2017. Denson has accused Bishop of raping her at the Provo Missionary Training Center in 1984. We follow her reports to Mormon leaders, the recording, the police investigation, and the lawsuit that ended without a trial.This episode includes discussion of childhood sexual abuse, rape, and sexual misconduct.Sources for every episode are available in the receipts archive on Patreon.SELECTED SOURCES for this episode include:Denson’s secret recording of Joseph Bishop.Radio Free Mormon’s coverage:Church Sex Scandal Cover-up — Part 1Church Sex Scandal Cover-up — Part 2The McKenna Denson Interview — Part 1The McKenna Denson Interview — Part 2MTC Sex Scandal: The Recordings — Part 1, Denson’s police interview#postmormon #ldschurch #mormon #churchabuse #exmormon
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  Jen Shah: Mormon Upbringing, Real Housewives and Fraud 01.10.2026 23min

  Jen Shah showed viewers a huge house, designer clothes, expensive parties, and the Shah Squad. Then came the fraud charges. Hannah introduces Jess to the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star, her Mormon upbringing, and the scam behind her business.We’re dropping What Do You Know Wednesday on Thursday this week because life can be surprising, and so can we! Follow or subscribe to not miss any episodes.
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  Arizona Supreme Court Rules Mormon Bishops Didn't Have to Report Confessed Child Abuse 28.09.2026 14min

  Around 2011, a bishop in Bisbee, Arizona heard a man confess to sexually abusing his daughter. He didn't call the police or child protective services. He called a helpline the Mormon Church set up for bishops, and the person who answered worked for a law firm.On July 30, 2026, the Arizona Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the bishops in the Paul Adams case had no duty to report what they learned through confession. This Mormon Monday goes through the opinion, Arizona's mandatory-reporting statute and its clergy exception, and the Church's response, including what its General Handbook says about the duty to protect others.Then the legislative record. Sen. Victoria Steele introduced clergy-reporting bills in 2020, 2021, and 2022, and none reached a floor vote. We look at the committee chairs who decided whether they would, and at a 2013 bill on the Colorado City Marshal's Office that passed the Arizona House 52 to 7 and never got a Senate vote. Colorado City's FLDS church is a separate organization from the LDS Church, and we cover why the comparison still matters.Support the show: Venmo: @postmormonpostmortembuymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortem Ad-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortem postmormonpostmortem.com
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  The Bundy Standoffs: Mormon Beliefs Behind the Fight Over Federal Land 27.09.2026 41min

  Cliven Bundy refused to pay federal grazing fees. Armed supporters faced federal agents at his Nevada ranch, and his son Ammon later led the occupation of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. We look at the Mormon beliefs the Bundys used to explain their actions, the history of Native land in both places, and what happened after the standoffs.The main source for this episode is Betsy Gaines Quammen's "American Zion: A Story of Faith and Illusion in the American West." Full sources for this episode are in our receipts archive on Patreon.
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  M. Russell Ballard's SEC Case: The Keystone Securities Fraud Before He Was an Apostle 26.09.2026 14min

  This week on Mormon True Crime, Hannah and Jess dig into the Keystone Securities case: a mining stock offering, allegedly false and misleading statements, and a broker-dealer registration that got revoked. Ballard was personally named as a cause of that revocation. He was never criminally convicted, and Mormon apologetics site FAIR has a list of defenses — but the SEC's findings stood.Then they connect it to something more recent: the Church's own 2023 SEC settlement over Ensign Peak Advisors, which used shell LLCs to obscure its investment portfolio for years.Same institution, same pattern, decades apart — public-facing polish, and a very different story underneath once regulators got involved.Why does transparency keep becoming a problem for an institution that demands total honesty from its own members? Support the show: venmo: @postmormonpostmortembuymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem TikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortem postmormonpostmortem.com
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  What Did Missouri’s Mormon Extermination Order Mean? 23.09.2026 16min

  In October 1838, Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs signed an executive order declaring that the Mormons "must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary." That order still anchors Mormon claims of persecution, including in a recent interview where a Mormon reached for Missouri when asked whether Mormons were more oppressed than Black Americans.Jess set out to confirm one number: how many people died because of the extermination order? The search led to what "extermination" meant in 1838, whether the men who attacked Haun's Mill had even heard of the order, a winter death toll no one has ever totaled, and a second forced removal happening that same autumn a few hundred miles away.Sources referenced in this episode"Extermination Order," Church History TopicsAlexander L. Baugh, "The Haun's Mill Massacre and the Extermination Order," BYUWilliam G. Hartley, "The Saints' Forced Exodus from Missouri, 1839," BYU Religious Studies Center"What Happened on the Trail of Tears?," National Park Service"Trail of Tears," The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, Oklahoma Historical Society
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  Name One Mormon Slave 21.09.2026 18min

  Asked to name one Mormon slave, a former Nevada Senate candidate said he couldn't. Green Flake was baptized Mormon while enslaved and entered the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, before Brigham Young.Josh Stacy ran for Nevada State Senate in 2024 and lost his primary. A clip of him telling Dr. Will James that Mormons were oppressed more than Black Americans then showed up in Instagram reels. What he left out: Sidney Rigdon's 1838 "war of extermination" speech before Missouri's Executive Order 44, Brigham Young's 1852 declaration "I believe in slavery," Utah's Act in Relation to Service, and the pioneer monument that lists Green Flake, Hark Lay, and Oscar Crosby as "Colored Servants." Also covered: Mormon Church wealth, the CIA and FBI recruiting reputation, patriarchal blessings and Ephraim, and priesthood and temple restrictions that lasted until 1978. If you grew up Mormon and never heard these three names, this one is for you. The answer was inside the pioneer story the whole time.Support the show: venmo: @postmormonpostmortem buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.com
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  Mormon Temple Recommend: Who Decides You're Worthy? 20.09.2026 32min

  In 1856, believing in plural marriage helped you qualify for the Mormon temple. Later, advocating it could keep you out. Nearly 200 years of recommend questions show who decides what "worthy" means.From Joseph Smith's 1842 Nauvoo endowment to a 2026 seminary lesson, this is the history of how the Mormon temple recommend went from a leader's judgment call to a standardized worthiness interview. You'll hear about the 1856 Endowment House criteria, the Mormon Reformation's 27-question catechism, Wilford Woodruff countersigning thousands of recommends, the 1922 uniform recommend book, the 1976 honesty question historian Edward Kimball ties to Utah's fraud reputation, Russell M. Nelson's 2019 "strive" rewrite, digital recommends in 2021, and the 2024 garment question. Worthy has meant something different in 1856, 1976, and 2024. A definition that keeps changing was never a measure of you.Support the show: Venmo: @postmormonpostmortembuymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.comNew episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting.
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  Cody Judy: When God Says You're the Prophet 19.09.2026 37min

  In 1993, Cody Judy walked onto the stage at BYU’s Marriott Center, claimed he had a bomb, and demanded that Howard W. Hunter read a letter naming Judy the new president of the Mormon Church.Judy said Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith, and ancient apostles had told him what to do. But Mormon history already had a long record of people claiming revelation that challenged the authority of church leaders.In this episode of Mormon True Crime, we follow Cody Judy’s story and look at Hiram Page and his seer stone, James Strang’s claim to succeed Joseph Smith, Ron Lafferty’s “removal revelation,” Brian David Mitchell, Denver Snuffer, and the Mormon rules around who gets to receive revelation for whom.SOURCESDeseret News, “Suspect in Fireside Bomb Threat Says He Was Fulfilling Prophecies,” February 9, 1993.Deseret News, “Fireside Disrupted With Threat of Bomb,” February 13, 1993.Deseret News, “Suspect Linked to Guns Left at Square,” February 8, 1993.Deseret News, “Self-Proclaimed Prophet Escapes From Hospital,” March 23, 1993.Deseret News, “Judy Gives Up After 3 1/2 Days in the Foothills,” March 27, 1993.Deseret News, “Judy Arraigned on a Charge of Escape,” March 31, 1993.Deseret News, “Judy Pleads Guilty to ‘Bomb’ Threat,” June 3, 1993.Deseret News, “Judy Gets 1–15 Years for BYU Bomb Threat,” August 11, 1993.Deseret News, “President Hunter’s Attacker Tells Parole Board He Was Misunderstood,” November 21, 1995.Howard W. Hunter, “An Anchor to the Souls of Men,” BYU devotional, February 7, 1993.Church News, “Book of Mormon Symposium: ‘There is no place for despair,’” February 13, 1993.Joseph Smith Papers, “Revelation, September 1830–B [D&C 28].”Joseph Smith Papers, “Minutes, 26 September 1830.”Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Doctrine and Covenants 28.Joseph Smith Papers, “James J. Strang Claimed to be JS’s Successor,” July 9, 1844.Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “Succession of Church Leadership.”Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Foundations of the Restoration Teacher Manual, “Succession in the Presidency.”State v. Lafferty, 749 P.2d 1239 (Utah 1988).Lafferty v. Crowther, U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, 2017.Lafferty v. Benzon, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, 2019.Denver Snuffer, “The Facts,” June 2014.Salt Lake Tribune, “Mormon Land: A Conversation With Denver Snuffer About the Remnant Movement,” December 2021.Religion News Service / Salt Lake Tribune, “A New Mormon Offshoot Movement Is Growing, but Can It Last?” August 2017.Salt Lake Tribune, “The Lord Has Extended His Hand Again — Hundreds Gather, Canonize New Scriptures for Growing Mormon Offshoot,” September 2017.Denver Snuffer, Preserving the Restoration, Lecture 10, September 2014.Salt Lake Tribune, “Controversial Mormon writer gets the word: He’s out of the church,” September 12, 2013.Judy v. Obama et al., U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, October 7, 2014.U.S. Supreme Court docket, Judy v. Obama, No. 14-9396, closed October 8, 2015.
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  Mormon Roadshows: The Weird History of Mormon Musical Theater 16.09.2026 17min

  Ward roadshows were once a major part of Mormon social life. Starting in Utah in the 1920s, wards wrote and performed short original musicals, competed against each other, and in the original version literally took the shows from chapel to chapel.In this What Do You Know? Wednesday, we look at where roadshows came from, how they became part of the MIA program, and why Mormons developed such a strong relationship with theatre and musical performance in the first place.We’re drawing on the ideas of musicologist Jake Johnson’s work on Mormonism and musical theatre, including his argument that performance became a way for Mormons to express religious identity, build community, and create a Mormon alternative to outside entertainment.
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  Women Can Lead Sunday School Now; Why are Young Women Leaving the Church? 14.09.2026 16min

  In March 2026, the Mormon Church announced that women could now serve as Ward Sunday School presidents. A month later, buried in a routine statistical report, U.S. membership dropped for the first time in the church's history — and the group leaving fastest was young women.Jess and Hannah walk through both stories month by month, in the order they actually happened, to see how they collide. They cover the "trial balloon" read from religion writer Jana Riess, the awkward question nobody wanted to ask about why presidencies still can't be mixed-gender, the actual membership numbers (and why a net loss of 186 people matters more than it sounds like it should), and the July profile of a woman thriving in her new calling — printed just as the harder story about why women are leaving quietly disappeared from the coverage.Two things can be true at once: a woman running Sunday School in one ward doesn't cancel out what the data says about her daughter's generation. It doesn't explain it either.If this one gets you thinking, we'd love a rating and a review — it's the easiest way to help other people find the show.Other ways to support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortem Ad-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem TikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortem postmormonpostmortem.com
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  What Growing Up Mormon Taught Us About Love, Fear, & Worth 13.09.2026 51min

  Hannah springs something new on Jess this week: a psychology framework called Schema Therapy, and 18 patterns psychologist Jeffrey Young calls "early maladaptive schemas." Jess hasn't read any of it going in — Hannah talks her through the theory, then they go through all 18 schemas together, asking the same question each time: did being raised Mormon teach us this, or reinforce it?What follows is less a lecture and more two people realizing, out loud, how much of their childhoods they're still carrying. They talk about parents who were consistent only in their anger, or wildly inconsistent in everything; siblings raised feral because Mom was overwhelmed and Dad was checked out; the particular terror of "the last days" and food storage drills; the conditional promise of an "eternal family"; and the quiet, permanent work of learning not to trust your own judgment.It's personal, it's a little raw, and it might explain more about your own upbringing — Mormon or not — than you expect.
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  Elizabeth Smart Part 2: Brian David Mitchell & Wanda Barzee: The Making of Immanuel & Hephzibah 12.09.2026 1h 17min

  In part 2 of Elizabeth Smart, we offer a prequel, going back through the lives of Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee before June 2002: their childhoods, marriages, Mormon lives, family relationships, and the religious system they built before they kidnapped fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Smart.We trace Mitchell’s history of violence, sexual abuse allegations and controlling behavior; his return to Mormonism; his years as a high priest, stake high councilor, bishopric counselor, and Salt Lake Temple worker; and his move into Ezra Taft Benson, conspiracy politics, alternative health, the one mighty and strong, the Davidic servant, and celestial plural marriage.We look at Wanda Barzee’s Mormon upbringing, family history, mental-health problems, music and temple work, and her role in preserving Mitchell’s revelations and helping build the religious world in which Brian became Immanuel David Isaiah and Wanda became Hephzibah.The episode follows their years of wandering, the Seven Diamonds Plus One society, their attempts to recruit plural wives, The Book of Immanuel David Isaiah, their excommunication in June 2002, and the Mormon Church’s response after their arrest.Sources (not exhaustive)United States v. Brian David Mitchell, Case No. 2:08-cr-00125-DAK, U.S. District Court for the District of Utah. Memorandum Decision & Order Determining Competency, 2010.State v. Barzee, 2007 UT 95, Utah Supreme Court.Full Transcript of ‘The Book of Immanuel David Isaiah.’ Deseret News, March 15, 2003.Wanda Barzee Says She ‘Learned to Be Submissive and Obedient.’ Deseret News, November 18, 2010.Transcript: Wanda Barzee Testifies in the Elizabeth Smart Kidnap Trial. The Salt Lake Tribune, November 18, 2010.Complex Picture of Pair Emerges. Deseret News, March 14, 2003.Erroneous Reporting of Elizabeth Smart Case. Mormon Church Newsroom, March 24, 2003.A full source list for every episode is available in the receipts archive on Patreon.
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  How a Mormon Senator Got 200 Missionary Visas With One Call 09.09.2026 19min

  In 2009, a former U.S. senator told the Mormon Church's Quorum of the Twelve how he got 200 missionary visas approved with one phone call to a foreign ambassador. No one ever asked if it was legal.Jess and Hannah trace what happened after that 2009 briefing: Gordon Smith's Senate staff called "church broke," the R-1 and EB-4 visa backlogs that leave ordinary missionaries waiting up to five years, and Sister Fanny Clain — a missionary injured in the 2016 Brussels airport bombing while stuck waiting on the exact visa Smith's phone call skipped entirely. In 2016, Mormon Leaks published video of the briefing. In 2017, two advocacy groups filed a formal Foreign Corrupt Practices Act complaint with the DOJ and State Department over Smith's dealings with then-Ambassador Ronen Sen. No investigation has ever been publicly reported. This only makes sense if you grew up Mormon — access has always had a shape, and nobody with the standing to say so out loud ever did.Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.com
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  What the Mormon Temple Recommend Questions Don't Ask 07.09.2026 13min

  Sixteen questions stand between a Mormon and a wallet-sized card that gets them through the temple doors — but not one of them asks how you treat other people. Jess and Hannah break down every question in the 2026 Mormon temple recommend interview, tracing its history back to 1922 and the 1976 addition of the honesty question (added only after Utah was branded "the fraud capital of the nation"). Then: The Salt Lake Tribune asked 400+ readers what question they'd add — and the answers converged on one glaring gap the church still hasn't addressed. Plus a candid conversation on "worthy" vs. "worthless," Mormon-affinity fraud, and why perfectionism might be the real cost of a compliance-based faith.Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.com
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  How Mormon Apologists Dismiss Research About Why People Leave 06.09.2026 18min

  What happens when research produces findings Mormon apologists don’t want to hear?In 2011, Church Historian Marlin Jensen admitted that Mormonism was going through a period of massive apostasy, unlike anything since Kirtland. More than a decade later, faithful Mormon researcher Jeff Strong gathered thousands of responses about why people left the church—and found that the real reasons were church history, social issues, church experience, and distrust of the institution rather than the familiar explanations about laziness, sin, or wanting an easier life.Then came the apologetic response.We look at how some faithful Mormon writers responded to Strong’s research, why self-report suddenly becomes suspect when former members explain why they left, and how the same pattern appears in debates over the Gospel Topics Essays, Mormon retention data, internal reformers, and institutional boundary enforcement.At the center of it all is a simple question: what evidence would actually be enough for faithful Mormons to accept that the church culture itself is part of the reason people leave?Timestamps00:00 The Church’s Crisis of Faith and Membership01:38 Research Insights on Disaffiliation03:55 Institutional Responses to Data06:31 Case Studies of Disaffiliation08:43 The Role of Self-Report in Faith09:50 The Parable of the Sower Revisited12:42 The Challenge of Accepting Data14:53 Thoughts on Faith and DoubtSourcesStrong, J. (2026). Torn: Why people we love are leaving the Church and what we can learn from them. Coolstream Publishing.https://www.tornbyjeffstrong.com/Lakip, C. (2026, June 17). Misrepresented members: A reaction to Jeff Strong’s book “Torn.” Meridian Magazine.https://latterdaysaintmag.com/misrepresented-members-a-reaction-to-jeff-strongs-booktorn/Cunningham, C. D. (2026, June 11). The borrowed wisdom of ‘Torn.’ Public Square Magazine. https://publicsquaremag.org/media-education/reading/the-borrowed-wisdom-of-torn/Ellsworth, D. T. (2026, June 3). Beyond “church culture”: A response to Jeff Strong’s Torn. Interpreter Foundation.https://interpreterfoundation.org/beyond-church-culture-a-response-to-jeff-strongs-torn/Sources for every episode are available in the Receipts Archive on Patreon.
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  Why Are Mormons Leaving the Church? What the Data Actually Reveals 06.09.2026 40min

  Why are Mormons leaving the church, and what does Jeff Strong’s research reveal about the culture they’re leaving behind? In Torn, faithful Mormon researcher Jeff Strong examines why current and former members disengage from the church. His research identifies church history and truth claims as the largest reason people give for leaving, followed by social issues, church experience, and pressures associated with Mormon life.We look at Strong’s findings on trust, fear, obedience, belonging, control, Mormon parenting, leadership culture, and what former members say would have to change before they would consider returning.