DiscussMormonism.com

It took me a long time to get to this interview because it is incredibly long. I started it once but couldn’t get into it right away so I stopped listening. I must have been in the right place for it, because now I am hooked. Hendrix is a guy you wouldn’t know, but he knew a lot of the Mormon hierarchy. He was a CES guy and on the board of the Deseret Foundation. He was a mission president.

Hendrix is probably the most sympathetic and levelheaded liberal Mormon I have ever listened to. He is, in many ways, a laid back California Mormon. The guy who was more about Mormons doing good things now than obsessing over history and dogma.

But Roger is a liberal. What fascinates me is that he was in the thick of things in Mormonism for so long without feeling all that uncomfortable or unwelcome. He felt comfortable being open about his concerns about blacks and the priesthood. He talked frankly with church leaders about it, and he rejoiced when the priesthood was extended to all worthy males.

Then he started to have trouble when Prop 8 and the Proclamation came around. He became convinced that the Proclamation was anti-gay. He was convinced that the church was wrong in its attack on gay rights. This has led to him taking a sabbatical from the Church and re-evaluating his beliefs.

Hendrix is very interesting for the way he made it work for so long. He may be a rare case, but I’d like to think there are many other Roger Hendrixes out there. Somehow he felt he was a full Mormon, and yet he was conscious of his views being different from those of many other Mormons. He took validation in the Hugh B. Browns and David O. McKays of the Church. Had he been unacceptable or wildly out of step, he probably would have gotten out a lot sooner. It was not until the Church’s turn toward political activity on gay rights that he started to feel out of place. He saw something out of place in the spirit of the Proclamation.

See https://www.mormonstories.org/podcast/roger-hendrix-part-two/

I really took a shine to Hendrix. I am quite different from him in my interests and personality, but I admire how he has handled and how he continues to handle himself in this situation. He seems to me to be a very decent, measured, and thoughtful person.

You know what? I think I'll listen to this podcast. I want to say I listened to the Jeremy Runnells interview for a bit, but I can't say with confidence I did. That said, thanks to your breakdown of the interview I am now going to 100% listen to a John Dehlin podcast.

I hope he kicks a dollar your way, brother.

- Doc

I don't know. I use to really think this was a great thing and I really tried to live like this for years. You know, the whole Middle Way. But the simple fact is, Roger Hedrix is not welcome in the pews of the Mormon church that I know...liberals and democrats are not really welcome and their opinions are not accepted or okay. They only get lip service from members and leaders who hope they will change and repent.

So, I was thinking today out cutting firewood with my old BP (he asked me to help cut wood for an elderly guy in the area) what I would say if he asked why I left the church. I haven't been to church in eight years, and haven't really talked to the BP in that time since I was threaten with church discipline. It didn't come up and I give the BP credit for just letting it rest. But if it had, I was simply going to say that my core values of human decency don't match those of the corporate LDS church. And I was going to leave it at that. Of course he would have argued that was not true blah blah blah.

But then, tonight, reading over at MAD, Bluebell made this statement that absolutely validated my argument. And I don't think she is outsider or a lone voice in the church. This is how they feel about those who have different political and social values and opinions.

bluebell wrote: I think question 7 is primarily a rainbow flag question. If you are an ally of LGBT constitutional rights to marry, Hillary Clinton, or other non-profit organizations which promote LGBT marriages in a positive light, then depending on the views of the presiding authority conducting the interview they may decide to deny a temple recommend.

http://www.mormondialogue.org/topic/712 ... on/?page=2

Support gay marriage? Hillary Clinton? Hillary Rodham Clinton? Reason to be denied a temple recommend?

I've been saying it for a while, there is no middle way. Roger made a good decision to take some time off. THERE IS NO MIDDLE WAY in Mormonism.

Doctor CamNC4Me wrote:You know what? I think I'll listen to this podcast. I want to say I listened to the Jeremy Runnells interview for a bit, but I can't say with confidence I did. That said, thanks to your breakdown of the interview I am now going to 100% listen to a John Dehlin podcast.

I hope he kicks a dollar your way, brother.

- Doc

There are many hours of this thing. I didn’t listen to every last hour.

cwald,

I don’t think that this stuff from MAD about voting Democrat is accurate. That said, Hendrix is taking a break from the Church because he has objections to its position on gay rights. He mentions the fact that he was becoming an annoyance in meetings. I don’t intend to give the impression that he is comfortable in church right now. No. What is interesting is that he felt fine until the 1990s, the Proclamation, Prop 8, etc. It finally got to be impossible to just carry on as usual. This jibes with my sense of things having changed in that same era.

Yeah, I agree with that kish.

Doctor CamNC4Me wrote:You know what? I think I'll listen to this podcast. I want to say I listened to the Jeremy Runnells interview for a bit, but I can't say with confidence I did. That said, thanks to your breakdown of the interview I am now going to 100% listen to a John Dehlin podcast.

Doc

Uh, you do know this interview is like 7 hours long, right?

I made it through the whole thing (I was doing a lot of driving last summer). It wasn't terrible, but I wouldn't listen to it again.

cinepro wrote:

Doctor CamNC4Me wrote:You know what? I think I'll listen to this podcast. I want to say I listened to the Jeremy Runnells interview for a bit, but I can't say with confidence I did. That said, thanks to your breakdown of the interview I am now going to 100% listen to a John Dehlin podcast.

Doc

Uh, you do know this interview is like 7 hours long, right?

I made it through the whole thing (I was doing a lot of driving last summer). It wasn't terrible, but I wouldn't listen to it again.

I sure as “F” found out. I had no idea what to listen to, and I wasn't going to listen to the whole thing. I mean, no hate toward either man, but they're not that interesting.

- Doc

The last three hours are interesting to me. The first hour gives you a sense of his personality.

I found the series interesting. Mr. Hendrix seems like the kind of guy that the church would want to keep in its ranks. There is too much of the authority/militarism style in the leadership and Mr. Hendrix, refreshingly, seems to be the opposite of this. He doesn't seem to worship the rules for rules sake but is one who is more concerned with outcomes. I bet his religion classes were worth the time. Still, I didn't care for his stance on the hesitancy of the church to disclose finances. Even if big data and technology will allow a work around in the near future as he posits, the "church" ought to do the right thing now and let people know how it is run.