Ep 10 Religion Series: Mormons vs. mainstream Christianity

Smartest Person in the Room

Welcome to the first episode in the RELIGION series of Smartest Person in the Room. For the next few weeks we’ll be hearing stories about people living within their religion, defined here as a “cultural system of behaviors and practices, often (but not always) in relation to something deemed sacred."

This episode is about the divide between modern day American Evangelical Christianity and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, otherwise known as LDS or Mormons. For purposes of clarity, in this conversation I refer to my guest Nish Weiseth as a “mainstream” Christian and to guest Emily Belle Freeman as a Mormon. Both living in Utah, Nish and Emily have partnered together to bridge the gaping divide between these two faiths that both follow Jesus.

With their combined influence in both the Evangelical and Latter-day Saint traditions, Emily & Nish have decided to take on the difficult task of getting Mormons and Christians to listen to one another and learn from each other. They work as a pair, speaking to both Mormon and Christian congregations, but they also spend a lot of time in their own camps, trying to dismantle some of the misinformation and stereotypes that each side has of the other. Their hope is that Mormons and Christians will eventually be able to put aside their differences in order to impact the world for good, together. Their online hub is called Multiply Goodness, which includes a blog, resources and more, on how people can start doing this inter-faith work in their own communities.

In this episode we talk about:

• The main theological differences between the Mormon faith and modern American evangelical Christianity.
• If each faith tradition believes the other one is going to hell.
• How Nish & Emily met and formed an unlikely partnership.
• Why it's WOMEN who are leading this charge.

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