Runnells explains on the Mormon Stories Podcast that he learned things about Church history and felt "betrayed."

Date
Jun 12, 2014
Type
Interview
Source
Jeremy Runnells
Resigned
Critic
Hearsay
Direct
Reference

"Mormon Stories 480: Jeremy Runnells Pt 1 - On Growing Up Mormon and the Genesis of the CES Letter," Youtube, June 21, 2014

Scribe/Publisher
Mormon Stories
People
Jeremy Runnells, Richard Lyman Bushman, Joseph Smith, Jr., John Dehlin
Audience
Viewing Public
Transcription

Jeremy: It's not just being exposed to the information but the feeling of betrayal in the sense of why hasn't the Church told me this? Why haven't I learned this before? Why am I discovering this now at 30 and 31-years-old? And if I've never heard of something as crazy as Joseph Smith marrying other living men's wives...what else don't I know about?

So, that question really took me on this crazy path of research. I became absolutely obsessed with Joseph Smith, Church history and the origins of the Church over the next year or two.

John: What were your main sources of study or learning?

Jeremy: It was Rough Stone Rolling. I've looked at FAIR. I've looked at MormonThink. I relied a lot on FAIR because they were in the front trenches of this. I mean, Richard Bushman, it was more of a scholarly, it wasn't really in the trenches in terms of apologetics. So, FAIR just made things worse in the sense that I read about this, then I learn something new and then that leads to something else and it just created this thing just kept going on. I was learning this and this and that and this.

I don't know. I mentioned in my Debunking FAIR's Debunking that I really looked to FAIR as a lifeline during my faith crisis and it ended up being weights that drowned whatever left I had of a testimony.

So, yeah...that year, it was a struggle.

Timestamp: 33:23 - 35:19

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