I got to wondering this after a comment on the thread about anointed one's interview with John Dehlin. Apparently the interview isn't going to be edited and posted on the Mormon Stories website.

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,615905

As anointed one posted:

"I personally thought it too long and too boring for anyone. That's why I was waiting for John to edit it and put it in sections.

John had 100 or 200 of his contacts listen and it received very positive comments.

As I said previously, John is carefully picking his battles and felt, on reflection and sharing with his stake president, that he could not publish this himself. Colleagues of his have contacted me to do an interview which they will publish but I'm not sure I want to go through it all again.

Thanks again for your kind comments. This board has been so kind and supportive to me in stark contrast to that which I have received from my 'eternal' family.

Tom"

Note the part about John sharing the interview with his stake president and then deciding not to publish it. That's disturbing.

I haven't listed to all of the interview, and just caught the first couple of minutes, but the one thing that really struck out to me was how much John was trying to emphasize that he was in no way violating his temple covenants by doing the interview, and that neither was Tom. There was a lot of "And you didn't raise your arm to the square and promise God that you wouldn't reveal it, right?" kind of things going on at the beginning, as well as John saying a few times that this was _not_ something he had done, so he was in no way breaking his covenants by doing the interview, and that besides, he wasn't even the one talking about it since Tom was the one who was going to share. There was also a bit of "since the church is keeping it a secret, I think it's okay for us to talk about it since people can't learn about it like they do the other ordinances," talk.

Because of all of that, I think it's highly likely that there was too much worry on John's part that it would come back and bite him if he posts it. I can imagine his SP (or himself, or someone else) saying that he'd face disciplinary action if he posted it.

(Thank you to whomever dropboxed it so I could download it; I'm glad I did since it looks like it won't be put up on Mormon Stories to pull down and listen to later.)

It's an amazing interview. I stayed up half the night mesmerized.

Anointed One is a brilliant individual and has a way with words. He has a way of slicing right through the insanity and semantics of Mormonism and serving up the unabashed truth. I highly recommend passing the interview around. It's the most compelling interview I've heard from Dehlin. Of course, it's due to the imminently gracious, eloquent, honest and deeply sincere guest, Anointed One.

Dehlin? Moth ball the interview? If he's hoping to stay on the log, it's a good idea to stick this interview down the rat hole because it will devestate some testimonies and have the leaders beating a path to Dehlin's door. We'll I'm sure they already did, which is why we aren't hearing this unvarnished but graciously spoken truth on Mormon stories.

I'm under 30 minutes in and am already impressed at his ability to say what he wanted to say and phrase it how he wanted to phrase it regardless of the leading the John is doing.

Can someone putit on youtube and post a link to it. I would like to see it. Very interested in the interview just as a follow up to anoitedone's posts here. Fascinating stuff.

Can one upload just audio to youtube, or does it have to be a video?

Here's the dropbox link whomever it was posted yesterday. You can listen to it there.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3563634/TomPhillips-Unedited.mp3

I think Dehlin is capable of deciding for himself whether this would cross the line or not. He's seems pretty good at controlling his own destiny at the moment.

You're welcome, and thanks to you as well.

It has done Dh and I some good. I feel sad when you talk about your wife.

I admire you for your integrity. I, myself could not live the lie so others could feel good about it. I have lost some people I dearly love because of it.

The biggest deception of Mormonism is calling itself a family church. The only other place i've seen this kind of destruction to families is in alcohol and drug rehab centers. Even there, they have more hope.

I was ex'd from the mormon church for doing way less than JD has.


It's all about connections. JD has connections on both sides. Hence the dance of no commitment.

I cant seem to get into the drop box link. Is there another link available. I want to hear the interview now listening to all the great reviews. It sounds fascinating.

Tom, I hope you have been in touch with Wendell Hall, Steve Sims and others who have been in high positions within the church but found out it was wrong and had the courage to break free. Just as life must sometimes be lonely for high church leaders like GAs, MPs, and SPs; I must imagine it must be even worse for those with the courage and conviction to break away.

I mean it must be sometimes more lonely sometimes (not worse) for those who have the courage to break free rather than to stay trapped in the mess.

I can certainly see why John chose not to post this interview. The impact of hearing Tom's voice, taking us from his 2nd anointing down the path to Jeff Holland's evil letter was absolutely stunning. To hear of Tom's love for the church, his relationships with apostles, his leadership positions - then his heartbreak at finding out the truth, was the most effective exit story I have ever heard. He literally gave up his entire family, his entire way of life so that he could live with himself. How many people have that kind of personal integrity? Anyone with any kind of tiny chink in his/her testimony would certainly be impacted by this raw, real and engaging interview.

I agree. I listened to about an hour of Tom's interview last night, then to it all from the the beginning this afternoon. Very powerful. It's a real shame that it's not going to be edited and posted on the Mormon Stories website. I think it would have a powerful impact on a lot of people.

I have to say I'm pretty disappointed in John Dehlin. I really don't think he'd have to be concerned about being ex'd for it, since there's no way the Mormon church would do anything like that with Romney running for president and them being so concerned about their image.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/2012 10:21PM by knowitsfalse.

+1

So true. His integrity is impeccable. I have the utmost admiration for him. It grieves me that the people he loves the most can't get past the lies of the church to give this man the love and loyalty he so deserves.

Dehlin has done some things that are worthy of getting "a good talking to" or even a letter from a GA. I wonder if he has? He ought to just quit, but for some reason he has an unexplained attachment to it.

Anointed one found the truth, as I did. I have taken a different tack, though. I realize that TBM's have an irrational belief and I don't bother trying to convince family members or others, don't discuss my new beliefs with them because it will only cause negative reactions. In fact, I simply say to them that they are entitled to their beliefs. I am circumspect around them... to avoid offending. They will come to me if they want to question their belief system. I don't make comments.. I think it but don't say it.

I am perfectly happy to now know that the church isn't true and hold those beliefs interior to myself. Yes, something in me desperately wants to tell others that they are believing a lie. But when I see a person who is happy with what they believe and would be crushed to know differently, why would I try to bring up the arguments?

They see me not going to church, it's obvious I don't believe. No one is doing much about it, and just letting it be is working pretty well. I tapered off slowly. I have people who don't believe to talk to elsewhere.

Being outspoken and trying to change people will cause lots of hurt and disruption, so that's a choice one has to make.

My wife goes to church, temple and pays her tithing, I don't object. I tell her I respect her right to believe, and she is learning to respect my right not to believe. I am still on speaking terms with my children. Of course, my family is still damaged, and not trivially.

When you try rationality with these people, they will definitely react negatively. It gets ugly fast, and I anticipated that.

I realize that this method may not be practical for many, especially those who held high church callings and received the second anointing. I sympathize deeply for the disruption the church has caused him with his family.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/27/2012 02:13AM by rationalguy.

When my grandkids started being baptised, I realized what keeping my mouth shut had done. Maybe I couldn't have changed things by speaking up forcefully years earlier and tried to show them why I no longer believed, but by keeping quiet I feel I contributed to my posterity and yet another generation being controlled by a provably false religion. I don't regret starting to speak my mind more, even if it might make some people unhappy...I can see the result of keeping my mouth shut to avoid trouble. My grandkids are under the control of a provably false religion, and there's pretty much nothing I can do about it.

I know, I know. I have those regrets now, but in reality, I can't undo it. If I hadn't been fooled things would be different. At least I have one son who may have seen the light.

I cant seem to get into the drop box link. Is there another link available. I want to hear the interview now listening to all the great reviews. It sounds fascinating.

It was a 404 on Dropbox for me too but I found it here...right click on the link to save it to your pc (scroll down a couple of articles to find it).

http://mormonthink.com/

I'm having to listen to this in segments, and I admit I have never listened to any Mormon Stories podcasts before. After listening to my first excerpt, I have to ask- what's with Dehlin asking all the name- dropping questions... does he always do this? ("tell me about GAs you have known oh I played tennis with Elder Holland did you know Matt" and so on)

Is this normal for a MS podcast, or is he trying to establish Tom's credentials?

(Disclaimer:I have no knowledge of the Phillips family personally but do know of them through mutual acquaintances, and the name dropping seems very out of character).

Yes.

He has to pay a price for having a GA step in to prevent the Maxwell Institute publishing an expose on him.

This is the price.

Exactly. Look at all the pro-mormon podcasts on MS right now...He owes the Morg.

When push comes to shove, Dehlin will side with the church. His followers will do well to remember that. Push will come to shove. It always has in mormon history.

How long did that last, and is John bossom buddies with Mitt Romney?

Is John trying to distract disgruntled mormons from bothering Mitt's campaign?

Someone in the MS Facebook group asked John of he thought he could be ex-d for sharing the podcast and he replied that he thought it was in "the realm of possibility." Interesting that he thinks so... Also on a few other threads he mentions "personal reasons" for not releasing the podcast while denying any sort of pay for not-play deal with LDS, Inc. I'm inclined to believe him. I am having hard time imagining what the personal reasons could be, but I guess that is what makes them precisely personal reasons. Besides, it's not like the podcast isn't out there making waves via multiple channels.

The Power of the Internet still allows us to hear... Whether he edits it or not it is out there...

Below is a URL to a site that has resized the audio file to 6 parts:
http://www.mormonisme.nl/p/forum_23.html#nabble-td4024933

+1 Stumbling. My take on JD / Phillip interview. agreement not to publish on MS website episode list.

Fascinating interview.