John Dehlin

John Parkinson Dehlinis a psychologist, personal counselor, social activist, scholar, and blogger who founded the Mormon Stories Podcast as well as several other Mormon-themed podcasts, blogs, and web sites and also was an influential early participant in the Mormon blogosphere. A psychologist whose research and clinical practice center around the nexus of religion and mental health, Dehlin also is an advocate for the rights of skeptics in Mormonism, LGBT rights, equality for women, and the rights of certain other individuals outside of the mainstream within Mormonism. He has published articles on anxiety disorders, on the experiences of LGBT Latter-day Saints, and on Mormon faith crises. Youth and early career: Dehlin was born in Boise, Idaho, and raised in Katy, Texas. He attended Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah, where he graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1993. After graduation, Dehlin worked for five years in software and as a consultant for Bain & Company, Arthur Andersen, Citicorp, Heidrick & Struggles, and the LDS Church. He then worked at Microsoft for seven years in programs for developers, marketing, speech technologies, and product demos. Dehlin's brother, Joel Dehlin, also worked at Microsoft, and became the chief information officer of the LDS Church in 2004. In 2004, Dehlin moved to Logan, Utah, to begin work under David A. Wiley at Utah State University (USU) on OpenCourseWare-related projects. Dehlin would serve two years as USU's OpenCourseWare Consortium Coordinator and Director of Outreach for the Center for Open and Sustainable Learning Director of Outreach, promoting OpenCourseWare to other universities, and a few years as director of the OpenCourseWare Consortium for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2007, while at USU, Dehlin also completed a Master of Science degree in Instructional Technology. In January 2007, MIT hired Dehlin as the Director of the OpenCourseWare Consortium. In 2015 Dehlin received his doctorate in clinical and counseling psychology at USU. New media- Sunstone: During Dehlin's early career developing massive open online courses (MOOCs) he had branched into Latter-day Saint themed new media. Dehlin approached the Sunstone Education Foundation and presented to its Board of Directors about the importance of participating in developing internet communities through blogging and podcasting, in order to address the then limited internet presence for constructive Mormon intellectual sources. The Board accepted his offer to initiate these programs and, in September 2005, Dehlin joined the Board of Directors and began a Sunstone podcast as well as SunstoneBlog. In July 2007, he also became executive director of the Sunstone Education Foundation, in which he was to focus on strategic initiatives to strengthen Sunstone's position as an open forum for Mormon issues. In that role, he increased organizational focus on its longstanding motto, "faith seeking understanding", and worked to attract new and younger membership. Dehlin resigned from Sunstone in January 2008. Mormon Stories: In September 2005, after experiencing doubts in his faith and subsequently finding reasons to remain a member of the LDS Church, Dehlin created the Mormon Stories podcast as an open discussion of Mormon issues, intending to give listeners reasons to remain in the church. Through interviews, Mormon Stories focused on varying Mormon experiences and perspectives. Mormon Stories has been featured in many venues, including being broadcast on KVNU in Logan, Utah. Intermittently conflicted about continuing Mormon Stories, Dehlin stopped and restarted the project a few times. In January 2010 Dehlin resumed the blog and podcast, focusing on faith crises and mental illness. The podcast has featured many notable guests, beginning with interviews of Joanna Brooks and John Hamer. Two other regular hosts joined Dehlin in conducting interviews for the podcast: Dan Wotherspoon, former editor of Sunstone magazine; and Natasha Helfer Parker, a licensed clinical marriage and family therapist. Other blogs: In June 2007, Dehlin started Mormon Matters as a blog and weekly podcast. The format was a discussion panel on events, culture, politics and spirituality within Mormonism. Panelists were to represent different sides of each issue, although the show later struggled to retain regular conservative LDS panelists. In early 2008, Dehlin converted Mormon Matters into a group blog and lessened emphasis on new podcast episodes,. Dehlin resumed the Mormon Matters podcast on March 5, 2011 with Dan Wotherspoon as the host, and Joanna Brooks as a frequent co-host. Dehlin is also the co-founder of the pro-LGBT Mormons for Marriage website. He also co-founded Stay LDS, a community dedicated to helping unorthodox Mormons stay in the LDS Church. Faith: From 1988 to 1990, Dehlin served as an LDS Church missionary in Guatemala. During this time his mission began baptizing up to 700 converts per month, using practices he believed to be deceptive. After reporting this to an apostle, Dallin H. Oaks, Dehlin completed his two-year missionary term in the Arizona Tempe Mission. Dehlin remained an active, faithful member of the LDS Church for the next 20 years. In the Spring of 2011, Dehlin stated he had become inactive in the LDS Church (i.e., not attending church services), citing an inability to believe some of the church's claims. In 2014, Dehlin was investigated by his local church leaders regarding his online activity, culminating in a request by Dehlin for greater privacy. Prior to 2014, Dehlin had faced church disciplinary hearings, but they had not resulted in any disciplinary action. In January 2015, Dehlin's stake president asked him to appear before a disciplinary council. The council ruled that Dehlin's online statements rejecting particular church teachings constitute apostasy, and he was therefore excommunicated. Dehlin appealed the decision to the church's First Presidency on March 10, 2015, stating his actions had not met the church's definition of apostasy.