Source: John Dehlin is Still a Mormon AND an Ex-Mormon Publisher: Understanding Mormonism | Author: John Dehlin, Ph.D. Published: December 21, 2025 | Archived: May 12, 2026

When does a Jew stop being a Jew? I am Mormon as a Jew is Jewish.

Not as a “race”, but as an ethnoreligious group.

Recently I stated in a podcast episode that I still consider myself to be “Mormon,” and that occasionally I still feel the urge to attend my local LDS Sacrament Meeting. I also stated my opinion that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints still does significant good in the world, in spite of the harm that it also causes certain groups in the church such as (some) women, LGBTQ people, racial minorities, and abuse victims.

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While I believe that most of my family, friends, and regular listeners/viewers are very familiar with these these positions of mine, some ex-Mormons expressed outrage, to the point of calling me “disgusting” and a “traitor.” Some even cancelled their donations to Mormon Stories Podcast, and said that my 20 year legacy with Mormon Stories Podcast was now destroyed. Still others called me “brainwashed” or a victim of “Stockholm Syndrome.”

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I think I understand the anger/outrage. It largely comes from people who have experienced the most harm from the church….and/or who have not yet healed from their traumatic past.

If you are angry at me….be angry. Just know that these positions of mine are not new. I’ve held them for the entire 20 years that I’ve been producing Mormon Stories Podcast. In fact, these are positions I’ve held for the better part of 35 years.

While at Brigham Young University (1990), and after a somewhat abusive LDS mission experience, I was introduced to the work of Chaim Potok. Potok wrote several novels about the clash between the Jewish faith and modernity.