Jesus for Mormons
Jesus for Mormons is a faithful alternative to a Mormon Faith Crisis! Join Kai Van Leuven and Di Beals as we talk about Kai's personal journey leaving the Mormon Church and transition into Mainstream Christianity!
Episodes
April 30, 2025 • 61 mins
Katie, "the Pink Apostle," shares her journey of leaving the Mormon Church after confronting doubts sparked by her brother's departure and reading the CES Letter. Guided by her Christian relatives, she found a relationship with Jesus based on grace, not works. In this conversation, she highlights how many Mormons love Jesus but are often led toward agnosticism due to LDS theology. Katie emphasizes gentle evangelism, the importance ...
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April 23, 2025 • 60 mins
In this episode of Jesus for Mormons, Kai Van Leuven and Pastor Di examine the Mormon Church's controversial history with race, focusing on its past teachings about Black members, including the priesthood ban that wasn't lifted until 1978 and its reluctance to open missions in Africa during the Civil Rights Movement. It critiques the hypocrisy of the church's token support for civil rights while denying Black members key privileges...
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April 16, 2025 • 47 mins
In this episode, Annalisa interviews Brandy Bronson about her book The Journey to Jesus, where she shares her transition from the LDS Church to a personal relationship with Jesus. Raised in a devout Mormon family, Brandy struggled with doctrinal inconsistencies and left the church after discovering a deeper faith in the God of the Bible. She reflects on the emotional challenges of leaving Mormonism, including fears of losing commun...
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April 9, 2025 • 63 mins
Kai Van Leuven discusses how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) has increasingly used Christian language and practices, such as "worship service" and "congregation," to align with mainstream Christianity. Historically, the LDS Church rejected traditional Christianity, but recently it has adopted Christian-like terminology and marketing strategies, including search engine optimization (SEO), to boost its online vi...
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April 2, 2025 • 86 mins
Aaron Shafawalaf discusses street preaching to Mormons, emphasizing the need for bold yet relational conversations. He stresses understanding the Mormon community, building Christian unity, and addressing Mormon theology thoughtfully, while delivering the message with love, humility, and accuracy. Shafawalaf critiques Mormonism for secretive doctrines like polygamy and exaltation and argues that Mormon apologists avoid addressing i...
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March 26, 2025 • 63 mins
In this podcast, Kai and Steven Pinecker discuss the importance of respectful dialogue between evangelicals and Mormons. Steven shares his evangelism approach, which focuses on building personal relationships with Jesus rather than emphasizing doctrinal differences. They highlight the need for unity within Christianity and understanding individuals despite theological disagreements. Steven emphasizes compassionate conversations ove...
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March 19, 2025 • 92 mins
Brandy Bronson shares her journey growing up in the Mormon faith, where the pursuit of "exaltation" and perfectionism shaped her beliefs. After leaving Mormonism, her view of God shifted from a utilitarian perspective to one of awe and mystery, contrasting the Mormon belief in a progression of gods with the biblical view of a self-existent, sovereign God. Brandy reflects on the pressures of Mormon culture, particularly at BYU, wher...
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March 12, 2025 • 58 mins
The episode questions LDS Church leaders' biblical literacy, focusing on the eighth Article of Faith, which doubts the Bible’s accuracy while affirming the Book of Mormon. The hosts critique the LDS reliance on the KJV and contrast traditional pastoral training with the corporate backgrounds of Mormon leaders, arguing this leads to scriptural misinterpretation. They highlight doctrinal discrepancies, particularly regarding marriage...
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March 5, 2025 • 41 mins
This episode of Jesus for Mormons explores the “Ex-Mormon Curse” and how negative statements from Mormon leaders create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Kai and Di discuss the Pygmalion Effect, showing how ex-Mormons often feel isolated and expect hardship. Kai shares how he was passed over for a head coaching job shortly after leaving the Mormon Church. At first, he questioned if his faith played a role, but later saw it as a blessing,...
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February 26, 2025 • 93 mins
Raised in a devout Mexican-American Mormon family, Annalisa endured childhood trauma and her father’s shift toward fundamentalism and polygamy. After a rebellious phase, she returned to the LDS Church, married, and became deeply involved. However, the loss of her third child triggered a crisis of faith, leading her to biblical Christianity. During COVID, she questioned Mormonism, researched its history, and found contradictions. Wi...
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February 19, 2025 • 37 mins
Kai Van Leuven reflects on his journey of leaving the Mormon church and embracing Christianity, using Christian music and the Bible to heal and deepen his connection with God, describing it as a personal revival. Di, a pastor at Venture Church, explains revival as a spiritual reawakening, especially significant in Seattle, where faith is less common. Kai shares a transformative moment during a revival service when he received a sig...
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February 5, 2025 • 39 mins
Kai Van Leuven shares his journey after leaving Mormonism, highlighting two moments of rejecting God: during a sermon on Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones and when a pastor’s story about hiding faults struck him. Over time, through reading the Bible with his son and attending church, Kai softened, experiencing God’s grace despite his resistance. The narrator reflects on their own spiritual resistance, eventually surrendering to Christ ...
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January 30, 2025 • 102 mins
In this episode of Jesus for Mormons, Cameron shares his journey from growing up in a Mormon community to leaving the church. After struggling with spiritual conflict and disillusionment, he and his family found a new, more fulfilling path in a non-denominational Christian church. Cameron embraced salvation through grace, finding peace in a personal relationship with Jesus. He encourages others feeling disconnected from Mormonism t...
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January 24, 2025 • 60 mins
Elle Sante shares her journey of leaving the Mormon Church after questioning its teachings, sparked by her attempt to convert a Christian friend. She found contradictions in Mormon doctrine through sources like the Journal of Discourses and embraced Christianity. Despite guilt, she found freedom in embracing biblical truth. The episode also follows a 17-year-old who leaves Mormonism for Christianity, gets excommunicated, and uses t...
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January 22, 2025 • 85 mins
Doug Perry and Kai Van Leuven discuss Kai's transition from Mormonism to Christianity after a painful faith crisis. They critique institutional religions, including Mormonism, for prioritizing power and structure over a personal relationship with Jesus. Emphasizing grace over works, they highlight the importance of sincerity of heart and spiritual freedom. Sharing personal experiences, they express concern for those disillusioned b...
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January 15, 2025 • 50 mins
Kai Van Leuven reflects on his journey after leaving the Mormon Church, exploring atheism, agnosticism, and various religions. He struggled with rigid Mormon teachings and sought a more personal approach to faith. After exploring science and Christianity, he embraced faith in Jesus, finding peace and transformation. He encourages others to explore faith thoughtfully and recommends Timothy Keller’s The Reason for God for those seeki...
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January 8, 2025 • 41 mins
Kai Van Leuven reflects on his emotional journey after leaving the Mormon Church, struggling to reconcile fond memories with the realization that its teachings were false. He compares this to Stockholm Syndrome, where ex-Mormons may still feel emotionally bound to the church despite rejecting its claims. Kai discusses the challenge of letting go of deeply ingrained beliefs and shares how coaching wrestling became a new focus. Inspi...
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December 24, 2024 • 49 mins
Kai Van Leuven and Pastor Di respond to a comment on the Mormon Stories Podcast Facebook page about key Christian concepts like the Trinity and salvation by faith alone. They explain that God's anger is a righteous response to sin, not vengeance, and that salvation is available to all through faith in Jesus, whose sacrifice covers all sin. The speakers emphasize divine justice, encouraging believers to trust in God's judgment rathe...
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December 18, 2024 • 55 mins
In this episode of Jesus for Mormons, Kai Van Leuven reflects on the isolation he experienced after leaving the Mormon church and the challenges of rebuilding a sense of community. Initially skeptical of church life, he eventually found support and authenticity at Venture Church and later in Kauai, discovering that both large and small church environments can offer meaningful connections. Pastor Di emphasizes the importance of comm...
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December 11, 2024 • 64 mins
In this episode of Jesus for Mormons, Kai Van Leuven and Pastor Di explore Joseph Smith's magical worldview, including treasure digging, supernatural encounters, and the use of artifacts like a Jupiter talisman. They examine how these elements blend folk magic with early Mormon history, critiquing the rigid, works-based practices tied to temple rituals. Emphasizing compassion for those in Mormonism, they contrast its theology with ...
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