Episode 235: Is it Too Expensive to be a Latter-day Saint? | A Conversation with Natalie Brown
“In all my angst about if I would marry and if I would have children and if I would have a career, I did not fully consider how the ideals in this proclamation from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reflected a certain moment in white, middle-class America’s economic history,” writes Natalie Brown. Most Latter-day Saints have absorbed a lifetime of talks and lessons centered around an “ideal” family model in which a father goes to work and a mother stays at home with the children. This arrangement is no longer economically possible for many American families, and the disconnect between Church teachings and members’ lived experience can have many consequences. In Episode 235, Susan and Cynthia are joined by Natalie to explore the collision of realities that have changed with teachings that haven’t. How might our church adapt to better serve members caught in the middle?
Notes & Quotes:
ALSSI Ep. 211, Who’s the Decider? | A Conversation with Natalie Brown
Looking beyond the LDS family proclamation, to the real pressures parents face, by Natalie Brown, The Salt Lake Tribune, 1/22/2023
Practical Ways the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Might Better Support Parents, by Natalie Brown, By Common Consent blog, 6/7/2023
How the housing market is yanking the ‘American dream’ increasingly out of reach, by Katie McKellar, Deseret News, 6/10/2022
Conference reports of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints archive
ALSSI Ep. 9, As a Cook, I was a Piano Teacher
ALSSI Ep. 155, To the Children of the Mothers in Zion | A Conversation with Susie Augenstein
“I worry that we have been so busy defining families that we have forgotten what they need.” —Natalie Brown
"Furthermore, I want to say to you, we may not be able to reach it right away, but we expect to see the day when we will not have to ask you for one dollar of donation for any purpose, except that which you volunteer to give of your own accord, because we will have tithes sufficient in the storehouse of the Lord to pay everything that is needful for the advancement of the kingdom of God. I want to live to see that day, if the Lord will spare my life. It does not make any difference, though, so far as that is concerned, whether I live or not. That is the true policy, the true purpose of the Lord in the management of the affairs of His Church." —Joseph F. Smith