Is the Mormon Church in decline in its home state: Utah? Is the Mormon church over-reporting its Utah membership? Is the Mormon church in decline worldwide? Join us as we interview sociologist Dr. Ryan Cragan we we discuss his new article: "Mormons Are No Longer a Majority in Utah: Causes, Consequences, and Implications for the Sociology of Religion." https://www.ryantcragun.com/mormons-are-no-longer-a-majority-in-utah-causes-consequences-and-implications-for-the-sociology-of-religion/ Episode Show Notes: https://www.mormonstories.org/portfolio-items/mormon-church-in-decline-in-utah/ 00:04:00 How the article’s research came to be 00:07:15 The church’s numbers on their website 00:08:55 Mormon News October 13-17 00:13:10 Video clip - Elder Holland on the growth of the church 00:17:00 Bill Reels post on Reddit 00:19:19 Baseball baptisms 00:26:17 Statistics in attendance for the Church 00:28:48 Chart showing percent drop LDS in Salt Lake City 00:33:46 Data on membership numbers 00:35:44 Mexico’s actual numbers vs Church reporting 00:41:00 Cragun’s article 00:44:00 How the study was conducted 00:47:00 Building in a “confidence interval” 00:54:14 The big discrepancy, 18% points, how do we explain this? 00:55:15 Migration of people to Utah 00:57:28 Chart from the article 01:00:30 Secularization, people aren’t interested in religion 01:04:55 Mormons are having less children 01:10:57 “Religion doesn’t make people good and neither does non-religion” 01:17:43 John tried to buy an LDS church building 01:20:56 Kids are safer at school than at their own homes 01:24:27 How the NFL competes with churches 01:25:50 The NFL is contributing to the religious decline 01:32:50 They changed the ages of missionaries to prevent them from leaving the church 01:34:50 Impacts of COVID on religion 01:39:00 The church cannot afford to rapidly modernize 01:43:35 Closing remarks ___________________ At Mormon Stories we explore, celebrate, and challenge Mormon culture through in-depth stories told by members and former members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as scholars, authors, LDS apologists, and other professionals. Our overall mission is to: 1. Facilitate informed consent amongst LDS Church members, investigators, and non-members regarding Mormon history, doctrine, and theology 2. Support Mormons (and members of other high-demand religions) who are experiencing a religious faith crisis 3. Promote healing, growth and community for those who choose to leave the LDS Church or other high demand religions 🤝Help us continue to deliver quality content by becoming a donor today One-time or recurring donations: https://donorbox.org/mormon-stories?default_interval=m Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mormonstories Venmo: https://account.venmo.com/u/mormonstories Paypal: https://paypal.me/mormonstories Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx6OgmoqJbOVRq-Lv1P7SzA/join Our Platforms: 🌐Mormon Stories Blog: https://www.mormonstories.org/episodes 🎙️Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mormonstories ✳️Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4sDzk7dRjODTSEqzZKZJzk?si=148b0efc1ccc4404&nd=1 🍎Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mormon-stories-lds/id312094772 🖼️Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mormstories 📱TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mormonstoriespodcast 🎮Discord: https://discord.com/invite/kuX5p6yyjF