Tonight we sit down with Born Again Mormon superstar Shawn McCraney and find out what makes him tick! This interview packs a lot into 90-minutes! (***Listener Warning for some mildly salty language–Shawn is a bad influence on me.)
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I love Shawn. He is the real deal. RFM, Bill Reel, Shawn, Danny of Talking to Mormons and Bishop Earl Ex Mormon files have had the largest impact on my journey. I will be forever grateful. I didn’t know who John Dehlin was until recently. Shawn, my deep dive into the OT has left me different than I was before covid and attended every Sunday. I will email Danny and cc you. I hope you will still want me to attend.
RFM, I donate so much to Shawn that you get skunked. I will rectify that by donating to you more. You both have been huge in my world. Shawn, thank you for helping me learn that agape love is freeing and fulfilling. You are what you said in this interview, a loveable scoundrel.
RFM, Thanks very much for doing this interview. Great closing song!👍That was popular at a different time. Carpenter of Wood and One More Mountain to Climb were good songs as well at that different time. I thoroughly enjoyed this podcast and it falls in the – Healthy – category. What an interesting interview. Yes it really boils down to love. Thanks Shawn. Thanks RFM
Great Interview. Shawn is the best. I had the pleasure of having dinner with him and his wife a couple of years ago in SLC. His honesty is rare and he really is authentic.
Keep up the good work
Paul
RFM
Really great interview, a lot of depth there. Had not heard of Shawn before but his story and message are great and you and he had a really good back and forth.
I’m awarding extra credit for using “soteriology” in a sentence again.
Waking up to see my two favorite post-mormons having an hour+ discussion was a joyful surprise. Both you, RFM, and Shawn have helped me immensely in navigating what can be, and often is, such a twisty, turny, bumpy exit road out of our former religion. I really appreciated you asking Shawn about how he felt realizing a few of his beliefs seemed to have gone full circle back to an LDS view. It’s a question I have been curious to know the answer to for a little while now, so I was very pleased to have a chance to hear his answer. Great interview!
Glad you liked it, Cristy!
Shawn was very easy to interview.
My main goal was trying as best I could to stay out of his way!
From the beginning of this episode I wondered why RFM was interviewing an Christian evangelical. I was taken in about 3/4 of the way through in true surprise. I was a believing Mormon for 40+ years, now a resolute agnostic/atheist. However for the first time in years a message of faith checked more boxes for me than any other. Shawn if you could match what we know about science to a loving God and Jesus, I would seriously consider it.
I’ve thought this for a long time — Shawn gets Christianity right. It’s a shame he gets shunned by the corporate christian elites but pretty much consistent with Jesus’s experiences and warnings he left for us…..
I was pleasantly surprised. I had never heard of Shawn and expected to get worked up and frustrated by what I perceive to be the typical arrogance of “born-agains” (RFM’s previous interview with the two evangelical guys nearly made my eyes roll out of my head). However, it wasn’t like that at all. I don’t know what Shawn is like in his other presentations, and I am probably not interested enough to look for myself, but this Shawn was thoughtful and open.
Shawn, the views on religion that you express seem healthy. I like it! From what I have read, the sheep and goats parable is one that is likely to have actually been said by Jesus, unlike other parts of the gospel, and the supposed writings of Paul.
The only thing that I would push back on in a friendly way is your belief in the Bible. The more I read, the more I see it as a book written by and containing the beliefs of men, not God. I agree with the evidence presented by people like Bart Ehrman, that some of the books of the Bible are fraudulent, and parts of the Gospels are not original content. The New Testament is a hugely interesting book, but not a great fountain of Truth. I don’t think that the historical Jesus was much like the New Testament claims he was. For the record, I find Buddhism much more compelling than Christianity.
Thanks Shawn and RFM – I would be happy to hear more discussion.
It’s hard not to agree that loving one another is the only message we humans need to truly understand if we ever hope to realize anything beyond the brutal existence we experience here. It is also extremely difficult to understand that shining pearl of wisdom, apparently, since we can’t seem to establish peace in our own country let alone globally. But, coming to that understanding requires absolutely no scripture whatsoever. In fact in my experience, more often than not, scripture serves as an impediment to discovering that simple principle. In addition, I came to embrace that glaring imperative without a savior, guru and or any religious dogma. Based on what I heard Shawn saying, I assume he’s fine with that, as he stated at one point it didn’t matter how one arrives at that understanding so long as one arrives and I totally agree with that sentiment.
I must admit that when Shawn was talking about what a hard time he gets from Calvinists and said something to the effect of ‘there is no such thing as predestination and he could prove it to them’, “using the scriptures”, I blew a bit of coffee through my nose due to a reflective guffaw that let loose. I mean, what can’t you prove using those things? I have an ex-brother in-law who is convinced the earth is flat and ardently claims he can prove it with the Bible. I have no doubt he can prove it, at least to his own satisfaction, the same way everybody proves stuff using scripture. But who cares? There are much more direct ways of discovering the contents of human consciousness, and the eternal values therein, that don’t require poring over ancient text or buying into any hocus pocus. Anyway, I enjoyed conversation. Thanks for sharing it.
I know I am always amazed at people who got to the place I am now without spending 40-years getting there like I did.
I don’t know why, but it took me that long. I don’t think there was any short cut for me.
Perhaps because you focussed on that which was beautiful, uplifting and edifying – hardly a negative trait. Sadly, even the sunniest day draws ominous clouds to block out the light. The dark clouds of Mormonism however, remain constant and immovable.
May be a good idea to move to a sunnier climate?
Dr. Robert Ritner mentioned the resurrection of Osiris tradition in Egyptian culture/religion, I would have enjoyed a discussion of this subject with Shawn.
Shawn is the best!!! I listened to him for the first time many years ago on Mormon Stories. That is the first time I, as an ex mormon, realized what Christianity was.
Shawn, if you read this, I am also a former mormon who found Jesus. For what it’s worth I think that you are completely right about eschatology. When they said in the New Testament, “This generation shall not pass away until…,” they meant it. A lot of the stuff in Revelations already happened. (Is it called preterism?).
Also eternal hell is not true or Biblical!! Read “Heaven’s Doors.” A loving God would not subject people to eternal torment no matter what they did.
The stuff about love and no rules is spot on. Christ won the victory on the cross. The work has already been done.
Thanks, Bryan!
I made a special point of forwarding your comment to Shawn.
He really appreciated it!
RFM
Great show, RFM, lots of food for thought.
I have a question. When you and Brian say that you have not found a Christian church accepting of everyone, have you looked into Unitarian Universalists?
They appear to be very inclusive.
Boy, the cognitive dissonance for me is almost tangible. Shawn and his family are distant family to mine. I grew up hearing under handed comments of the tragedy of the path he took. Even though I’ve left the church, I still viewed him from that paradigm. The scales falling from my eyes hearing his story from his mouth, rather than from my family’s, is a jarring experience. This is going to take time to digest.
Thank you for this interview. It’s changed a lot about how I understand my family.
RFM, I’d be interested in touching bases with Shawn if letting him know my contact wouldn’t be inappropriate.
Hey Tom,
For sure. Email me and ill give you my cell number.
Shawn
Shawn’s path, as you say, “has a number of twists and turns still,” which is a great way to end the podcast and probably the only certain thing you could say about this half-baked fellow.