Doubting in a Mormon Marriage: Summur-Rayn Berrett Pt. 2 | Ep. 1888

When the History Catches Up: Faith Crisis in a Mixed-Faith Mormon Marriage

Summur-Rayn Berrett did not lose her faith because she was looking for reasons to leave. She lost it because she started asking questions the Church could not honestly answer. Her story, told across two episodes of the Mormon Stories Podcast with host John Dehlin, is a case study in what happens when a devout, temple-attending Latter-day Saint woman hits the documented historical record at full speed.

What makes Berrett's account worth examining closely is not the drama of a faith crisis. It is the specific mechanisms by which the LDS Church's institutional dishonesty about its own history creates casualties inside otherwise stable marriages, families, and identities.

Background: A Faith Built on Devotion, Not Fear

Berrett was raised by parents who treated religion as seasoning rather than a main course. Her father is Congressman Burgess Owens. Her upbringing gave her something many Utah Mormons lack: a faith that was chosen rather than coerced. She returned to activity as an adult on her own terms, attending the temple weekly, drawing genuine spiritual meaning from ordinances.

That is not the profile of someone primed to blow up. Yet here she is on Mormon Stories, describing the moment the floor gave way.