Mormon Stories 1112: Parenting After a Mormon Faith Crisis: An Overview Pt. 1

Parenting After a Mormon Faith Crisis: When Core Beliefs Shift, What Happens to the Kids?

When a parent experiences a faith crisis, whether through discovering historical inconsistencies in church teachings, wrestling with doctrinal doubts, or gradually losing belief altogether, the practical question quickly becomes personal: How do I raise my children when my foundational worldview has fundamentally changed? This isn't a niche concern. Thousands of Latter-day Saints navigate this terrain annually, yet few institutional resources address the unique psychological and relational challenges it presents. A recent podcast series from Mormon Stories attempting to tackle this gap reveals both the emotional complexity parents face and the profound parenting philosophy questions that emerge once institutional authority loses its grip.

Understanding the Mormon Parenting Context

To appreciate why faith transitions complicate parenting, we must first understand the theological scaffolding many Mormon parents have built their entire approach upon. Within orthodox Mormonism, parenting has historically rested on a specific framework: children are understood as inherently vulnerable moral agents requiring external authority, both divine and parental, to develop righteousness and obedience. This isn't fringe doctrine; it permeates primary manuals, sacrament meeting talks, and parenting literature distributed by the Church Educational System for decades.

The underlying assumption is stark: without extrinsic moral authority, children lack motivation toward goodness. Parents function as implementers of a divinely ordained system, with their authority derived from God. Deviation from prescribed behavioral expectations carries spiritual consequences. This model produces what researchers might call "compliance-based parenting", prioritizing obedience over autonomy, behavioral control over intrinsic motivation.

The Faith Crisis Collision