Navigating a Mormon Faith Crisis as Brothers-in-Law - Chris Lee & Mitch Hadfield Pt. 2 Ep. 1675

When Faith Crises Happen at Home: How Two Brothers-in-Law Navigated Doubt Together

When a family member experiences a faith crisis, it doesn't happen in isolation. The ripples extend to spouses, siblings, and entire household dynamics. In a recent Mormon Stories Podcast episode featuring Chris Lee and Mitch Hadfield, two brothers-in-law who found themselves simultaneously questioning the foundations of Mormonism, we see a portrait of how intellectual inquiry, historical discovery, and emotional vulnerability can reshape family bonds. Their story illuminates a pattern increasingly common among educated Latter-day Saints: the collision between official Church narrative and documented historical record.

The Intellectual Gateway: From Church History to Hard Questions

Chris Lee's faith journey began not with doubt, but with scholarly enthusiasm. While studying at Utah State University, he accessed the university's special collections library to conduct research on LDS disciplinary councils and early Church history. What started as an academic exercise became something far more destabilizing: he encountered documented evidence of Church members excommunicated for apostasy, individuals whose theological innovations or questions had led to formal Church discipline.

This wasn't sensationalist anti-Mormon material. These were official Church records, preserved in institutional archives. The discovery triggered what Lee describes as a spark of intellectual curiosity, yet also something he couldn't immediately name: the beginning of a cognitive dissonance that would take years to fully articulate.

His father, recognizing his son's intellectual trajectory, recommended Richard Lyman Bushman's Rough Stone Rolling, a scholarly biography of Joseph Smith that, while written by a believing historian, presents documented historical complexity that many casual members never encounter. The gesture carried an implicit message: you're ready for the harder truths about our history.