The Faith Crisis of a Former LDS Relief Society President - Donna Showalter Pt. 2 | Ep. 1151

When Information Control Meets Personal Crisis: A Relief Society President's Faith Unraveling

When a dedicated Relief Society president confronts truths she's spent decades avoiding, the entire architecture of her faith can collapse in surprising ways. Donna Showalter's journey, documented in the second part of a lengthy Mormon Stories podcast interview, illustrates a critical tension that scholars of religious movements have long recognized: the gap between official institutional narratives and the lived experiences of members who occupy positions of influence within those institutions.

Showalter's faith crisis, which accelerated significantly after 2019, offers a window into how information control operates within insular religious communities, how cognitive dissonance gets managed through selective attention, and what happens when personal loyalty to a loved one (in this case, her gay son Michael) finally overcomes institutional loyalty. For researchers studying religious deconversion, LGBTQ+ experiences in conservative faith traditions, and the mechanics of institutional information management, Showalter's testimony provides unusually candid evidence of how these systems function from the inside.

Information Control and the "Provo Bubble"

Showalter describes herself during her years as a Relief Society leader as someone who was "really good at shutting things out." She deliberately avoided exposure to major controversies roiling the LDS Church, the essays addressing historical problems, the CES Letter, Mormon Stories itself, and the excommunications of figures like John Dehlin and Kate Kelly. She consumed only approved media sources and consciously rejected anything labeled "anti-Mormon."

This wasn't mere ignorance. It was active curation, reinforced by her immediate religious environment. According to the Mormon Stories podcast, Showalter's understanding of her responsibility as a Relief Society president meant accepting without question that church leadership, particularly male leaders, possessed both moral authority and prophetic guidance that rendered independent investigation unnecessary.