Evangelical BYU Grad Talks Faith Marriage & Life! w/ Bridget Jack Jeffries
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- On this episode of Mormon Book Reviews, evangelical PhD student and survivor Bridget Jack Jeffries talks with Steven Pynakker about her undergraduate education at Brigham Young University and ill-fated interfaith marriage to the Mormon student who won her over. Hear about her conflicts with professors and counter-cult pastors, her escape from abuse in both her family of origin and marriage, the day her husband (still married to her) brought her replacement to Sacrament meeting while Bridget was there with their infant son, and the BYU professor and close mentor to her who was secretly recruiting students into a fundamentalist subsect of Mormonism. Hear also about how Bridget found hope, support, and healing from both evangelicals and Latter Day Saints in the unlikeliest of places.
#evangelical #latterdaysaints #mormonism #churchofjesuschristoflatterdaysaints #lds #ldspodcast #byu
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Loved her honesty. Mormon book reviews is the best…
Your story really touched me. You are so articulate and knowledgeable. I love to hear from people who are interested and engaged in respectful interfaith dialogue and interaction. You will not be surprised to know that Pres. Smith (Brent) is respectful of other faiths in conversation and deed. He and the youth reached out to another denomination in a service project which resulted in a friendship of respect between Pres Smith and the pastor of the other church. By the way, the pastor of the other church is female. She is as articulate and impressive as yourself. Best wishes on your journey to complete your Ph.D. while working and ministering as a wife and mother.
Thank you so much for the kind words and for telling me more about what Brent has been up to. I'm glad he continues our tradition of respectful interfaith friendships. I'm hoping to have him and Amy over for dinner in the near future.
You two are tops; and so kind when talking about some of the disfunction of the Mormon people you know. I'm sad if (their version of) Mormonism added to their disfunction.
As a active member/convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of LDS…We LOVE hearing from our brothers and sisters in other faiths at testimony meeting.
It sounds like her x-hubby had SERIOUS issues. 😔
He was NOT living the gospel of Jesus Christ. He was messed up!
We believe God will speak to His children no matter what religion they belong to. He loves all His children no matter their faith practices.
Thanks! Yeah, I never had a negative experience speaking at F&T meeting until that day, but like I said, perhaps Bruce incited the bishop's paranoia when he "warned" him I was going to do it. 🤷♀
I’m so grateful to have listened to this interview. As a trinity believing, Bible only adhering, non-LDS, Born Again Christian, God has put a true love in my heart for LDS people. I connected with Bridgette’s(?) love and respect for their faith and culture. I completely disagree with almost all of their theology but I love their sincerity and faith and willingness to share what they believe, listen to my beliefs, ask the tough questions and work through the tough questions too. I’m not backward in being clear that I won’t accept Joseph Smith as a true prophet and I believe my foundational beliefs are true because of their standing in the Scriptures, but I love having my beliefs challenged and exposed that may be continuously on a journey of being refined by the Holy Spirit. I’m thankful for every LDS believer God has brought my way.
That's a great attitude, klarag! I agree, I have often had my views enriched and refined by my interactions with Mormons. Thank you for sharing.
@@BridgetJJ I’m honoured to have you say so to me dear sister.
Proud to walk in Bridget's legacy at BYU!! ❤️ Thanks for sharing your story, friend
I'm proud that God continues to bring people like you / us to BYU! The work continues. :-)
She’s a a really good communicator.
Thank you! That's very kind.
It was well worth watching your story on a lazy friday afternoon in Australia. You have certainly come though a lot. I wish you happiness in your marriage now & I look forward to reading your academic work. Women can be multi-tasked it seems.
Thanks Noel! I've enjoyed talking with you these past few weeks.
My heart always aches any time I hear of any kind of child abuse. There are always scars that don't quite heal. Such a lovely and humble young woman.I would so love to feel and know when and where God is calling me. No matter how hard I pray I just don't feel like I hear Him so I just keep pushing on and hoping I am heading in the right direction. I do know that He answers my prayers, sometimes says yes and sometimes no is the answer. That perfect prophet thing is really a stumbling block for members. It always bothered me that we stopped teaching and helping young parents in there parenting struggles and preached in, Relief Society, how perfect the prophets were. To me that was so wrong and inappropriate when RS was supposed to be about "Relief".
Thanks for your thoughts and kind words! I think what I went through as a child has always been the hardest thing to get over (I only shared a fraction of it here). I am happy that I have now built a home where my own children can feel safe and loved.
Prayer is different for everyone! Sometimes God speaks through impressions and feelings (as the LDS church often emphasizes), but Scripture, doors opening, or the words of others can all be part of how God speaks to us. I think humility and a willingness to be wrong when we approach God are really key. Thanks again for watching.
@@BridgetJJ I think you are right. Each year I go to 4H horse camp and teach the outdoor cooking class. I deal with heat exhaustion and have to be so careful or it will take me down. A few days before camp this year I had an impression to not wear my garment. I followed that and I did great. I guess I just keep thinking how nice it would be to experience what some people experience. I guess I just need to learn to recognize the soft whisperings. Thanks for sharing.
I have a different view of "losing the battle and not knowing it."
Christian criticism in the 80s and 90s was "inaccurate" because it was going after Smith or Young's Mormonism. That Mormonism was anti-intellectual. No scholarship, just revelation and feelings.
Mormons changed as B.H. Roberts and Hugh Nibbley realized apologetics and scholarship were needed to "compete" with the wider world. Mormon apologists and scholars are syncretists striving to combine an anti-intellectual religion with the intellectualism and evidence that America has come to desire.
Instead of "losing the battle and not knowing it" it can be reframed as "criticizing the wrong church and not knowing it." But that puts the L in LDS because it brings the many doctrinal changes into the light.
Steve and I have a great story for you that I forgot to share with you when we talk about and university not allowing me to do a theology degree because I am LDS. It’s a pretty interesting story and the next time we chat, I’ll share it with you.
Grey rock works very well when you are trapped and can't get out!
I don't know if this is just my experience, and I'm sure many will take this in the right way. But I see ebbs and flows of interests in participation in the workforce economy. What is interesting is how that affects their religion.
Of course capital benefits when the workforce supply is high.
I think James White has produced some worthwhile work/debates dealing with Mormonism. But he really shot himself in the foot with the unaccredited PhD. At the same time, can Mormons just dismiss an argument because the arguer doesn't have a PhD?
Unfortunately many Christian apologists use White's work as authoritative regarding Mormonism. No legitimate evangelical scholar I know takes him seriously
@MormonBookReviews Your response leaves me with a few questions and some push back.
I said White has produced "some" worthwhile work on Mormonism. I think he is at his best when he debates Mormons or uses their own sources against them (a practice you and your guest alluded to several times in this interview). I also think he can be prone to misrepresentation and bluster.
Could you define what you think makes a "legitimate evangelical scholar?" For better or worse, White's work is accessible. Could you recommend works produced by "legitimate" scholars dealing with or refuting Mormonism that are accessible?
There are ex-Mormons who claim that White's work helped convert them to Christianity. How much value do you place on that? Should Christians try to convert Mormons?
Do you think White has produced anything of value on any topic?
Do you think polemics have any value at all?
As your brother in Christ, I appreciate your channel and look forward to your continued work. I also want to commend you for finding such interesting guests. I enjoyed this interview with Bridget Jack Jeffries immensely.
P.S. Have you read "Ancient Christians: An Introduction for Latter-day Saints?" It was published by the Maxwell Institute and allegedly the book teaches that the great apostasy didn't really happen. Although I have only seen quotations from the book and haven't read it yet so I am not sure if that is completely true or not.
@yellowblackbird9000 Great observation! In a perfect world, the quality of someone's work and the quality of their education ought to be two separate issues. F. F. Bruce technically never had a doctorate; no one cared because the quality of his work was so high-caliber. In contrast, Naomi Wolf has a legitimate doctorate (from Oxford, no less!) but the quality of her dissertation was so poor that the school suppressed the names of her dissertation committee. So academia has certainly seen its extremes on this subject.
That said, I'd say there are two problems with White's unaccredited ThD: (1) it casts a shadow of disingenuity over his ministry and work. The Novak exposé made it clear that he did not do the initial work of a PhD / ThD, and in the ~30 years since he obtained the degree, he's made pretty much zero contribution to academic biblical scholarship or theology (so he's not an F. F. Bruce). So why claim a degree he hasn't earned? (You don't need a ThD to write Christian apologetics). And if he's playing fast and loose with his academic credentials, what else is he playing fast and loose with? (2) Mormon apologists love to dig dirt and make personal attacks. That's not his fault, but it was unwise to give them such an obvious opening. I know of at least one Christian scholar who warned him not to go down the unaccredited ThD road. He did not listen.
As I said on the interview, it was announced ~10 years ago that he is working on an accredited PhD in textual criticism from South Africa. I don't know the status of that, but I wish him the best with it. I've also written elsewhere on how FARMS actually published a minor Mormon apologist and BYU religion professor with an unaccredited PhD (from an evangelical "seminary" even!), so they're a bit hypocritical on this point.
But I think it's fair to talk about how the unaccredited ThD scandal impacted those of us who once tried to use White's work.
@BridgetJJ I think White is most certainly an apologist and not a scholar in the truest sense. He has been caught claiming to be an active adjunct professor at Golden Gate Theological Seminary when, in fact, it had been nearly a decade since he taught at that institution. He currently is a faculty member at Grace Bible Theological Seminary. GBTS is seeking accreditation according to its website.
I do think White is an intelligent and skilled debater. Bart Erhman did not take him seriously, much to his chagrin.
White's pursuit to destroy his own credibility is difficult to understand. However, many mormons claim that everyone who criticizes them is misrepresenting them. Even books that Steve appears to recommend are flooded with reviews from TBMs saying that the book is full of lies about the CoJCoLDS. This is yet another barrier to productive dialogue between LDS and Christians.
@yellowblackbird9000 I had heard that White teaches at Owen Strachan's unaccredited seminary. I'm not sure that's to his credit. I won't hold my breath for GBTS to obtain accreditation, though miracles do sometimes happen in this jaded world.
I think we are largely in agreement on both White and Mormons. White is intelligent and a skilled debater, and he is also often his own worst enemy. I do think there is value in both apologetics and in creating accessible materials for engaging Mormons, like White does. (I am a long-time friend of James Patrick Holding of Tekton Apologetics; he wrote a book called The Mormon Defenders, largely as a result of his interactions with me as a teenager. I very much think that efforts like this have value.)
I know you asked these questions of Steve, but for me, academic responses to Mormonism would include Beckwith & Parrish's The Mormon Concept of God, The New Mormon Challenge, the Summer 2005 edition of the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, and some of the essays in Talking Doctrine. I suppose my master's thesis is an academic engagement of Mormonism, although not one that most evangelicals would care about. I don't believe White has ever contributed to one of these efforts, nor do I think he has ever produced anything on par with such essays, though perhaps I have missed something.
And for me, a legitimate scholar is someone who makes contributions to the field through academic publishing (peer-reviewed journals, academics presses, etc.). White is probably capable of this, but his forte is taking the scholarship of others, making it accessible for the everyman, and using it to respond to dissident groups. That's admirable but it isn't scholarship.
The Maxwell Institute very kindly sent me a review copy of *Ancient Christians* a few weeks ago. I haven't cracked it open yet. I will be very curious to see how apostasy is handled since patristics / early Christian history is my specialty and I consider the case for an apostasy (as Mormons teach it) to be fairly bleak. I plan to submit my review to a journal.
And finally, I completely agree with you that some Mormons are overly sensitive, even histrionic, about the mildest of criticisms. I have to remind certain types that I could call LDS beliefs an abomination and those who teach / profess them corrupt and that would only be me being as harsh with LDS theology as LDS theology has been with mine. I firmly believe in mutual and respectful interfaith friendships, and that we need to save room for Krister Stendahl's "holy envy," but I also think we need to leave a little room in our hearts for holy abhorrence. Both of these things can be held in tension, if we will allow it and if we will allow one another the grace for it.
Thank you for commenting, and for watching the interview. I've enjoyed reading your comments.
Sorry you had that experience with the bishop.
Thanks! No worries though, every religion has at least a few folks like that. I tried to balance this with my experiences with my friend Brent Smith (now a Stake President) who has been so kind to me. Eric Huntsman was also a Mormon bishop once.
Bruce sounds like a total disaster. I'm glad Bridget found her way out of that - sounds like a terrible relationship.
I would have been at BYU close to the same time as you (late 90s, early 2000s).
Thanks for sharing your story - fascinating to hear. Here's hoping we can do better at living in harmony, no matter our denomination.
I think we were indeed there at the same time then. I was there 2001-2005.
And yeah, I would have needed another two hours to unload all the issues with Bruce. 😱 Life is much better now though!
@@BridgetJJ So Glad your life is much better now!
Go utes :)
@@BridgetJJ Glad to hear things are much better.
Definitely there at the same time. I believe I know right where Rock Canyon Assemblies of God was - I used to ride my bike up and down Canyon Rd. every day to and from school (we were living in my wife's Grandmother's basement in 3 Fountains at the time). Lots of happy memories . . .
If those changes in the temple are the ones in 2019, ill say ive only neen back a few times since then, partly because of Covid and partly because those changes were clearly motivated by political correctness more than God or even the Biblical truths they were based upon.
For my wife as a former Catholic there were aspects of the endowment that brought my wife home so to speak, but feminist had to prevail l.
I wear Tzitzit as Yeshua did.
If Peter's denials were a commandment, why did he feel bad about it later?
As I bring out in my King Brigham post, Mosiah 11-22 prophecies the LDS / Brighamite church will deal the polygamy issue for a long time after.
Polygamy was started with Brigham Young not Joseph Smith.
Torah actually does forbid polygamy as I go over in the last 30 minutes of this recording ua-cam.com/video/AuIVBxw6Ljo/v-deo.html . BoM and Torah both bring out there is not punishment that an earthly judge is to enforce for practicing it.
My wife and I believe differently, sometimes it's hard, but we love each other.
"If Peter's denials were a commandment, why did he feel bad about it later?"
I believe I brought up this very point in my debate way back when. Thanks for weighing in.