#038 -- Doubt Your Doubts (Tackling Cliches Series)

"Doubt Your Doubts." Is It Actually Good Advice?

In this episode of Latter Day Bridge Builders, Mitch, Juliet, and Ashton dig into one of the most well-known phrases in LDS faith crisis conversations: "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." A line from Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf's October 2013 General Conference talk, Come, Join With Us.

Is the advice itself bad? Or is it the way it gets deployed that's the problem? The three co-hosts explore the difference between a phrase that invites reflection and one that shuts conversation down entirely, as well as share personal stories about how this cliché landed (or didn't) in their own lives.

Topics covered:

- The full context of Uchtdorf's original quote and what he actually meant

- How "doubt your doubts" can function as a thought-stopping technique

- Juliet's experience teaching seminary under the instruction to "never plant doubt"

- Ashton's take on how doubting his faith actually strengthened it over time

- Why "doubt your concerns" and "doubt your legitimate questions" don't hit the same

- Mitch's wish for more spaces (inside and outside the church) where people can genuinely wrestle with hard questions

Referenced in this episode:

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Come, Join With Us (October 2013 General Conference): https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2013/10/come-join-with-us?lang=eng

Kelsey Sorensen, "Doubt Your Doubts: Is It Actually Good Advice for LDS Members?" — Exponent II: https://exponentii.org/blog/doubt-your-doubts-is-it-actually-good-advice-for-lds-members/

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