This dive through D&C 84 starts off asking the question, “how can God call a man who killed someone to be his prophet and law giver?” In addition, Moses and Nephi seem to follow parallel paths. Next, Jason and Nate examine the lineage of the priesthood. Unlike the line of Christ, the priesthood line breaks and jumps across different families.
Jason and Nate then explore the purposes of the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthood. With this they answer the question, what is the Aaronic Priesthood preparatory for? They also explore the significance of temple ordinances in connection with the purposes of the priesthood.
Following an examination of the priesthood, Jason and Nate dive into light. Naturally, after discussing light, they explore what then is darkness. In D&C 84, the Lord talks about condemnation. Jason and Nate discuss the nature of that condemnation.
Finally, Jason explores how the earth delivers truth in the last days as mentioned in a new song that will be sung.
Learning worth the journey is a great tag line and your willingness/ability to share is phenomenal. Please: irregardless is not a word. Regardless works, perhaps irrespective… but I cringe when educated individuals say irregardless. You are extremely smart, so for the sake of we who would love to listen and learn for years to come, please drop that word from your vocabulary.
Secondly, Jason – I’m glad your friend is your friend (and producer). Please consider nourishing that friendship by going bowling or camping together. His interjections are interruptions to an otherwise flowing and stimulating discussion. I’ve only listened a few times but I fear my time with you will be short lived as I am internally shaken by the incongruity of your researched and considered views vs. his distracting and sometimes distasteful remarks.
Thank you! I cannot tell you how much I appreciate the honesty and the feedback. The candor is refreshing and we will take these comments seriously as we look to improve the quality of the show moving forward. In regards to Nate, let me give you a little background information. Nate is a profound thinker and internalizes information at a deep level. He can be very quiet and reserved but he has an artistic talent to be able to gauge a situation and read a room and add flavor as needed to create a final product that meets the desired outcome. He is a true producer which is evident by his financial success up to this point in his career as a producer. I think the disconnect lies not so much with Nate as a producer as much as the desired outcome for the show.
When we first got together to develop the Weekly Deep Dive, we felt it was important to reach a younger audience. According to the General Social Survey, retention in the church among generations born before 1964 is above 70% whereas retention for those born after 1981 is significantly lower at 46%. The Church is hemorrhaging its youth. Our approach to lift where we we stand and do what we can to stop the hemorrhaging is to dive into the heart of issues and stop treating the youth with kid gloves but to do it in a way that is still fun and quirky. We don’t want to re-hash the same content so familiar and provide our audiences with canned responses regarding the scriptures. I try and offer unique thought and perspective and help the youth use their natural curiosity in a positive way to come closer to Christ rather than push themselves further away from Christ. The role Nate plays is to make it fun and engaging and to balance my educational background in a way that those without the same level of education and experience can relate to. In short, if I were to do this podcast solo, as I did the Easter episode and D&C 64 – 66, I feel we would be preaching to the choir, those that have a little more educational background and experience that would love the show, but we would be ignoring those that perhaps need the message most. Our approach is more like leaving the ninety and nine to go after the ones that are lost. Still, we hope that the food for thought we have to offer is enough to satisfy the ninety and nine, and that they can be patient with us as we seek to address those that are more prone to wander.
We do try and straddle both worlds, providing both unique thought, new perspective and a deeper look at scriptures while at the same time providing a level of entertainment and engaging content for the youth. My hope is that the final product really does have a little bit of something for everyone and people can come away feeling uplifted and see things from a different perspective.
That being said, we will take your comments into consideration and look to make sure the quirkiness and entertainment value in the show never outshines the true value in gaining an appreciation and deeper understanding for the Word of God.