Apr 23, 2021
This past week, the wonderful Mormon mental, spiritual, and sex
therapist Natasha Helfer Parker was scheduled to defend herself in
a membership council called by the stake presidency in her former
stake in Kansas (even though she had moved to Salt Lake City
sixteen months earlier). Six friends, including Jana
Spangler and Jody England Hansen, two of
the women in this podcast episode, were also scheduled to testify
on her behalf, and many more were holding a support vigil in a
pavilion on the stake center's property, including our other
panelist, Shandra Harris. Many things went haywire that evening--as
well as in the weeks leading up to that scheduled council--and this
podcast shares those stories here. Ultimately, neither Natasha,
Jana, Jody, nor four others who had been approved to give testimony
before the stake presidency were allowed to participate as
promised. It was an emotionally and spiritually painful evening for
all there as well as for many others who witnessed it vicariously.
The toll from this devastatingly wrong-headed and massively
mis-executed council is yet to be measured.
In addition to going through the events herein, we have chosen to
focus on the vital spiritual role of witnessing, even when it's
witnessing the abuse of others. Being witnessed is a big part
of what allows someone to stay strong and, perhaps, eventually find
comfort and peace. Witnessing involves, as Jody shares in this
episode, the ability to stay in the present moment even in times of
great suffering. Witnessing also extends past the event(s) as
continued care for others' well being, especially as they
experience the inevitable ups and downs that come with continued
processing of their grief and anger.
No one wishes that any of the events that occurred around Natasha's
council ever happened. It was unfair and abusive from the very
beginning. But we all also know that for our own physical, mental,
and spiritual well-being that we must ultimatelyfind our
way to healing, for it is in these processes that we discover our
own true strength, along with a new, larger, more magnificent God
than our old paradigms had ever allowed us to imagine. May this
discussion be a stepping stone on the healing journeys for all who
choose to listen.