Whether you love him, are troubled by him, or don’t quite know what to make of him, our listeners need to hear these episodes of Mormon Stories with Mike Norton—known frequently by his handle “NewNameNoah.”

Mike is recognized most for his covert actions in secretly recording the LDS temple ceremonies and posting video to YouTube so the general public can experience what members consider to be the most sacred ceremonies of the faith. In addition to these videos, Mike has controversially forged and distributed temple recommends to others and in the past assumed an identity to become an active, temple-recommend holding member of the church.

Mike was also responsible for bringing international attention to the story of Savannah—the young woman who came out to her LDS congregation as lesbian during a fast and testimony meeting and had her microphone cut off by a male leader. Our past interview with Savannah may be found here.

In these episodes, we explore Mike’s personal experience growing up as a member of the LDS Church and the agonizing faith crisis he experienced that serves as the impetus for his controversial tactics. We discuss those tactics in detail, and then embark on an important conversation dealing with the ethics and effectiveness of these methods—weaving Mike’s story into the greater narrative about how change is made in the LDS Church.

__________________________

Like what we do? Please consider becoming a Patron at our newly created Patreon account. This is an option in addition to our regular monthly donation option. Patrons donate based on the amount of content we produce, at the price of $1 per interview. Please visit https://www.patreon.com/mormonstories for more details.

__________________________

Part 1: Mike speaks about growing up in the LDS Church, his mission experience, and how in his words learned the Church was “not true”

Part 2: Mike details his covert tactics and we dig deeper into the true motives behind his controversial actions

Part 3: John and Mike have a conversation about the ethics and effectiveness of his methods

Part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:

