TO WATCH THE YOUTUBE VIDEO, CLICK HERE.
PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome to Keystone! On Keystone, our goal is to fortify Latter-day Saint faith and combat misinformation through good old-fashioned research. I’m your host, David Snell. Let’s jump right in!
Being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not always easy nor popular. There is no shortage of people, especially online, ready to tell you that Joseph Smith was a fraud, or that you’re not a true Christian, or that you belong to a cult, etc. etc. We have access to more information today than any other time in history. At the same time, we have access to more misinformation today than any other time in history. And sometimes when we have questions about our faith, we don’t always know where we can turn for reliable, well-sourced information.
In 2016, the late President M. Russell Ballard taught, “Gone are the days when a student asked an honest question and a teacher responded, ‘Don’t worry about it!’ Gone are the days when a student raised a sincere concern and a teacher bore his or her testimony as a response intended to avoid the issue. Gone are the days when students were protected from people who attacked the Church.”
I’ve spent almost the last 6 years devouring everything I can about Church history — diving deep into the good, the bad, and the weird. I’ve published more than 200 videos on what I’ve learned — and I’m excited to continue to explore the history of the Church, and the current state of the Church, with you in podcast form.
So, full transparency, pretty much all of the content you’re going to listen to on this podcast will have been adapted from the video versions we’ll be posting on our YouTube channel. Our YouTube videos are intentionally short and sweet. These monologue podcast episodes will also be much shorter than what you’re used to hearing on other podcasts, but they will be slightly longer than what you get on YouTube. The advantage of YouTube is that you get all the fun visuals and movie references and whatnot that we like to throw in there. But the advantage of the Podcast version is that I get to slow down and include some information, detail, and nuance that I don’t have space for in the YouTube version. I’m really excited that we can do that here.
In addition to the short monologue episodes, I’m also going to be interviewing top Latter-day Saint experts and scholars on a variety of subjects. You can plan on those episodes being much longer than the monologues.
Please be aware that this is not an official podcast endorsed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am a believing member of the Church, and I support the Church’s goals and want to spread the message of the restored gospel. I am certainly biased, as anyone who cares about these topics is likely going to be, in one direction or the other — but I really do try to be fair and transparent, and I think the research can speak for itself. If you want to dive deeper into the sources I use or the topics I address, you can find plenty of further resources in the show notes on our website, keystonewithdavidsnell.com, or in the YouTube descriptions of the corresponding videos on our YouTube channel.
As I’m sure you’re aware, a keystone is the stone at the top of an archway that locks in and stabilizes all of the other stones in the arch. In this podcast, we want to provide you with whatever resources you need to stabilize and strengthen your testimony of Jesus Christ and the restored gospel.
But keystones are symbolic of much more than just information. Our channel name was actually inspired by the keystones above the windows of the Salt Lake City Temple, which, adorned with the morning star, are symbolic of Jesus Christ. In that sense, Keystone is synonymous with Christ. In the information age it can be easy to get lost down any number of academic rabbit holes. 2 Timothy 3:7 warns about people who are “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” We want to learn wisdom from the best books; we want to seek learning by study and also by faith, but we also want to keep in mind what matters most, which is Christ and our relationship with him. Ultimately, he is the keystone we are seeking. I’m excited you’re here. Don’t be a stranger. Pod: Give us a follow. We’ve got some really great stuff in the lineup for you. I’ll see you there.