Faith Matters Podcast: “An Inconvenient Faith” with Robert Reynolds and Patrick Mason

Release Date: January 18, 2026
Guests: Robert Reynolds (director/producer, “An Inconvenient Faith”) and Patrick Mason (historian & scholar)
Host Panel: Aubrey Chavez, Tim, and other Faith Matters hosts

Overview:

This Faith Matters episode explores the motivations and impacts behind the docuseries An Inconvenient Faith, which openly wrestles with some of the LDS (Latter-day Saint/Mormon) tradition’s most difficult and tender topics—women and authority, LGBTQ belonging, race in the priesthood, historical and doctrinal problems, and personal faith crises. The series (and this discussion) aims not to resolve these issues, but to create empathy, model honest conversations, and honor the lived experiences of people who stay and those who leave.

Key Discussion Points

The Genesis of “An Inconvenient Faith”

• Robert Reynolds’ Inspiration
  • Sparked during his work on Believer, a documentary about LGBTQ issues in the church.
  • Had close family and friends leave the church or face crises after encountering difficult history or doctrine.
  • Saw a need to showcase people who are “fully informed” of the “problems” but choose to stay, and to better empathize with those who leave.
  • [03:20] “I really felt compelled to go out and film people who have faced these challenges intimately, that knew the problems in depth and chose to stay, that reconciled these things. And I didn't want to just know why they did it, but I really wanted to know how they did it.” – Robert Reynolds

The Purpose and Intended Impact

• Not an Apologetic or Missionary Tool
  • Neither an attempt to convert nor to convince people to stay or to leave.
  • [05:20] “This is to build empathy and understanding for why people leave and to practically demonstrate how others who are fully informed reconcile some of the bigger challenges and stay.” – Robert Reynolds
  • Focus is on sparking respectful conversation within the faith community across belief and participation spectrums.

Reactions & Modeling Discomfort

• Mixed Responses
  • Some have found it validating and healing. Others are deeply uncomfortable with the inclusion of both strong critics and faithful defenders.
  • Intentionally included people whose perspectives would challenge every segment of the LDS audience; “discomfort is necessary.”
  • [10:06] “I think people figured I was trying to offend everybody, make everybody upset. And I did see that. … I think it's definitely made people uncomfortable, and I think that that discomfort is necessary.” – Robert Reynolds
• Representation Matters
  • Chose participants who are thoughtful, deeply engaged, and respectful—whether critics or defenders.
  • [11:40] “We wanted to show respectful, non-defensive, non-argumentative people that come at these issues differently, that also face them most intimately.”

Creating Brave, Empathetic Spaces

• Families and Community Discussions
  • Avoid reducing people to issues or positions; show curiosity about others’ humanity.
  • [13:49] Patrick Mason: “Don’t reduce people to positions... show some curiosity about the humanity of the other side.”
  • [16:05] Robert Reynolds: “There’s a lot of pain in wrestling with some of these issues… It’s threatening to our own at times, our faith maybe feels too fragile… knowing that our lives are long, infinity’s long… be loving and patient with each other.”

Responsibility & Love in Relationships

• Navigating Difference without an Agenda
  • [18:14] Patrick Mason: “My responsibility towards them is twofold… be as honest about who I am as I can… and give them space to be the exact same way with me.”
  • [20:37] Robert Reynolds adds humility: “No matter how strong my faith is at any time, it’s very unique to me… don’t drown out someone’s still small voice with too much noise.”

Apologetics: Usefulness and Limits

• Defining Apologetics ([23:39] - [24:08])

  • “Formal defense of the faith… using very specific and rational arguments.”
  • “Defense makes sense, but defensiveness maybe isn’t the best posture.” – Reynolds

• Faith, Reason, and Testimony

  • [24:08] Patrick Mason shares a story about his daughter’s reaction to a logical, philosophical sermon, noting that both rational argument and personal testimony are valid forms of sharing faith.
  • Balance between mind and heart is needed; neither alone is enough.
  • [27:25] Reynolds: “We learn by study and by prayer… your heart and your mind should both be engaged in these challenging matters of faith.”

• The Red Herring of ‘Proving’ Faith

  • Hosts discuss the risks of focusing only on historical truth claims; transformative questions are deeper—about becoming better, loving, more compassionate people.
  • [30:15] Mason quotes Wilco: “Theologians don’t know nothing about my soul.”
  • [32:02] Reynolds: “The most important matters of faith you can’t prove, you can’t disprove. That’s why they’re faith… apologetics is worthwhile if it helps you ‘settle that just enough that you can gain a testimony of the elements that matter the most.’”

Wrestling, Complexity, and the “Gift” of Inconvenience

• Personal Experience as Evidence

  • Hosts and guests discuss how spiritual experiences may be “real” without always being clear in their meaning, and the process of learning from the “wrestle” itself.
  • [39:11] Aubrey Chavez: “…it just feels like more and more that that experience of being so uncomfortable itself, like, that feels valuable… that untidiness is good for my spirit. It’s hard and good…”

• Faith Isn’t About Certainty

  • [40:51] Patrick Mason: “…if we did have concrete proof of the Book of Mormon, maybe something about that would actually diminish the power of faith… Faith is doing something transformational.”
  • [44:11] Robert Reynolds: “The inconvenience is beautiful… it’s inconvenient to seek personal revelation in all things, but I think we’re supposed to. …a resilient faith finds its way through the inconveniences by using the spirit every day in your life.”

• Holding Complexity: The Example of John Gustav Rathall

  • Participated in the docuseries: a gay man, in a committed same-sex marriage, yet faithfully attending church despite being unwelcome as a member.
  • [46:23] “He has that. He holds this complexity. He holds this massive inconvenience, and he continues forward. …it's not for everybody… In our own lives, I think we are all John Gustav Rathalls in our own ways.” – Reynolds

• The Necessity & Gift of Difference

  • [48:19] Patrick Mason: “You know what’s inconvenient? That there’s like 8 billion other human beings and none of them are like me. It is so annoying. And my ego hates it. …But if it doesn’t produce love, then what are we doing?”

Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• On Honest Conversation:

  • [07:18] “We’re just talking about what feels a little prickly and hard to pin down and, like, scary to say out loud sometimes.” – Tim (Host)

• On Empathy:

  • [05:20] “This is to build empathy and understanding for why people leave…” – Robert Reynolds

• On Responsibility in Difference:

  • [18:14] “My responsibility towards them is… to be as honest about who I am as I can… and give them space to be the exact same way with me. …Love is… being mindful and paying attention to what is needed and required of the other person.” – Patrick Mason

• On Defending Faith vs. Defensiveness:

  • [23:59] “Defense makes sense, but defensiveness maybe isn’t the best posture.” – Robert Reynolds

• On Apologetics and Personal Growth:

  • [39:11] Aubrey Chavez: “Apologetics has felt like this side door where I can completely dissolve all the dissonance immediately. Like, turns out there was an answer. There was no problem. …that doesn’t feel like growth; it feels like opting out of the wrestling part.”

• On the Necessity of the ‘Wrestle’:

  • [46:23] “You must work that out individually between you and the Lord. And that is not convenient at all.” – Quoting Pres. Oaks, recalled by Reynolds

• On Loving Those We Disagree With:

  • [48:19] “But if it doesn’t produce love, then what are we doing?” – Patrick Mason

Segment Timestamps Guide

• 00:46 – Introduction to the purpose and tone of the docuseries
• 02:50–08:00 – Robert Reynolds on why he started the project; personal stories
• 08:00–12:52 – The tension of being moral, honest, and staying/LDS inclusion
• 12:52–17:45 – Modeling difficult conversations in families and faith communities
• 17:45–21:46 – How to responsibly ‘show up’ in relationships amidst faith differences
• 21:46–34:31 – The meaning, role, and limitations of apologetics; personal experiences
• 34:31–40:43 – Faith, contradiction, spiritual evidence, and the power of uncertainty
• 40:43–48:19 – The title’s meaning, “inconvenience as gift,” stories of complex staying
• 48:19–50:10 – Love as the fruit of difference, closing reflections

Conclusion

An Inconvenient Faith (and this episode) doesn’t offer neat answers to complex spiritual questions. Rather, it celebrates the wrestling, the untidy search for meaning, and insists that genuine love, humility, and empathy are essential for healthy faith communities—especially those spanning a spectrum of belief and belonging. This episode is an invitation to look past “positions” to real people, stay open in the discomfort, and trust the lifelong process of personal revelation and loving relationality—including with those who land elsewhere.

Further Exploration:
The full docuseries An Inconvenient Faith is available free on YouTube.