Audio and Video Now Available: 2025 Joseph Smith Lecture

The eleventh annual Joseph Smith Lecture, “Not All In, But Not Out: Exploring the Borderlands Between Mormon Orthodoxy and Disaffiliation” with author and journalist Jana Riess is now available to watch on our YouTube channel or listen to as a Scholars & Saints bonus episode! The event’s lecture slides are also available to view.

During her lecture, Dr. Riess analyzed ongoing trends of religious disaffiliation in America. She then narrowed her approach by examining “liminal” Latter-day Saints: those who are still members of the Church but aren’t considered to be “very active” by their own judgments and the Church’s standards. Her presentation sought to understand who these people are, what they believe, how they differ from Church “loyalists,” and why they stay in the Church.

A lively Q&A followed, during which attendees asked about the scope of Dr. Riess’s research and data, the transition from liminality to leaving the Church, and how the Church can make liminal Latter-day Saints feel more welcome.

To learn more about Dr. Riess and her Joseph Smith Lecture, visit the event page.