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Brother Jared Halverson has been an institute teacher at the University of Utah for the past six years. He hails originally from Los Angeles. His YouTube channel and podcast, “Unshaken,” helps people study the scriptures. He and Sister Halverson are former residents of Tennessee where Brother Halverson studied in the Divinity School at Vanderbilt University, where he is now a PhD candidate in Historical Studies with a focus on American religious history. While attending Vanderbilt, he sometimes was called upon to speak to college classes or to non-LDS congregations in the Nashville community to explain his religious beliefs, especially during the Mitt Romney presidential run. Bro. Halverson was an avid athlete in high school (football and track) and interacted with a broad spectrum of religions among his boyhood friends. He served a Spanish speaking mission. 
Highlights
05:20: Feeling at home as a religious minority. 07:15: Guidance to leaders confronted by tough gospel questions. Conviction brings courage. 10:30: Open your mouth and it shall be filled (D&C 84), if you are prepared. The Holy Ghost can help us remember things we have studied. Respect people’s questions. Study; learn from experience/mistakes. 14:50: Being defensive can offend the Spirit and invite contention. Unity, not just orthodoxy, is vital. Seek to understand. Sometimes being loving will earn us a second conversation with someone whereas being overly bold will not. Open your ears and the heat will evaporate (elephants). Don’t stomp around with big head and sharp tusk like elephants, which also have a thick skin. Create safe space for questions. 27:00: Be grateful for faith of others. Brother Halverson has worshiped with Quakers, Bahai, Evangelicals, Catholics, etc. Beauty is everywhere. The Church has a monopoly on a few things but not all good things. Holy envy. Some Evangelicals are concerned about “cheap grace” too. 32:00: Responding to questions about grace. Just as Martin Luther may have overcorrected in breaking away from Catholicism, have we overcorrected in not trying to understand grace? Toxic perfectionism. Serving God does not mean we are trying to earn His love. The Book of Mormon addresses grace often. Joseph Smith spoke of proving contraries. Jesus was justice and mercy combined. Broad brush answers may be just what half the class needs and not at all what another half needs at a given time. People are all over the map. It’s often difficult to have a pat answer that speaks to all of them. Ministering visits are an opportunity for one-on-one, tailor-made dialogue. 41:25: General authority discourses, of necessity, often speak to the masses who are at different places of spiritual development. Alma 42 is dissected as to Alma’s balance in teaching his son Corianton about justice and mercy. 45:32: Don’t make interfaith activities a covert missionary operation. God has made ample provision to bring us all home. Do not lessen your zeal but show an increase in patience. Cheer on people in other faiths who are doing good things. 47:30: Interfaith work. The meaning of“ward.” Be a good neighbor. Brother Halverson was clearly a religious minority in his Tennessee neighborhood. Find common goals with which to team up. Non-members sometimes don’t trust our intentions. Based on doctrine and practice, our church can be patient because of what we know about temple work and spirit world. 53:30: Come Follow Me YouTube channel “Unshaken.” Many people’s scripture study habits are changing for the better during Covid-19. Striking a balance between external resources available vs pure scripture study. The purpose of scripture study is not merely an academic exercise but to draw us closer to God. We have eternal life in Christ, not the scriptures per se. Scriptures as a signpost or burning bush to get our attention. How does the phrase “Expectation without education is frustration” apply to scripture study? The flipped classroom model under Covid-19. Example of Philip and the Eunuch in Book of Acts re: Isaiah. 1:04:58: What does a given scripture mean vs what does it mean to me. Joseph Smith said: “Our minds are now enlightened and the meaning and intention of the scriptures were laid open to our understanding” (paraphrased). 1:11:18: Lord to Joseph re: Apocrypha. Does it have benefit? How does it compare to canonized scripture? Scriptures, in some instances, are only hints of what was in the minds of ancient prophets. 1:14:45: Description of Bro. Halverson’s “Unshaken” podcast channel focusing on scriptural texts. There are many podcasts–sometimes the best channel is to turn them all off and fall in love with the scriptures to be in tune with God. Having an experience with a “burning bush” (“turn aside and see”). Treasure them. 1:18:53: The excellent purpose and occasional disadvantage of a scripture reading schedule. Are we ever really finished anyway?“ Listen to the Holy Ghost. Am I to only read the Book of Mormon? 1:23:50: There is divinity poking out between the humanity of the messiness of the scriptures and history. The gospel does not need to get old or maxed out. “Permanent bad news is against my religion.” God plays the “long game.”
Links
Unshaken YouTube channel Unshaken Podcast
My wife and I enjoy your comments, references and insights of each verse of D&C. I am hoping my wife will gain a testimony of the Restoration. I am grateful my grand-daughter told us about you. I have subscribed to you on youtube.
Thank You,
Also do you have DVDs of your discussions that I could buy? If you do please tell me where I can obtain a set.
Brother Halvorsen, I’ve so enjoyed your unshaken podcasts each day as I walk up Snow Canyon Ut. I was wondering if you could share your daily schedule that you created for studying the Old, New Testament, and the restored standard works? I’d be happy to buy it. Thanks again for all that you do! c Sainsbury
Brother Halverson, my wife and I have been following your discussions on U Tube for several months and have been amazed with your ability to link the standard works scriptures to the Doctrine and Covenants. Probably the biggest blessing has been your ability to use multiple scriptures to explain what you are trying to help us understand. I was recently impressed with your discussion of “individual commandments”. Many years ago I came across a talk given by Stephen Covey at BYU 27 May 1975. This was probably before you were born. In this talk he explains about “personal commandments”. I have come to believe after serving as a stake patriarch for a number of years that commandments can be both general and also personal commandments. The ones in our patriarchal blessings are “personal” to us for a reason. I know this is the case in a “commandment” in my blessing. After having had my blessing for a number of years I learned because of circumstances why it had a special application to me. Thank you for the time you spend teaching us.
Wow that you for sharing this insight with me. I will look at my blessing differently.
I do enjoy your Unshaken podcasts so much!
Just a note about the condition of your son (pectus carinatum). . . Our son had pectus excavatum. (It does run in families.) The brutal surgery you talk about has been replaced by a procedure involving inserting a metal bar that shapes the chest outward. Although there is still a lot of pain involved, the sternum and ribs are no longer broken. The results have been very gratifying.
Brother Halverson,
Thank you for taking the time to prepare there podcasts. I can’t express to you how valuable they are to me. The way you wrap the scriptures in history and context with the other scriptures brings such great depth of understanding that has been closed to me in the past. I struggle to read at a very low level and only really began to comprehend the scriptures in the last 20 years as the Church has made them available as MP3 files and opened them to me. You are now opening all the meaning of the scriptures to me, defining all the words with such clarity that I finally am beginning to understand them. I have a dear christian friend who I’ve had rare opportunity to to be in his home when he and his family would read from the Bible; I envied how he could open the scriptures to his family by laying out the meaning and historical insight, adding context to aid understanding. Now you are giving me the ability to do the same for my family because I can now see the big picture, the whole plan with such clarity that I couldn’t before. Again, I can’t tell you how thankful I am that I was guided to your podcast just over a year ago. It is such a tender mercy that I wonder if it is all done just for me, the Lord’s way of telling me He love me and is aware of my trials. It has truly changed my life.
I am a bit confused as to the marriage of Joseph to Asenath was she a covenant wife since Pharaoh gave gave her to Joseph?
Thank you for all of the great insight you teach us each week!
We are especially enjoying some great new insight to the Old Testament!