After I was asked to co-host an AMA on Reddit’s forum about Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, I mentioned to a casual acquaintance that one big question the community had about the show’s stars was whether—with their boozing, coffee-drinking, garment-eschewing, sex-outside-marriage ways—they were really Mormon. “Well OF COURSE…
Authority
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A Tale of Two Lyfts, and thoughts on Free Agency
Of all the talks and convos at last month’s Sunstone conference, one odd experience stands out. Historian Connell O’ Donovan always makes me laugh and learn, so I was excited he agreed to have coffee with me the morning before the conference started. All I had to do was pick…
Book Review
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Wandering the Afterlife, Never Knowing the Plot: Review of Tales of Unworthiness by Paul H. Dumm
The clue to the narrative engine is in this book’s title: “Tales of Unworthiness,” three stories crafted by Paul H. Dumm. The pen name for author Scott Stevens—a play on the name Paul H. Dunn—sets the tone for this 103-page book of speculative fiction of Mormon life. A popular speaker…
Book of Mormon
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on “American Trinity”
David Pace’s American Trinity is a striking collection of twelve short stories tied together by the common thread of Mormonism. The stories were written over the past several decades, and draw from his lifelong experiences with the church. These experiences are not insignificant, and I found myself somewhat dismayed to hear some…
Literature
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Meet Author Donna Banta!!
Latter-daily Digest just posted a fantastic interview with author Donna Banta!! Donna told some great stories about her life in and out of the church — many I hadn’t heard myself, even though we’ve been friends for years!! Absolutely worth a listen!
Family
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Additional Love Languages?
The idea of “love languages” makes a lot of sense. Two people may love each other, yet have a disconnect on communicating that love because they express and perceive love in different ways. However, I’ve always felt that the standard set of love languages (from the original book by Gary…
Women
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Community, Exponent II’s Secret to Endurance
Of the sessions I attended at Sunstone earlier this month, the most illuminating was on the Latter-day women’s magazine, the Exponent II.* Katie Ludlow Rich and Heather Sundahl, authors of Fifty Years of Exponent II, described how the unofficial, unsanctioned Mormon feminist magazine launched and, more importantly, continued until this…
Atheists
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Post-Mormon Media: Past, Present, and Future!
This is a short presentation I gave as part of the panel “Who Gets to Say What Former Mormons are Like?” at Sunstone 2024, organized by Chino Blanco, which was a reprise of the panel of the same name that I organized in 2012. When I set off for BYU…
Temple
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Temples to Conformity
Donna’s recent post about a new temple nestled amidst casinos left me thinking about Russell M. Nelson’s temple-building spree. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, some 350 temples are planned, operational, or under development as of April’s General Conference, with roughly half announced since Nelson became president of the Church…
Testimony
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They Don’t Make ’em Like They Used To
Remember when going to the temple meant getting all dressed up for a trip to an Oz-like castle perched high on a hill above some of the most desirable real estate in town? Remember how the awesomeness of that pilgrimage actually lent an air of reverence to the strange rituals…