Latter-day Saints—Mormons—members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—have been accused through the years of belonging to a cult, being non-Christian, being fanatics. They’ve even been accused of being devil worshippers. I used to laugh at such claims, but now I see there might be some merit to…
Category: Testimony
Symbolic beliefs can counter cognitive dissonance, but at a cost
Community
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What Fills the Void When Church Leaders Sow Division?
Tell-tale signals of Mormonism seem to be fading faster than the label President Nelson rejects. In a 2022-2023 survey, fewer than half of Church members born after 1965 said they were actually wearing their garments on the day they answered the question. A 2016 survey found that only 45% of…
God the Monster
This summer, when I posted on X about my lifelong conviction that the god of Mormonism is a moral monster, someone told me, very helpfully and completely accurately, that I would love God’s Monsters by Esther Hamori. God’s Monsters is the first work of religious scholarship that has made me…
Humor
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Another Mormon Horror Story
Horrors! Another Mormon-themed film is about to come out. And this time it’s an actual horror story. Heretic, written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, and starring Hugh Grant, debuted at this year’s Toronto Film Festival to mostly favorable reviews. At first glance, the film’s premise seems compatible with…
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…
Testimony
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A Broken Shelf of Symbolic Beliefs
Thirty years ago, long before the CES letter (heck, long before Facebook), I sat beside my brainy boyfriend* as he asked probing questions of two earnest nineteen-year-olds from Utah. He’d been reading the Book of Mormon but not feeling its spirit. How could there be elephants in America, he wanted…
Testimony
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Still Sharing It With Our Husbands
Some thirty years ago, not long after I’d quit going to church, Mark and I moved out of the Dallas suburbs and into town. The move brought a dramatic change in both neighborhood and church dynamics. In the suburbs the directory for our highly active Mormon ward was a tidy…
Feminism
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It’s the Community, Stupid
It was over thirty years ago but I remember it like yesterday. Our daughter was sitting with us in the pews, watching the administration of the sacrament, when it dawned on her: Only boys were participating! That same day she asked her Primary teacher why girls weren’t also permitted to…
Public Relations
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In My Day it was Paul H. Dunn
Recently Mormonland has been crowded with stories about Tim Ballard, the LDS founder and former CEO of Operation Underground Railroad (OUR). Once a model Latter-day Saint and possible candidate for Romney’s senate seat, Ballard is now excommunicated and facing charges of sexual assault. Reports also reveal he frequented bars and…
Testimony
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#ThinkRespectful: the Talk I Wish Had Been at General Conference
Sometimes inconvenience bring insight. Earlier this week, the San Francisco Public transit system made my best option for getting from Point A to Point B a 40-minute walk, almost enough time to listen to a podcast episode titled “What do I do if listening to Conference hurts?” It was the…