From Rexburg’s Standard Journal : Idaho gubernatorial candidate Rex Rammell will be mixing what he calls doctrines from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints into his gubernatorial campaign in a series of meetings slated for LDS elders only. In January, Rammell will kick off a series of special…
things are bad for religion?
While some sociologists have been talking about the growing None population in the U.S. for a while now (see this report for an example), you know things have to be getting bad when researchers employed by the religions themselves are starting to worry about the health and vitality of religions…
Temple Marriage, Civil Marriage, and my marriage
When I got married — back in 2000 — the “gay marriage” issue was hardly on my radar. Ever since reading Stephen J. Gould’s Creation Myths of Cooperstown essay (back in my BYU days), I’ve tended to be wary of “just-so stories” that give an instantaneous creation point to something…
Making Peace with the Loss of Certainty
One of the more difficult things that came with recognizing that the Mormon Church wasn’t 100%, literally “True” was that this paradigm shift introduced incredible levels of uncertainty into my knowledge of God and the purpose of life.
Visited the stealth office of the NOM today
I was doing some Christmas shopping downtown and thought it might be amusing to swing by the office of the National Organization for Marriage — since it’s right there in the pedestrian-friendly shopping district of Princeton. According to an earlier post, it’s in the same building (20 Nassau Street) as…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: A Day Late and a Dollar Short Edition!
Well it’s a day late anyway, and it’s short in the sense that my pattern-seeking brain had a little trouble finding a theme to the posts of Outer Blogness this week. I finally found a couple of little themes. The first was people sharing their favorite holiday music. The Urban…
I didn’t leave to sin.
Something one hears quite frequently in the LDS Church is that inactive Mormons “just left to sin,” “were offended,” “intellectualized themselves out of a testimony,” and “just need to regain their faith”. On behalf of less- and inactive Mormons everywhere, I would like explain just why these assumptions are so…
The Nature of Ritual
I heard this story this morning- about an exhibit at the Jewish Museum in New York: An exhibit at the Jewish Museum in New York looks at some of the many ways people are re-imagining Jewish ritual. From “green energy” synagogues to a prayer shawl that doubles as an apron,…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: The Reason for the Season Edition!
I know it’s only December sixth, but it seems the “War on Christmas” starts earlier and earlier every year! As usual, the Christmas-warriors are trying to ruin everyone’s jolly holiday with their death-worshiping kitsch. Then there’s one of my personal favorite holiday traditions: lamenting how commercial Christmas has become. Rosalynde…
8: THE MORMON PROPOSITION gets a Sundance premiere
PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE EMAIL: Press@mormonproposition.com DAVID v. GOLIATH PRODUCTIONS announced this week that their new and highly anticipated documentary, 8: THE MORMON PROPOSITION, a film by Reed Cowan & narrated by Oscar-winning writer of MILK, Dustin Lance Black, will debut its world premiere at the world renowned SUNDANCE…