From the BBC: As career changes go it’s a pretty radical shift in direction. Thandisizwe Meyi, from a township in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, had been planning to become a boxer. He even had a nickname “Tyson”. But instead he is entering a very different kind of arena. Tyson, as…
The Stakes of 8
Despite the best efforts of the Brethren to energize the Saints for Proposition 8, the initiative has little chance of passing. According to David Magleby, the premier scholar of referenda from BYU, initiatives typically start out with overwhelming support, which erodes when the opposition uncovers the complexity of the issue…
Temple Wedding begins
It looks so small from a distance. Read the rest of the story »
“Love As A Way of Life” by Gary Chapman
I can’t say enough good about this book, it has transformed my life! For too many years, I believed that living (the LDS presentation of) Christ’s gospel was ‘all I needed to do’ to have a happy, productive life, contributing to others, etc. Well…. This book is heavy on both…
Beyond Conservatism
The popularity of the Sarah Palins among the Republican base explains a lot about America. I have never been to Alaska but Palin reminds me of my friends and neighbors in rural Nevada. Her attitudes about sex education, evolution, and library books are fairly typical in broad swaths of the…
Nephites in the Amazon?
Here’s some good news for those Book of Mormon believers who’ve been hodling on to the “we just haven’t found them yet” theory of where all the Nephite cities went: Unlike ancient Andean civilisations, the Kuikuro and other indigenous peoples from the Amazon had little stone close at hand. They…
Thoughts of Nancy
It’s kind of a strange family history claim to fame: My great-great-great-great aunt, Nancy Winchester, was one of Joseph Smith’s youngest teen brides. She was fourteen or fifteen years old in 1842(3?) when she married the prophet; he was in his late thirties and was killed a year or so…
The Conservative View of Marriage
People who have sex shall be married. Gays and lesbians have sex. Therefore gays and lesbians need to get married.
The Context of Perfection
Some of you might have seen the Tribune’s report about return missionary Micah Wilder who is a member of a band of Mormon converts to evangelical Christianity. Reading the Bible more closely, Wilder says, that he has discovered that the Mormon God is too vengeful rather than forgiving. Naturally, orthodox…
When Love Requires Respect and Recognition
John Dehlin raises the question what we can do to stop the suicides of our children. Our children commit suicide because we deny them the love and respect that every human being requires to prosper. Unable to reconcile the Mormon idea of goodness and their gender, self-destruction appears to be…