What’s more valuable than life itself? Eternal life? Perhaps. What would drive a person to kill says a lot about what that person values. Following the trail of a murderer, Donna Banta takes you on a wild and scenic tour of the peculiar culture and values of Mormonism in her…
Domain name warning
Some of you may have noticed that this blog’s old domain name “latterdaymainstreet.com” isn’t working. I changed the primary domain name for this blog to “mainstreetplaza.com” last year and configured the “latterdaymainstreet.com” domain name to redirect to “mainstreetplaza.com”. Now it appears that the ownership of “latterdaymainstreet.com” lapsed and some unknown…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Journeys Edition!
If you follow this series, you probably know that I usually put the personal stories near the end, but to keep from getting into a rut — and because the personal stories were more interesting than the news this week — let’s start with tales from our lives! Ren’s life…
The Final post from my notes: Spaulding Rigdon Timeline and details
6 years in the making, and crosslinking to almost every other timeline I’ve made, this post comprises everything I have found that ties together Smith, Rigdon and Spaulding. It includes quotes by Oliver Cowdery’s partner claiming he confessed to the Spaulding-Rigdon theory, as well as preachers saying that they saw…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Doubt your doubts edition!
Now it’s time for my favorite part of General Conference — the commentary that appears after people have found and analyzed all the interesting parts (if any)!! It looks like Outer Blogness’s favorite quote was “Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith.” There are some problems with this advice,…
My Ordain Women Testimony
The Ordain Women event on Saturday was absolutely wonderful from start to finish. It was the best Mormon-related thing I have done in ages. It helped that it was a truly beautiful autumn day, clear and calm, though quite chilly in the shade and downright cold once the sun set. …
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Bread and Stones Edition!!
You may recall from last week that some LDS women (including some bloggers) were planning to stand in line to see if they could get into the male-only conference session that they had been denied tickets to. And — surprise, surprise! — they didn’t get let in. OK, I know,…
Risky Rescue
I don’t read The Ensign, but I do read Zelophehad’s Daughters. It was “To the Rescue,” an entry on ZD from last week, that clued me in to an essay by Thomas Monson from the October Ensign called “Our Responsibility to Rescue.” You can pretty much figure out the whole…
Affirmation Update
Since my post a few days ago about the recent Affirmation conference I’ve been in a lively and polite discussion with Affirmation leaders. They’ve defended themselves well regarding my statement that “Affirmation at times seems too focused on helping gay Mormons maintain…their ties to the Mormon Church.” They pointed out…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Good Luck, Ladies Edition!!!
A group of LDS women are planning to attend the men-only Priesthood Session of the CoJCoL-dS General Conference, and it has been an adventure!! First off, the CoJCoL-dS refused the give any tickets to women because attending General Conference is an important father-son bonding moment. (Aside: When I was a…