We all remember Proposition 8 in 2008. The First Presidency of the Church ordered a letter be read to California wards to “do all you can” to ensure the proposition passed. Arguably, it would not have passed without Mormon involvement. Lots of members fell away from the Church during and…
The Happiness Factor
Over the years, I’ve watched former mormon blogs come and go. And posters on various former mormon boards join and leave. (Kiley recently talked about it here). From what I can discern, there appears to be a cycle that some former mormons run through. At first there can be a…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: The Spirit of Contention Edition!!!
This past week’s fare was made up of a lot of little stories (including a few rants) rather than one big story that went viral. The closest to a viral story was when Heather of Doves & Serpents noticed that the Ensign had printed a “Cleanflicks” version of an 1873…
An example of Book of Mormon evidences and the scientific method
One of the goals of science is not to prove theories right, but to prove them wrong. When this happens, a theory must be changed or thrown away. It is important to report the results even if the outcome proved the theory wrong. If someone does not want everyone to…
Mormons and the Beltway
Here’s a long CNN article on the growing Mormon influence in the Beltway. Pretty much an all-purpose article on the intersection of Mormon and politics from the time of Joseph Smith to now. Heres a section that seems interesting to discuss: Mormon experts say the churchs support for a relatively…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Mother’s Day Edition!!
Today is one of the most significant and dreaded holidays on the Mormon liturgical calendar: Mother’s Day! Wheatmeister posted a poll about the best gift for Mother’s Day (but neglected to include women’s health care as an option). If anyone here doesn’t know what a Mormon Mothers Day service is…
Three and a Half Years
That’s all it would take for Mormon missionaries to knock on every door in the US. Don’t ask me why, but the question popped into my head one day: How long would it take for Mormon missionaries to knock on every door in the US? I finally sat down and…
Obama supports Gay Marriage
While many are wondering whether Obama has given Romney a “gift” by alienating some of the Democratic base (namely, conservative religious people of color), this opinion article at the Huffington Post is pretty convincing to me that the whole thing was a grand chessmaster move by the Obama campaign. They’ve…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Honesty Edition!!
There was a lot of discussion this past week about “lying for the Lord” — see this video for a good overview of the issue. Specific complaints include feeling pressured to “bear testimony” when you’re not sure, or to use the word “know” when talking about stuff you don’t really…
Savage bullying controversy!!
I’ll be doing my usual SiOB later today, but there was one incident that everyone is talking about that deserves separate attention. By chance, I read about it first on JG-W’s blog: The worst part was not his referring to parts of the Bible as “bullshit” in front of an…