I had planned to write a review of this latest General Conference, but I couldn’t muster up the interest. This conference was particularly dull for me as a nonbeliever, and by that I mean it was controversy-free. Well, almost. Monson’s admonishment to young single men to get married received some…
Facing East: Thoughts on (Dis)Orientation
I was talking with a friend the other day who was feeling uneasy about his life. Like me, he has known since he was a boy that he is gay, yet (because he was a faithful Mormon boy) he married and had children, then eventually came to a point where…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Gender Equality Edition!
When LDS spokesman Michael Otterson decided to describe what Mormon equality looks like, which led to a fair amount of commentary. (On a related[?] note, there was some new interest in the question of why people don’t like Mormons and problems with LDS PR stragegy.) The General Conference commentary isn’t…
“Nobody actually believes in a man with a beard in the clouds.”
A friend of mine said this recently as we were discussing whether the god that New Atheists dismiss is too simplistic. All I could say is, “Well, I did.” Okay, maybe not in the clouds exactly, but from his first appearance with his Son to Joseph Smith to the affirmation…
Finding God in a Gay Bar: Why I Blog
I have recently had occasion to reflect on why I began blogging and why I continue to blog. I am not an expert on anything – except my own feelings and experience. When I began blogging, I decided that this would be a guiding principle for my writing. As I…
Moral Nostalgia and the Movies
This post was inspired by A teenager speaks on new movie standards. In her recent discussion of the current state of movies, and particularly award winning movies, Camila B. states that she is concerned about “movies throughout the decades and the negative changes that I have noticed.” She then goes…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Other People’s Opinions Edition!
This week’s journey through Mormonism covered the ground of caring or not about others’ opinions and possible reactions. Sometimes it’s fun to make a big stink and a smackdown. And Simply Sarah and Andrew S are simply examining and expressing their own place in the X-Mormon journey. Some nevermos get…
On Terry Tempest Williams
I believe I have read everything Terry Tempest Williams has written. I have followed her as she has contemplated and worked through the tangled relationship that exists between family and the LDS Church, and the heavy right leaning philosophy of both, as she has moved in an opposite direction. In…
Toward a Mormon Lesbian Theology
Citing a Feminist Mormon Housewives conversation, Mohohawaii recently wrote about how LDS women are made responsible for LDS mens sexuality. The Mormon woman is expected not to inflame male passions by underdressing or being overly flirtatious. Female modesty he writes, affirms the existence of male sexuality only. He quotes a…
Struggling in the depths of Mormon faith: Stephen Carter’s “What of the Night?”
I also learned that the great stories of the world have second acts. This may seem like a silly thing to say, but so many stories set up the problem (the job of the first act) and then resolve it (the job of the third act) with little to no…