Before I discovered the Internet, I assumed that most people who stop believing in Mormonism had approximately the same issues I had. One of my biggest revelations upon discovering the exmo/DAMU community was the variety of experiences. Though everyone had reached approximately the same conclusion (about the truth of the LDS church), the reasoning to ...
This is a question I just had for everyone…because if there’s one thing I’ve learned from all this blogging, it’s that people have such widely differing relationships with Mormonism. I’ve taken for granted that people are looking for the same “things” from it as I was/am, but that is not the case. So, my question ...
The following is an essay I’ve written on my journey out of Mormonism (originally posted on my personal blog here). My journey to atheism is another story. Perhaps I will post it in the future. “Tell me about your testimony.” I was 24 years old when my bishop asked me this question and I thought ...
I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! My sources indicate that many people in Outer Blogness did! Just see for yourself! Views: 1354 ...
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 meetings targeted specifically at “faithful ...
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 in the U.S. The latest ...
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 which, in reality, evolved over ...
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. Views: 697 ...
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 the shop where we got ...
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 Koda is throwing off Scrooge ...
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 painful, and why they do ...
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, many of the works are ...
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 Welch gives us some historical ...
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 FILM FESTIVAL in January 2010. ...
References to pornography in General Conference address have coincided with the availability of pornography, as this graph illustrates: While that certainly won’t surprise anyone, the scientific evidence does seem to suggest that pornography causes no harm whatsoever. I caught this article in my science news today reiterating that very point. So, my question: Why does ...