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Archive for April, 2011

Oh how racism haunts Mormonism

04.28.2011 · Posted in BYU, Race, Uncategorized

You remember the whole Brandon Davies basketball debacle a few weeks ago?  You know, the situation where a black BYU basketball player was suspended for having sex with his girlfriend?  Yeah, so, it turns out someone did a little digging and found out that: Of the 70 athletes suspended from BYU since 1993, 54 of them ...

Sunstoning: The Borderlands

04.26.2011 · Posted in Uncategorized

I recently had occasion to make a business trip, and one of the things I took with me to read on the plane was the current issue of Sunstone.  Most readers of this blog will be familiar with this publication, but for those who are not, Sunstone is the closest thing there is to a ...

Easter Sunday in Outer Blogness!

04.23.2011 · Posted in Sunday in Outer Blogness

I’ve never quite committed to memory the algorithm for figuring out the date of Easter each year (other than “look on my calendar”). Anyway, it appears to be Easter here in Switzerland today, and probably elsewhere. Also, many people celebrated Earth Day as well. In the holiday spirit, it has been a great week for ...

Orientation, Selfishness and Female Ordination

04.23.2011 · Posted in Homosexuality, Priesthood, Women

Many Mormons understand their “orientation” to be to their spouse.  This is commendable, because it demonstrates dedication and fidelity. However, a spouse for Latter-day Saints means “someone of the opposite gender.”  Homosexuality gets compartmentalized as an affliction that can lead to “selfishness” if not kept in check. This selfishness is understood to “disorient” a person ...

Link bomb #6

04.20.2011 · Posted in SHAFT Link Bomb

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 attention, as did Packer’s statement ...

Facing East: Thoughts on (Dis)Orientation

04.18.2011 · Posted in Uncategorized

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 he could no longer continue ...

Finding God in a Gay Bar: Why I Blog

04.13.2011 · Posted in Uncategorized

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 began my journey out of ...

Moral Nostalgia and the Movies

04.12.2011 · Posted in Arts, Nostalgia, Sex and Gender, Violence, Youth

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 on to lament that “the ...

On Terry Tempest Williams

04.07.2011 · Posted in Uncategorized

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 the current issue of The ...

Toward a Mormon Lesbian Theology

04.06.2011 · Posted in Family, Homosexuality

Citing a Feminist Mormon Housewives conversation, Mohohawaii recently wrote about how LDS women are made responsible for LDS men’s 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 Mormon women who felt guilty ...