If it weren’t for the Internet, I probably wouldn’t have remembered that July 24th is Pioneer Day, commemorating the day Brigham Young uttered those famous words “This is the place” (or something like that). BiV asks what the holiday means to Mormons outside of Utah (growing up on the East coast and mid-west, I only ...
Jeffs, after staying quiet during his trial, opened up to the courtroom yesterday on the matter of his having raped a 12-year-old and impregnating a 15-year old. He blathered for almost an hour, like he was sermonizing. He said, You are now touching that which is sacred. This must cease. If we do not live ...
LDS, Inc. has a new multifaith video out talking about the benefits of “sexual purity.” If people want to not have sex, great. Don’t have sex. But what gets me about this video is that it frames sexuality as some sort of “impure” act. By associating “virginity” with “purity”, the video suggests that anyone who ...
It’s been about a year now since I realized that the LDS Church isn’t all it claims to be. Having grown up completely devoted to the church, my transition out of it became a time of immense growing and learning for me. Yet despite all the changes, or maybe because of them, I am now ...
GQ magazine ranks Salt Lake City and Provo among the worst-dressed cities in the country. Our fashion sense aside, Utahns are still counted among the best looking people. Maybe it’s all that plastic surgery. Harrison Ames argues that the frequent use of corrective words and phrases like “rather” and “in other words” in the Book ...
Sorry to have been so scarce around the Internets of late! I just spent three weeks at German camp — and I thought (since it’s vacation and all) I’d have way more free time than usual, but it turned out to be quite the opposite. On the positive side, my family and I all speak ...
There was a heated discussion here a few months ago about mixed-orientation marriages. What doesn’t feel resolved for me is how to assess the patriarchy gay Mormon men engage in when they marry women. A couple aspects that seem obvious are the fact that the power of the priesthood runs through men only, so that ...
You may recall that recently Switzerland recently stopped the practice of routinely issuing visas to [foreign] Mormon missionaries (i.e. mishies from outside the EU). And — if you’re like me — this may have left you full of questions like: What will the CoJCoL-dS do??? Do they have enough European mishies to keep the mission ...
There was quite a bit of discussion this week about our physical bodies! (Perhaps in honor of Suntone’s material culture theme…? BTW, check out these cool Mormon artifacts! Did anyone else get awards like those?) Specifically, it turns out that (despite that whole modesty thing) Mormons can be sexy. Yet the female body is still ...
I was doing some site maintenance on the server and decided to check the stats for MSP while I was at it. I noticed something interesting and thought it might be worth mentioning here. Since May, this post I wrote last year has been either the top or second highest viewed post on MSP: “What’s ...
The Sunstone 2011 Utah Symposium convenes August 3-6 in the Shepherd Student Union of Weber State University in Ogden.*; the theme is “Mormon Artifacts and Material Culture.” (Yeah, that theme is a good one. I’ve liked it ever since I thought of it at last year’s symposium and suggested it to the symposium director, and I’m glad ...
A few days ago a friend of mine gave me a copy of a thesis she had directed for a young woman pursuing an MFA in non-fiction writing. My friend mentioned this student months ago, telling me that she was a Mormon writing about her life as a Mormon. She expressed concerns about the thesis, ...
[I liked Dr. Gaddy's statement after the NY marriage equality victory, so when Samantha asked if MSP could post a letter for the Interfaith Alliance, I gladly agreed. -- Chino] [Update: Joanna Brooks has posted her conversation with Reverend Gaddy over at Religion Dispatches: Interfaith Alliance Criticizes Fox News Anti-Mormonism] Tuesday, 12 July 2011 For ...
In case you didn’t see it, a Mormon missionary was mauled in Guatemala by a couple of lions. However, as you read the article, it makes it sound as though: (1) Paul Oakey wasn’t doing anything wrong when he was attacked by the lions and (2) he was saved through divine intervention. And this is ...
Originally published at the USU SHAFT site. (Sorry for the length! I had a month’s worth of links to cover.) After being teased at work for believing the Rapture would occur on May 21st, Dale O’Callaghan brought a gun to the office and shot a coworker (who thankfully is expected to recover). Sam Harris makes ...