Invictus Pilgrim formerly blogged at invictuspilgrim.blogspot.com. For personal reasons, he has taken that blog private and has started at new blog at mohosapiens.blogspot.com. The following was his initial post on his new blog. A little over 15 months ago, I was prompted (not in the Mormon sense, but in the common-usage sense) to start blogging ...
As has been pointed out by numerous commenters throughout the (relatively short) life of my blog (at http://invictuspilgrim.blogspot.com), a gay (active/post/ex-/inactive/anything in between) Mormon’s relationship to the LDS Church is often complicated. The reason for this should be obvious (but perhaps isn’t to many members of the Church). Many gay Mormons (I use this term ...
This now-infamous question (slightly paraphrased) posed by President Boyd K. Packer at this past October Conference will, I think, reverberate in the minds of many church members for years to come – and not just with respect to sexual orientation. I can’t help thinking that Elder Packer may for many members have, in a moment ...
My world changed forever on Sunday, October 3, 2010. That morning, I heard four sentences that wrecked my faith in Mormonism, shattered my marriage and destroyed a false persona that I had carefully maintained for most of my adult life. These words, which quickly became infamous, were uttered by the second most senior apostle of ...
We may not be able to prove that language like that expressed by Boyd “homophobe” Packer leads directly to suicides of homosexual Mormons (like this one), but here’s some interesting correlational data that suggests his anti-scientific, ignorant, bigoted views are filtering down to the members, at least those in Utah: A statewide poll shows 44 ...
x-posted at Daily Kos, Pam’s House Blend, and Street Prophets. And this particular journey will be (mostly) televised. ABC Nightline … After watching the two segments embedded below, Wayne Besen asks ABC Nightline: Do people really need to spend $650 to suppress their desires? I was incredibly disappointed with ABC Nightline’s segment that aired last ...
I posted HRC’s press conference video on my Facebook page and it lead to a fun debate with some Mormon friends. In that debate, someone demanded I provide “evidence” that Packer’s views lead to violence. I, of course, clarified that I didn’t say it led to direct violence against homosexuals (though it may, but I ...
In case you missed it, there is an editorial in the Deseret News about the criticism LDS Inc. is receiving over Boyd Packer’s homophobic talk during General Conference. The editorial is both dishonest and weakly argued. Let’s start with the half-truths: This focused attention on the LDS Church is deeply ironic given the church’s shared ...
This past week the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints learned an important lesson in how the Internet changes everything! Our story begins when President Boyd K. Packer chose to make some rather unfortunate remarks in General Conference. Many have pointed out that — given his earlier statements — these remarks ...
I could have posted this as a comment in the previous thread about the thousands of gay activists in SLC who are there because of Boyd Packer’s remarks. But what I want to say about the situation, I felt warrants a new post. Something I want to know is how many of the activists are ...
Tons of photos and video here. CNN: Friday’s intriguing people: Eric Ethington AP report w/ photos at the link: Utah Gay Activists Protest Mormon Church Remarks Pride in Utah: 4500 Protest Against Boyd K Packer And LGBT Suicides Mormon Expression: Episode 87: The October 7th 2010 LDS Protest John Larsen and Jim take to the ...
(Pat Bagley cartoon distributed under license to Main Street Plaza) Top LDS Apostle Boyd K. Packer: Mormons will always oppose Satan’s counterfeit marriages (transcript attached below) The age of homophobes is over. They are a throwback to a different age, when people were ignorant of the realities of sexual identity. When Anderson Cooper, a CNN ...
A while back another blogger asked me to submit an essay about my Mormon experience. Probably, for good reasons he changed his mind and never published it. Since it is already written and might shed some light on my argument at Times and Seasons, I might as well publish it myself. It might help some ...
Thanks to Saganist, Main Street Plaza can also provide you with a transcript of President Hinckley’s talk. Interestingly, this speech is based on an earlier one that Gordon Hinckley published in the Ensign in 1984 (PDF, scroll to p. 4). Among other things, he appears to be reminiscing about the controversy regarding the Equal Rights ...
Editorial Note: I have previously reported about rumors of Boyd Packer’s and Gordon Hinckley’s response to criticism of Julie Beck’s conference address, which has not only been discussed with a variety of points of view on the Bloggernacle and the DAMU but also by readers posting on the websites of various Utah newspapers. Thanks to ...