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Archive for the ‘BYU’ Category

“Religious Exemption” in Sexual Orientation Nondiscrimination Law

01.02.2012 · Posted in BYU, Homosexuality, Law, Politics, Utah

I’ve been thinking about how a couple leaders of the LDS Church have vocalized how they wouldn’t mind the 2009 nondiscrimination laws in Salt Lake City (in housing and employment, on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity) be expanded across the state of Utah.  Specifically, what they’re interested in is duplicating how those ...

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 ...

A journey into manhood with ABC Nightline, Wayne Besen, Ted Cox, William Bradshaw and Boyd Packer

 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 ...

Even Australia

09.16.2010 · Posted in BYU, Cary Crall, Daily Universe

PROVO, Utah (ABC 4 News) – A senior at BYU who is studying to be a doctor finds himself in the middle of the heated debate over same sex marriage and California’s Proposition 8. The Daily Universe & Censorship. Cary Crall and Morris Thurston on Proposition 8 and BYU Censorship. At BYU, now you see ...

BYU Law Professor explains why Prop 8 was an unfortunate example of Mormon fundamentalism

06.21.2010 · Posted in BYU, Freedom, Fundamentalism, Law, Proposition 8

Frederick Mark Gedicks Brigham Young University – J. Reuben Clark Law School William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal, Vol. 18, pp. 901-914, 2010 God of Our Fathers, Gods for Ourselves: Fundamentalism and Postmodern Belief: ” … there is also an ethical reason for wariness. One should pause at imposing absolute truth on those to ...

One BYU professor’s quest to rescue prejudice from intellectual obloquy

Ralph Hancock started his three-part series at Times & Seasons by sounding the gay threat alarm, but couldn’t be bothered to actually discuss the nature of the threat, apparently in a rush to get to his third post, in which it’s explained that the real danger lies in something called secular liberal fundamentalism. The series ...

BYU Blind Sided: Independent study program no longer accepted by NCAA

06.01.2010 · Posted in BYU, NCAA

The only other school banned from providing distance learning? American School. From the American School front page: “Our students are all ages and from all walks of life. Even well-known celebrities like Dancing with the Stars winner Donny Osmond …” Donny Osmond? Count me among those convinced that the NCAA is controlled by an anti-Mormon ...

® Why the LDS brand matters

03.26.2010 · Posted in Advice, BYU, Mainstreaming, Moving On

General David Petraeus discusses Iraq & Afghanistan war strategy with BYU students: Petraeus began his remarks by listing the Top 10 reasons BYU students make such great soldiers: Number One – They understand how far Iraq has come over the past seven years. In fact, they think that Iraq’s old spot in the “Axis of ...

BYU in the 1970s

03.23.2010 · Posted in BYU, Education, Family, Patriarchy, Women

In “The Feminine Mystique”, Betty Friedan wrote about the “problem with no name”. Women (mostly middle class white women) had left the workforce after WWII to work full time at home. And yet some women found themselves unfulfilled and often depressed. Some had lost their identity by devoting their lives to their husbands and children. ...

BYU Management Society to award NOM director Orson Scott Card

03.08.2010 · Posted in BYU, Politics

X-posted. From the press release: The Washington, D.C. Chapter of the BYU Management Society (BYUMS-DC) announced today that it would honor best-selling author and columnist Orson Scott Card at its annual Gala Dinner on April 24, 2010. Card will receive the chapter’s Distinguished Public Service Award and will deliver keynote remarks about his views on ...

BYU Eliminating its Women’s Research Institute

11.05.2009 · Posted in Bloggernacle, BYU, Sex and Gender, Women

The Women’s Research Institute of BYU (also known as the WRI) is being eliminated effective Jan., 2010. As is the usual fashion when the Church wants to announce something potentially controversial, the “press release” announcing this change was buried as an archive on BYU’s website. Most in the Bloggernacle only found out this information from ...

An Open Letter to the LDS Church

09.13.2009 · Posted in BYU, excommunication

I was riveted by the fascinating tale of excommunication from the Mormon church, over at Mind on Fire, told with great honesty and feeling, as well as by the reader community response. I have just one question, though, which I suppose should be directed to the Mormon church itself: Where’s my lousy excommunication? I did ...

Oldies but Goodies: Testimony of a Dissident

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 ...