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Archive for the ‘Marriage’ Category

Reflections on “An Overwhelming Emptiness”

About ten days ago, I published a post on my blog (invictuspilgrim.blogspot.com) entitled “An Overwhelming Emptiness.”  It was Dave’s story, the story of his struggle to come to terms with his sexuality and identity in a Mormon mixed-orientation marriage (MoMoM).  Then, on Wednesday of this past week, I published another post, entitled “Falling Away”, in ...

The Toll: Inside a Mormon Mixed-Orientation Marriage

“Losing you [when you joined the church] was like a guillotine blade that beheaded the loving richness I had in my life.  [After you joined the church] I saw you withdraw from life. The relationship between your withdrawal from life and your involvement in the church appeared to be proportionally related: the more you became ...

Why Would Heavenly Father Do That?

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 ...

A noteworthy pair of serial answers to Dallin H. Oaks and Robert P. George

02.19.2011 · Posted in Family, Marriage, Religious Right

Alan Westermark @ Scrum Central: Oaks Rebutted, Chapter One: New Mexico photographer; Oaks Rebutted, Chapter Two: New Jersey pavilion; Oaks Rebutted, Chapter Three: Illinois and Wisconsin professors; Oaks Rebutted, Chapter Four: Georgia and Michigan grad students; Oaks Rebutted, Chapter Five: The Valiant Little Pastor; Oaks Rebutted, Chapter Six: Catholic Charities of Boston; Oaks Rebutted, Chapter ...

A Tale of Two Cities (DC and SLC): Marion Barry, H. David Burton and Harry Jackson

And three giants: Bishop H. David Burton, Presiding Bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who recently co-signed a letter with Bishop Harry Jackson, Senior Pastor, Hope Christian Church, expressing their shared commitment to protect marriage; Mayor Barry blesses their union with a memorable chant. A hypocritical example destroys credibility. — H. ...

Matthew 22:23-33

09.13.2010 · Posted in Bible, Marriage

I stumbled upon this passage and found it quite interesting.  Basically, a trick question is given to Jesus concerning marriage in the afterlife in order to discount resurrection.  He is asked if a woman is widowed more than once and is married to multiple men over the course of her life, who will be her ...

Judge Walker’s Prop 8 ruling: Evidence shows that a gender restriction on marriage is “nothing more than an artifact of a foregone notion that men and women fulfill different roles in civic life”

08.04.2010 · Posted in Homosexuality, Law, Marriage, Proposition 8

This is the first (of six) of Walker’s dismissals of Prop 8 supporters’ claims.  The first claim was that “tradition” is enough to maintain marriage as between a man and woman. Walker states that previous court rulings indicate that an “ancient lineage of a classification” does not make a classification timelessly rational. “The state must ...

Mormon and Queer at the Crossroads

I’ve been active on this blog since chanson reviewed my gay, Mormon novel Ockham’s Razor last October.  I will be presenting a paper about my novel at this year’s Sunstone Symposium titled “Two Paradigms for ‘Gay.’”  (Half of my presentation will also concern Jonathan Langford’s novel No Going Back–also reviewed by chanson).  Gerald Argetsinger, who ...

An Interesting Encounter

01.07.2010 · Posted in Advice, Family, Marriage

Earlier today a young man entered my office seeking my advice…This is not unusual for someone in my line of business. But it is a rare day when someone comes to me, in my capacity as an apostate, seeking advice regarding of all subjects…religion…particularly the Mormon religion. But it happened today. A bit of background: ...

Temple Marriage, Civil Marriage, and my marriage

12.17.2009 · Posted in Europe, Law, Marriage

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 ...