In a caffeine addled state during a long drive I had an idea: Wouldn’t it help people who are interested in Mormonism to “see” what past Mormon leaders have said, rather than just read it? That thought lead to another: Well, you could animate historic Mormon figures to reenact the quotes. Thus, I give you ...
Many of you have probably already come across this Reuters special report about Mormonism’s membership troubles in this internet age, as reported by outgoing church historian Marlin Jensen. Apparently, President Monson’s signature campaign is called “the Rescue”: referring to rescuing the church’s membership from “rapidly declining,” as some reports have spun it. I’m assuming the ...
As difficult as it may be for some to believe, this is a statement I can agree with. It is/was an LDS statement originally said by David O. McKay**. From my understanding, it was meant to encourage Mormons not to feel as if they had to “move back to Utah”. My own ancestors flouted this ...
God loves Mormons and He wants some More Trey Parker & Matt Stone discuss Mormonism at TAM5: “When you read the beginnings of Mormonism, when you read the Joseph Smith story, you’re just like ‘Wow … wow, really?’ The idea of anybody like Joseph Smith, who can get people to give him money and let ...
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 ...
The court determines that Sam Echols is not a proper person to raise a child, owing to his opinions. My great-great-grandfather determines that his zeal for the (Mormon) faith will be his best revenge. ...
So, this article in OpEdNews popped up in my Google News alerts today: The Sinister Entity Behind the Christian Facade of Mormonism. It’s by a guy named Douglas A. Wallace, who appears to be an embittered ex-Mormon who actually had a rather prominent position at some point in the past – mission architect (per his ...
Wherever people talk about Mormonism, you always hear about the fundamentalist Mormons: the polygamists. On the LDS-interest Internet there’s tons of discussion of modern-day polygamy – usually in a hand-wringing “what should be done about them” kind of way. Naturally, I was glad when I finally got the opportunity to meet some real-life fundamentalist Mormons, ...
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 ...
Chris Smith reminds us that the due date is fast approaching for presenter proposals at this year’s SLC Sunstone Symposium! The theme this year is Zion’s Sisterhood: Celebrating Mormon Women’s Contributions to Church and Culture. I’m dying to go myself — since for once I’ll actually be in the U.S. at the right time of ...
That’s right, you no longer have to settle for silly second and third-hand stories about the Aurora Branch. Now it’s time to hear about it from the horse’s mouth! What do you remember about those days? Climbing the stairs to the second floor of the Odd Fellows Hall where the branch met for about 20 ...
I guess that is the ultimate question of today’s post. On Mormon Matters, Mormon Heretic (the Mormon part’s the dominant side of that name, btw) wrote a post trying to discuss positive black history in the church. And I guess, stinker that I am, I just had to approach the issue with skeptical comments. See, ...
I’ve been reading an article at Mormon Matters about More Open Mormon History, and it seems to me there is a fundamental idea at play here: if you hear about “true Mormon history,” you’ll lose all hope and faith and then apostasize. OMG! The author, Mormon Heretic, tries to deflect this claim. He posits that ...
…Sometimes, these blog entries just take too much time to set up…anyway, I was reading Mormon Matters and getting into the discussion there, and Bruce had said something that I found intriguing: …John Dehlin suggested that it was a mistake for modern Mormons to down play what he calls “19th century doctrines†(as he interprets ...
According to the philosopher Mircea Eliade, of whose work I learned at BYU, every community, tribe, or nation requires an origin myth. The account of a community’s or practice’s origin has far reaching consequences because it implies how they relate to the cosmos, which is necessary for human beings to imbue their world with shared ...