Readers of MSP, I was recently contacted by the casting producer for a future Vh1 reality show about mothers and daughters who are pregnant at the same time. Since there are slightly higher odds of this occurring among Mormons, the casting producer asked me if I would post the casting call on any websites where ...
A cousin recently sent me a message via Facebook. I’m guessing it was related to his sister giving birth to a badly deformed child that died within about four hours, but he didn’t mention that. Anyway, here’s his message and the questions it contained: Hi [ProfXM]. I hope you are well. I’ve had the chance ...
My wife and I just flew to Utah with our 2 year-old son to spend the holidays with family. Having lived the last 10 years outside of Utah, we’re quite familiar with traveling to Utah for the holidays. The many trips over the last 10 years have developed what is probably a stereotype, but as ...
Rick Perry’s pastor, Robert Jeffress, the senior pastor at First Baptist Dallas, called Mormonism a “cult” and said Mitt Romney and other Mormons are not Christians. If you didn’t know that already, well, you’ve been living under a rock for the last month. My goal with this post is to tease out two issues: (1) ...
That’s John Dehlin in today’s Salt Lake Tribune. Excerpts from “Church asks Mormons: Which websites, writers do you read?“: The LDS Church is surveying its members about their readership of key websites and Mormon writers, a move that reflects the faith’s growing interest in managing its public image as two Mormon candidates make headlines pursuing ...
Because, when I see talent like this, I gotta wonder: Not to mention: Al Sharpton has suggested that these (big box) churches focus on personal morality issues while ignoring social justice. Maybe, but the kids seem to like it. And you can’t stop it: It’s already begun: Can you feel it? Views: 810 ...
I issued a call for volunteers to speak with a reporter a while back about a story she was working on. Several MSP readers and regulars stepped up and spoke with the reporter. The article is now complete and just went live on BusinessWeek’s website: God’s MBAs: Why Mormon Missions Produce Leaders. While I think ...
Spending too much time on Facebook, as usual, and a friend shared this link from the page LDS General Conference, a quote from M. Russell Ballard from October 1995 General Conference: We do not need more members who question every detail; we need members who have felt with their hearts, who live close to the ...
Hey MSP readers: I was recently contacted by a reporter from a prominent magazine who is doing a story on Mormons and business. The initial angle for the story was, “Why are Mormons so good at business?” But, in chatting with me, she has realized that all may not be as it seems. As the ...
Thanks to chanson’s weekly round up, I read this post about Carson N. leaving. It reminded me of my own experience. My wife and I didn’t send emails, we sent letters in the mail. But the anticipation of the response from family was pretty intense. And one family member’s response was exactly what we feared ...
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 ...
While the rest of us watch in horror. Or am I the only one frightened to discover that Mormons find this kind of thing amusing? As far as I can tell, this is another example of the Mormon surveillance culture that empowers anonymous snitches, got Brandon Davies kicked off a BYU team, and Brian Devine ...
It took me years to leave the Mormon church. It was a long, slow process that I made official after members of the church were urged to support Proposition 8. I was seven months pregnant with my first child when Prop 8 passed. Although I hadn’t been to church for more than a decade, and ...
Update: Keynote speaker (and University of Utah president) Michael Young brought this surprising bit of advice: Mormons ought to be “among the most passionate civil libertarians in the world” to preserve religious freedoms. “We all ought to be members of the ACLU,” Young said Monday in a question-and-answer session after addressing the LDS International Society ...
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 ...