Guys, there were some really fantastic posts in 2009, so you get two weeks to review the nominees!! Take your time reviewing them. Polls close February 22. Good luck everyone, and have fun! Read the rest of this entry »

We had some really interesting discussion of memory and the mind this week! Now I’m sure you’re all familiar with discussion of the incredible fuzziness of Joseph Smith’s memory of the first vision. But here’s a new funny one: it seems that Brigham Young and Lorenzo Snow had a little difficulty remembering which of them it was that came up with the infamous “couplet” revelation!

In a similar vein, the modern LDS leaders seem to have trouble remembering whether they’re for or against domestic partnerships. Or whether they’re for or against ideological fudging. Read the rest of this entry »

Walter Kirn explains why the William Law X-Mormon of the Year
award means more to him than anything Hollywood has to offer:

Critically-acclaimed author Walter Kirn — whose books and films include Thumbsucker, Up in the Air, andLost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of an Overachiever — has been voted “2009 William Law X-Mormon of the Year”!!

Good choice, folks — Walter Kirn is a credit to the X-Mormon community! I hope he comes by to give the acceptance speech that he promised on his facebook page!

Joanna Brooks has a worthy piece on Mormon Prop 8 involvement currently up on the front page of Religion Dispatches.

This next bit is just me filling in a (minor) gap in the reporting:

“A primary source of Mormon messaging during the Proposition 8 campaign was the anonymously-authored ‘Six Consequences if Prop 8 Fails’ document, which went viral across Mormon social networks after its introduction by email in mid-August and was utilized as a training document and handout in the Mormon-coordinated ground campaign”.

Anonymous? Ahem. Here’s an 8-second clip of LDS/GOP pollster Gary Lawrence claiming authorship of the infamous half-baked half-dozen:

“In fact, the idiot who wrote the Meridian magazine article is me.
And the idiot who wrote the ‘Six Consequences’ is me.”

Of course, this gem remains my all-time favorite Gary Lawrence clip: We Want Negative Buzz!
You want it, you got it, Gary. Mission accomplished.

We have got some really great nominations so far for the Brodies!!

In order to help give you some ideas, here are some of the categories that have been suggested:

• Best humor piece
• Funniest person or site
• Longest discussion about obscure philosophical concepts
• Randomest threadjack
• Best historical post
• Best response to apologetics
• Best book/movie/play/music review
• Best new blog or site
• Best deconversion story
• Best exit/excommunication story
• Best “dealing with family religious differences” piece
• Best “happy where I’m at now” post
• Best intrepid/”gonzo” reporting
• Best discussion about political or human rights issues (prop. 8, women’s rights, race, open religious accounting/transparency, etc.)
• Best post title
• Best Seth R. comment/exchange
• Most poignant story
• Best interview
• Favorite Mormons-in-the-news story
• Best X-Mo Twitter feed
• Best X-Mo Facebook group or page
• Best X-Mo YouTube channel

If any of these make you go “Oh, I remember a great one of those” — please post the nomination (with link)! Feel free to nominate your own posts and posts by your friends!

Now, let’s check on how the other awards are going! Read the rest of this entry »

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 own bio, mind you).  The article appears to be an ad for his book, Under The Mormon Tree.

My first question: Does anyone know anything about this guy?  Has anyone heard of him before?

My second question/comment:  It seems like it would be a good contribution by MSP to actually dissect the claims he makes in his OpEdNews post.  Obviously I don’t want to legitimize a cooky conspiracy theorist if that’s clearly what he is.  But I’m not sure if that has been established.  So, anyone interested in dissecting his claims?

Here are the claims that seem falsifiable (i.e., we could determine whether or not they are accurate): Read the rest of this entry »

The Mormon Alumni Association announces the “Spawn of Brodie” awards!! They’re like Oscars or Emmys for X-Mormon online excellence! Obviously, the idea is based on the Bloggernacle’s Niblets awards, which we’re participating in (see, for example, Sunday in Outer Blogness in the write-in category). However, in comments around the Bloggernacle, some of the faithful made it clear that having apostates hanging around is cramping their style. (Note that this is not an invitation to respond to them in kind by dumping on the Bloggernacle.)

As much as I don’t like this “us-vs-them” mentality within Mormonism, it makes sense for the non-TBM-Mormons to have a separate set of awards. Our discussion on the Internet is big enough, vibrant enough, and diverse enough to have a wide range of writings and other creative endeavors that deserve recognition! As in the William Law X-Mormon of the Year (which we’re still voting on), the “X” in X-Mormon is a variable that can stand for whatever you like, such as “ex”, “post”, “former”, “cultural”, “New Order”, etc. Since a lot of the discussion takes place outside of blogspace, I’ve contacted the admins of some forums and other sites in hopes of getting participation and nominations from their communities as well.

Since this is the first batch of “Spawn of Brodie” awards ever, we need suggestions on award categories as well as nominations for specific posts, threads, comments, pages, sites, etc. You can start by looking at the Niblet categories for ideas, but don’t be limited by them. My opening suggestion is that we should have an award for “best deconverstion story” (on changing your beliefs) and a separate one for “best exit story” (on actually leaving the fold and/or getting excommunicated). But feel free to suggest anyone/anything that you think deserves positive recognition for online X-Mormon excellence!

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, and listen to their perspective.

I was at the Sunstone Symposium, and merely attending the panel by/about the polygamist community was already interesting. Then blogger Bored in Vernal told me she was thinking of attending the Sunday services of the Apostolic United Brethren. Personally – considering that I haven’t been to church since I graduated from BYU seventeen years ago – it would never have occurred to me to request an invitation to any kind of church services, let alone a polygamist church service. However, when a friend of mine is planning such and adventure and is fishing around for a companion, I am so. totally. there.

Meanwhile, the Community of Christ (formerly RLDS) invited all of the participants in the Sunstone Symposium to their Sunday services. Since my brother was practically part of the C of C delegation, I was personally invited. And by a stroke of good fortune, the C of C services were scheduled for Sunday morning, and the AUB services for the afternoon – so I could attend both! Read the rest of this entry »

While taking in nominations, I was surprised by how accomplished and undersung X-Mormons are. Fortunately the Mormon Alumni Association is here to remedy the situation with a brand-new yearly award for the X-Mormon who has made the biggest impact!!! And we will make every effort to send the winner a T-shirt (with the official William Law award graphic).

Here are the illustrious nominees:

Chad Hardy: In 2009 he created a second controversial calendar: Hot Mormon Muffins. He has also been engaged in an important legal battle with BYU when they refused to give him his BYU transcripts after excommunicating him over his previous calendar (Men on a Mission).

Brecken Chinn Swartz: She founded HandReach.org, which helps children who are burn victims in the developing world. She’s is also the co-founder of the LDS Safe Space Coalition, a gay and straight alliance for Mormons. (Until her family left the church, her husband was the bishop of the Beltsville, MD ward.)

Reed Cowan: His film 8: The Mormon Proposition premiered at Sundance, see here and here.

Brian Keith Dalton a.k.a. Mr. Diety: With the help of His team, He produced the show’s hilarious third season.

Heather Armstrong a.k.a. Dooce: She was named one of 2009’s 30 most influential women in media and published her second book: It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita.

Steve Benson: In 1993, Steve Benson won a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. It would be cool if we could retroactively give him the “1993 William Law X-Mormon of the Year” award. As it is, the 232 cartoons he drew for the AZ Republic in 2009 put him in the running for this year as well.

Dustin Lance Black: He won an academy award for writing the screenplay of Milk, and gave this memorable speech at the Academy Awards ceremony. He also narrated 8: The Mormon Proposition.

Walter Kirn: A well-known novelist, literary critic, and essayist, Kirn’s 2009 achievements include the book Lost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of an Overachiever, as well as seeing his book Up in the Air produced as a film.

Christine Johnson: In addition to being a Utah state representative (and ex-Mormon lesbian), Rep. Christine Johnson has taken on the role of surrogate mother, carrying a child for a gay male couple.

Note that Barack Obama’s mother S. Ann Dunham was also nominated (since she has been proxy baptized). Unfortunately, we have to disqualify her from the nominations because we don’t have word from spirit paradise/prison to confirm that she has rejected her proxy baptism and/or apostatized since being dead-dunked.

You have one week to vote here: