Mormon Belief

After I joined the Church and adopted a new lifestyle more compatible with the Gospel, my Mom, who was not particularly happy that I joined the Church in the first place, used to love to remind me about my behaviors prior to joining. Not in an evil, spiteful way, but a gentle reminder. If the [...]

What does it mean that the church is a restoration?  As I grew up in the church, I always thought of restoration as implying stuff fell out that had to be put back in.  Things that fit into this category included: the role of prophets and apostles, translation capabilities (including that pesky Urim & Thummim that someone mislaid a [...]

In an amazing OP written by John Gustav-Wrathall of Young Stranger:  On Unfairness and “Spiritual Reinforcements” he discusses the injustices polygamy heaped on early Mormon women like Emma, and compared those to the indignities and heartache suffered by gay Mormons in the wake of Prop 8: And as the sense of anger and betrayal welled [...]

If someone were to create a documentary on a Mormon History topic, what would you like to learn most about?  Here is a list of 20 topics, what would be your top 5?  (If you have something not listed, feel free to add to the list.)  Why is it your favorite topic?

There was a recent article in Sunstone [1] studying the prevalence of avoidance as a conflict strategy among Wasatch front Mormons (students at Weber State specifically).  Organizational leadership courses have been teaching these concepts for decades.  Avoidance is generally considered the least effective conflict strategy; rather than addressing the conflict by making one’s own needs known and [...]

Many of us have been following the drama of where to bury the Boston bomber who died in a shootout with police.  No cemetery in Massachusetts will take the body, and it’s not an option to bury him in Russia.  Finally, a Muslim cemetery in Virginia took his body, and Virginians aren’t happy about it.  [...]

If you were stranded on a desert island with only one . . . book of scripture . . . what would it be?  Clearly, this isn’t the usual desert island fantasy. Discuss.

In my living room, I have an oil painting of the grove in Palmyra where Mormonism’s First Vision occurred. It is a family heirloom painted by the wife of a well-known RLDS Seventy of my parents’ generation who befriended them when they retired to Independence. Since Joseph Smith is not shown in the picture, nor [...]

I recently took an online test to determine if I am a helicopter parent.  Ironically, it was a helicopter quiz!  After every question, it gave me immediate, condescending feedback about whether my opinion was right or wrong.  And with several of the questions, I didn’t like ANY of the options; they were all too helicopter-y [...]

How much is too much?  How much is not enough?  How often do you go to the temple?  Do you think you should go more often?  Why or why not? Discuss.

I enjoyed my experiment with Mormonism and sexism so much that I decided to do the same with Mormonism and racism. The results were remarkably similar. One thing making this video got me thinking about was the light of Christ. In LDS scripture, the light of Christ is characterized not only as the force that [...]

We’ve been cleaning the chapels in most areas (except where it is not feasible) for many years now, although most of us remember a day when the church employed professional janitors to keep the building sparkling.  With so many people out of work, should the church change back to professional help? Discuss.

The headline is clear. Community of Christ will provide sacramental ordinances of marriage, commitment ceremonies, and ordination independent of sexual orientation in the USA. Specifically, after two days of discussion, the USA National Conference formally approved by a required 2/3rds majority the following recommendations to the First Presidency and Quorum of Twelve: The 2013 USA [...]

People refer to weak apologetics as mental gymnastics, being willing to cling to the improbable or outright absurd rather than cutting through the crap to the logical (yet possibly faith-shaking) solution.  And yet, we are also told that truth is stranger than fiction and that with God nothing is impossible, which gives eternal hope to [...]

The ordain women movement is focused on asking why females should not be ordained.  Let’s flip that around and ask why males are ordained. Discuss.

1 Sam 8:18-22 18  And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day. 19  ¶Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us; [...]

Feminism makes some men very nervous.  They are afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing and being labelled a sexist.  They may feel like outsiders, unclear of their own standing as these conversations unfold.  Men and women alike may not be sure what feminism entails, but it can seem like a daunting list, one [...]

How much detail is appropriate in a confession?  When does a leader go from being helpful to being pruriently interested in the lurid details of a confessor’s love life?  Where do you draw the line? Discuss.

Pending the birth of Princess Kate’s baby, Lady Cosima Rose Alexandra Windsor is currently 24th in line for the British throne. Lady Cosima is the nearly three-year-old great granddaughter of a grandfather of the current queen. I didn’t know that, and I really wouldn’t care, but I did easily look it up, and I could do [...]

In January 2012, I did a blog post about topics women in the church were discussing.  I identified 10 practices that some women saw as unnecessarily discriminate or that were in other ways causing women to question their value in the church.  This was in response to a request Pres. Beck made of Mormon Mommy [...]