Mormon Culture

Does the Church Over-Subsidize BYU?

June 4, 2013
Does the Church Over-Subsidize BYU?

My son was recently admitted to BYU for the upcoming fall semester.  Here are some things about BYU we discovered in the application process: BYU is incredibly cheap.  It is about a tenth the cost of other universities he applied for and twice what we would have to pay for an in-state tuition assuming we [...]

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Posted in Agency, America, Church Policy, debt, economics, Education, Mission, money, Mormon, Mormon Culture, Uncategorized | 27 Comments »

Home Birthing: Weekend Poll

June 1, 2013
Home Birthing:  Weekend Poll

Home is where the heart is.  But should we be giving birth there or is it too risky?  What’s your view?  And would you eat the placenta?  With or without fava beans? Discuss.

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Posted in Agency, America, Church Policy, Mormon, Mormon Culture | 16 Comments »

What does Restoration mean?

May 28, 2013
What does Restoration mean?

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 [...]

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Posted in America, Church Policy, History, Israel, Mormon Belief, Mormon Culture, Polygamy | 10 Comments »

Vaccines (Weekend Poll)

May 25, 2013
Vaccines (Weekend Poll)

Some people don’t want their kids to be vaccinated or consider vaccinations to be invasive and unnecessary.  American public schools disagree, but kids who are home schooled don’t have these restrictions.  If schools think it’s too risky to let these children attend, should we worry about them at church? Discuss.

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Posted in Agency, Church Policy, Mormon, Mormon Culture | 21 Comments »

Our Different Journeys

May 23, 2013
Our Different Journeys

This is a condensed version of  a sacrament meeting talk given few weeks ago. I was asked to use President Uchtdorf’s address at the the recent General YW Meeting. Back when I was a youth in the church, I often felt frustrated by the prescribed roles we seemed to be taught in YW, and in [...]

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Posted in Agency, Doctrine, Faith, Freedom, General Conference, Mormon Culture | 6 Comments »

Dealing with Spiritual Slights

May 21, 2013
Dealing with Spiritual Slights

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 [...]

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Posted in Agency, Church Policy, Doctrine, Faith, Freedom, Morality, Mormon, Mormon Belief, Mormon Culture, Uncategorized | 37 Comments »

Mormon Passive-Aggression

May 14, 2013
Mormon Passive-Aggression

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 [...]

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Posted in Agency, Freedom, Mormon, Mormon Belief, Mormon Culture, Uncategorized | 57 Comments »

When the Languages Have Been Confounded

May 11, 2013
When the Languages Have Been Confounded

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 [...]

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Posted in America, Church Policy, Community of Christ, Doctrine, Joseph Smith, Mormon, Mormon Belief, Mormon Culture | 30 Comments »

Helicopter Parents Are Depressing (with poll)

May 7, 2013
Helicopter Parents Are Depressing (with poll)

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 [...]

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Posted in Agency, Freedom, Morality, Mormon, Mormon Belief, Mormon Culture | 18 Comments »

Temple Trips: Weekend Poll

May 4, 2013
Temple Trips:  Weekend Poll

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.

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Posted in Agency, Church Policy, Freedom, Mormon, Mormon Belief, Mormon Culture | 17 Comments »

Brother Jake: Mormons are not Racist

May 1, 2013
Brother Jake: Mormons are not Racist

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 [...]

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Posted in Church Policy, Mormon Belief, Mormon Culture, Uncategorized | 39 Comments »

Mormon Dating: Invisible Women

April 30, 2013
Mormon Dating:  Invisible Women

I considered myself unpopular at BYU.  My hair was very short, kind of a punk rock ‘do with bleached bangs.  I often wore tie-dyed jeans and a men’s thrift store blazer with a concert tee underneath.  In Pennsylvania, I never had a shortage of guys who were interested in me, including lots I thought were [...]

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Posted in Agency, Education, Mormon, Mormon Culture, Polygamy, Uncategorized | 24 Comments »

The Help (Janitors): Weekend Poll

April 27, 2013
The Help (Janitors):  Weekend Poll

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.

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Posted in Agency, Church Policy, Freedom, money, Morality, Mormon, Mormon Belief, Mormon Culture | 15 Comments »

CofChrist News Beat: World/USA Conference After-Action Reports

April 26, 2013
CofChrist News Beat: World/USA Conference After-Action Reports

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 [...]

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Posted in America, Church Policy, Community of Christ, Doctrine, Morality, Mormon, Mormon Belief, Mormon Culture, Politics, Priesthood, Prophet, Violence | 30 Comments »

Christianity at the Crossroads: Women Bishops

April 25, 2013
Christianity at the Crossroads: Women Bishops

The week from 17 March saw the inauguration of both the new Pope, Pope Francis, and the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. To mark that historic occasion the BBC broadcast a debate entitled Christianity at the Crossroads. The panellists were: Matthew Parris (MP) – former Conservative MP; Dr Anna Rowlands (AR) – Catholic theologian; [...]

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Posted in Church Policy, Mormon Culture, Priesthood, Roman Catholic Church | 19 Comments »

Mental Gymnastics

April 23, 2013
Mental Gymnastics

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 [...]

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Posted in Agency, Church Policy, Doctrine, Morality, Mormon, Mormon Belief, Mormon Culture | 12 Comments »

Male Ordination: Weekend Poll

April 20, 2013
Male Ordination:  Weekend Poll

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.

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Posted in Agency, Church Policy, Mormon, Mormon Belief, Mormon Culture, Priesthood, Uncategorized | 16 Comments »

A Feminist Primer for Men

April 16, 2013
A Feminist Primer for Men

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 [...]

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Posted in Agency, America, Church Policy, Freedom, Morality, Mormon, Mormon Belief, Mormon Culture, Politics | 70 Comments »

Confessing Sexual Sins: Weekend Poll

April 13, 2013
Confessing Sexual Sins:  Weekend Poll

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.

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Posted in Agency, Church Policy, Doctrine, Faith, Morality, Mormon, Mormon Belief, Mormon Culture | 6 Comments »

You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby! Mormon Edition

April 9, 2013
You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby!  Mormon Edition

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 [...]

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Posted in Agency, Church Policy, Mission, Morality, Mormon, Mormon Belief, Mormon Culture | 36 Comments »

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