Uncategorized

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 [...]

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 [...]

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.

In many ways, the arguments against guns and the arguments against gays are very similar. In both cases, people who find an “ick” factor in something (be it guns or gay marriage) are against it. Those who fit in the group (either owning a gun or being gay) feel it is a personal matter others [...]

I was late to church because I was finishing up on filing my taxes.  This is the time of year when we get to look and see how much we’re sending to the government, and while many of us enjoy the tax refund, we neglect to see how much we’re sending to the government.  Tea [...]

This past week, Peggy Fletcher Stack wrote an excellent article entitled ”How Beards Became Barred Among Top Mormon Leaders.” I encourage you to read it. In the end, I have nothing more to add to it than the personal observations that sre very near and dear to my face. I grew my beard during a [...]

With Easter coming up on Sunday, I thought it would be interesting to review the entry from the Bible Dictionary. Easter This word occurs only once in the Bible (Acts 12:4) and then would be better translated “Passover.” The word Easter is from Eastre, a Norse goddess whose pagan festival was observed at the spring equinox. [...]

I was exposed to this idea on a couple different occasions:  disaffected or disbelieving members share their experiences that led to their de-conversion in a group setting.  It made me really uncomfortable, essentially for the same reasons that Testimony Meetings make me uncomfortable. Here are a few hallmarks of both testimony and untestimony bearing: Pressure [...]

Mormons are often accused of having simple answers to life’s questions, answers that don’t hold up to scrutiny or that don’t fit all scenarios.  ”Correlation does not imply causation” (cum hoc non propter hoc, Latin meaning “with this, not because of this”) is a phrase used in statistical analysis to emphasize that correlation between two [...]

Beth Second letter of the Hebrew alphabet and a designation meaning “house” or “place.”  Test your knowledge of the following terms.

When Joseph Smith was explaining our faith’s beliefs to John Wentworth, he wanted to point out that we believe in the Bible, but that he felt it had errors.  After all, he was working on a new translation of it.  He said: 8 We believe the aBible to be the bword of God as far as [...]

Maybe the idea that people will lose their morality when they lose their religions says more about the religion?

Not sure how many people are really aware of the trial going on in Phoenix Arizona these days. It is now broadcast all day on HLN.  But there is a Mormon connection to the trial and crime. Jody Arias is accused (and has admitted) killing her former boyfriend, Travis Alexander in Mesa, Arizona, a heavily [...]

North Korea wants to show its strength despite its small size by launching missiles to intimidate China.  Napolean was said to suffer from “short man” inferiority complex, resulting in his military invasions all over Europe.  Some sources say Hitler felt inferior because his absent father was a Jew, not Aryan.  In the Wizard of Oz, the “wizard” [...]

By now you’ve probably seen the Wheaties/Tarefic award winners, and I hope also the resulting argument between fMh and BCC about who deserved to win the coveted Best Big Blog award, and what it really meant. (If you haven’t seen the argument posts, do yourself a favor and check them out. They’re hilarious!) The purpose [...]

I recently read an article in The Nation called “I’m Not Mother First.”  I also just finished reading Betty Friedan’s well-known tome, The Feminine Mystique, a book that turns 50 years old this year.  As I read the Feminine Mystique, there were several times when the cultural observations seemed anachronistic to me.  I have sometimes [...]

A couple weeks ago I wrote about women holding the priesthood.  The discussion turned from women holding the priesthood to a lively discussion on Heavenly Mother.  Some of my Evangelical pastor friends who have followed my blog for a few years were shocked and appalled to learn that Mormons were openly discussing this.  I think they kind [...]

John Dehlin’s thoughts on morality after faith crisis — do they resonate with you?

About 3 ½ years ago, I wrote a post for Mormon Matters entitled “Prooftexting for Fun and Prophet.” As explained, prooftexting is using quotations from a document to establish a point or prove something whether or not that quotation is in context or not. While its use is pretty universally applied in many areas of [...]

There has been a lot of discussion over the years about women in the military. Specifically, women in combat.  Four things came together to make it happen. First, women find themselves in combat in the current military in our country and in other countries.  A Woman Soldier’s Own Story is an example of  that.  They are on patrol, in [...]