Awards
Lists of Brodie award winners:
X-Mormon of the Year 2012: David Twede
X-Mormon of the Year 2011: Joanna Brooks
X-Mormon of the Year 2010: Monica Bielanko
X-Mormon of the Year 2009: Walter Kirn
A Community for Anyone Interested in Mormonism.
Earthly father, invisible mother, sort of like our Heavenly Parents?
There’s a new video on the YouTube Mormon Channel comparing earthly fatherhood to Heavenly Fatherhood, and I generally agree with the sentiments about the importance of fathers, but a few things really bother me. First, there’s the implication that fatherhood is primarily about providing materially. Second, the wife of the father featured in this video is barely portrayed at all. Yes, I know this video is about glorifying fatherhood, but as my brother commented, “I wonder when we can expect the Read more [...]
Posted in Family, Marriage, Mother in Heaven, Motherhood, Parenting, Women
Is sweetness next to Goddessliness?
The topic of wet dreams came up with a never-Mormon friend, and I told him, “You’ve just got to check out this ridiculous talk one of the Church leaders gave in the 1970s!” I found the link to Boyd Packer’s “Little Factory” talk and sent it to my friend. I’d read it several years ago, and decided to do so again for the chuckle. I remembered all the asinine counsel for young men not to tamper with their Little Factory’s release valve, but there was one paragraph I hadn’t remembered. After describing Read more [...]
Posted in Mother in Heaven, Sex and Gender, Women
“We do not need more members who question every detail.”
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 Spirit, and who follow its promptings joyfully. We need seeking hearts and minds that welcome gospel truths without argument or complaint and without requiring miraculous manifestation. Oh, Read more [...]
“Nobody actually believes in a man with a beard in the clouds.”
A friend of mine said this recently as we were discussing whether the god that New Atheists dismiss is too simplistic. All I could say is, “Well, I did.” Okay, maybe not in the clouds exactly, but from his first appearance with his Son to Joseph Smith to the affirmation in Doctrine and Covenants 130 that he has a tangible body, the Mormon conception of God as I understood it was that God was beyond the shadow of a doubt, a man, the Father of our spirits. And not only was he in our image and Read more [...]
Posted in Uncategorized
Did you ever make up your own words to primary songs?
You know, like: In my pretty garden the flowers are naughty. Or: Saturday is the special day. It’s the day we get ready for Sunday We clean the house and we wash our hair It’s “no fun till the work is all done” day! Or in the chorus of “The Spirit of God,” We’ll sing and we’ll SHOUT! always included a real shout whenever the primary kids in my ward sang it! Any fun alternate lyrics or ward memes from your memories? Read more [...]
Posted in Uncategorized
Favorite hymns?
I’ve been humming “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief” the last few days. Singing was always one of my favorite parts of church, and one of the things I really missed when I left, though I’ve found other groups to sing with now. I still love many of the hymns though, feel a catch in my throat if I start to sing, “The Spirit of God like a fire is burning.” I don’t even believe in God anymore, but I still find that line poetic and powerful. I also really liked “If You Could Hie to Kolob.” I always felt Read more [...]
Posted in Uncategorized
Is your marriage in trouble? Adopt a highway!
According to aMormon Times report of BYU Education Week, that first bit of litter that misses the trash can is the beginning of the slippery slope to divorce court. That’s right. Littering, among a litany of other behaviors, is a form of selfishness, and selfishness destroys marriage. The list included not wanting to have children, monopolizing the television remote, leaving the toilet seat up, talking in movies, going without speaking, holding a grudge, not accepting church callings, being tight-fisted Read more [...]
Posted in Uncategorized
Mormonism f@#*ed up my sex life!
Urban Koda’s thoughts on “Riding” made me reflect on a lotof my hang-ups that can be traced directly back to teachings of the Church. Imagine a 13-year-old girl who believes she will be eternally cut off from the presence of God unless she repents by confessing to her middle-aged male bishop that she masturbates. And imagine her agony a couple of years later when this same man is her high school biology teacher and she has to go to class every day with the thought, He knows that I touch myself. Yep, Read more [...]
Posted in Sex and Gender, Uncategorized
Yes, I left because I was offended.
A few months after my husband and I moved from Arizona to North Dakota, but before we had officially resigned our membership, the Mormons tracked us down, as they are famous for doing. (FSM help any Mormons who need to enter the witness protection program.) I wasn’t home when they came calling, but my husband answered the door and the exchange went something like, “We’re just checking to see if there’s anything we can do for you.” “Nope, we’re just fine.” (Shut door.) Soon after, we received a Read more [...]
Posted in Uncategorized
The Rise and Fall of a Testimony
The following is an essay I’ve written on my journey out of Mormonism (originally posted on my personal blog here). My journey to atheism is another story. Perhaps I will post it in the future. Tell me about your testimony. I was 24 years old when my bishop asked me this question and I thought back to the origins of my testimony. My parents were and are as faithful Mormons as ever you’ll meet. They had raised me and my ten siblings in the Church. We went to church every week and read scriptures Read more [...]
Posted in Deconversion, Testimony
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