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.
Book Review: Could I Vote for a Mormon for President?
Review of Could I Vote for a Mormon for President? An Election Year Guide to Mitt Romneys Religion, by Ryan T. Cragun and Rick Phillips, July 2012, Strange Violin Editions (strangeviolineditions.com). Could I Vote for a Mormon for President? is a well-written, thoughtful, fair, and balanced appraisal of the Mormon religion and the role it may, and more importantly should, play in deciding whether to vote for Mitt Romney for president of the United States. Its also a book in search of an audience Read more [...]
Posted in Book Review, Politics, Romney
An Open Letter to the LDS Church
I was riveted by the fascinating tale of excommunication from the Mormon church, over at Mind on Fire, told with great honesty and feeling, as well as by the reader community response. I have just one question, though, which I suppose should be directed to the Mormon church itself: Where’s my lousy excommunication? I did my best to protest various and sundry church policies, and eventually left the church in as public a way as was possible, at least for the times. While still at BYU, for example, Read more [...]
Posted in BYU, excommunication
Summum Goin’ On
Pleasant Grove City has won a battle in the legal war with Summum, Utah’s local pyramid/wine/sex cult. From what I’ve read, it appears that the matter is far from over, though, as this particular battle was narrowed in its scope to its free speech component. In essence, the Supremes have ruled that monuments simply aren’t speech the same way that, say, speeches are. Therefore, Pleasant Grove, in this particular case is not the referee amongst competing speakers–instead they are the speakers themselves, Read more [...]
Posted in Culture, discrimination, Establishment Clause, Politics, Religious Right, Rights, Supreme Court
NCMO at BYU
According to a Salt Lake Tribune article, citing a survey conducted by a retired BYU sociology professor, only “1 percent to 3 percent of students say ‘making out and intense kissing’ are acceptable in a ‘hanging-out’ relationship.” No report on what percentage considers screwing like bunnies (or at least having oral intercourse) acceptable. This whole article made me laugh. Having been a BYU student, and having spoken to more than a few former BYU students, I can confidently proclaim that this Read more [...]
Posted in BYU, DAMU, Sex and Gender
Romney and Religion
Mitt Romney’s presidential candidacy has brought Mormonism—and the role of religion in politics—into the spotlight in some interesting ways. His candidacy is revealing of some of the fault lines both in Mormon culture and in the American political environment. The Mormon church has long had a confused approach to its identity as the only true church. Obviously, the belief that God told Joseph Smith that all other religious sects were abominations in his sight is something that’s not going Read more [...]
Posted in Politics
The Space Between Subjectivity and Objectivity
There are few things as enjoyable as coffeeshop philosophizing, and usually my favorite philosophical topic to mangle is epistemology, which is the study of whether it’s possible to know things, and if so, how we attain knowledge. Over the years, I’ve trended towards a viewpoint that I call radical subjectivity (using radical in the sense of root rather than in the sense of extreme–compare definition 1 to definition 3 here to see what I mean). I can’t remember where or when I first encountered the Read more [...]
Posted in Objectivity, Philosophy, Truth
The Many Meandering Paths Away from Faith
When people leave Mormonism, where do they go? What paths do they take? Purely on the basis of anecdotal evidence, this is what some of them do: They reject all organized attempts at religion or even spirituality, because Mormonism has poisoned the well. At first they’re very, very careful to avoid doing much to change their lifestyles, because they want to make it absolutely clear that leaving Mormonism was not about weakness, an attachment to some vice, or about having been offended by some Read more [...]
Fiction at Main Street Plaza
Coming soon to a browser near you, Main Street Plaza will be publishing fiction! Our first published piece will be “Love, Mormon Style,” by Bob Bringhurst. “Love, Mormon Style” was originally published in a short fiction anthology called In Our Lovely Deseret: Mormon Fictions. This is a humorous yet poignant story about a BYU student trying (and mostly not succeeding) to remain chaste, which we’re confident is a subject near and dear to the heart of each and every one of you. Every Thursday (starting Read more [...]
Posted in Arts, Community, Culture, Literature
Mormon Art
So what the heck is Mormon art, anyway? Putting aside the much larger question of what is art (but using the term broadly to cover all creative expression), we might instructively ask: What is a Mormon? Do we count only members of the mainstream organization, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? Do we draw the line at active members only? What about people who are active members but non-believers? Because there are plenty of those. Feminists? Intellectuals? Democrats? If you decide to Read more [...]
Posted in Arts, Culture, Literature
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