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.
GAY COUPLE FIND GREAT HAPPINESS AT LAST, DESPITE MORMON BISHOP’S HOMOPHOBIA
I am now, and have been for over 11 months to date, very happy and my depression has become almost non-existent. I have found out for myself, that being gay or homosexual, is not only right for me, but also can be enjoyed, and bring much joy to the lives of gay people. Life is beautiful, and God has blessed me abundantly since I came out of the closet for the second time in my life. Since “wickedness never was happiness,” I must not be all that wicked after all, because I am very happy! Read more [...]
Gay People Do Exist – Coming out to my Grandparents
Gay People Do Exist! Coming Out to My Grandparents My grandparents were/are committed Christians. They’ve taught 3rd and 4th grade Sunday school for as long as I can remember. On the infrequent occasions when I attended their church, from kindergarten until I was about 12, I always pulled up a chair and sat between them while we were going over the lesson as a class and eat doughnuts my grandma faithfully bought every Sunday. They taught me about God, prayed with me, and told me of God’s grace. Read more [...]
Posted in Christianity, Christians, Depression, discrimination, Family, Hate, Homosexuality, LGBT, Marriage, Moving On
The Happiness Factor
Over the years, I’ve watched former mormon blogs come and go. And posters on various former mormon boards join and leave. (Kiley recently talked about it here). From what I can discern, there appears to be a cycle that some former mormons run through. At first there can be a lot of emotions; hurt, betrayal, anger or fear. But generally, after some time, people stop posting. In the least, they stop posting about mormon culture, leadership, history, etc. Why is that? My theory can’t be Read more [...]
Posted in Blogroll, Deconversion, Divorce, ex-Mormon, Family, Mormon Studies, Moving On, post-Mormon, RfM
Gay Mormon Fatherhood
A week ago, I wrote a post on my blog about coming out as a gay father. I mentioned strands of Mormon thinking which, I had come to realize, were woven throughout my psyche as a gay father, along with the strands of general homophobia, shame and self-loathing that are endemic to gays and lesbians everywhere, particularly those who came of age a generation ago. I wrote that I had been going through a process in which I became aware of these strands and aware that they were unconsciously affecting Read more [...]
Posted in Divorce, Family, Homosexuality, Mixed Orientation Marriage, Moving On
the Big Exit Letter (BEL)
Thanks to chanson’s weekly round up, I read this post about Carson N. leaving. It reminded me of my own experience. My wife and I didn’t send emails, we sent letters in the mail. But the anticipation of the response from family was pretty intense. And one family member’s response was exactly what we feared – my mother called after receiving our letter and yelled at me for about 30 minutes, saying all sorts of horrible things, then hung up on me. We’ve never really talked about that phone call, but Read more [...]
Posted in Authority, Deconversion, Freedom, Membership in the CoJCoL-dS, Mormons, Moving On, Power
Sunday in Outer Blogness: in or out edition!
This past week the blogworld spent a lot of time exploring that mysterious region we inhabit — not completely in the orbit of the CoJCoL-dS, but not totally outside the Mormon community either. Back before the Internet, it was so easy for members to divide the world into three neat-and-tidy categories: faithful Mormons, anti-Mormons, and people who haven’t learned about Mormonism (yet). Now what counts as “anti-Mormon” is a matter of heated debate! Now who’s in the club? While some are thinking Read more [...]
Posted in anti-Mormon, Moving On, Sunday in Outer Blogness
Knowledge, Community, and Relationships
Over at the faithful Mormon blog Faith-Promoting Rumor is a discussion enticingly titled “Do Relationships Make the Church True and False?” This post is a short enough one that you should just go over there and read it, but I guess I will still highlight some points here…when I was reading it, I will say that one idea I was apprehensive about finding was the idea of trying to bottle ex-Mormons as those people who leave because “they’ve been offended.” Or maybe “the church is true but the people Read more [...]
Why the LDS brand matters
General David Petraeus discusses Iraq & Afghanistan war strategy with BYU students: Petraeus began his remarks by listing the Top 10 reasons BYU students make such great soldiers: Number One – They understand how far Iraq has come over the past seven years. In fact, they think that Iraq’s old spot in the “Axis of Evil” can now be filled by the University of Utah. ETA: Also making Petraeus’ Top Ten: Mormon missions, Jell-O, home teaching, food storage, and the Word of Wisdom; but no Read more [...]
Posted in Advice, BYU, Mainstreaming, Moving On
Making Peace with the Loss of Certainty
One of the more difficult things that came with recognizing that the Mormon Church wasn’t 100%, literally “True” was that this paradigm shift introduced incredible levels of uncertainty into my knowledge of God and the purpose of life. Previously, I knew that if I was in good standing with the LDS Church (i.e., temple-worthy), I was therefore in good standing with God. I knew that there was a God, and what He looked like (i.e., an exalted human being, with us mortals cast in his image). I knew that Read more [...]
Posted in DAMU, Death, Moving On, post-Mormon, Truth, Uncategorized
Are you a Mormon?
We recently discussed the various names we use to refer to ourselves (liberal Mormon, NOM, post-Mormon, ex-Mormon, etc.) depending on how we each perceive our relationship with Mormonism. I’m interested in much more direct question, which I’m never quite sure how to answer. Are you a Mormon? It seems like a straightforward question, but I find it surprisingly tricky because it’s not always clear what is meant by “Mormon”. If it means a member of the CoJCoLdS, then my answer should be yes, because Read more [...]
Posted in ex-Mormon, Membership in the CoJCoL-dS, Moving On, NOM, post-Mormon
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