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.
Do you believe in Priesthood Blessings?
In the July 2012 edition of the Ensign, there is an article by Elder Dallen H Oaks. http://www.lds.org/liahona/2012/07/the-importance-of-priesthood-blessings?lang=eng&query=blessings+comfort In the article, he talks about the different kinds of priesthood blessings. For this post, I would like to focus on Blessings of Comfort or Counsel. The article describes them this way: “Persons desiring guidance in an important decision can receive a priesthood blessing. Persons who need extra spiritual Read more [...]
Posted in Authority, Dallin Oaks, Family, General Conference, Health, Holy Ghost, Jesus Christ, Obedience, Objectivity, Parenting, Patriarchy, Power, Prayer, Priesthood, Revelation, Rights, Testimony, The Spirit, Uncategorized, Values
Repentence – An Apology to My Home
Looking at the pile, As it mocks me from across the room. Tempting me to remove it – Begging me to find the washing machine. Ignoring the piled up dishes – I avert my eyes, on my way to the bathroom. I won’t let myself hear them Crying out for mercy, As they try to tempt me To create a sink of soapy hot water. A few more weeks (or months)my loves! Then I *might* be able to serve you, In the ways that you deserve, Without crashing to the ground – Potentially hurting me, and you, Read more [...]
Posted in Mormons, Obedience, Stereotypes, Uncategorized, Values
“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 [...]
Sabbath Police!! Apparently, Mormons crack themselves up making videos like these.
While the rest of us watch in horror. Or am I the only one frightened to discover that Mormons find this kind of thing amusing? As far as I can tell, this is another example of the Mormon surveillance culture that empowers anonymous snitches, got Brandon Davies kicked off a BYU team, and Brian Devine fired. But Mormons apparently want the rest of the world to see how much fun their surveillance culture can be, so here it is in all its rib-ticklin’, knee-slappin’, report-your-neighbor glory: Tip Read more [...]
Posted in Aaron Shafovaloff, Authority, Fundamentalism, Humor, Mormons, Obedience, Video
General Conference predictions
Back in the days when I paid attention to General Conference, I always attended the priesthood session with my wife’s father and brother. I enjoyed the tradition of returning to report some fantastic fictional revelation to my wife and her mother. I call this a tradition because I did it every time, but I was the only one who ever did. When I returned from the priesthood session in October 2000, shortly after I was baptized, I reported that President Hinckley had a revelation that all worthy women Read more [...]
Posted in General Conference, Obedience, Prophets, Tithing, Women
Oldies but Goodies: Testimony of a Dissident
A while back another blogger asked me to submit an essay about my Mormon experience. Probably, for good reasons he changed his mind and never published it. Since it is already written and might shed some light on my argument at Times and Seasons, I might as well publish it myself. It might help some people to understand where I am coming from. Testimony of a DissidentWhen I grew up in the seventies and eighties, Church was a liberating experience. My mother converted when I was six. My Read more [...]
Posted in Abuse, Appearances, Bloggernacle, Book of Mormon, Boyd Packer, BYU, Callings, Christianity, Depression, Divorce, Epistemology, Ethics, Europe, excommunication, Family, Freedom, Germany, LDS History, Moving On, Nostalgia, Obedience, Philosophy, Power, Prophets, Science, Sunstone, Theology
The Boiled Seed and Honesty
A while back, I heard a rather innocuous story about honesty at stake conference (ok, so it’s not as prestigious as general conference…). I didn’t care much about the choice of story he used, since it seemed trite (it was some Chinese feel-good fable), but as I read a passage in the scriptures today (and realized I had been misinterpreting it for a while now), I realized a whole new realm of meaning. One that may interest you. The story, to summarize (the story I heard is slightly different Read more [...]
Posted in Book of Mormon, DAMU, ex-Mormon, Obedience, Theology, Truth, Uncategorized
Why do we act?
When we were members of the church, we knew very acutely how many rules and laws and words of wisdom and commandments we had to follow. Why did we keep up with it then…and why do we do what we do now? What motivates us to act? For the past few weeks, I have been doing a lot of recruiting and networking events. I’m not even going to lie — even in such a poor economy, I’m living quite well as multiple accounting firms try to convince me to intern for their firm. So, included with that are all Read more [...]
Following the rules or Seeing the Forest Through the Trees
I’m not someone who is particularly good at following the rules, at least some rules. And believe it or not, depending on who you talk to, Mormonism had a lot of rules. What type of soda/pop to drink, what kind of music to listen to, etc. What always astounded me was the insistence on following the rules instead of following their intention. Going out to eat on Sunday is a great example of that. I certainly understand a busy family taking some time to go out to eat. I think it can be good Read more [...]
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