Of the sessions I attended at Sunstone earlier this month, the most illuminating was on the Latter-day women’s magazine, the Exponent II.* Katie Ludlow Rich and Heather Sundahl, authors of Fifty Years of Exponent II, described how the unofficial, unsanctioned Mormon feminist magazine launched and, more importantly, continued until this…
Atheists
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Post-Mormon Media: Past, Present, and Future!
This is a short presentation I gave as part of the panel “Who Gets to Say What Former Mormons are Like?” at Sunstone 2024, organized by Chino Blanco, which was a reprise of the panel of the same name that I organized in 2012. When I set off for BYU…
Temple
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Temples to Conformity
Donna’s recent post about a new temple nestled amidst casinos left me thinking about Russell M. Nelson’s temple-building spree. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, some 350 temples are planned, operational, or under development as of April’s General Conference, with roughly half announced since Nelson became president of the Church…
Testimony
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They Don’t Make ’em Like They Used To
Remember when going to the temple meant getting all dressed up for a trip to an Oz-like castle perched high on a hill above some of the most desirable real estate in town? Remember how the awesomeness of that pilgrimage actually lent an air of reverence to the strange rituals…
Testimony
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A Broken Shelf of Symbolic Beliefs
Thirty years ago, long before the CES letter (heck, long before Facebook), I sat beside my brainy boyfriend* as he asked probing questions of two earnest nineteen-year-olds from Utah. He’d been reading the Book of Mormon but not feeling its spirit. How could there be elephants in America, he wanted…
Testimony
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Still Sharing It With Our Husbands
Some thirty years ago, not long after I’d quit going to church, Mark and I moved out of the Dallas suburbs and into town. The move brought a dramatic change in both neighborhood and church dynamics. In the suburbs the directory for our highly active Mormon ward was a tidy…
Awards
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Congratulations Brodie Award Winners 2023!!!
Wow, there were some tightly-contested races this year!! Best YouTube channel got more than 1500 votes! Congratulations to the winners and a big thanks to everyone who participated!! Year-long awards: Best new LDS-interest site/blog/channel/content creator 2023: Floodlit.org Best LDS-interest YouTube channel 2023: Nemo the Mormon Best LDS-interest TikTok channel 2023:…
Awards
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It’s Time to Vote for the 2023 Brodie Awards!!!
The polls are here!! Thanks to everyone who nominated — I’m really thrilled that so many people are helping keep this venerable tradition alive — to help recognize/promote the best LDS-interest content of the year!!! Sorry about the delay (I meant to post the polls yesterday), but it was actually…
Awards
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Congratulations to 2023 X-Mormon of the Year: Adam Steed!!!
Please note that the Brodie Awards nominations will remain open until Sunday, January 14, and we especially need more nominations of new creators who started in 2023 — nominate here!! Congratulations to Adam Steed — 2023’s William Law X-Mormon of the Year!!! Adam won for exposing the “horribly unethical” therapist…
Awards
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It’s time to vote for X-Mormon of the Year 2023!!!
Before you vote on this, please be aware that the Brodie Awards nominations are still open and will continue to be open until at least Wednesday, January 3 (possibly until the weekend, depending on my schedule…). I’ve already started consolidating the categories and adding my own nominations to make it…