Hey folks — it’s that time of year again! Time to decide which X-Mormon made the biggest splash in 2017!!
As I said a few weeks ago, it seems like the “Mormon Moment” is over. It seems like there haven’t been as many high-profile excommunications or original public demonstrations during General Conference in 2017 as there have been in the past. So X-Mormons have been out there doing some cool other stuff instead!
Here are my first two picks for nominees:
- Jacinda Ardern — The new Prime Minister of New Zealand is an X-Mormon!!
- Kip Thorne — This X-Mormon just won the Nobel Prize in Physics!!
Of course there are always people doing some Mormon-related things that get them into the news as well. For example, Sam Young started a petition to protect youth from sexually-oriented “worthiness” interviews. (Note: he might still be an active/believing/participating member of the CoJC-L-dS — and I think we’ve decided that that would disqualify him…? — so I’ll hold off on officially nominating him until getting more info on this point.)
*** ETA: It looks like we will probably go back to the old system of not excluding active members (“The X stands for any kind of non-standard Mormon“) because it would exclude two of our main contenders: Sam Young and Savannah. ***
So, who would you like to see nominated? Did you see an excommunication that should have gotten more coverage?
Note: The William Law X-Mormon of the Year award 2017 is for real-life actions that X-Mormons performed in 2017. It’s not intended as an award for content. So if you know of someone who made the best Mo-related film or published an amazing book or article, performed a song, etc. — save those nominations for the Brodie Awards that will be coming up in a couple of weeks.
I look forward to your nominations!
Savannah
Mike Norton
I’m following the comments on the reddit thread, and — since it looks like two of our most important contenders (Sam Young and Savannah) would fail on the technicality of being active members — I think we’ll probably go back to the old system of not excluding people on that basis.
I had just floated this rule because a number of commenters weren’t happy when Joanna Brooks won, but, as Chino Blanco said, “The award is called X-Mormon in order to avoid precisely the kind of qualifying/disqualifying litmus test based on whatever some record on file in the COB might say.” So let’s go back to that.
Oh boy! Nothing says Christmas like X-Mormon of the Year. And I like that you’re returning to the old policy.
Tough year for anyone looking to outshine Savannah. I suspect the MormonLeaks crew would have been easy favorites any other year. They kinda cracked the code when it comes to story placement (NYT, Newsweek, etc.) and the knock-on effect of wider attention for r/exmormon has been great to watch (25K new subscribers this year). But they’ll hopefully still be doing their thing next year.
In the spirit of the “Me Too” movement I wonder if Elizabeth Smart might be a candidate for contributing to and taking part in the production of the bio-pic, “I Am Elizabeth Smart.” I confess I haven’t seen it yet, but I understand it’s very frank and uncompromisingly truthful. Also I know that a film is better suited for the Brodies. But for her courageous honesty, perhaps Elizabeth might get a nod here as well? Also she continues to advocate abuse victims. Just a thought.
I agree Savannah has the inside track.
Definitely Savannah
We could honor Grant Palmer posthumously; he passed away earlier this year. We don’t generally do posthumous awards; as pointed out in the OP, the award is for real life actions in 2017. The Insider’s View of Mormon Origins is an influential work for mormons and x-mormons, but wasn’t published in 2017.
Savannah. No question.