Time for William Law X-Mormon of the Year nominations!!!

Comments (40)

1. My first nominee is an expat who managed to turn out more US voters for the mid-term elections in his host country (Hungary) than any other Democrat Abroad on the planet: Merrill Oates.

   Merrill Oates (IPF Technology and Training Consultant) has been affiliated with the Soros foundations network since 1992. As a PhD candidate at the University of Pennsylvania he was selected by the Civic Education Project to serve as a lecturer of anthropology and sociology at Zaporozhye State University in Ukraine, where he established the Center for Social and Economic Research. Since 1994 he has worked for the Central European University and Open Society Institute in Budapest for various education outreach programs and joined IPF soon after its establishment in 1998. More recently, his interests have turned to the social and practical applications of new information and communication technologies in education, the nonprofit sector, and business communications in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Merrill specializes in online learning and mobile communication technologies and has served as a trainer and consultant throughout the CEE region via the Budapest-based IT company he established, including as an online learning trainer for the CEENet association and most recently for Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. He earned a post-graduate certificate in the Applications of Information Technology in Open and Distance Learning from the Open University, UK.

   Merrill wouldn’t know me from Adam, but I’m a fan for a couple reasons: He got me out to my first street-level protest (against Geneva Steel) back during my BYU days, and I’m jealous because my own country committee (Taiwan) only managed to rank #14 this past cycle (which is actually pretty spectacular, but that’s another story and it has nothing to do with me).

2. My second nominee is Elna Baker. Maybe you’ve heard (of) her?

   Here’s the pertinent bits, extracted from her latest radio gig:

   And the original source:

3. And then there’s always Michelle Paradise. Damn, girl, who knew apostasy could ever look this good.

4. Almost as good as my next nominee: Eliza Dushku, aka Special Agent Angela Paige.

5. Hi, Steve.

6. #6: Eric Ethington

7. #7: Kristine Haglund

8. #8: Brian Keith Dalton aka you-know-hula-him.

9. #9: Bruce Bastian

10. Lifetime Achievement Award: Monica Bielanko.

11. Merlin Oates was a helluva linebacker, but I think he’s still officially LDS.

    On a more serious note, so is Kristine, though she is wonderful and deserving of all kinds of awards.

    (Still being serious here) Merrill Oates is a great person, someone to make mormons and ex-mormons alike proud.

12. On an even more serious note, I’ve always enjoyed reading you, Brad, but around here, we don’t bother with boundary maintenance. There’s enough of that going on already elsewhere.

13. Hey, I’m not exactly one to vigorously police boundaries either. 🙂 Just wanted to make sure it wasn’t an oversight. Still, count me as a vote for Oates, with an honorable mention for Bastion.

14. No, you pretty much ‘sealed the deal’ with your previous comment, Brad. I can see where this is headed, so might as well mark it now: I’ll be spending the rest of this month militating for a Haglund victory.

15. I also admit that I didn’t read the criteria (the meaning of “X”) carefully enough. So, carry on.

16. I was going to disqualify the nomination of Kristine as well, but then happened to re-read the intro paragraph on this post and saw that it is for “X-Mormon”, not “ex-Mormon”. Thus, someone does not have to have left the church to qualify, correct?

17. I’ll defer to chanson on any rulings, but as far as I’m concerned, if you’ve got claws, I don’t care what kind of Mormon you are, don’t be surprised if you get nominated.

18. I’d like to second the nominations for Eric Ethington and Keith “Mr. Deity” Dalton.

19. I’m going to offer up Micah McAllister, creator of Life After Mormonism — or as we affectionately refer to it, “On The LAM” — http://www.lifeaftermormonism.net/ While devoting much time to his own site, Micah also promotes other sites as well, such as PostMormon.org and Mormonthink.com as well as conceiving and paying for FaceBook ads for the mentioned websites. “LAM” also hosts a weekly Friday night chat session as well.

    And he’s just a SUPER guy! 😉

20. Wasn’t Jesse James or somebody like that an X-Mormon? 🙂

21. Who is Merlin Oates? Or did you mean Merlin Olsen?
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin_Olsen

22. Regarding the boundaries: I think the idea should be that we’re essentially shooting for borderland/non-traditional Mormons (or people who consider themselves former Mormons). But we should give broad lee-way in terms of what is allowed. If someone considers him/herself to be a faithful, believing, and/or practicing Mormon, that does not disqualify the candidate from winning the award.

    I think that the only grounds for disqualification a nomination should be the following: (1) the candidate him/herself would consider it an insult or embarrassment to be grouped with “X” Mormon types, or (2) It’s not really a serious nomination (eg. someone says “Thomas Monson” as a joke).

    What do you guys think?

23. Yeah, it would be rude to vote on any nominee that didn’t want to be in the running for whatever reason. Speaking of rude, I hope others will jump in with their nominees and not be put off by my burst of irrational exuberance.

24. I was thinking of Matt Stone/Trey Parker for the book of mormon musical…but neither are mormon. Also, the musical comes out in March. Chino, I like the nominee list so far…

    Someone already nominated Robert from I’m an Exmormon, right?

25. I second (or whatever) Elna Baker. Also join in nominating Holly Welker (writes about Mormonism for HuffPo, UK’s Register, etc).

    PS, Chanson, thanks for unilaterally linking to D&S. We’ve just made it a two-way. Let’s partaaaay!!!! <3 MSP.

26. No one is ex-Mormon, Mormon people are always Mormon people, they are considerer as “ex” only if they were ex-comulgated from the church,. Doors are always open to welcome back anybody.

27. I’d like to add Joseph R. Stromberg to the list.

28. Jeff Ricks, creator of PostMormon.org

    Also, I second the nomination of Micha McAllister, creater of Life After Mormonism.

29. And also Terry Tempest Williams.

    … as a woman growing up in a Mormon tradition in Salt Lake City, Utah, we were taught and we are still led to believe that the most important value is obedience. But that obedience in the name of religion or patriotism ultimately takes our souls. So I think it’s this larger issue of what is acceptable and what is not; where do we maintain obedience and law and where do we engage in civil disobedience where we can cross the line physically and metaphorically and say, “No, this is no longer appropriate behavior” …

    … I am a Mormon woman, I am not orthodox … There are other things within the culture that absolutely enrage me, and for me it is sacred rage. But it’s not just peculiar to Mormonism it’s any patriarchy that I think stops, thwarts, or denies our creativity.

    So the question that I’m constantly asking myself is, What are we afraid of? I think it’s important for us to follow that line of fear, because that is ultimately our line of growth. I feel that within the Mormon culture there is a tremendous amount of fear of women’s voices, of questioning of authority, and ultimately of our own creativity.

    ETA: I’ll second Jeff Ricks and third Micah McAllister, but that means I’m also gonna nominate the guy who started r/exmormon (rhymes with Ashton Kutcher) and the guy who started the I am an Ex Mormon video series.

    ETA2: Daniel Johnson has granted permission to be listed as a nominee for X-MOTY for his 2010 launch of ” …and I’m an ExMormon”.

    ETA3: Karl Butcher (aka Measure76 of r/exmormon fame) is in as a nominee.

30. Why am I only reading this now? So, I guess this is me seconding Holly Welker’s nomination.

31. Kate Kendell celebrated her 50th in 2010. I don’t know much about this particular exmo, but I like her fans.

32. I know it’s not actually the “second” nomination, but I want to put my vote in for Eric Ethington. The man is a hero among X-Mormons!

33. You’re X-mos, you’re nominated, and you’re beautiful.

    

34. I nominate Eric Ethington of PrideInUtah!!!!!!!

35. Hi, well I feel sorry that I dont have a nominee for this award, even Im a ex-mormon here in Ecuador-South Amerca, Im a writer, singer, song writer and an enterpreneur. I think is great to see examples of people that do great job after been out of the LDS church. I have nothing against it, but in this comunity we should see more out side of USA or Utah, there should be a lot of ex menbers who do a great job. But If I know of someone to nominate I will show it.
    Thanks

36. Man you chose a hilarious picture for me. Nah it’s all good. I’ll just place this incident in my ‘revenge to be served cold’ file.

37. Hey, I probably chose that one b/c my kids like that card game, too.

38. Hugo –

    Don’t feel sorry. We would certainly like to hear more from ex-members outside of the US (and if you are famous in Ecuador, I would be happy to add your name to the list of nominees for X-Mormon of the Year). Most importantly, it would be great to read stories from ex-Mormons written in Spanish (or Portuguese) here at MSP, so please consider if you would like to contribute a story.

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