A lot of people — upon leaving the CoJCoL-dS — are amazed to discover how fascinating LDS church history really is. It’s not just that the whitewashed history in Sunday School is incomplete and inaccurate. It’s that you’re force-fed this watery-porridge version of church history that inoculates many people from…
Author: chanson
Sunday in Outer Blogness: What do Mormons believe? edition!
First and foremost — Outer Blogness has gotten a major technical upgrade!!! This is such a huge and vibrant community that it deserves its own page where you can get a clear view of what’s up. It also means faster loading of our main page and more space in our…
Johnny Townsend’s Mormons in life and imagination!
Have you ever wondered what spirit prison would be like? Mormons believe that when people die, their spirits go to either “spirit paradise” or “spirit prison” to await Judgment Day. They also believe that missionaries from spirit prison can teach the gospel to spirits in spirit prison (who can be…
Wednesday in Outer Blogness: Pi Day Edition!
OK, so I missed Sunday (and I actually missed Pi Day, too), but — since I was busy last Sunday and I’ll be busy next Sunday — I figured I’d try to shoot for a round-up somewhere in the middle. Sorry for any inconvenience. Anyway, as you know, the big…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Honor Edition!
Naturally, the buzz this past week was about the big news that a BYU basketball player had sex with his girlfriend — if you can believe it! This led to lots of very amusing discussion about control and the BYU honor code, musings on parenting, and the obvious observation that…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Interfaith Dialog Edition!
To recap recent discussions, ProfXM says: To me it seems like it might be a good idea, but it also requires that religions not be exclusive, which, of course, many are. So, rather than being a good idea, it seems more like a futile idea. And I say that as…
Mission Complete: Jacob Young’s “Harvest”
An LDS mission strange and fascinating experience. Up until recently, though, it’s been tricky for people to get an idea of what a Mormon mission is really like without serving one. Part of the problem is that Mormon journals are supposed to be faith-promoting, in order to potentially serve as…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Holy Matrimony, Batman!
Yep, everyone is talking about marriage this week! From those ever stare–worthy polygs, to Rock’s thoughtful history of the rise of the temple wedding, to the sacredness of jumping into marriage before it’s too late! The Segullah Book Club analyzes the innocence of the bride on the way in, Jana…
New features and an invitation to guest-post!
Since Main Street Plaza is growing, we’re thinking of adding some new features — maybe even a fourth column! But since this is a community blog, that’s where you come in. What do you think of the features we’ve added to the sidebars? What else would you like to see?…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: The “Cultural Mormon” Conundrum Edition!
I just love it when a discussion topic goes viral, and spreads from one blog to another! (The Internet’s great, isn’t it?) For example, J. Max Wilson called the New Order Mormons “Pharisees”, and that set off an interesting discussion about “Cultural Mormonism”. Daniel followed-up with an excellent response and…