November 5 marks the 10th anniversary of the Exclusion Policy, which expanded the definition of apostasy to include gay marriage. Yes, committing to a same sex partner was committing a sin worse than adultery, rape, or murder. Same-sex transgressors were to be excommunicated; their children were ineligible for baby blessings…
Author: @Monya_PostMo
Raised Mormon in the American South. Grateful to have left the Church, grateful for many things it taught me
LGBT
Continue Reading
LDS vs LGBTQ: Nathan Kitchen sheds false binaries
In his memoir, the former President of Affirmation shows how to embrace both queerness and faith The LDS Church’s stance against gay people has evolved in the past half century. Homosexuality is no longer blamed on sexual abuse, poor parenting or, as Spencer W. Kimball said, an embarrassing “search for…
Community
Continue Reading
Righteous Defiance for Refugees, not
On March 7, the LDS Church released a pro-refugee video featuring Apostle Dieter Uchtdorf describing himself as a refugee, along with stock footage of Jesus Christ literally uplifting the weary. Why the timing? The day before, Trump toyed with revoking the legal status of about 240,000 Ukranians who were in the…
Community
Continue Reading
What Fills the Void When Church Leaders Sow Division?
Tell-tale signals of Mormonism seem to be fading faster than the label President Nelson rejects. In a 2022-2023 survey, fewer than half of Church members born after 1965 said they were actually wearing their garments on the day they answered the question. A 2016 survey found that only 45% of…
Mormons
Continue Reading
The lapsed who dare to call themselves Mormon
After I was asked to co-host an AMA on Reddit’s forum about Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, I mentioned to a casual acquaintance that one big question the community had about the show’s stars was whether—with their boozing, coffee-drinking, garment-eschewing, sex-outside-marriage ways—they were really Mormon. “Well OF COURSE…
Authority
Continue Reading
A Tale of Two Lyfts, and thoughts on Free Agency
Of all the talks and convos at last month’s Sunstone conference, one odd experience stands out. Historian Connell O’ Donovan always makes me laugh and learn, so I was excited he agreed to have coffee with me the morning before the conference started. All I had to do was pick…
Women
Continue Reading
Community, Exponent II’s Secret to Endurance
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…
Temple
Continue Reading
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
Continue Reading
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
Continue Reading
#ThinkRespectful: the Talk I Wish Had Been at General Conference
Sometimes inconvenience bring insight. Earlier this week, the San Francisco Public transit system made my best option for getting from Point A to Point B a 40-minute walk, almost enough time to listen to a podcast episode titled “What do I do if listening to Conference hurts?” It was the…