Category: Awards

Congratulations 2018 Brodies Winners!!!

The results are in!!! Congrats to all the winners, and thanks to all who participated!!

Year-long awards for people and groups:

Best New Podcast: Marriage on a Tightrope

Best New Blog/Channel/Site: Unrigeteous Dominion

Best Podcast: Radio Free Mormon

Best Humor/Satire Blog/Channel/Podcast: The Drunk Mormon Podcast

Best Site of Images/Memes/Comics: Stuff You Missed in Sunday School

Best Mormon History Blog/Channel/Podcast: The Drunk Mormon Podcast

Best Exmormon Reddit Contributor: CosmoMormonMagazine

Awards for Individual Works:

Best LDS-Interest Book (fiction): Mormon Erotica, by Donna Banta

Best LDS-Interest Book (non-fiction): Educated, by Tara Westover

Best LDS-Interest Song: Theme song to “The Drunk Mormon Podcast”

Best LDS-Interest Comic or Image: Mormon Deadpool images

Funniest Humor Piece: ShadowLeaks Discovers a Modest-Is-Hottest Proposal

Best Parody or Metaphor: ShadowLeaks™ Releases LDS Church’s Sacred Memos

Most Poignant Personal Story: McKenna Denson/Joseph Bishop interview

Best Life Journey Piece: Truth Seeking with Hans and Birgitta Mattsson

Best History Piece: My Book of Mormon ep 209 on the lost D&C Section 101 on monogamy

Best Activist Action or Movement Within Mormonism: Sam Young and Protect LDS Children

Best Leak or Personal Recording: McKenna Denson/Joseph Bishop interview

Best Watchdog Piece: Bill Reel, Mormon Discussions: Elder Holland, Liar Liar Pants on Fire

Best Discussion of Activism: Mormon Happy Hour’s two interviews with Lesley Butterfield: on Joseph Bishop and on UnrigheousDominion.org

Best Op-Ed: Open letter to LDS Patriarchy, by Lesley Butterfield

Best Film or Media Presentation: Believer

Best Scripture Study Piece: The Drunk Mormon Podcast: The Frickin’ Golden Plates!!

Best From the Pulpit Sermon: Thomas Shaffer

Best LDS-Culture Piece: The Drunk Mormon Podcast: We Know Who Bigfoot Is

Most Insightful Commentary on the CoJCoL-dS: Radio Free Mormon: General Conference Death March

Best Theological Discussion: Some Things that are Useful are Not True, by Alex

Best Discussion on Race: The Racism 101 podcast

Best Discussion on Polygamy and/or Sexual Abuse within Mormonism: Mormon Happy Hour: Mormon Sexual Trauma Dumpster Fire

Best Discussion on Gender and/or Orientation: Mormon Women Speak, featuring Mica McGriggs, PhD and the Hushed Ones Documentarians

Here‘s the list of all of the nominees and the results of the polls. And here are the button graphics for the winners — feel free to display these on your site:

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Thanks again for your participation!!

Time to vote for the 2018 Brodie Awards!!!

2018-Brodies-200px The polls are now ready!! A huge thanks to everyone who nominated and shared with us this fantastic crop of amazing content from 2018!!

Year-long awards for people and groups:

Best New Podcast

Best New Blog/Channel/Site

Best Podcast

Best Humor/Satire Blog/Channel/Podcast

Best Site of Images/Memes/Comics

Best Mormon History Blog/Channel/Podcast

Best Exmormon Reddit Contributor

Awards for Individual Works:

Best LDS-Interest Book (fiction)

Best LDS-Interest Book (non-fiction)

Best LDS-Interest Song

Best LDS-Interest Comic or Image

Funniest Humor Piece

Best Parody or Metaphor

Most Poignant Personal Story

Best Life Journey Piece

Best History Piece

Best Activist Action or Movement Within Mormonism

Best Leak or Personal Recording

Best Watchdog Piece

Best Discussion of Activism

Best Op-Ed

Best Film or Media Presentation

Best Scripture Study Piece

Best From the Pulpit Sermon

Best LDS-Culture Piece

Most Insightful Commentary on the CoJCoL-dS

Best Theological Discussion

Best Discussion on Race

Best Discussion on Polygamy and/or Sexual Abuse within Mormonism

Best Discussion on Gender and/or Orientation

The polls will remain open until Sunday, February 17, 2019 @ 10a.m. Switzerland time. Good luck to everyone!!!

Last call for Brodies Nominations!!

2018-Brodies-200px Thanks for all of the additional nominations!!! I am really sorry for losing so many nominations between the first and second nomination threads — there was this cute little button marked “older comments” which I somehow didn’t notice when I did my earlier roundup. I hope I have everything now — if you see any errors, please comment below (or you can email me: chanson dot exmormon at gmail dot com).

I have mostly finalized the categories — I have moved some nominations from one category to another in order to try to even out the categories a bit. In particular, I think the categories of “Best Blog Post” and “Best Podcast Episode” are just too general, so I have moved those nominations to more specific categories. If you would like me to move any nomination to a different category, please say so in the comments — but keep in mind that I need at least three nominations per category. I still might have to eliminate some categories, but I will try to move the affected nominations to other categories. (If one of your faves is in an incomplete category — feel free to nominate some competition! 😀 )

I will keep nominations open for one more week because of the confusion over the lost nominations. So you have until February 3, 2019 to add your nominations.

Here’s what we have so far:

Year-long awards for people and groups:

Best New Blog/Channel/Podcast/Site

Best Podcast

Best Humor/Satire Blog/Channel/Podcast

Best Site of Images/Memes/Comics

Best Mormon History Blog/Channel/Podcast

Best Exmormon Reddit Contributor

Awards for Individual Works:

Best LDS-Interest Book (Fiction)

Best LDS-Interest Book (non-fiction)

Best LDS-Interest Song

Best LDS-Interest Comic or Image

Best Humor Piece or Parody

Best Metaphor/Analogy/Allegory

Most Poignant Personal Story

Best Life Journey Piece

Best History Piece

Best Activist/Activtist Movement Within Mormonism

Best Leak or Personal Recording

Best Watchdog Piece

Best Discussion of Activism

Best Op-Ed

Best Film or Media Presentation

Best Scripture Study Piece

Best From the Pulpit Sermon

  • Thomas Shaffer
  • This category needs two more nominations in order to go on to the voting phase

Best LDS-Culture Piece

Most Insightful Commentary on the CoJCoL-dS

Best Philosophical/Theological Discussion

Best Discussion on Race

Best Discussion on Polygamy and/or Sexual Abuse within Mormonism

Best Discussion on Gender or Orientation

The nomination guidelines are found here. I look forward to seeing the rest of the nominations!! 😀

Brodies 2018 – intermediate nomination roundup!

2018-Brodies-200px Thanks for all of the great nominations so far!! I haven’t added my own nominations yet, but I plan to do so this weekend, and then I’ll make the polls. So you have one more week (from this posting) to nominate and then two weeks to vote.

It would appear that the most hotly-contested race this year will be for “Best Podcast Episode” — with whole lists of episodes getting nominated per podcast!! It looks like people are maybe suggesting that each podcast should get its own category (eg. “Best Mormon Happy Hour Podcast Episode”, “Best Drunk Mormon Podcast Episode”). I could potentially do that if that’s what folks here want (feel free to discuss in the comments) — but I’d really prefer to keep the Brodies a little tiny bit competitive.

Here’s what I’d prefer to do: For each podcast, the podcaster can select (in the comments below) their best episode to go in the “Best Podcast Episode” category, and then we can move the others to the more specific categories based on the content (eg. humor, history, church watch, race/gender discussions, best title, etc.). Some of the specific categories haven’t gotten any nominations yet, but can still go to the voting phase if people nominate some pieces this week.

Here are the nominations so far:

Year-long awards for people and groups:

Best New Blog/Channel/Podcast This category could use some more nominations — note it is limited to blogs/channels/podcasts that first started posting during 2018 (or very late in 2017, eg. December).

Best Podcast

Best Humor/Satire Blog/Channel/Podcast

Best Mormon History Blog/Channel/Podcast

  • Drunk Mormon Podcast
  • This category needs two more nominations in order to go on to the voting phase

Best Exmormon Reddit Contributor

Other potential categories that could use nominations: Best LDS-Church-Info Site, Best LDS-interest Discussion Forum

Awards for Individual Works:

Best Podcast Episode

Best LDS-Interest Book (Fiction)

  • Mormon Erotica, by Donna Banta
  • This category needs two more nominations, otherwise it will be merged with the “Best LDS-Interest Book (non-fiction)” category.

Best LDS-Interest Book (non-fiction)

  • Educated,
    by Tara Westover
  • This category needs two more nominations, otherwise it will be merged with the “Best LDS-Interest Book (fiction)” category.

Best LDS-Interest Song

Best LDS-Interest Comic or Image

Funniest Humor Piece or Parody

Most Poignant Personal Story

Best Life Journey Piece

Best Activist/Activtist Movement Within Mormonism

Best Leak or Personal Recording

Best LDS Church Watch Piece

Best Op-Ed

Best Full-Length Media Presentation

Here are some potential categories that haven’t gotten nominations yet:

  • Best Post or Episode Title
  • Best Exit Story
  • Best Metaphor/Analogy/Allegory
  • Best Poem
  • Best From the Pulpit Sermon
  • Best Response to Apologetics
  • Best LDS-Culture Piece
  • Best History Piece
  • Best Scripture Study Piece
  • Best Discussion on Parenting
  • Best Discussion on Race/Gender/Orientation
  • Most Insightful Commentary on the CoJCoL-dS
  • Best Philosophical/Theological Discussion
  • Best Short Media Presentation
  • Best Book Review

For any category that has at least two nominations by January 27, 2019, I will either try to find an appropriate third nomination myself or I will merge it with another category so that reader nominations will not get lost. That said, it would be really nice if people who are following this could encourage their friends on social media to swing by and add their own nominations for the best LDS-interest content of 2018. 😀

Congratulations to X-Mormon of the year 2018: Sam Young!!!

sam_young Sam Young — a former Mormon Bishop — has spent the past few years shining the light on a shameful practice within the CoJCoL-dS: having untrained lay bishops give one-on-one, closed-door interviews with children and teens in which bishops are expected to ask the minors about their sexual experiences (chastity) and are allowed to ask for some pretty graphic and explicit details.

This is a problem that has been hidden in plain sight for decades. Those who were raised Mormon know about it. I’ve read TBM comments online explaining that the bishop sometimes needs to ask for graphic details in order to determine what type of repentance is required. And I guess the idea is that if the kid feels ashamed while being asked precisely what their hands and other body parts did, then that’s good — they should be ashamed.

The problem is that that sets up the perfect opportunity for abuse. Kids who think they deserve to feel ashamed certainly aren’t going to dare tell their parents about it, knowing the response is more likely to be “You did X?! You should be ashamed of yourself” rather than “X is a normal part of growing up, and this untrained middle-aged man had no business asking you about it.” Thanks to Sam Young for his tireless efforts to call attention to this practice that absolutely shouldn’t be treated as ordinary and acceptable.

Sam Young caught the public eye in 2016 by voting opposed in General Conference. Over the past few decades, this voting procedure in the CoJCoL-dS has morphed into just a “sustaining” vote (in which “no” votes are inappropriate). But Sam Young argued that according to the scriptures the church should be governed by common consent, hence the vote should be a real vote.

Since then he has been the primary organizer and driving force behind the Protect LDS Children organization. After hundreds marched with Protect LDS Children in protest of this policy and Sam Young went on a hunger strike, the CoJCoL-dS finally changed its policy — now allowing parents to sit in on the interviews.

Yay?

Well, yes, except that — in accordance with its usual M.O. — the CoJCoL-dS pretended that the change was a total coincidence that had nothing to do with the organization and demonstrations. In September of 2018, they thanked Sam Young by excommunicating him. Shame on the CoJCoL-dS, but a big thanks and round of applause to you, Sam Young — 2018’s “William Law X-Mormon of the Year”!!!

Please get your Brodies’ nominations in as soon as possible on the intermediate nominations roundup thread — anyone can nominate! You can see the results of the X-Mormon of the Year voting here.

It’s time to vote for William Law X-Mormon of the Year 2018!!!

X-Mormon-2018-300x223 Wow, we’ve got quite a list of X-Mormons to choose from in 2018!!


And here are the descriptions of the nominees:

The poll will remain open until Sunday, January 20, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. Switzerland time. And may the X-Mormon who made the biggest splash in 2018 win!!

Collecting Nominations for the 2018 Brodie Awards!!

2018-Brodies-200px The nomination process for X-Mormon of the Year is underway — please be sure to get in your nominations before next weekend when the voting begins.

Now, it’s also time to start on the Brodie Awards!! The Brodie Awards are a fun little yearly activity intended to give some extra recognition and signal boost to the best LDS-interest content published/posted during the past year. This is your opportunity to review your favorite pieces, find out about great works you may have missed, and even promote your own work!

As usual, I will start by posting a list of suggested categories (from last year), but the precise list of award categories depends on your suggestions. Please feel free to browse the sidebar for ideas on award categories we’ve used in the past for ideas. Below the suggested categories, I will post the nomination guidelines.

Year-long awards for people and groups:

  • Best New Blog/Channel/Podcast
  • Best Humor/Satire Blog/Channel/Podcast
  • Best Mormon History Blog/Channel/Podcast
  • Best LDS-Church-Info Site
  • Best LDS-interest Discussion Forum
  • Best Exmormon Reddit Contributor

Awards for Individual Works:

  • Best LDS-Interest Book (Fiction)
  • Best LDS-Interest Book (non-fiction)
  • Best LDS-Interest Song
  • Best Poem
  • Best LDS-Interest Comic or Image
  • Best Post Title
  • Funniest Humor Piece
  • Funniest Parody
  • Best Metaphor/Analogy/Allegory
  • Best From the Pulpit Sermon
  • Most Poignant Personal Story
  • Best Exit Story
  • Best Life Journey Piece
  • Best Activist/Activtist Movement Within Mormonism
  • Best Leak or Personal Recording
  • Best LDS Church Watch Piece
  • Best Response to Apologetics
  • Best LDS-Culture Piece
  • Best History Piece
  • Best Scripture Study Piece
  • Best Discussion on Parenting
  • Best Discussion on Orientation
  • Best Best Discussion on Gender
  • Best Discussion on Race
  • Most Insightful Commentary on the CoJCoL-dS
  • Best Philosophical/Theological Discussion
  • Best Podcast Episode
  • Best Short Media Presentation
  • Best Book Review

And here are the nomination guidelines:

  • Please nominate as many people, books, blogs, sites, podcasts, songs, articles, images, etc. as you want. However, please do not nominate more than two individual works by any one author/artist.
  • You are encouraged to nominate your own works. No one knows better than you do which pieces were your best. No more than two, though.
  • Please nominate works that first appeared during 2018.
  • Please try to nominate people and works that have some connection with Mormonism (eg. either the work touches on Mormonism, or the author is a current or former Mormon and/or is an active participant in our community).
  • A category must have at least three nominations in order to be included in the voting and awards phase.
  • You may suggest your own categories — however please do it as early as possible in the nominations process, to give others plenty of time to add nominations in your proposed categories.
  • Any other proposed changes to the categories or to the guidelines are welcome — feel free to discuss it in the comments.
  • The nominations will be open until mid-January, 2019, depending on my schedule. I will finalize the dates and categories and add my own nominations a few days before the nominations close and voting begins.

How to nominate: Just post your nominations as comment to this thread, but please include links to the works you nominate. If your nomination comment ends up in the spam filter, please email me (chanson dot exmormon at gmail dot com) and I will fish it out.

I can’t wait to review all of the best works from 2018!!!

Collecting nominations for X-Mormon of the Year 2018!!!

X-Mormon-2018-300x223 Hey folks — it’s that time of year again! Time to decide which X-Mormon made the biggest splash in 2018!!

Sorry to be getting started a little late this year — maybe it’s just that the likeliest candidate has never been more obvious. I’m not going to say who I’m thinking of, because I hope you have some other ideas to give this candidate some competition. 😀

I will just say that — as always — getting excommunicated during the year in question is not a requirement… but it doesn’t hurt!

Please post all your nominations below for the X-Mormon who made the biggest splash in 2018!! Thanks, and I look forward to your nominations!

Congratulations 2017 Brodie Award Winners!!!

2017-Brodies-200px Congrats to the following winners and to all who participated!!

Year-long awards for people and groups:

Brodies 2017: Best New Blog/Channel/Podcast: Radio Free Mormon

Brodies 2017: Best Humor/Satire Blog/Channel/Podcast: Brother Jake

Brodies 2017: Best Mormon History Blog/Channel/Podcast: Naked Mormonism

Brodies 2017: Best LDS-Church-Info Site: MormonLeaks

Brodies 2017: Best LDS-interest Discussion Forum: r/exmormon

Brodies 2017: Best Exmormon Reddit Contributor:u/missedinsunday

Awards for Individual Works:

Brodies 2017: Best LDS-Interest Book (Fiction): The Book of Laman, by Mette Ivie Harrison

Brodies 2017: Best LDS-Interest Book (non-fiction): Michael Quinn’s Mormon Hierarchy: wealth and corporate power

Brodies 2017: Best LDS-Interest Song: Tapirback Rider, by Weird Alma

Brodies 2017: Best Poem: The War Goes On, by Clarence Tong

Brodies 2017: Best LDS-Interest Comic or Image: Mormon Merit Badges

Brodies 2017: Best Post Title: Blue balls, flaming swords and the language of coercion, by Thinker of Thoughts

Brodies 2017: Funniest Humor Piece: a tie between Evil Apostate Series, by Thoughts on Things and Stuff, and God Steps Down Amid Sexual Assault Allegations, by Tanner Gilliland

Brodies 2017: Funniest Parody: Straight Outta Cumorah, by Weird Alma

Brodies 2017: Best Metaphor/Analogy/Allegory: A Den of Thieves: The LDS LGBTQ+ Story as Currency, by Nathan K.

Brodies 2017: Best From the Pulpit Sermon: Savannah’s Testimony

Brodies 2017: Most Poignant Personal Story: Mike Norton on Mormon Stories

Brodies 2017: Best Exit Story: an email to her bishop rejects any and all callings because representing the church in any capacity would compromise her integrity, by Reddit user PlanitL

Brodies 2017: Best Life Journey Piece: a tie between A Sunday in the life of a closeted exmormon, by Reddit user my_name_is_NO, and Stepping Out of the Big Tent: The Possibility of Leaving Mormonism, by Lynette

Brodies 2017: Best Activist/Activtist Movement Within Mormonism: Protect the Children Petition by Sam Young

Brodies 2017: Best Leak or Personal Recording: Savannah’s Testimony originally released by NewNameNoah

Brodies 2017: Best LDS Church Watch Piece: Eclipsing the Truth, by Alex

Brodies 2017: Best Response to Apologetics: Response to 3Mormons on Race in Mormonism, by Thoughts on Things and Stuff

Brodies 2017: Best LDS-Culture Piece: 178 & 179: The Truths About Marital Intimacy: A Critique of Wendy Nelson’s Sex Talk: Helfer-Parker and de Azevedo-Hanks

Brodies 2017: Best History Piece: Undeniable proof that the Journal of Discourses (JoD) was/is an official church publication, by Gileriodekel

Brodies 2017: Best Scripture Study Piece: Ether 15: The End of the World As We Know It, by Alex

Brodies 2017: Best Discussion on Parenting: Taking Back My Power, by Dad’s Primal Scream

Brodies 2017: Best Discussion on Orientation: White Shirt, Black Name Tag, Big Secret, by Ellis Jeter

Brodies 2017: Best Discussion on Gender: Cheating LDS Young Women – Again, by Gina Colvin

Brodies 2017: Best Discussion on Race: Response to 3 Mormons on Race, by Thoughts on Things and Stuff

Brodies 2017: Most Insightful Commentary on the CoJCoL-dS: Face2Face series, by Thinker of Thoughts

Brodies 2017: Best Philosophical/Theological Discussion: Undue influence in general conference: obedience, by Luna Lindsey and Jonathan Streeter

Brodies 2017: Best short media presentation: Revelation Through Hallucination, by Bryce Blankenagel and Cody Noconi at the Sunstone Symposium

Brodies 2017: Best Podcast Episode: Year of Polygamy, Episode 139, Dispelling the idea that Joseph Smith fought polygamy, by Lindsay Hansen Park with John Dinger, Bryan Buchanan, and John Hatch

Brodies 2017: Best Book Review: 6 Must-Read Books for Ex-Mormons, by Samantha Shelley

To all of the winners, here’s your winner graphic that you can display on your website:

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2017-Brodies-White

What fun that was! Thanks to all who nominated and voted — I’ve found some great new sites to follow in my own reading! 😀

To see the poll results and links to all of the nominees, look here.

Brodies + MAA Books!!

The Brodies voting is well underway — and it has turned out to be an exciting year after all!! There are already some clear winners, but also some tight races, such as: “Best Mormon History Blog/Channel/Podcast,” “Best Life Journey Piece,” “Best Response to Apologetics,” “Best Discussion on Gender,” and “Best Philosophical/Theological Discussion.”

There is so much great stuff this year — I really hope that (like me!) you’re taking advantage of this opportunity to discover some great content that you may have missed! You have one more week!!

My profound apologies for all of the embarrassing errors this time, specifically: accidentally naming all of the polls “Brodies 2018” and accidentally neglecting to make a poll for “Best Exmormon Reddit Contributor” — plus a bunch of other obvious typos. It’s as if I was drunk while preparing the polls or something! (note: I neither confirm nor deny rumors of my being drunk while preparing the polls, but I will say that it is an incredibly boring task, just sayin’ 😉 )

Additionally, today I finished my first pass at updating the MAA website to reflect our new status as an indie publisher!! 😀 Check it out!

We’re still working on the “about” page (clearly), but I hope to have it in a better state next weekend.

Good luck to all on the Brodie Awards, and have a great week!!!