Faithful Mormons often imagine that those commenting on Mormonism from outside their circle form one monolithic block of “antis”. Mormon culture encourages this view, so people are often surprised when they read the discussion on the Internet and find that the people who disbelieve Mormonism occasionally agree with the Mormons…
Category: Christianity
Taking the Long Term View on Marriage Equality
Intellectually, one can only sustain the orthodox position against marriage equality if one assumes that gays are not fully human or somehow defective. Unfortunately, biology contradicts that notion. The Church is correct in asserting the freedom for the organization and its members. However, our liberty ends where it begins to…
Hellmut’s Deconversion
I have been miserable at Church ever since my mission. I still couldn’t get out because I had to act on my testimony even though I experienced Church as toxic every Sunday. To me, the mission experience was dehumanizing and sacrilegious reducing converts to trophies and missionaries to tools. Any…
It’s Official: Mormonism is not a Protestant Religion
So says a court in Arkansas. I know lawyers are necessary, but since when do they believe they can determine the answer to longstanding theological, historical, and sociological questions? Oh well… I guess the next time someone asks if Mormonism is Protestant you can cite actual legal precedent when saying…
How I came to sympathize with the Mormons…
Step one was to finish my degree at BYU and go somewhere else. When you’re at BYU (or you’re a kid in a Mormon household), Mormonism seems huge and powerful (in a bad way, since LDS Inc. aspires to be kind of a mini taliban). As soon as I was…
Charitable Giving
One of the things I find I disagree with some active LDS about is the extent of formal LDS charitable giving and service related activities. One of the arguments that I’ve read in various places on the internets is that the Utah LDS church DOES have a strong record of…
God Is Dead: Happy Easter!
To Lutherans Good Friday is the most important day of the year. I always regretted that Mormons do not properly celebrate Easter. Thank heavens for Johann Sebastian Bach whose Passions relate God’s suffering like no other. Good Friday is the day that God died and if there is a redeeming…
Christian Religion vs. Non Profit Corporation
I think we can all agree that the LDS religion is unique. If we compare it to a mainstream Christian religion, like the United Methodists – it is very different. Even LDS missionaries would be happy to point out the many doctrinal and organizational differences. Case and point, Methodists have…
Romney Roundup
As expected, thoughts on Romney’s speech are all over the blogosphere: On the Bloggernacle: Times & Seasons provides a list of articles and Nine Moons some commentary. Andrew’s Miracle Drug is skeptical about Romney’s exclusion of skeptics while A Bird’s Eye View sees the speech as pluralistic. My favorites are…
How not to invite Mormons to your church, part 2
Recall we learned in part 1 that discrediting Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham is a dangerous tactic since the Mormons who are swayed by such evidence have an annoying tendency to continue this same line of reasoning and ask hard questions about Jesus. The…