I posted this elsewhere not too long ago, and it seemed to get positive feedback, so I thought I would share this experience here and get your thoughts about it. During a conversation with my wife in the car after meeting some fantastic believing/disaffected couples for dinner last week, I…
Category: civil discourse
Civil discourse and our goals at Main Street Plaza
We dont need to stoop to insults to win debates; reality is on our side. And there are many people out there who are willing to listen to logic and evidence, when presented reasonably and in good faith. We should always presume that people who disagree with us are amenable…
A Healthy Dose of Skepticism
Recently, I got a chance to experience the missionary/salesperson perspective first hand. I was asking various people to sign a petition. For privacy reasons, I’m not going to say what the petition was for, except that it may or may not be related to my work. You might question how…
Mormon Like Me: Black Saints, Bigots, and Beck
Guest post by MJBY (The author teaches creative writing at Brigham Young University and has written extensively about blacks in the American West). Marshall, Missouri Ive known the name of the town for a decade now, since I teamed with Darius Gray to write three books and produce two documentaries…
A quick Q&A with Todd Whitaker about that testimony of his
Todd Whitaker recently bore his testimony. The video of Todd testifying to his ward has now gone viral. As you may have seen, it was not your typical Mormon F&T meeting fare. I caught up with Todd by email and he agreed to answer a few questions.
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Truth and Consequences Edition!
The big news this week is John Remy‘s excommunication for apostasy!! And he’s not the only one who’s feeling the heat this week for disbelieving and/or criticizing the LDS church. The crap has hit the fan and set off a whirlwind of drama, accusations, and letters of condemnation from Hypatia’s…
The Ethics of Speaking Up
Hi everyone, I’m honored to join the Main Street Plaza crew. My name is Mike, and I chose the nickname Saganist because Carl Sagan has been a big influence on my thinking. Just a bit of background on me: my religious history is long and complicated, but I joined the…
Every exmember a missionary.
These days, I don’t talk religion that much with people offline that much, and even when I do, I keep my religion/lack thereof cloudy until someone asks outright (it’s amazing how many people will talk and talk presuming you’re Christian and never ask you if you feel otherwise…but maybe that’s…
Narratives and the Golden Rule
I was doubtful as to whether to complete this, since I guess things have kinda blown over in recent times, and perhaps we may not even need this message. But something I read recently made me want to write about it all over again… You may have seen our great…
So, what else is new?
Is is cheap sensationalism to post the usual from nutty protesters? Well, I posted positive inauguration stuff on my other blogs. 😉