Of course one can always adopt a personal creed and receive some of the benefits, but the full benefits are impossible for most people (maybe even all people?) to have without believing the truth claims as part of a community.It’s possible for a rejectionist community to crop up that exists…
Category: Community
Where are you going?
Everyone’s talked about this idea of people leaving the church but not leaving it alone. And you can see, depending on which end of faith you stand, different outlooks at the issue. Some might think that it’s petty for people who no longer believe (or who never believed) to put…
Overlapping Cultural Mormon Perspectives
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…
Self-expression in a society
Andrew pointed out the irony of Gary Lawrence’s advice to “just be yourself” (reported here): Gary’s son being himself (gay) + Gary being himself (raging homophobe) = family catastophe. As backwards as it is to call Proposition 8 “pro-family,” Lynnette explains that it’s disingenuous to pretend that gay marriage has…
How are the Mormons like the Jews?
It seems like whenever we talk about Mormons as a people and a culture, the first discussion point is always “How are we like/unlike the Jews?” It’s very natural for Mormons to see the parallel with this fellow tribe. It just hit me recently, though, that this connection might not…
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…
Mormon Replacement Rate Negative in United States
According to the Pew U.S. Religious Landscape Survey the replacement rate of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has dropped to 80%. That means that for every five members who leave Mormonism behind four new converts join the Church. In 2001, the CUNY Religious Identification Survey had found…
Returned Missionary’s Political Conversion
In the past, as an Evangelical Christian and as a Mormon, I voiced a lot of support for the Republican party. For me, at that time, it wasn’t a matter of fiscal, domestic, or international policy; it was a matter of emotionally supporting the imposition my accepted morality on the…
The Reality of It All
I don’t watch a lot of t.v. When I do watch t.v., I don’t watch a lot of reality shows. In fact, the only one I watch with any regularity is The Biggest Loser on NBC. American Idol, Survivor, Big Brother–can’t stomach any of those. Lately, though, I’ve started watching…
Ward boundaries & choice
Every week my Catholic grandmother drives 20 miles to the next county in order to go to Saturday mass with her sister. Both are elderly widows, and the routine has been ongoing for over twenty years. I think their little tradition is really sweet, and it means a lot to…