Leave The Light On I was privileged today to witness a speech given by the Mayor of San Diego, CA, Jerry Sanders. You can watch the speech for yourself here. I suggest you do, it’s very moving. In a heartfelt declaration, he announced that after searching his heart, he decided…
Category: Community
Conference, Ex-Mo Style
I know this image was posted on here earlier. But I had to use it again. I don’t know why, but this image spoke to me as I thought of my post for today. It takes the edge off of the nostalgic ennui that I feel in the fall when…
NYT: Mormons, Gentiles and Polygamists
The New York Times is reporting about the Mormon melting pot in St George: Paul Hanson, who lives in a fundamentalist community about an hour from St. George and works for a building products company, said he had come to understand that the Mormon splinter groups and the Mormon Church,…
Hannah Arendt and the Mormon Experience
Although it may be more troubling than soothing but as a German, I can relate to Mormons who have to confront the dark aspects of their family history. My sympathies to J. Stapley. Growing up in Germany, I enjoyed the dubious pleasure of meeting Nazis and Bolshevics. Pretty much every…
The Conservative Logic of Gay Marriage
If you feel queezy about homosexuality, my sympathy. We have all been raised in a culture that identifies homosexuality as a defect if not a sin. It would be dishonest if we were to pretend that we can escape our socialization but we can rely on reason for reflection. On…
The Many Meandering Paths Away from Faith
When people leave Mormonism, where do they go? What paths do they take? Purely on the basis of anecdotal evidence, this is what some of them do:
Resurrection
Killing my blog was one of the most painful experiences I’ve had in my postmormon existence. For whatever reason, I could not write what I thought without hurting my wife deeply, and when things reached a decision point, I decided that I wouldn’t write if I couldn’t write whatever I…
“I want to be something”
We have various neighbors who are devoutly Muslim, Jewish, and Catholic. There are also Hindus, atheists, and every variety of Protestant. And, of course, most of our extended family is Mormon. So our son is not unaccustomed to hearing “Because they’re Muslim” or “Because they think that’s what God wants…
Fiction at Main Street Plaza
Coming soon to a browser near you, Main Street Plaza will be publishing fiction! Our first published piece will be “Love, Mormon Style,” by Bob Bringhurst. “Love, Mormon Style” was originally published in a short fiction anthology called In Our Lovely Deseret: Mormon Fictions. This is a humorous yet poignant…
Why Mormons Need the Supreme Court
I guess it should be self-evident that a marginal religious minority requires protection against the whims of the majority but a participant of the Mormon Stories Yahoo group reminded me of how frustratingly egocentric Deseret Mormons can be. Here is my reply to a Supreme Court basher: Thank you for…