A couple months ago, the Mormon church decided to profile my brother for their Im A Mormon campaign. A camera crew came to his house for an interview; now his profile and testimony are listed on the www.mormon.org website. My brother was thrilled about the opportunity — he saw…
Category: Family
The Happiness Factor
Over the years, I’ve watched former mormon blogs come and go. And posters on various former mormon boards join and leave. (Kiley recently talked about it here). From what I can discern, there appears to be a cycle that some former mormons run through. At first there can be a…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Mother’s Day Edition!!
Today is one of the most significant and dreaded holidays on the Mormon liturgical calendar: Mother’s Day! Wheatmeister posted a poll about the best gift for Mother’s Day (but neglected to include women’s health care as an option). If anyone here doesn’t know what a Mormon Mothers Day service is…
“Not in some sissy way”
Sometimes I feel like I’ve been out of Mormonism so long that I can hardly remember what it was like. Yet it’s in there — deep in the bowels of my brain — perhaps built into the foundation of my personality. Since my kids have gotten old enough to enjoy…
Gay Mormon Fatherhood
A week ago, I wrote a post on my blog about coming out as a gay father. I mentioned strands of Mormon thinking which, I had come to realize, were woven throughout my psyche as a gay father, along with the strands of general homophobia, shame and self-loathing that are…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Happy 2012 Edition!
Warren Jeffs has decided to start off the new year for his followers on an interesting note. And, by interesting, I mean that — if you doubted that the FLDS are a danger to themselves and others — Jeffs has decided to remove all doubt. At first, it looked like…
The Economic Role of Mothers
A Dec 2011 APA study is making its way through the news suggesting that mothers who work part-time are happier and healthier than stay-at-homes and full-time mothers, and they make good parents. A good summary of the study can be found here. Regarding the “mommy wars” or the debate in…
A road-trip out of crazy: “Hippie Boy,” by Ingrid Ricks
Dad was a master salesman who could talk anyone into anything, and life on the road with him was the wildest adventure any kid could possibly imagine. Unfortunately, since he was often unreliable and occasionally violent, it wasn’t always the good kind of adventure — but it was a great…
Pornography vis-a-vis Female Ordination
I’m slightly annoyed by people who are against pornography because of its offense to women, but also think female ordination is out of the question. Specifically, on LDS forums, Mormon men sometimes rant about not watching pornography in respect of their wife who takes care of “the home.” In my…
“That’s so Mormon”…? Dan, no!
Recently, a reader wrote to Dan Savage with the following suggestion: I’ve decided to start saying “that’s Mormon” instead of “that’s gay” and encouraging my friends to do the same. It’s more accurate and plus it gives shit to a group of people who have extremely backward views about homosexuality….