The recent patriotic month here in Utah turned my thoughts to the subject of parades and patriotism. As a resident of Davis County (just north of Salt Lake City) for a number of years, my former wife and I took our children to the Centerville 4th of July parade every…
Category: Mormon Doctrine
What is Truth: Gays, Believers and Apostates
As has been pointed out by numerous commenters throughout the (relatively short) life of my blog (at http://invictuspilgrim.blogspot.com), a gay (active/post/ex-/inactive/anything in between) Mormons relationship to the LDS Church is often complicated. The reason for this should be obvious (but perhaps isnt to many members of the Church). Many gay…
Sitting on a shelf gathering dust
Food storage is a good example of the divide between liberal and conservative schools of thought. Not all LDS believe in keeping a three months’ supply of food, of course. While it’s been discussed as recently as 2007, I think food storage was always a “soft” commandment. Like journaling and…
Remembering the Lost and De-Emphasized Series – Part 1: Adam-Ondi-Ahman
Since chanson suggested it, I thought I’d get the ball rolling in the new series on “Remembering the Lost and De-Emphasized” esoterica of Mormonism. Rarely do I get stranger looks then when I tell someone unfamiliar with Mormonism that Mormons literally believe that the Garden of Eden was in Missouri….
The Future of the King Follett Discourse
Three months before his assassination in 1844, Joseph Smith gave a speech that is referred to today as the King Follett discourse (named after an Elder Follett). In that speech, Smith laid out the idea that God was once a man and that all human beings have the potential to…
The Virgin Birth
My parents had a copy of Mormon Doctrine when I was growing up. I don’t remember reading it, although I may have cracked it open to write a talk or two. Despite my years of early morning seminary, I don’t remember hearing about whether or not Mary was technically a…
Mormon and Queer at the Crossroads
I’ve been active on this blog since chanson reviewed my gay, Mormon novel Ockham’s Razor last October. I will be presenting a paper about my novel at this year’s Sunstone Symposium titled “Two Paradigms for ‘Gay.’” (Half of my presentation will also concern Jonathan Langford’s novel No Going Back–also reviewed…
Drinking Coke
We’ve discussed before how difficult it is to determine official mormon doctrine. Policies and guidelines seem to change with the generations, with geographical area or with personal revelation. I’ve heard from two different sources that someone very high up in mormon priesthood and corporate leadership drinks coke on a regular…
More on Meetings!
Shortly after our last discussion of meetings, there was a new development that has sparked discussion throughout the Bloggernacle: The new manual for Priesthood and Relief Society (adult classes) is a book which, until now, “largely has been used as a primer for new converts.” Even though (I assume) LDS…
Battlestar Galactica and the Lost Ten Tribes
The re-imagined Battlestar series ended last year, and the DVD came out this past summer. But I was thinking of it the other day when someone mentioned the lost ten tribes of Israel. How did I get from Battlestar Galatica (BSG) to the lost ten tribes?