Mormon Open Letter has added a survey to their site in a new tab. The purpose of this survey is to gather information about any church action or threatened church action (such as excommunication) that Mormon church members have experienced due to their outspokenness or questions in regards to doubts,…
Category: Testimony
Symbolic beliefs can counter cognitive dissonance, but at a cost
Why You Should Read and Sign The Mormon Open Letter
On February 7, 2014, we wrote the Mormon Open Letter addressed to Thomas S. Monson. The church had already started publishing essays in the Gospel Topics section of LDS.org. These essays introduced and attempted to explain some of the troubling historical events and doctrinal issues (e.g. translation of the Book…
Letting go
A very significant relationship in my life has recently come to a close. This relationship has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. It impacted every aspect of my upbringing and guided me in all the major decisions of my life up to this…
No Longer Afraid of the F Word
Last year my 20 year old son recommended I read The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan. I don’t think I had ever read an explicitly feminist text before that and it was an eye opener. I was surprised by how much the experiences of the women she wrote about resonated…
Missionary Chat: Ordain Women
I thought I’d follow proxfm’s lead, and talk to some missionaries. My chat was about Ordain Women… Spencer: Hi Alan! How are you doing today? 🙂 Alan: Pretty good. Spencer: Glad to hear it! How can we help you? Alan: I’m just curious about the Ordain Women movement in Utah……
Why Ordain Women
As I’ve been reading through the various blogs, posts and media reports about the Ordain Women movement, as a result of the church’s letter that came out yesterday, I noticed something:….I’m different. Kate Kelly told the Salt Lake Tribune
My MSP contributions thus far
I’ve been a contributor to Main Street Plaza for a few years now. Recently, I’ve been posting a lot less frequently because my interests have developed in other directions than Mormonism. This is probably because I’m 30 years old and left the Church half-my-life ago! Looking back through my posts,…
Merry Christmas!!
Folks, I am really sorry to have missed doing SiOB the other day — especially considering that it was going to be the gay polygamy issue!!! From the minute I finished work on Friday evening, I had a million things to do to get ready for Christmas! So, even though…
Unweaving the tangled web: Michael Oborn’s “The Complete Mystery of Matthew Alcott”
Do you ever wonder what’s in the secret vaults of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? Have you ever imagined what you’d do if you had access? Matthew Alcott was a humble archivist working for the church when some previously undisclosed documents caught his eye, including Joseph Smith’s…
Affirmation Update
Since my post a few days ago about the recent Affirmation conference I’ve been in a lively and polite discussion with Affirmation leaders. They’ve defended themselves well regarding my statement that “Affirmation at times seems too focused on helping gay Mormons maintain…their ties to the Mormon Church.” They pointed out…