In a surprise move, the first day of Hanukkah fell on Thanksgiving this year! The Highchair Travelers provided some ideas on how to celebrate Hanukkah — and don’t forget to read the Hannukah story from the Bible! I assume you already all know how to celebrate Thanksgiving: You think about…
Category: Traditions
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Scary stuff coming up edition!
With Halloween coming up this week, please enjoy the firs batch of tales of this holiday’s history including its tragic devolution into “Trunk-or-Treat”. Also, the missionary costume pictures have already started appearing — and I hope there’ll be plenty more of them between now and next week! (If anyone’s up…
The Inconvenient Truths about Mormon Lactivism
Recently there has been much talk surrounding a YW leader who is unfortunately threatened of having her temple recommend withdrawn if she does not leave the room or cover herself while breastfeeding at church meetings. (Call to Action – Lactivism) There are many things wrong with this scenario. The LDS…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Last Gasp of 2012 Edition!!
If you had anything you wanted to be sure to do in 2012, you don’t have much time left!! It’s time for tithing settlement, and the year-end reflections have already begun! Mormons Building Bridges have been recognized as making an impact in 2012, as have many Mormon politicians who’ve been…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Let the Holidays Begin Edition!
Last week marked some interesting holidays, including the anniversaries of the publication of The Origin of Species and Dr. Who. Plus Hanukkah is coming up in a couple weeks. Many of us celebrated Thanksgiving. I find this holiday a bit problematic, but don’t let my Thanksgiving-grinchery rain on other peoples’…
Tuesday in Outer Blogness: Pioneer Day Edition!!
Hi Folks!! Today I’m blogging you from Salt Lake City, Utah — where I’ll be participating in the Sunstone Symposium! Anyone who is in town and wants to get together, please email me: chanson dot exmormon at gmail dot com. Today is a special day in Utah, though so far…
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…
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…
Knowledge, Community, and Relationships
Over at the faithful Mormon blog Faith-Promoting Rumor is a discussion enticingly titled “Do Relationships Make the Church True and False?” This post is a short enough one that you should just go over there and read it, but I guess I will still highlight some points here…when I was…
what to say when
Recently I saw a (small maroon) book with a title like “What to say when: answers for latter day saints”. I’ve searched popular search engines, online book retailers, LDS church publisher websites to no avail. So I can’t post a link. But I thought it was an interesting idea/concept. It…