Once you strip away all the Book of Mormon’s pretenses of scriptural import, what you have is nothing more nor less than a lusty tale of America’s favorite subject: families and murder…. Murder and ruin are written across the breadth of Joseph Smith’s pre-American panorama, and because violence always demands…
Category: Utah
Thoughts on RFRAs and Nondiscrimination
Renewed interest in Religious Freedom Restoration Acts (e.g., Indiana, Arkansas) has arisen because everyone knows the US Supreme Court will okay gay marriage for the country in a few months. Conservative religious people and entities want to be in a comfortable position when this uncomfortable reality hits — they want…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Response edition
The big news this week is that Kate Kelly has appealed her excommunication. In her appeal, Kate wrote: I am, and have always been, a faithful Mormon. My only “sin†elucidated by you has been speaking my mind and pushing for gender equality in the Church. Far from being wrong,…
Congratulations to 2013 X-Mormons of the Year: J. Seth Anderson and Michael Ferguson!!!
It’s an inspiring and exciting story! Couples in California right around Proposition 8 learned that if you don’t get married in the window of time when it’s legal, you might have a long wait before your next opportunity. Failure to block same-sex-marriages legally was apparently an error on the part…
Utah State Legislature drafting Nondiscrimination Bill
The Utah State Legislature is currently drafting a bill for housing and employment nondiscrimination for LGBTs statewide after months of closed door discussions. Good, right? Well, here’s the scary part: one of the sticking points is whether churches as institutions should be exempt from the discrimination ban, or if adherents…
Weirdest Mormon Story Maybe Ever
Links to a very strange Mormon-related story have begun appearing in my Facebook feed, and I must share here. The SL Trib Headline reads “LDS branch leader booted after sexual assault charge.” Turns out that Efrey Guzman, a 46-year-old president of a Latino branch in Sandy, “allegedly groped girl, attacked…
“Religious Exemption” in Sexual Orientation Nondiscrimination Law
I’ve been thinking about how a couple leaders of the LDS Church have vocalized how they wouldn’t mind the 2009 nondiscrimination laws in Salt Lake City (in housing and employment, on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity) be expanded across the state of Utah. Specifically, what they’re interested…
Negotiating Mormon Identity – In the Airport
My wife and I just flew to Utah with our 2 year-old son to spend the holidays with family. Having lived the last 10 years outside of Utah, we’re quite familiar with traveling to Utah for the holidays. The many trips over the last 10 years have developed what is…
Grow where you are planted
As difficult as it may be for some to believe, this is a statement I can agree with. It is/was an LDS statement originally said by David O. McKay**. From my understanding, it was meant to encourage Mormons not to feel as if they had to “move back to Utah”….
Just for kicks, how long will this clip stay up before it gets pulled?
Ever wonder why it’s OK for Mormons like the Marriotts to profit from porn? Now you know. As someone elsewhere noted: “I think this new PSA from the Mormons is much more helpful than some of their older, more boring stuff.”