The buzz this week was all about how President Obama’s dead mom has been let out of spirit prison (or something like that). I ought to be dutifully rounding up every single post on the subject, but — no offense — everybody said exactly the same things they say every…
The LDS Church, Proposition 8, and the Federal Law of Charities
Brian Galle*: In the days before and after the passage of California’s “Proposition 8,” a ballot initiative barring legal recognition of same-sex marriages in the state, it was widely reported that the LDS Church, together with other religious organizations, played a significant role in supporting the initiative. National attention peaked…
It’s Time to Play: Anti-Mormon… Or Not?
Here’s my crazy theory about the problem with Mormon Literature: It’s not that most Mormons want to read something “clean” and uplifting. It’s that the folks who want only clean and uplifting reading are so worried about the possibility of reading or supporting something potentially “anti-Mormon” that they’ll avoid LDS-interest…
Why do we act?
When we were members of the church, we knew very acutely how many rules and laws and words of wisdom and commandments we had to follow. Why did we keep up with it then…and why do we do what we do now? What motivates us to act? For the past…
Sunday in Outre Blogness: Lazy Edition!
You may recall from last week’s episode that some commenter mercilessly sucked me into reading The Authoritarians, which has cut into the Sunday morning free-time that I normally spend finding intricate and obscure connections among the posts of Outer Blogness from the past week. And, sadly, it wasn’t one of…
Dreams in a Garden
I had a strange dream last night. I see your eyes glazing over already. Listening to other people’s dreams bores you. I get that. I want to share anyway. I dreamt that I was in the middle of a garden where I enjoyed every earthly delight. Then a man dressed…
Exmo Arts-n-Lit Roundup!
Who wants to swap some stories? Multimedia: The exmo documentary In the Shadow of the Temple is now in the preview for focus groups stage! And our friends at Mind on Fire have added a regular video/podcast feature. Exit Stories: The Lyoness has recently started a whole blog devoted to…
Mormons are too risque for Mormonism
Didn’t anyone else see that Deseret Book has removed the Twilight series from their shelves? Who knew that a non-vampire teenage female NOT having pre-marital sex with a teenage male vampire was so risque that it was offensive to Mormon sensibilities, especially considering it was written expressly to be acceptable…
Following the rules or Seeing the Forest Through the Trees
I’m not someone who is particularly good at following the rules, at least some rules. And believe it or not, depending on who you talk to, Mormonism had a lot of rules. What type of soda/pop to drink, what kind of music to listen to, etc. What always astounded me…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Parade of Patriotism Edition!
Now, let’s just dispense with the esoteric discussions on the true dirty definition of “tea-bagging” since the tea-baggers are just patriotic Americans who don’t like taxation without representation, and if your favorite candidate fails to get elected one time, then the patriotic thing to do is, well, secede from the…