Sam was pretty lucky that his cousin Joe had come to live with him. The three of us were all in the same math class together, which meant that Sam got free help with his math homework every night while I only got help when they invited me over. I…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Lifecycle Edition!
This week Magic Cicero asks: What Does It Mean to Recover from Mormonism? And he comes to the same conclusion as so many of us here on Main Street Plaza: But there’s a lot of who I am that can’t be disconnected from that Mormon past. For better or worse,…
Warning for “Orem High”
I’m afraid this next segment (Orem High, beginning this Tuesday!) is probably the section that most needs a disclaimer. I’ll divide the warning into two parts: (1) the name, and (2) the sex. the name Why did I call this segment “Orem High”? I’ve never been there — I’ve never…
If they feel happy and think they’re happy, how is that different from BEING happy?
That was Rebecca’s response to her Mormon mom who dismissed the possibility that an exmo friend might be happy (“Oh, she only thinks she’s happy”). I thought of this point when the subject came up again, and Hellmut mentioned how awful the Mormon phony/forced happiness is.
Baylor scholars misleading the public
A recent report by the Council for Secular Humanism has called into question findings from a large survey by Baylor University sociologists of religion. Turns out, the team of sociologists at Baylor, led by Rodney Stark, used a variety of tricks and subtle techniques to make it seem as though…
“Optimal Tension” fine, but how far are we from “optimal”?
We hear a lot on the Bloggernacle about Armand Mauss’s theory of optimal tension. Getting down to brass tacks, it’s that when the LDS church denies the priesthood to black people or marriage to gay people, it’s not just about the black people or the gay people — it’s also…
Prince Eugene, the Noble Knight
The gentleman on the white Arab is Prince Eugene of Savoy, probably the most famous commander of the House of Habsburg. The latter may have been perpetually broke but, like many Catholics, they did know how to put on a good show. Raised in France, Louis XIV denied the Prince…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Lite ‘n Crunchy Edition!
This week in Outer Blogness I’ve seen a number of images and other things that made me laugh or smile: Jean offers a picture of an alternate reality in which the Angel Moroni arrives via snowboard. Tom posts an unvarnished portrait of a 55-year old man getting to know his…
So, are you enjoying your exmormon despair and unhappiness yet?
So, I recently had a fun escapade in the comments at a post at Feminist Mormon Housewives. It was a post from a guestposter, Jon, on whether or not the church might be a hostile place. Who ever could have thought of that?! …I’m still freshly reeling about the “hostile”…
LDS leaders caught in a lie… (a.k.a. history repeats itself)
Turns out that LDS Church’s original claim that they only spent a couple thousand dollars on the Proposition 8 campaign was, well, total crap. Looks like the latest numbers are in the hundreds of thousands range. Anyone surprised? Here’s my guess as to what is going to happen with this…