Did you think my kiss was a promise of what you’ll have? No, my pompous one. It was to let you know what you will not have. The Mormons’ relationship with the Religious Right keeps reminding me of this crazy Ten Commandments quote. In kind of an opposite sort of…
An Open Letter to the ‘nacle
Remember when you were upset last fall when one poll after another revealed that a substantial number of liberals applied a religious test to Mitt Romney? I tried to explain to you that people felt threatened by our involvement in racist and sexist discrimination. We resisted racial equality for 24…
Trunk or Treat?
Is anyone doing this “Trunk or Treat” thing? I’d never heard of this as a kid (maybe it’s new or something), and I’m glad. Really, are your neighbors that scary that you can’t let them give candy to your kids? When I was growing up, we went out trick-or-treating around…
A Post That’s Not About Gay Marriage (except it totally is)
I have a question for you believing Mormons out there (there are some of you who read this, right??? I hope). First, some exposition: With one (brilliant) exception (me), my immediate family members are all active Mormons. They are, however, split pretty much down the middle: my mother and sisters…
Hellmut’s Deconversion
I have been miserable at Church ever since my mission. I still couldn’t get out because I had to act on my testimony even though I experienced Church as toxic every Sunday. To me, the mission experience was dehumanizing and sacrilegious reducing converts to trophies and missionaries to tools. Any…
Power and Morality
The Jesuit magazine America features an essay by Cathleen Kaveny, which discusses the concept of inherent evil and it’s political implications. This passage caught my attention: Some Catholic commentators have claimed that the certainty we have about the wrongfulness of intrinsically evil acts means that we should give their prevention…
The Divine Institution of Marriage: A Rebuttal
On August 13, 2008, the Mormon church released a statement titled The Divine Institution of Marriage, explaining the reasons for its support of Proposition 8. The church’s statement is well-written and comprehensive, and it seems to invite open, rational discussion on the issue. However, many of its arguments are flawed….
We Are a Minority
If you happen to live outside of Deseret and the colonies, a certain degree of social isolation is unavoidable for Mormons. Our Mormon experience sets us apart from our peers and our families. Mormons all over the world are members of a tiny minority that has to rely on the…
“Why do you need to talk about ‘problems in the church’ with your spouse?”
Hellmut asked me to post this. It’s from a recent thread on FLAK, on the topic of marriage. I wrote: I attribute my divorce squarely to the church. Simply because the church forbade us from talking about the one topic we needed to talk about (problems in the church). If…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Prop. 8 Edition!
My apologies to those who are annoyed that Mormon-interest blogspace has turned into an “All proposition 8, all the time” zone. Don’t worry — the election will be over soon. (Hüffenhardt is already ready to celebrate.) Yet, between now and then, I’ll probably write one more article about it. Yes,…