by Robert Hodgson Van Wagoner The same week Karmine discovers her husband is having an affair with a man, she takes her mother to a doctor, who finds a tiny patch of cancer on the tip of the old woman’s nose. Abby, Karmine’s seventy-five-year-old mother, cannot be convinced she has…
A response to the General Conference remarks regarding Divorce:
DOCTRINE[1], GUIDANCE, Or Dilution of Doctrine, or Lip service? In the last session of LDS General Conference, both Elder Oaks and Elder Faust gave talks that mentioned divorce.
Abide with Me
I can’t sleep again. I got home late (10:30 LOL) and I was so exhausted I thought I was going to pass out. Well, I did, relishing the thoughts of sleeping in until…6 or 7 or something. But no. Four am on the dot. I keep thinking of the eulogy…
Youth Conference
The very first thing I heard upon arriving at Youth Conference was a dirty joke. Somewhere behind me in the long line of kids walking from the buses to the registration tables a boy’s voice said “Why did the condom fly across the room? — because it was pissed-off!” Not…
How Do You Know?
When we were younger, we threw the word “know” around a lot. We said we knew “with every fiber of our being” that X, Y, and Z were true. And we knew not because of reason or “evidence” but because of the witness of the spirit. This kind of knowledge…
Finding My Father’s Playboy Magazine
When I was 10, my mother was in a serious accident. She spent a month in the hospital and she was in very serious condition. During this time, my world was turned upside down. As the oldest child and daughter, I was the person that stepped into my mother’s role;…
Resurrection
Killing my blog was one of the most painful experiences I’ve had in my postmormon existence. For whatever reason, I could not write what I thought without hurting my wife deeply, and when things reached a decision point, I decided that I wouldn’t write if I couldn’t write whatever I…
Marriage to Marriage
We are married to marriage. Our whole culture, across all socio-economic, religious, gender and political boards is overwhelmingly married to the idea of marriage. When someone divorces, they call it a “failed marriage”. But the implication is not that the actual pairing failed; rather, the implication is that something tragic…
“I want to be something”
We have various neighbors who are devoutly Muslim, Jewish, and Catholic. There are also Hindus, atheists, and every variety of Protestant. And, of course, most of our extended family is Mormon. So our son is not unaccustomed to hearing “Because they’re Muslim” or “Because they think that’s what God wants…
Nuts n' Bolts
Here we are, getting down to the nuts n’ bolts of death. Cleaning out possessions from dad’s room, meeting with the mortician, going over the funeral plans, choosing flowers. I heard recently that from an LDS perspective, LDS funerals should have the three following components: Remembrances of the deceased’s life,…