Christmas is on the way, and the flow of analysis about the CoJCoL-dS continues! Lizeverything explained why the church’s statement on race isn’t sufficient, and Andrew S gave some further analysis of Mormonism’s race problem: Sadly, the Mormonism of yesteryear was at least consistent with itself. As I discussed before,…
Review of City of Brick and Shadow
The novel by Tim Wirkus, City of Brick and Shadow, is a riveting tale of two missionaries in a sweeping Brazilian slum looking for a missing congregant they had recently baptized. All the characters are well-realized, from the unhappy local Mormons to the woman at the lanchonete to the mysterious…
Mormonism, Christianity and Queer Politics
Someone recently brought to my attention an atheist post about how “Jesus was not a queer ally,” how the writer “can’t take LGBT-affirming Christianity seriously” and “why queer spaces must remain secular.” The post covers a lot of important nuances. Looking briefly at my past writings about the intersection between…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Torture Edition!
This week Mormons are in the news again, and not for something terribly flattering. A certain report about the US Government (particularly the CIA) torturing people hit the press, and two of the masterminds behind the torture are faithful Mormons. Noredseariver summed up the problem: “Human Rights Lawyer = Excommunicated;…
An Ode to Life and Love: “Free Electricity” by Ryan Rhodes
Everything was suddenly different, but what had just happened would not fall into place in my mind. The circuitry had never been laid for this — like learning a foreign language. The verbs were reversed with the nouns and the vowels were crashing into the consonants and every adverb and…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Server Failure Edition!
Yes, we had a bit of a server problem. Not here at Main Street Plaza, fortunately! But rather at the ol’ day job, the one that pays Main Street Plaza’s server bills. It wasn’t that big a deal, but… with my other jobs (making sure my kids bathe and get…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Black Friday Edition!
Sadly, this week world news finally pushed Mormon news off the center stage, with a new reminder that the US justice system has a very serious race problem. Take it away Andrew S: It happened all over again with Mike Brown. I joked once that since I follow the Word…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: The Empire Strikes Back Edition!
Last week our beleaguered church was mired in a horrible public-relations fiasco of its own making. Now, what do you think a wealthy corporation with an army of PR hacks would do in this situation? Leave well enough alone? Learn something from their errors? Take the good old-fashioned advice of…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Hitting the fan edition!
Remember how last week I said the leaders of the CoJCoL-dS are wishing they could silently delete the polygamy essays? Well, now I bet some heads are rolling in the PR department in the Church Office Building! Who could have predicted it? The first few essays worked perfectly — people…
new survey on gender issues in the LDS Church
A research team made up of a mixture of scholars (see information about them here) is conducting a survey on gender issues in the LDS Church. Â They are interested in responses from both current and former Mormons. Â Here’s a link to the survey. Â And, if you can, please pass it…