In the US (and here in Switzerland) today is Mother’s Day!! Time for musings on parenthood! So, if you and/or your mom are living in countries that celebrate Mother’s Day today, don’t forget to write or call her! This is traditionally the most dreaded Sunday of the year in the…
“Selling the City of Enoch” by Johnny Townsend
Johnny Townsend has done it again. He’s delivered more deliciously subversive Mormon fiction in his delightful new collection, Selling the City of Enoch. As in his previous works, Townsend’s well-drawn characters are too complex to fit into the Mormon cookie-cutter mold. For example, the overly curious Sister Covino who can’t…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Deep Thoughts Edition!
By now you’ve probably heard about how BYU did a sexual-orientation survey in which ‘Gay’ was not among the options. Well, the both the Abbottsville 4th Ward and the Cultural Hall improved on this groundbreaking research technique! Remember the tax-dodging Mormon rancher from last week? Well, Adult Onset Atheist researched…
Monday in Outer Blogness: Mormon Rancher edition!
Or maybe I should go with laddersdazed’s epithet: “Mormon Welfare Cowboy” — since this prophet who wants the taxpayers to feed his cattle was racist enough to complain about black people receiving aid from the government, while wondering aloud if they weren’t better off as slaves… This was a big…
Disjointed conversations
My parents are wonderful and very conservative, orthodox members of the church. They feel a need to bear their testimonies to me and let me know they believe. I understand totally that this comes from what they hear at church. They feel responsible for and so sad about my change…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Atheists in SLC edition!
I know what you’re thinking: since it’s Easter, this edition should be something Easter-related, right? But let’s face it — Mormons care so much about Easter that sometimes they aren’t even aware that it’s happening. Fortunately, this year LDS Inc. is astroturfing a slick Easter video so that at least…
Missionary Chat: Origins of the Bible
I’ll admit up front, this chat was basically just an attempt to show that Mormon missionaries are ignorant. Â I wanted to know what they knew about the origins of the Bible. Â Here we go: Bailey: hi how are you? Bart (me): I’m good. How are you? Bailey: good Bailey: what…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Now what? edition!
By now you probably know that around 500 women stood in the standby line to get tickets to the Priesthood session of conference and were turned away. One of the talks in the session contained a hidden message for the women who would like to be ordained, and got mixed…
Letting go
A very significant relationship in my life has recently come to a close. This relationship has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. It impacted every aspect of my upbringing and guided me in all the major decisions of my life up to this…
Women’s Ordination and Gay Equality – How They’re Connected
I’ve made this case before, in most detail in my 2011 Dialogue article “Mormon and Queer at the Crossroads,” that women’s roles in the Church and gay equality in the Church are intimately connected. This is not just a conceptual connection…historically, the Church has treated the two issues as though…