I had a missionary email me after he listened to a podcast in which I was interviewed. Â He was deciding whether he wanted to be Mormon and was wondering what the best way to leave the religion was. Â I’ve written about this before, but after having spoken with lots of…
Saturday in Outer Blogness: Another Boring Conference Edition!
I’d like to do SiOB a little early this week because it looks like this conference is going to generate some interesting news. That news will be rolling in over the next few days, so let’s wrap up this past week’s posts separately before the news begins! (To give you…
Repurposing Temples
Maybe others have thought about this before and I’m late to the game, or maybe mind is just weird, but I saw this press release from LDS Inc. about their new temple in Fort Lauderdale and a thought struck me. Â Already in some areas, churches are being repurposed as more…
Young women, Missions, and Church Culture
According to a Trib article Ashley Farr, a former Miss North Salt Lake Teen Miss USA, now a missionary in South Korea, has every expectation of being a parent and a businesswoman. She has some specific goals including an internship at Goldman Sachs, and being the chief executive of a…
Missionary Chat: Omniscience vs. endowments
Today’s missionary chat is based on a question my wife raised that I always found interesting: If God is omniscient, then why do Mormons have endowments done? Â Wouldn’t God know who to let into the Celestial Kingdom without evidence of having an endowment done? Â Here’s the chat: Angie: hi! Bob…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: New words edition!
Maybe I should call this one the “smacked down further” edition. After last week’s smackdown, many others followed the church’s lead and added their own smacks (and critical analysis). This leads to this week’s first new word: instrayability — the Mormon equivalent of infallibility — and it seems to extend…
Missionary Chat: Ordain Women
I thought I’d follow proxfm’s lead, and talk to some missionaries. My chat was about Ordain Women… Spencer: Hi Alan! How are you doing today? 🙂 Alan: Pretty good. Spencer: Glad to hear it! How can we help you? Alan: I’m just curious about the Ordain Women movement in Utah……
Missionary Chat: Polygamist God
In my ongoing pursuit to learn what “on the ground” Mormons believe, here’s another Missionary Chat. Â This one on God the Father and his wife/wives. Ken: Hello. Marcel: welcome back (creepy that they know it’s me again) Bob (me): Hi. I have a question for the two of you. Marcel:…
What doesn’t kill you makes you… what?
All this talk of Ordain Women has brought an interesting memory bubbling to the surface: It was the last summer my family went to Camp Many Point — probably 1989, the summer before I set off for BYU. I loved going to that camp. It was a beautiful tract of…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Smackdown Edition!!
Do you know how big 2% of Florida is? Check out this helpful post for some perspective. And this past week the corporation that owns it took some time out of its busy schedule to swat a couple of (comparatively) puny groups: Those who were suing them for fraud and…