As you may know, the 2012 SLC Sunstone Preliminary Program is online — and I’d like you to especially feast your eyes on page 37!!! As you can see, I’m planning to test out a little cooperative book distribution network for the books I’ve discussed on this site. I’m also…
Sunstone and safe zones!!
The discussion has already started on one of the two panels I’m organizing at the Sunstone Symposium!! Have a look at the description and see if you can guess the problem: Do Good Online Fences Make Good LDS Neighbors? LDS-interest blogspace is divided into a number of different communities: the…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: SLC Gay Pride Parade Edition!
So the big topic of the week was the SLC Gay Pride Parade, which happened last Sunday. The big news-line was a group of 300 active LDS members that chose to skip church and march in the parade. Outerblogness this week was full of accounts of the parade, as well…
Mormons in Pride Parades — Okay, I need to vent…
The way things are unfolding with Mormons in Pride parades this year has surfaced questions/concerns in my mind about the current “moment” — not just a “Mormon moment,” but also an “LGBT moment.” Mormons Building Bridges was the group that organized the march in Salt Lake City on June 3rd….
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Technical Difficulties Edition!!!
Folks, this one will be a little short because I’ve been having some problems with my browser freezing up — partially because of procrastinating the day of installing updates and partially due to something on that Salon page linked below. This week’s funny is “Five Wives Vodka” — which is…
Brother Selected For The “I’m A Mormon” Campaign
A couple months ago, the Mormon church decided to profile my brother for their Im A Mormon campaign. A camera crew came to his house for an interview; now his profile and testimony are listed on the www.mormon.org website. My brother was thrilled about the opportunity — he saw…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Getting Along Edition!!
Was that eclipse amazing or what? (If the eclipse alone is not awe inspiring enough, please see these beautiful art photos of naked men in the light of the eclipse.) In Mormon culture news, BYU released an interesting study of profanity use that some people are taking seriously, sort of….
A Child And The Big Scary Apostate
As a kid, most of the General Conference talks didnt make much of an impression on me. I was sitting in the pews listening, but I was also a kid with a short attention span. Beyond feeling a sense of reverence for the guys on the screen, most of the…
Mormons and Gay Marriage During This Election Cycle
We all remember Proposition 8 in 2008. The First Presidency of the Church ordered a letter be read to California wards to “do all you can” to ensure the proposition passed. Arguably, it would not have passed without Mormon involvement. Lots of members fell away from the Church during and…
The Happiness Factor
Over the years, I’ve watched former mormon blogs come and go. And posters on various former mormon boards join and leave. (Kiley recently talked about it here). From what I can discern, there appears to be a cycle that some former mormons run through. At first there can be a…