The Church is a corporation. This is not meant to be a mean-spirited statement. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is literally a trademark of Intellectual Reserve, Inc. The for-profit ventures of the Church are here. One might wonder why the Church doesn’t just call itself The Corporation…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Women and Men Edition!
Today’s trivia question: Which band wrote the song alluded to in my title this week, and the song in this one? The good news is that the gay marriage question is going in the right direction. Of course the GLBTQ community’s problems are far from solved — indeed some feel…
What is Respectful Proselytizing?
In some countries, proselytizing a religion other than the religion of that land is illegal. Many countries in the Arab world prohibit the proselytizing of any religion but Islam (and whether being an Iranian Christian is really all that difficult, I wouldn’t know). Nepal is considering adding proselytizing to its…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Embarrassing Memories Edition!
One of my favorite things about participating in the exmo community is swapping stories — even (or especially) when they’re embarrassingly absurd! So I was delighted by all the reminiscences about stake dances! (I wrote my own tales of stake dances long ago here.) Other amusing memories include worst hymns,…
Only for American Mormons, July 2011
For years our family has received theLiahona instead of theEnsign. I used to work for Distribution Services which is where I discovered that theEnsign magazine is only published for English-speaking American/Canadian Latter-day Saints. While I knew that theLiahona served non-English LDS around the world, I discovered that an English version…
Patriarchy, redux
A recent post on a Mormon-themed group blog asked the question What are some of the common themes that emerge in patriarchal societies? It then compared these societies with Mormonism. There were a number of parallels. To me, the most interesting aspect of this article was what it didn’t mention….
Grow where you are planted
As difficult as it may be for some to believe, this is a statement I can agree with. It is/was an LDS statement originally said by David O. McKay**. From my understanding, it was meant to encourage Mormons not to feel as if they had to “move back to Utah”….
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Winners Edition!
As you probably know, the Book of Mormon (the musical) won nine Tony awards, including Best Musical! Even the faithful Mormons are excited about it — though they can’t quite decide whether to feel proud or indignant (so some go with both). Suddenly, they’re interested in tolerance. Anyway, the CoJCoL-dS…
What is Faith?
During a recent (perhaps ongoing) discussion of faith (among other things), we found that the four people in the discussion are using four different definitions of faith. Naturally, this led me to ask: “What is faith?” So, I used my faith in Google and in the Internet to get some…
Sorry, Mormons, but this is nuts.
The Boston Globe: The Mormon image campaign And here’s my dozen reasons why: (Memo to the Mormon leadership: Diverse teams cause people not to revert to stereotyping.) Plus one for a baker’s dozen. Local Mormons weigh in: Im a Mormon and I am here in New York and I really…