Mormon Stories Expanding to Include Gay Mormon Stories
I’ve been a fan of Mormon Stories for a looooooooong time. A number of years ago it was just one podcast where complex issues regarding Mormon theology, culture, and history were discussed in depth by Mormon apologists, disaffected Mormons, active Mormons, Mormon historians, scholars, etc. In short, it was the meat that many of us had been looking for after lots and lots of milk.
Mormon Stories filled a need within Mormon culture as a neutral, safe place for deep questioning, discussion and for many people, serious healing. As the podcast has grown, so has the Mormon Stories community. There are Facebook groups all over the country, regional conferences, meet-up groups. I’ve met so many wonderful people in Phoenix at the Mormon Stories book clubs and other social events that have been organized. At the Mormon Stories conference in February I felt at home among “my people.”
Today I am happy to announce the forthcoming addition to the Open Stories Foundation (which Mormon Stories is a part of) – Gay Mormon Stories. Read more 
An LDS Chapel, a freeway and puppets
The first LDS Chapel in Phoenix was completed in 1918 near the corner of 7th and Monroe Streets in Downtown Phoenix. For 30 years it served as a meeting house, a community center, a place for luncheons for businessmen, and the venue for youth dances. As the LDS population in Phoenix grew, more chapels were built and by 1948 this first chapel was sold to another church then eventually demolished in 1969. I can’t think of any reason why the church would have sold it except maybe because the LDS population downtown had begun the flight to the suburbs where they have remained ever since.
All that’s left of the building is this plaque which can be seen at Heritage Square: Read more
Will the LDS Church Ever Admit It Was Wrong?
Randy Bott, a popular professor of religion at BYU has sparked the latest Mormon controversy by telling the Washington Post:
“God has always been discriminatory” when it comes to whom he grants the authority of the priesthood, says Bott… Bott compares blacks with a young child prematurely asking for the keys to her father’s car, and explains that similarly until 1978, the Lord determined that blacks were not yet ready for the priesthood.
“What is discrimination?” Bott asks. “I think that is keeping something from somebody that would be a benefit for them, right? But what if it wouldn’t have been a benefit to them?” Bott says that the denial of the priesthood to blacks on Earth—although not in the afterlife—protected them from the lowest rungs of hell reserved for people who abuse their priesthood powers. “You couldn’t fall off the top of the ladder, because you weren’t on the top of the ladder. So, in reality the blacks not having the priesthood was the greatest blessing God could give them.”
In a disingenuous attempt to sidestep this thorny issue of racism in the Mormon Church, the Church replied in a press release regarding Bott’s comment: Read more
VIDEO: A discussion about the Book of Mormon
I’m posting this here because I thought it was funny. I get a kick out of these videos with the funny 3-d animation and the ridiculously bad robot voices.
In the conversation between the two people in the video, nothing was new to me except one thing: Emanuel Swedenborg. Now I have to read and learn all about him and his influence on Joseph Smith. The girl in the video said that parts of Swedenborg’s book is lifted word for word and found the book of Alma. I have to solve this puzzle.
In my preliminary Google search I came across this book called Swedenborg and the Book of Mormon. Since I haven’t had the time to read it yet, I don’t have an opinion on it, but it looks like a good place to start.
In the meantime, here is this video. Read more
I won a Brodie Award!
Winners for the 2011 Brodie Awards were announced last night.
I was nominated in 3 categories and I won 2! There are many people creating high-quality, great content about Mormons, Mormon history, Mormon culture, Mormon politics, Mormon humor etc that the competition was stiff this year. I’m honored that a few of my posts were included in the list and that I won.
A big heartfelt thank you to all who nominated and voted for me. Thank you for the support and encouragement.
-seth
(Re)Creating Community: Phoenix Mormon Stories Conference Feb 17-18, 2012
It’s almost time for this conference! I’m one of the speakers and I’m putting the finishing touches on my talk titled “Time Machines, Cemeteries, and the Desert.” Info about the conference is below. Click here to register.
With Margaret Toscano, Jared Anderson, Joanna Brooks and John Dehlin! Read more
I’ve been nominated for a Brodie Award!
The Brodie Awards are given by the good folks at Main Street Plaza as an annual award to recognize the best in Mormon-themed related blogging. Named after historian Fawn Brodie who published the groundbreaking biography of Joseph Smith titled No Man Knows My History in 1945, the Brodie Awards are in their third year and I’ve been nominated in 3 categories!
I’m truly honored to be nominated. Some of the other people who were nominated are insanely talented and smart and I feel humbled to be included next to them.
Voting ends on February 16. If you think my posts deserve to win, please click here to vote for me in the following categories:
2011 Most Poignant Personal Story.
2011 Best LDS Church Watch
2011 Best History Piece
Elder Jay E. Jensen and Marriage Equality
On January 8, 2012 Elder Jay E. Jensen of the Presidency of the Seventy spoke at the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah. The talk was same old, same old. The Desert News covered his Church Educational System (CES) Devotional address and reported that he spoke about the three themes of the Holy Ghost. I don’t want to embed the video but here’s a link
The Desert News failed to report this quote from his address (skip ahead to the 18 minute mark of his talk to hear it):
“The adversary seeks to deorganize and to destroy, especially families, as evidenced today by abortion, divorce, and same-gender marriage.”
Let that sink in for a moment.
Divorce AND marriage are destroying families. What?! Read more
Thus Sayeth the Lord…
This revelation from the child molester prophet Warren Jeffs appeared in the Arizona Republic. Honest to goodness, I cut this out of the paper. Read more
So I Made a YouTube Video….
Yes, I did.
I made this at the request of someone who is working on a project about homosexuality and Mormonism and approached me to tell my coming out story in an “It’s Gets Better” type of YouTube video.
My goal was to keep this under the 5 minute mark, but it ended up being just over 6 minutes. I’m ok with that. Read more
Mormon Stories Phoenix Conference
I’ve been a huge fan of Mormon Stories podcast for years. It’s a place where Mormons of all backgrounds, activity levels, and beliefs share their personal stories and struggles about being Mormon. These stories cover the spectrum from LGBT issues, marriage and sex, history, philosophy, Mormon theology and everything else in between. (My parents and I were interviewed for the podcast earlier this year. You can listen to it here.)
In March 2011 I was lucky enough to travel to New York City and see The Book of Mormon Musical with Mormon Stories podcast founder John Dehlin and other listeners of Mormon Stories from all over the country. That weekend was also the first (maybe second) Mormon Stories Conference. To be honest, I only planned on attending a few hours of it then I planned to hit the city. But nothing, not even the Big Apple herself, was able to pull me away from that conference. It was life changing. Read more
Like Father Not Like Son
In November 2011, Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney signed an anti marriage equality pledge. The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) created the pledge that commits signatories to fight for a “federal constitutional amendment defining marriage, to appoint federal judges who don’t see a Constitutional right to same-sex marriage, and to back the Defense of Marriage Act” should they be elected to the office of the presidency.
Brother Romney signed this pledge along with Michelle Bachmann and Rick Santorum. All three were praised by NOM as “three marriage champions.” Of course they are referring to what they call “traditional marriage” and that’s why it really bugs the hell out of me that Romney is being hailed as some great defender of “traditional” marriage.
Politics makes strange bedfellows, for as Mitt Romney lives and breathes he is a product of non-traditional marriages. His father, George Romney, was the descendent of Mormon polygamists who were living The Principle (as it was and is called today) across the border in Colonias Mormonas in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. In the 19th century, to escape persecution and discriminatory marriage laws in the United States, Brigham Young sent some of his followers to Canada and Mexico so they could live their alternative polygamous lifestyles. Read more
Donnie, Marie and Elijah Abel
Update: This post won a 2011 Brodie Award
Besides being a source of constant amusement (Honey Badger for example), YouTube is also a historian’s dream. There is so much archival video available to study and learn from. (I particularly love the commercials from the 1960s and school PSAs about sex and drugs.)
This particular interview clip with Barbara Walters shows Donnie and Marie floundering around like a Utah Lake carp when asked about the Mormon Church’s racist stance on blacks and the priesthood. This interview was sometime before 1978 as the Church reversed the policy (note it was a change of policy, not doctrine) in June 1978. (The stuff Marie says at the end is a whole other topic to be dealt with on another day.)
Donnie answers that he’s not an authority on the subject and one would be better to ask the General Authorities of the Church for an answer. Read more
Book Review: Dancing With Crazy
How much tragedy and heartbreak can one person live through?
Emily Pearson’s new memoir, Dancing With Crazy, gives the answer to that question: a person can live through a hell of a lot and live to tell about it with humor, wit and wisdom. Emily writes that her life was like a dance competition with a merciless partner named Crazy who delighted in her misery and, “thrived on my diminishment. He lived for my utter annihilation.” (p. 11)
From the very first paragraph of this scintillating memoir I was hooked. I couldn’t put it down and read the whole thing in about a day and half. Read more
Mormon Porn?
After learning the term “soaking” last week, nothing can surprise me. (Seriously, “Soaking“, you’ll be like, WTF?!) Apparently “Soaking” is something Mormon students at BYU actually do to remain pure in the eyes of the Lord (I guess). I obviously can’t confirm if “soaking” is made up or if people actually do it. I don’t care one way or the other but it does not seem very satisfying for either party, kind of like Michele Bachmann’s marriage. (Zing!)
While doing research on the topic of “soaking” I came across this dilly of a pickle: “Bubbling” or “Mormon Porn.” Read more
