So its election year in the US. It’s the year that we get to trust the American public to select the ‘leader of the free world’ (whatever that rather presumptuous aphorism means?). It’s the year that our news programmes at the ends of the earths are clogged with the latest from the US hustings which will dump endless medium shots of Romney with his immaculate pompadour, and Obama with his smug smile on us. We New Zealanders get to look... Read more
The three words, “Write a blog” have appeared in my diary consistently over the last few weeks bereft of a satisfying red line through it indicating its completion. My life has taken a turn to the extraordinarily busy of late, but here I am on a Friday evening, finally with just enough time to contemplate the thorny question of excommunication! I haven’t been excommunicated or even formally disciplined (thus far) but I have a bee in my bonnet about it. ... Read more
Although controversial, in LDS circles there have been a few Mormon women I know who were utterly captivated by Big Love. While it told us an outlandish story about a clandestine fundamentalist polygamous underground playing happy families somewhere in The Valley it also outed polygamy as a modern possibility. It was an intriguing narrative of how the domestic rhythms of this truly Mormon of Mormon stories might play out in contemporary Utah society. Regardless of intrigues and politics, I was... Read more
In recent times I’ve usually been able to head overseas for work/research at least twice a year (its tough but someone has to do it). It seems to have developed into a rhythm where I have a two week visit to the US and one shorter trip to Australia. There’s enough of a pattern in my work trips that Nathan can predict my mood when I get home. That super-maternal gene must have missed a beat with me because instead... Read more
I’m just a New Zealander. I’m a South Seas outlier looking on at my big brother, the US and the way he figures out the game of life and tries to take the winners proceedings. And with my tiny voice at the bottom of the globe I’d like to say something by way of observation about the way the big boys play. I managed to catch a couple of sessions of the ‘Mormonism and the Internet’ conference held at UVU... Read more
My friend Rachel and I spent a very pleasant couple of hours on Temple Square yesterday afternoon. I took my promised trip to the COB, and despite trying to convince my quite delicious elder guides to let me through the unmarked closed doors, I was unable to break in and thrust myself upon the unsuspecting COBBERS with a demand to know their deepest secrets. This was in part because of the excessive security that exists at the COB, but also... Read more
In October 2010, in a fit of pique with our increasingly banal church publications, I wrote the following to The Ensign: From: Gina Colvin Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2010 8:19 PM To: Ensign Subject: The Tabloidification of The Ensign Please accept this feedback with the good grace that is intended. I have long been a happy recipient of The Ensign. However over the last ten years I have been sadly underwhelmed by both its format and its content. It... Read more
To the outside world Mormons can look a bit like Grenda’s shiny happy company employees. If the ‘I’m a Mormon’ advertising campaign were anything to go by it would seem that ‘we are all individuals’. It would also appear that despite our unique, and sometimes idiosyncratic life journeys, our common belief in Christ and our commitment to building a thriving and joyous church community rewards us with a sense of goodness and belonging in our lives. And perhaps in most... Read more
Yes, I know The Life of Brian is irreverent! But there’s nothing quite like a jolly good satire to make some pretty clever statements on love, life and the universe. The more conservative among us might read TLOB as a mockery of the sacrosanct, but I don’t see it that way – obviously. It’s a very intelligent critique of how daft we are. How seemingly incapable we are of understanding the difference between spiritual transcendence and hot emotional surges; between... Read more
I love LDS teens and young adults. These days, around here at least, they seem to be good kids trying to follow the pattern of the church in attending seminary and institute, enrolling in higher education, planning for missions, and thinking about marriage. For the most part they have very, very high personal standards. Unlike my generation when the girls weren’t afraid of test driving the new boy in the ward’s lips, the majority of our Mormon kids today seem... Read more
KiwiMormon
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In