How I choose to see the revisions

Last updated on: November 8, 2015 at 12:19 am By Stephanie

I write this as a heterosexual person, one who is not directly affected by the new strictures in the Church Handbook of Instructions (CHI). For that reason, this is all very easy for me to say. I do not blame those who are ‘closer to’ this situation if their reaction is different from mine. I do not blame those who will leave. However, let’s get one thing straight from the beginning: those who made this decision did not relish it.... Read more

Glory Be to Candor

Last updated on: October 30, 2015 at 4:26 pm By Stephanie

October 24, 2009. I had to check my journal-blog to make sure, but that was the day when a bishop I already loved taught me a lesson I will never forget. I was in a YSA ward at the time, and we as a ward were going to take a year and visit all the temples in Utah at the time — 13 of them (there are 15 now, as Brigham City and Payson hadn’t been built yet). The temple... Read more

Is Brigham Young’s Hearse Residing in Disneyland?

Last updated on: October 29, 2015 at 5:19 pm By Cody Ray Shafer

I recently went to Disneyland for the first time since middle school, and in the week leading up to my visit I obsessively consumed as much useless trivia about the park and its history as I could find. Being the boring adult that I am, if I’m going to commit to a day in a theme park, I better know some of its back story. So of course I read the story about how the ghostly horseless hearse parked in... Read more

The Politics of Monsters

Last updated on: October 28, 2015 at 9:45 pm By Cody Ray Shafer

Editors Note: This post isn’t about Mormonism, since it is an unpublished blog for a non-religious publication. However, I think it’s an idea still worth exploring, and since Halloween is around the corner, why not? Let’s talk about monsters. Specifically, zombies. Monsters in books or film tend to serve a purpose, to reimagine some abstract fear into a corporeal entity. Beings like Frankenstein’s monster or Dracula challenge our hubris over science, or our relationship with lust and nature. Zombies reach into our... Read more

From the Archives: Ghost Stories

Last updated on: October 27, 2015 at 2:22 am By Matthew Bowman

Editors Note: Welcome to Halloween Week at Peculiar People! The following is a post from historian and Peculiar People founder Matt Bowman from August 2013. Since it is a good recap of ghost stories from Mormon folklore, we thought we’d repost it to kick off our week of Halloween-related blogs. If you like stuff like this, follow us on Facebook and Twitter. I’m revisiting Judith Richardson’s Possessions: the history and uses of haunting in the Hudson Valley as I start thinking about nineteenth... Read more

Should We Really Worry About Ben Carson’s Religion?

Last updated on: October 26, 2015 at 9:57 pm By J. Paul Valley

Presidential Candidate Ben Carson is a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a protestant sect of Christianity that was founded in Michigan in 1863. It’s a pretty interesting religion that upholds a number of basic Christian beliefs (the Trinity, the Bible, Adam’s fall, redemption through Christ alone) while also adding it’s own special flavors (most famously, that Christian’s should continue to observe the Sabbath on the seventh day of the week). I don’t know much about the SDA Church, but I’ve read... Read more

I’m OK with being ‘only a sister’

Last updated on: October 23, 2015 at 4:41 pm By Stephanie

It didn’t hit me at first. I sat there during the Saturday Afternoon session of the most recent General Conference and listened to Jeffrey R. Holland’s praisefest of mothers, not thrilled at the exclusivity he was showing but digesting it nonetheless. It wouldn’t be until later that evening that the meltdown would come and I would wonder how to pull myself back together. Before going to bed, I had the realization that when I joined the LDS Church 15 years... Read more

Did Back to the Future Really Predict 9/11?

Last updated on: October 22, 2015 at 9:06 pm By Cody Ray Shafer

I know we’re a day late, because the future was yesterday, but I did just watch this “Back to the Future Predicts 9/11” video. I fancy myself somewhat of a skeptic, but I think I’m sold. Not really, but maybe Zemeckis heard about this theory and put Joseph Gordon Leavitt in the same outfit as Marty McFly just to add fuel to the fire. That’s my best guess. Also, in case you’re confused about the whole 2001: A Space Odyssey monolith... Read more

Mitt Romney Still Doesn’t Want to Talk About Race in the Mormon Church

Last updated on: October 20, 2015 at 9:39 pm By J. Paul Valley

So the guy who was in charge of getting Barack Obama elected both times, David Axelrod, recently sat down for an interview with Mitt Romney. Romney, you might remember, was pretty convinced that Obama didn’t deserve a second term in office. So much so that he ran against him. You might also recall that Romney lost. So the man who basically orchestrated what may turn out to be the final word in Mitt Romney’s political career just had a cordial chat with him... Read more

A Mormon Perspective on the New Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer

Last updated on: October 20, 2015 at 4:56 am By J. Paul Valley

Because the trailer for the new Star Wars movie has officially dropped, I thought I’d give a Mormon perspective to what we know about the newest edition of one of the most iconic film series of all time. This looks dope This looks dope This looks dope This looks dope This looks dope This looks dope This looks dope This looks dope This looks dope This looks dope This looks dope This looks dope This looks dope This looks dope This looks dope This looks dope This looks dope This looks dope This looks dope This looks dope This looks dope This... Read more