A Queer(er) Mormonism

Last updated on: December 10, 2012 at 6:09 pm By Xarissa Holdaway

Just when we thought the Romneys’ exeunt might take the spotlights off, the Church thrust itself right back into center stage last week with MormonsandGays.org. Headlines in news publications asked if this site signified an eventual change in the church’s policy, and members pondered the significance of an active and obvious–if chaste– LGBTQ community within the body of the church itself. Some of the headlines are a little overblown: after all, very little here is different from what we heard... Read more

Tentative Notes Toward a Theory of Liberal Mormonism

Last updated on: December 5, 2012 at 5:07 am By Matthew Bowman

In 1955, Louis Hartz published a famous and deeply influential book called The Liberal Tradition in America. Therein he argued that American politics actually functions on an extraordinarily narrow spectrum, that the American left and American right share far more philosophical principles than they would dare admit to their own followers (or to each other). (more…) Read more

Mormon Supplemental Worship

Last updated on: November 29, 2012 at 2:32 pm By Christopher Jones

I’ve long held an interest in Mormons who supplement their weekly worship in Latter-day Saint congregations with occasional (or in some cases, very regular) attendance and participation in some other tradition’s meetings. That interest was initially sparked by my study of ungathered Latter-day Saint converts in the American South around the turn of the 20th century who, left to make of their new religion what they could in the absence of ordained priesthood and regular church meetings, continued to attend... Read more

Thanksgiving as a Political Arena

Last updated on: November 26, 2012 at 5:31 pm By Benjamin Park

Perhaps because it always falls several weeks after elections, Thanksgiving is never very politicized. (Perhaps the ritual of gorging oneself on turkey and stuffing is too sacred to be profaned.) While we certainly have enough political debates throughout the calendar year, and we are now gearing up for the nauseating annual “War on Christmas,” Thanksgiving is often seen as a benign and happy holiday in which all people, regardless of political or religious beliefs, are thankful for the blessings in... Read more

The Elusive “Separate but Equal”

Last updated on: November 21, 2012 at 3:15 pm By Rachael

For better or worse, Mormonism is committed to a theology that enshrines sexual difference. Through temple ceremonies, divine models of parentage, canonical creation accounts, and statements culminating in the virtually canonical “Proclamation on the Family,” sexual differentiation is part of mankind’s eternal identity, development, and exaltation. While many statements by LDS leaders, past and present, point to a form of sex polarity, to borrow the model from scholar and nun Sister Prudence Allen, which renders men and women different and... Read more

Mormons, Politics, Palestine

Last updated on: November 19, 2012 at 6:17 pm By Ryan Tobler

Once again, unfortunate developments in the Middle East appear to be undercutting what has been a very long and elusive search for peace there. As Israelis and Palestinians come to blows once again, they seem poised to begin another episode in one of the world’s deepest and most intractable political conflicts. Palestine has been of long-standing interest in American politics, and not least of all, it turns out, to Mormon politicians. William King and Elbert Thomas, Democratic Senators from Utah... Read more

Appeal for a Shorter Work Week

Last updated on: November 14, 2012 at 1:34 am By Kate Holbrook

Capitalism has much to recommend it. In a fallen world where every system is deeply flawed, capitalism has given us Google, penicillin, and time-delay features for our washing machines. But it exacts a high price—security and time. In 1930, John Maynard Keynes’ predicted that within a hundred years, per capita income would rise sufficiently to meet people’s basic needs, and no one would need to work more than fifteen hours a week. In light of our failure to realize Keynes’s... Read more

Latter Day Conversions: Divided Families and Reconciled Relationships

Last updated on: November 12, 2012 at 2:07 pm By David Howlett

As a twenty-year old leader in my college youth group, I was asked one day to call a friend who had been active in our youth group but lately had been meeting with the Mormon youth group on campus. Her parents were quite concerned, as she also had begun meeting with two LDS missionaries who were set on baptizing her. And, she was romantically interested in an LDS boy. “Not good…not good at all,” I mumbled to myself. Now, you... Read more

Why Romney’s Loss is Good for Mormonism

Last updated on: November 9, 2012 at 7:53 am By Patrick Mason

The Mormon Moment died at approximately 11:00pm on Tuesday night. Mormonism, however, will be just fine. In fact, it may even come out of this week in a better situation than had its most famous son won the presidency. (more…) Read more

Virtual Religion: Not So New?

Last updated on: November 7, 2012 at 5:25 pm By Susanna Morrill

I’ve been thinking a lot about virtual religious communities lately. Maybe the virtual religious communities that are popping up everywhere on the web and social media are really not so new. Or, maybe more accurately, they have a long history in the U.S., though today they’re taking new, electronic forms. I’ve been reading the diaries of nineteenth-century religious women and men, some Mormon, some of other faiths. It was Nancy Peirson’s diary that started me on this train of thought.... Read more