The Many Folds of Mormonism

Last updated on: May 2, 2012 at 10:04 am By Richard Livingston

In 1860, world traveler and adventurer Sir Richard Burton visited Salt Lake City to find out for himself whether the widespread rumors were true—that a vicious, violent, and vile cult had taken over the Utah Territory. “Going among the Mormons!” one acquaintance warned him, “they are shooting and cutting one another in all directions; how do you expect to escape?” What Burton found during his twenty-four day visit, however, ran quite contrary to the numerous popular portrayals filled with venom... Read more

Other People’s Dead

Last updated on: April 30, 2012 at 5:04 am By Seth Perry

The most recent controversy over Mormonism’s practice of posthumous baptism reached its peak in February when it came out that Eli Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate, had ended up on a to-be-baptized list. Wiesel called on Mitt Romney to condemn the practice of proxy baptisms for Jews, particularly Holocaust victims, echoing complaints made by Jewish leaders in the early nineties. The Church has apologized profusely and maintains that they have made every effort to keep Holocaust victims off of... Read more

“I’m a Mormon, yes I am!”

Last updated on: April 27, 2012 at 10:03 am By Patrick Mason

Like Rosalynde Welch, one of my early musical memories (besides my oldest brother blasting Van Halen through the walls) is of gathering around the record player listening to Janeen Brady’s annoyingly catchy song, “I’m a Mormon”: I’m a Mormon, yes I am! And if you want to study a Mormon I’m a living specimen. Maybe you think I’m just like anybody else you see, But trust in my word, You’ll quickly observe, I’m different as can be! (more…) Read more

Domestic Violence and Mormonism

Last updated on: April 26, 2012 at 2:24 am By Emily Belanger

Domestic violence is disturbingly prevalent in the world at large. Worldwide, most estimates suggest 1 in 5 women has been abused by a man. When you add in violence perpetrated against men, children, and the elderly, it’s a sobering thought. And in some communities, domestic violence is more common than not. (more…) Read more

On Mormon Secularization and Politics

Last updated on: April 23, 2012 at 9:00 pm By Patrick Mason

Mormonism has been secularizing since 1833. (For those keeping score at home, that’s three years after Mormonism’s institutional birth.) Politics—or more specifically, Mormons’ engagement with and capitulation to the secular nation-state—is the primary culprit. “Secularization” is a loaded term, carrying for many the notion of anti-religion. But by saying that Mormonism has secularized I’m not suggesting that Mormonism is secular, in the sense of not being oriented toward the sacred. And I’m certainly not making an argument about whether the... Read more

The New (Non-Mormon) Politics of Mormon Persecution

Last updated on: April 19, 2012 at 10:43 am By Max Mueller

In “Why Ann Stayed Home,” McKay Coppins of Buzzfeed offered his intervention into the reignited Mommy Wars. Coppins is a Latter-day Saint. Let me rephrase this in American Argot: Coppins is a Mormon. I repeat this fact because for some odd reason, it became a point of debate in what has followed. (more…) Read more

The PR (In)convenience of Mormon Terminology

Last updated on: April 17, 2012 at 8:13 am By Heidi Harris

One of the more fascinating aspects of the recent “Mormon Moment” (and there are many) has been the way the LDS church’s Public Relations department (LDS Newsroom) has had their press-release blasters set to immediate and well-publicized damage control. Well, in comparison, that is, to what its output seemed to be in the past. (more…) Read more

Lay Clergy: The Democratic Vision of Mormonism

Last updated on: April 11, 2012 at 4:06 am By Alan Hurst

Mormonism isn’t democratic. Everyone knows that. There are no public debates to determine Church policy. There are no contested elections. Mormons vote almost weekly to “sustain” decisions made by their leaders, but these “sustaining votes” signal acceptance of the decisions rather than actual agreement. And they are almost always unanimous in the affirmative. In thirty years of church attendance in three countries and a dozen states, I have never seen a single “no” vote. This line of reasoning is accurate,... Read more

Bones & Honey: The Problem of Allegory

Last updated on: April 10, 2012 at 12:05 pm By Xarissa Holdaway

What is there to learn, after all, from the world you already know, the stories you've already heard? Read more

Why Is It So Hard to Figure Out What Mormons Believe?

Last updated on: June 6, 2012 at 7:04 pm By Matthew Bowman

The leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has spent far more time than it would like recently tamping down small pestilences of embarrassment spewed forth from its lay membership. Recently in the Washington Post a professor of religion at Brigham Young University, which the church owns, uttered a series of remarkably garish and disturbingly convoluted theories in explanation of why his church did not ordain men of African descent to its priesthood until 1978. Before the... Read more