The Real Reason Harry Potter Helps Us Resist Donald’s Hate.

July 27, 2016 By Emily Belanger

In the wake of a Republican National Convention that has left many shaken – including many conservatives, particularly among conservative Mormons – there’s a teensy bit of glimmering hope for bookworms who don’t want a man who deliberately incites mob violence to take the White House: according to one study, Harry Potter may be part of the solution. Even after controlling for the most relevant mediating factors, such as age, education, and party affiliation, reading Harry Potter books was correlated... Read more

Hell and Zion: A Review of “Undertale”

July 4, 2016 By mhaycock

Note: Undertale is a game best experienced without spoilers; I include some details below, however, in an attempt to convince the reluctant among you that it’s worth your time. In the game Undertale, your adventure begins when you fall into the underworld—a sort of hell that turns out to be quite Mormon. [1] That is to say: it is not the typical Christian hell of punishment and torment, fire and brimstone. The underground’s inhabitants, monsters banished and trapped there by humans defeated... Read more

Review: The Mormon Jesus

June 23, 2016 By mhaycock

Perhaps my devotional life’s greatest flaw is that I forget about Jesus. Intellectually, of course, I know that I cannot ignore the Savior when speaking about theology, but much of the time my musings tend to amble away toward questions of divine-human ontology, creation, exaltation, and eternal family relationships instead. Therefore, I was curious what John Turner would have to say in his The Mormon Jesus, published by Harvard University Press last month. Through his Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet and a... Read more

Stop Praying for us, and Acknowledge That You Helped Create Omar Mateen

June 17, 2016 By Nic Jensen

Let me give you a run down: 2015 was the deadliest year on record for transgender women, but 2016 could surpass that—since the beginning of the year, 14 transgender individuals have been murdered. Additionally, research shows that 80% of LGBTQ people killed are people of color. The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group, fought over 200 anti-LGBTQ laws in the first ten weeks of 2016. Advocacy groups continue to fight House Bill 2, also known as The Public Facilities... Read more

Gordon B. Hinckley, Gun Control Advocate

June 13, 2016 By Cody Ray Shafer

My heart aches in the wake of Sunday Morning’s Pulse nightclub tragedy. I haven’t said much, haven’t looked for arguments or consolation, because this is just getting too exhausting. We’ve been here before. And the way things look, we’ll be here again. We have a crisis of inaction in the U.S.; we are bombarded with horrible tragedies just like this, and we are continuously satisfied with our wobbly justifications that doing nothing is the best course of action. Because... Read more

The Weak Shiver of an Uninspiring Democratic Process

June 7, 2016 By Cody Ray Shafer

I’ve been relatively quiet during this primary election season, mostly to stay out of the crosshairs between Sanders and Clinton supporters. I have enough respect for both candidates to still align myself with the Democratic Party (mostly) but enough differences to piss off both camps. Nevertheless, I’ve been rooting for Bernie, long before he even announced his candidacy. For years, he was a wishful-thinking kind of dream candidate. The guy who should run, but never would, and certainly would... Read more

Normalizing Gun Violence on Campus

June 3, 2016 By Guest Contributor

The following post originally appeared on Professor Park’s Blog. When I first read about the shooting incident on UCLA’s campus this morning I immediately feared that it was over a grade dispute. Especially at this time of the year, when final grades are being doled out, many professors live in fear of students literally fighting back over anything short of the perfect grade. This anxiety is heightened as we become more aware of the brutality common in our news. The violence... Read more

Andrew Sullivan on God, Doubt, and Organized Religion

May 26, 2016 By J. Paul Valley

Blogging pioneer Andrew Sullivan formally retired from the daily content grind last year when he announced the closure of his subscription-based blog, The Dish. Apparently he’s spent the last 12 or so months seeking greater spiritual peace and working on a book about modern Christianity. But as he told Ezra Klein in an interview released Tuesday, the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump has pulled him grudgingly back into the world of political commentary. Sullivan discussed this and a whole bunch more... Read more

Film Journal: The Land Before Time

May 25, 2016 By J. Paul Valley

A few days ago, after carful deliberation, my wife and I chose to watch Don Bluth’s animated masterpiece, The Land Before Time. It is currently streaming on Netflix and we both wanted to relax and unwind a little before the start of another hectic week. I’m glad we did. The Land Before Time is a delicate fable of survival — exactly the kind of story I was in need of when we watched it. It has beautifully simple things to say about... Read more

No, Elder Oaks, Trump’s No Santa Claus

May 22, 2016 By Gary A.

Prior to the March 22nd Utah caucuses, LDS Church members may have been surprised to discover that Elder Robert Oaks, a former member of the Presidency of the Seventy (one of the Church’s chief governing bodies) and retired 4-star general, was serving on Donald Trump’s Utah campaign committee. While Mormons typically trend Republican, they have largely given the orange-faced demagogue the cold shoulder, especially in light of LDS icon Mitt Romney’s denunciation of “He-Who-Must-Comb-Over” and the Church’s condemnation of his... Read more