Snippets Archive

  • Testimony (Sacrament Meeting Talk, Post at By Common Consent)

    Testimony (Sacrament Meeting Talk, Post at By Common Consent)

    Posted on November 4, 2011 | No Comments
    http://bycommonconsent.com/2011/11/02/testimony/#comment-238441

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  • Mormon Matters Podcast 53: Mormonism and Capital Punishment

    Posted on September 28, 2011 | No Comments
    After our two posts re: capital punishment last week (The Worth of a Soul and Finding Peace), I asked Dan Wotherspoon to do a Mormon Matters podcast on Mormonism and the death penalty.   He just released it.   Dan, Tom Grover, and Ken Driggs […]

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  • The Long Goodbye

    Posted on September 12, 2011 | No Comments
    While I sat in the pediatrician’s office on three different days in the last 10 days, waiting and waiting for each kid’s well-check appointment, I picked up several magazines I don’t usually read.   Ladies Home Journal was one of them.   This article called […]

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  • Embrace Life on 9/11

    Posted on September 7, 2011 | No Comments
    I struggle to know what to do/how to handle 9/11 with my kids. They ask a lot of questions, those kids of ours. So I was glad to read this article and grateful for its message. It’s always good to be reminded of the fragility […]

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  • We Must See Past What it Seems

    Posted on September 1, 2011 | 1 Comment
    Stumbled across this blog post somehow on Facebook and was really moved by it.   It’s a good reminder that we never know what’s going on below the surface when we interact with people.   We don’t know what kind of silent pain or misery […]

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  • Help Start the Student Review

    Posted on August 31, 2011 | No Comments
    Ah, seeing this brings me back to the good ole’ BYU days.   If you were at BYU in the early 90s and enjoyed the Student Review, please consider donating.   They’re trying to raise $1000 in donations to cover the printing costs. So go […]

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  • Mormon Matters 45: The Mormon Practice of Bearing Testimony

    Posted on August 3, 2011 | 2 Comments
    As a result of Brent’s latest Mormon in the Cheap Seats posts (Build Out, Not Up and On Testimonies), Mormon Matters just did a podcast regarding Mormons and the practice of bearing testimony.   Dan Wotherspoon moderated the discussion with a great panel:   Brent […]

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  • A Twist on “Pioneer Day”

    Posted on July 27, 2011 | 2 Comments
    When it was announced that gays and lesbians would be allowed to marry in New York beginning on July 24, my first thought–as a lifelong Mormon–was, “Pioneer Day!”   While we’ve been talking about pioneers this week on Doves & Serpents, I have loved reading […]

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  • Mormon Matters 43: Healthy Approaches to Teaching Modesty

    Posted on July 25, 2011 | No Comments
    Last week I participated in this Mormon Matters podcast regarding modesty and Mormonism with Dan Wotherspoon, Chelsea Robarge Fife, and Erin Hill. The impetus behind the podcast (for me, anyway) was the silly article in The Friend that I wrote about in this post: Modesty, […]

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  • A Mormon/Muslim wedding

    Posted on July 24, 2011 | 3 Comments
    I loved this article by Elna Baker, author of The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance. It was published in O magazine in July 2011. A Mormon and a Muslim walk into a wedding . . . Have you been to a cross-cultural wedding?

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  • How You Can Keep Your Head Down and Pass as a Mormon While Living in Utah

    Posted on July 12, 2011 | 3 Comments
    ; ; See this list from the Hairpin.

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  • Beautiful!

    Posted on July 1, 2011 | No Comments
    Check out this beautiful photo blog entry: (Click the photo to read.)

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  • 3,218 Nights of Bedtime Stories

    Posted on June 20, 2011 | 1 Comment
    I stumbled across this sweet article about a dad who read to his daughter for 3,218 nights in a row. And now that the daughter is grown and gone, the dad reads picture books to senior citizens every Friday. Of course I want to read […]

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  • God is not Christian

    Posted on June 14, 2011 | 1 Comment
    I can’t wait to read Desmond Tutu’s newest book, God is not Christian.   I read his book Made for Goodness and found that it contained so much wisdom and light and truth. If the book is anywhere near as good as this excerpt, it […]

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  • LDS at the White House this week

    Posted on June 2, 2011 | No Comments
    Twenty members of the church discuss civic engagement at the White House.   Read   about it here.

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  • Tina Reveals All (and then some) in Bossypants

    Posted on May 18, 2011 | No Comments
    If you’re a Tina Fey fangirl, this NPR interview with Tina Fey is definitely worth a listen.

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  • “We are the champions” . . . and now? On Osama Bin Laden and Mexico

    Posted on May 5, 2011 | 2 Comments
    My friend Jason sent me this link on Monday that discusses the death of Osama Bin Laden from a perspective I haven’t seen anywhere else. This gave me a lot to think about, so I thought I’d share it here. I’m curious to know what […]

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  • Fff… family

    Posted on April 19, 2011 | No Comments
    I just read this today and loved it: http://www.literarymama.com/columns/perfectlynormal/archives/2011/ffffamily.html A great reminder that not all families look alike (which clearly we should not need reminding) and that for some people, celebrations that revolve around families are not celebrations at all.

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  • Helping an Orphanage in Ethiopia

    Posted on April 14, 2011 | No Comments
    One of my dearest and oldest friends (one of two friends without whom I would not have survived high school) and her husband are adopting two babies from Ethiopia. She recently sent me this email that I am sharing here: ; Hi Friends and Family– […]

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  • Mormon Matters Podcast 27: Mormons and their Leaders

    Posted on April 14, 2011 | 4 Comments
    I really enjoyed getting to be a part of this dialogue with Joanna Brooks, Dan Wotherspoon, and Charles Randall Paul regarding the way Mormons regard our church leaders. It gave me a lot to think about. Come take a listen and weigh in on the […]

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  • MM 23: The KJV and Changes to Race-Related Book of Mormon Chapter Headings

    Posted on April 13, 2011 | No Comments
    I spent 15 hours driving this weekend and so had a lot of listening time.   I enjoyed this Mormon Matters podcast–especially after reading Ed’s post here about his first Bible: Episode 23: The King James Version and Changes to Race-related Book of Mormon Chapter […]

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  • Woman can’t close eyes due to plastic surgery

    Posted on March 31, 2011 | 11 Comments
    I just read this sad article about a woman who can no longer close her eyes due to a plastic surgery procedure.   And if you’ve been reading here this week, you’ll know that I have plastic surgery on the brain. And while I *know* […]

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  • More college “hookups” but more virgins

    Posted on March 31, 2011 | No Comments
    I just read this article re: the sexual behavior of college students. This article reports on research done by Mark Regnerus, who wrote Forbidden Fruit that I wrote about several times a month or so ago.   And it made me chuckle because at BYU […]

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  • An interview with Bobby Lopez, co-creator of the Book of Mormon musical

    Posted on March 29, 2011 | 2 Comments
    I thought this was a great interview.   I loved it when he said he liked the Mormon practice of having weekly “Family Home Evening” and hoped his kids were having “as good a time as Mormon kids.”   It’s funny to me that Mormons […]

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  • Before I Die . . . in NOLA

    Posted on March 7, 2011 | 10 Comments
    This is one of the coolest things I have seen in a long time.   Candy Chan is a public installation artist, designer, urban planner, and co-founder of Civic Center who likes to make cities more comfortable for people.   With some help from friends, […]

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  • Mormon Matters Podcast

    Posted on March 6, 2011 | 1 Comment
    I don’t know what I was thinking, but I (Heather) accepted John Dehlin’s invitation to participate in his first re-tooled Mormon Matters Podcast.   Check it out here and let me know what you think: Mormon Matters Podcast 21: Sex and Immigration ;

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  • The ‘R’-rating Prohibition and ‘The King’s Speech’

    Posted on March 3, 2011 | 10 Comments
    Over on her weekly column ‘Salt and Seed’, Rosalynde Welch discusses the move away from the LDS Church teaching that ‘R’ rated movies (for it’s US members) are forbidden. She focusses on how, specifically, ‘The King’s Speech’ this year marked the demise of this former […]

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  • Troy Williams - Public Affairs Director, KRCL

    If Jesus were to write an opinion piece directed at Mormons …

    Posted on February 27, 2011 | 16 Comments
    … he’d probably write for The Salt Lake Tribune (and work in community radio): The case for Book of Mormon socialism Though redistribution is the highest economic order in Mormon scripture, Sen. Chris Buttars vehemently denounced Alpine School District for allegedly advocating “democratic socialism.” He, […]

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  • Hipster or Jesus?

    Posted on February 25, 2011 | 2 Comments
    The Eternal Question now has its own website: a place to study whether the wide variety of people who could play Jesus’s stunt double in an upcoming movie. Probably not by the LDS Church, though.

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  • Allaho: An Afghan Lullaby for Daughters

    Posted on February 23, 2011 | 4 Comments
    I just got this video in my inbox from a listserv I’m a member of. I loved seeing all the Afghan girls playing and learning to read. And I loved the beautiful lullaby. Does anyone know anything about Samar Minallah (the maker of the video)?

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  • Joanna Brooks: “Is there a place for individual conscience in contemporary Mormonism?”

    Posted on February 19, 2011 | 4 Comments
    Religion Dispatches’ Joanna Brooks reports on events before and since our own “Mel” re-published her earth-shaking Playing Valentine video: Pro-Gay Marriage Mormon Keeps Faith Despite Church Pressure It’s a great summary of all the pieces that harmonized into just the right note; one that so […]

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  • Angela Ellsworth Explores Her Mormon Past at ASU Art Museum

    Posted on February 17, 2011 | 1 Comment
    MAN, I wish geography weren’t part of reality because I really want to go see this  performance  by Angela Ellsworth, a woman who was raised Mormon but is no longer practicing.   She is the great-great-granddaughter of Lorenzo Snow, the fifth president of the Church […]

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  • Antonio Canova - Amore e Psiche

    Valentine Crush

    Posted on February 14, 2011 | 1 Comment
    Valentine’s Day is for amore and what more perfectly embodies amore than a crush? Our friend Course Correction channels the sweet innocence and lasting, life-altering experience of that crushing moment. Happy Valentine’s Day to you too, CC. [Image credit: Antonio Canova – Amore e Psiche. […]

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  • Happy ‘Day of Purity’, Everyone!

    Posted on February 14, 2011 | No Comments
    Over on the Guardian website, an article tracks the history of Valentine’s Day, from an ancient Roman festival of sexual love, to the Christian Party of the UK‘s celebration of abstinence.

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  • Elaine Bradley: ‘Marching to the Sound of Her Own Drum’

    Posted on February 13, 2011 | 3 Comments
    For the most recent addition to the ‘Mormon Women Project’, Krisanne Hastings has interviewed Elaine Bradley, the drummer and backing vocalist for Billboard top #100 alternative rock band ‘Neon Trees’, and an active member of the LDS Church. Her story takes her from sixth-grade ‘New […]

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  • Utah Panoramas

    Posted on February 10, 2011 | 2 Comments
    The Utah 3D project has a stunning set of panoramic views from different parts of Utah, accessible here. Some of our favourites are  Temple Square and beneath ‘Double Arch’ at Arches National Park. (Now you can make out with your same-sex partner in virtual view […]

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  • Joanna Brooks, Elder Oaks and the ‘Battle’ for ‘Religious Freedom’

    Posted on February 10, 2011 | 13 Comments
    In her post today, Joanna offers an insightful analysis of Elder Oaks’ recent address, in context of the larger campaign he and other church leaders have been waging to call orthodox LDS members to ‘battle’. For links to the addresses by Elder Oaks, and other […]

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  • The Trouble with Immaculate Contraception …

    Posted on February 9, 2011 | 8 Comments
    … is that there are always exceptions. Love to Jesus and Mo.

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  • An Unlikely Escape

    Posted on February 8, 2011 | 4 Comments
    Is meditation ‘unChristian?”   I am wholly unconvinced it is.   I heard this story of death row inmates engaging in an intense Vipassana meditation program today on NPR. I love how it details the process of lowering defenses when you choose to be answerable […]

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  • Blood of Eden – Part 1, Metaphor

    Posted on February 8, 2011 | 3 Comments
    Madame Curie engages with the Garden of Eden story over on Sapphic Soliloquies, exploring a role-reversal where Adam stands as a mother figure to Eve that came from his side. The myth of Adam and Eve has always seemed to me to be one of […]

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  • Detroit in Ruins: Urbex

    Posted on February 8, 2011 | 4 Comments
    I always love views into the unseen, decaying side of our urban existence. They speak to so much of our psychology: the fallout from the excesses of modern living. These photos from the Guardian website are just stunning. ‘Detroit in Ruins’ at the Guardian

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