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Recent Posts
- Psaltery & Lyre’s New Site
- 123 Psaltery & Lyre: “Agricola Dreams of Flying” by J. Rose Lara
- 122 Psaltery & Lyre: “Communion: a love poem (a villanelle)” by Rachel Bollinger
- Book Review: Philip Metres’s Sand Opera
- 121 Psaltery & Lyre: Rachael Matthews, “Horsehead Nebula”
- Book Review: Monica Ong’s Silent Anatomies
- 120 Psaltery & Lyre: Rachael Matthews, “Return, pt. III” and “Gaia”
- Book Review: Claudia Rankine’s Don’t Let Me Be Lonely
- Book Review: Matthea Harvey, If the Tabloids Are True What Are You?
- Book Review: LoterÃa Cards and Fortune Poems: A Book of Lives
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mormonism Archive
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On Obedience
Posted on June 27, 2014 | 13 CommentsThis poem by the beloved Mormon poet Carol Lynn Pearson has been haunting my waking and sleeping thoughts all week: Obedient Girl Everybody was proud of this little girl.She loved to please and obey.She got good gradesAnd she baked good cakes And she cleaned her […] -
The Won’t To Believe
Posted on May 3, 2013 | 14 CommentsI could do it. I could choose to believe. -
Finding Common Variables in Parallel Struggles for Change
Posted on January 21, 2013 | 4 CommentsI envision a Church that publicly recognizes that, like its own history, healthy gender roles and healthy sexuality are also not as simple as the Church has taught. -
Mormonism is a Skirt, Not a Pair of Pants!
Posted on December 18, 2012 | 7 CommentsSkirtism doesn't imply that there exists no universal Mormonism -- for all we know, One True Mormonism is floating out there in the noumenal -- it only requires us to admit that we don't possess it, no matter where we got our beliefs. -
44 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Mormonism, Utah and Equal Opportunity
Posted on November 5, 2012 | 19 CommentsUtah is a state where, if you're poor, your neighbors will bake you cookies, and then cheerfully go the ballot box and vote to take away any hope of your children having the same opportunities as their children. -
Single Experiences: A Little House Just For Me
Posted on October 31, 2012 | 8 CommentsWe've all heard of stories where the husband is asked whether or not the wife could hold a calling or would be interested in doing xyz. -
Guest Post Invitation: Single Experiences
Posted on September 10, 2012 | 13 CommentsWe want to hear your personal stories about why there is less than a perfect fit between your spiritual needs and what the church offers. -
You Don’t Know How It Feels
Posted on August 29, 2012 | 9 CommentsInstead of spinning narratives that minimize our old beliefs, make us feel superior, and make nodding rubes out of the orthodox, we should admit that we aren't -- and weren't -- special. Only after we've leveled the playing field are we in a position to empathize with anyone. -
What’s the Harm: Utilitarianism and the “Mormon Moment”
Posted on August 14, 2012 | 9 CommentsMormonism isn't going anywhere, and it's not going to stop being a conservative institution. But Brooks and other liberal Mormons aren't enabling Mormonism's reactionary side. -
An Open Letter
Posted on August 5, 2012 | 49 CommentsYou might deride liberal Mormons for their heterodoxy, but they are doing your job for you. They have translated Mormonism into a language that is intelligible to the larger public, a language that speaks to the issues the public cares about. -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: What If?
Posted on July 31, 2012 | 12 CommentsNow I was laughing, giddy with freedom. "I don't know if You're there! I don't know what any of this means!" The more I said it, the more it filled me, that burning in the bosom, that unbridled peace. -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: You Don’t Have To
Posted on July 29, 2012 | 3 CommentsMore valuable than being obedient was the reminder that I have a personal connection to the Divine, and while a third party's interpretation may be useful, it is not necessary. -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: The Mystery of Spiritual Experience
Posted on July 24, 2012 | 11 CommentsAnd it all comes down to one thing: experiencing a sense of Connection. Connection with God. Connection with other people. Connection with the natural world. -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: That Amazing Grace
Posted on July 23, 2012 | 9 CommentsIt goes on and on, this tapestry we weave with the Divine that moves in and out, going from the seen to the unseen, letting us know that behind it all are threads that connect everything. -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: Letting Go
Posted on July 22, 2012 | 6 CommentsI realized that I'd always had it backwards. Spirituality didn't come from holding the power of God inside your body like a form of light. It didn't come from knowing all the answers, from soothing other people's pain or from living a perfect life. -
36 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Truth or The Onion?
Posted on July 14, 2012 | 6 CommentsBecause Salt Lake City is the capital of Utah, it's important that it is 'dressed appropriately.' -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: Afraid to Pray?
Posted on July 13, 2012 | 6 CommentsI only know that I wasn't strong enough to let the lamplight keep glowing, tiny as it was. I snuffed it out. -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
Posted on July 10, 2012 | 8 CommentsI got into gear. This was the main event. We took out our scriptures and flipchart. We only had about 25 minutes left, so we skipped right to the apostasy, the first vision, and the Book of Mormon. -
34 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Charity by Force?
Posted on June 24, 2012 | 9 CommentsAll those in favor of building a new sports stadium, please bring $100 cash and come down this Saturday and Sunday to help pour concrete. . . -
Good Grief
Posted on June 3, 2012 | 10 CommentsBut in that moment, I acknowledge the reality that it's nearly impossible for me to go back, for my faith to be sufficient, for me to KNOW that there is a God and that he knows me. -
33 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Loving Those Who Choose the Other Road
Posted on May 31, 2012 | 15 CommentsThe real test of love is not if we can love and appreciate people who agree with us. . .but if we can honor and respect people who don't. -
32 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Wheel of Fortune & Evergreen International, Inc.
Posted on May 28, 2012 | 8 CommentsGroups like Evergreen International only practice science when it's convenient. Like my grandma, when presented with contradictory evidence, they simply turn off the TV, insisting that their answer is better. -
31 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Straining at Gnats
Posted on May 24, 2012 | 17 CommentsAah, yes, the "don't sweat the small stuff" argument. It's as familiar as Wonder bread in a sacrament tray. -
Guest Post Invitation: It’s SEX Guest-Post Month
Posted on May 23, 2012 | 9 CommentsIf we approach the question of sex from the perspective that it is our responsibility as parents to teach our kids how TO HAVE sex, how does that change things? -
30 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Higher Education?
Posted on May 18, 2012 | 5 CommentsHarvard Business School has its issues, as does any organization. But I believe that its values of openness, tentativeness, intellectual honesty, democratic knowledge, and informed dissent are indeed worthy of praise and emulation. -
29 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: David Foster Wallace, Cement Mixers, and Mormonism
Posted on May 5, 2012 | 5 CommentsWe get to grapple with our own spiritual ineptness, sling it over our shoulders, cart it home, and store it under our beds. -
28 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Cognitive Dissonance 101
Posted on April 30, 2012 | 19 CommentsI have remarked more than once that Mormons are often able to juggle contradictory ideas without, apparently, even being aware of the internal tensions. . . . -
27 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: The CleanFlix Documentary
Posted on April 18, 2012 | 7 CommentsCLEANFLIX raises provocative questions about censorship and consumer rights as well as Mormon approaches to art and sex. . . . -
26 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Joanna, Mr. Hancock, and Mormonism Lite
Posted on April 6, 2012 | 49 CommentsAs parents, what do we value more from our four-year-olds? A paint-by-the-numbers portrait identical to what's on the box, or a free-spirited "look, Mom, this is you and Dad in a rocket ship with a cow" masterpiece? -
24 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: “We know that. . .”
Posted on March 22, 2012 | 51 CommentsI pick it up, open it, and read this sentence on page 3: "We know that gender was set in the premortal world." -
23 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: A Few Questions?
Posted on March 20, 2012 | 55 Comments1) Why is it so hard, when it comes to women, for Mormons to understand that being valuable is not the same as being equal?, 2) If King Benjamin were put in charge of church finances. . . -
22 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Look Mom, No Hands!
Posted on March 2, 2012 | 18 CommentsIt's a "Look Ma, No Hands!" approach to issue management. We want to say, "look, we aren't racists, and we have no idea why that racist policy was enforced for 130 years." -
21 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Half a Foot (or Church)
Posted on February 26, 2012 | 14 CommentsThe "nicer" men are about the patriarchal structure of the church, the more likely it is to be perpetuated. The best way for men to promote change in this context may be to act like authoritarian jerks. -
20 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Half a Church
Posted on February 19, 2012 | 60 CommentsI have brought my daughter, dressed up and nervous with anticipation, gift in hand, to a birthday party where the boys will decide what games to play and what the rules will be. . . -
Mind the Gap
Posted on February 1, 2012 | 20 CommentsI recently re-read Carol Lynn Pearson’s amazing No More Goodbyes: Circling the Wagons around Our Gay Loved Ones for the second time because a woman in my very-Mormon book club picked it for us to read. For me, it was at least as inspiring […] -
19 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Organizational Physics
Posted on January 30, 2012 | 6 CommentsSo here it is. The one inmutable law of organizations. As long as #4 is greater than #2, the organization will grow (and continue to amass resources). -
You Lost Me
Posted on January 25, 2012 | 14 CommentsBy day, I fancy myself a qualitative researcher. That means that people’s stories matter to me-significantly more than their answers to Likert scale questions. I’ll read a qualitative research study from just about any academic discipline-but skip right over the quantitative stuff. […] -
Grondahl Restored 4
Posted on January 1, 2012 | No CommentsPosted with the kind permission of The Sunstone Foundation, the publisher, and Calvin Grondahl -
Reboots: Comic Book Heroes, Origin Stories and Mormon Myth
Posted on December 18, 2011 | 6 CommentsAs a kid I read a lot of comic books. I enjoyed studying the intricate character storylines consisting of their origin stories, their many adventures and their overlapping histories with other super heroes. The result was an impressive creation, a universe akin to the […] -
18 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: The Polygamy Problem
Posted on November 19, 2011 | 36 CommentsPolygamy is a system in which MEN "progress" and "expand their stewardship" by increasing their patriarchal reach. They do it by collecting women like Jay Leno collects classic cars. -
17 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: True or False?
Posted on November 8, 2011 | 33 CommentsThe last time this was laid out for me in a sunday school lesson I decided to diagram how it actually works. I've tried to be as accurate as possible. -
15 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: The BEST Talks Ever
Posted on October 22, 2011 | 14 CommentsBased on an informal poll of cheap seaters, these are the 10 BEST talks ever. -
14 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Uchtdorf Steps In It
Posted on October 15, 2011 | 92 Comments"But PLEASE, for the love of God, don't tell us that God hasn't forgotten us. We're not that small. Or stupid." -
Moral Issues
Posted on October 13, 2011 | 2 CommentsToday on our local NPR affiliate, a local Stake Presidency member was interviewed about the roll-out of the "I'm a Mormon" PR campaign in our metro area. -
Favorites: Heroic Aspirations, Gay Marriage, and the Mormon Church
Posted on October 9, 2011 | 8 CommentsThis is a guest post I wrote nearly a year ago. . . DHO is still running around arguing that the proper practice of our religion requires us to work to prevent marginalized groups from exercising their basic civil rights. . . -
10 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: The WORST Talks Ever
Posted on September 3, 2011 | 67 CommentsBased on an informal poll of cheap seaters, these are the worst conference talks, GA talks, and other official pronouncements in the last forty years. -
09 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Faith is the Miracle
Posted on August 28, 2011 | 5 CommentsFaith doesn't affect anything. It doesn't cause anything. Faith is a commitment to see the world in a particular way. It's about choosing to look through the kaleidoscope. -
08 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Painting by the Numbers
Posted on August 21, 2011 | 24 CommentsIt's about the process, not the outcome. Painting by the numbers, regardless of how carefully, isn't the same as painting our own picture-and learning to paint on our own, I suspect, will be what will matter the most in the end. -
We Are Pioneers
Posted on July 28, 2011 | 4 CommentsAs I was telling my Kindergartner earlier this month that we're all pioneers in some way. Whenever we stand up for what we believe in or do something because we know inside it's a good thing to do, we are pioneers. -
Family Home Evening at “God’s Favorite Musical”
Posted on March 3, 2011 | 23 CommentsGuest Post: by Ian – An Early Review of The Book of Mormon Musical. This past Monday I had quite the Family Home Evening-I saw a preview performance of the new BOM Musical. I was in NYC for work and wasn’t going to miss my […] -
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, […] -
A Prophet at Wartime
Posted on February 26, 2011 | 6 CommentsWhat does this Prophet deplore in war? The actions of the enemy? The actions of the US-led coalition? War in general? It's hard to tell and this appears to be by design and consistent with the LDS church's oft-stated mantra that it avoids making political statements. -
Adam-God Theory
Posted on February 19, 2011 | 11 CommentsWhat we believe truly matters. Most of what we believe has its roots in what we were taught as children by people who we once rightfully worshipped as demi-gods; [...] These are the source of our own private Adam-God Theory. -
Leaving
Posted on February 12, 2011 | 33 CommentsI'm in the process of choosing to leave. I'm almost there. There's only a consideration of the cost. -
The Golden Rule
Posted on February 1, 2011 | 5 Comments[UPDATED] I am bound and cannot escape. I live in shadows and mists along the edges of that magical world of my childhood; a realm where all of humanity is enslaved by unhappiness and fear of certain destruction ... unless ... -
Banned
Posted on December 7, 2010 | 23 CommentsSome conservative religious communities build bonfires or try to get books banned from public libraries, Mormons censor themselves. -
Penelope’s List
Posted on December 4, 2010 | 12 CommentsIs the desire to be happy a human universal? Or is it just another one of those preferences that arise from the murky depths of some personalities? On its face this question seems to have an obvious answer. I mean, who doesn’t want to be […] -
Golem
Posted on October 30, 2010 | 8 CommentsThere is a story among my people of the time before. It is a story meant to answer the youthful questions: “Who am I? What am I? Where do I come from? Where am I going?” It is a story meant to bind the heart […]