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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
This poem by the beloved Mormon poet Carol Lynn Pearson has been haunting my waking and sleeping thoughts all week:... -
The Won’t To Believe
I could do it. I could choose to believe. -
Finding Common Variables in Parallel Struggles for Change
I envision a Church that publicly recognizes that, like its own history, healthy gender roles and healthy sexuality are also... -
Mormonism is a Skirt, Not a Pair of Pants!
Skirtism doesn’t imply that there exists no universal Mormonism — for all we know, One True Mormonism is floating out... -
44 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Mormonism, Utah and Equal Opportunity
Utah is a state where, if you’re poor, your neighbors will bake you cookies, and then cheerfully go the ballot... -
Single Experiences: A Little House Just For Me
We’ve all heard of stories where the husband is asked whether or not the wife could hold a calling or... -
Guest Post Invitation: Single Experiences
We want to hear your personal stories about why there is less than a perfect fit between your spiritual needs... -
You Don’t Know How It Feels
Instead of spinning narratives that minimize our old beliefs, make us feel superior, and make nodding rubes out of the... -
What’s the Harm: Utilitarianism and the “Mormon Moment”
Mormonism isn’t going anywhere, and it’s not going to stop being a conservative institution. But Brooks and other liberal Mormons... -
An Open Letter
You might deride liberal Mormons for their heterodoxy, but they are doing your job for you. They have translated Mormonism... -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: What If?
Now I was laughing, giddy with freedom. “I don’t know if You’re there! I don’t know what any... -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: You Don’t Have To
More valuable than being obedient was the reminder that I have a personal connection to the Divine, and while a... -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: The Mystery of Spiritual Experience
And it all comes down to one thing: experiencing a sense of Connection. Connection with God. Connection with... -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: That Amazing Grace
It goes on and on, this tapestry we weave with the Divine that moves in and out, going from the... -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: Letting Go
I realized that I’d always had it backwards. Spirituality didn’t come from holding the power of God inside your body... -
36 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Truth or The Onion?
Because Salt Lake City is the capital of Utah, it’s important that it is ‘dressed appropriately.’ -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: Afraid to Pray?
I only know that I wasn’t strong enough to let the lamplight keep glowing, tiny as it was. I... -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
I got into gear. This was the main event. We took out our scriptures and flipchart. We... -
34 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Charity by Force?
All those in favor of building a new sports stadium, please bring $100 cash and come down this Saturday and... -
Good Grief
But in that moment, I acknowledge the reality that it’s nearly impossible for me to go back, for my faith... -
33 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Loving Those Who Choose the Other Road
The real test of love is not if we can love and appreciate people who agree with us. . .but... -
32 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Wheel of Fortune & Evergreen International, Inc.
Groups like Evergreen International only practice science when it’s convenient. Like my grandma, when presented with contradictory evidence, they... -
31 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Straining at Gnats
Aah, 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
If we approach the question of sex from the perspective that it is our responsibility as parents to teach our... -
30 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Higher Education?
Harvard Business School has its issues, as does any organization. But I believe that its values of openness, tentativeness,... -
29 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: David Foster Wallace, Cement Mixers, and Mormonism
We get to grapple with our own spiritual ineptness, sling it over our shoulders, cart it home, and store it... -
28 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Cognitive Dissonance 101
I have remarked more than once that Mormons are often able to juggle contradictory ideas without, apparently, even being aware... -
27 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: The CleanFlix Documentary
CLEANFLIX 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
As parents, what do we value more from our four-year-olds? A paint-by-the-numbers portrait identical to what’s on the box,... -
24 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: “We know that. . .”
I pick it up, open it, and read this sentence on page 3: “We know that gender was set in... -
23 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: A Few Questions?
1) Why is it so hard, when it comes to women, for Mormons to understand that being valuable is not... -
22 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Look Mom, No Hands!
It’s a “Look Ma, No Hands!” approach to issue management. We want to say, “look, we aren’t racists, and we... -
21 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Half a Foot (or Church)
The “nicer” men are about the patriarchal structure of the church, the more likely it is to be perpetuated. The... -
20 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Half a Church
I have brought my daughter, dressed up and nervous with anticipation, gift in hand, to a birthday party where the... -
Mind the Gap
I recently re-read Carol Lynn Pearson’s amazing No More Goodbyes: Circling the Wagons around Our Gay Loved Ones for the... -
19 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Organizational Physics
So here it is. The one inmutable law of organizations. As long as #4 is greater than #2,... -
You Lost Me
By day, I fancy myself a qualitative researcher. That means that people’s stories matter to me-significantly more than their... -
Grondahl Restored 4
Posted with the kind permission of The Sunstone Foundation, the publisher, and Calvin Grondahl -
Reboots: Comic Book Heroes, Origin Stories and Mormon Myth
As a kid I read a lot of comic books. I enjoyed studying the intricate character storylines consisting of... -
18 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: The Polygamy Problem
Polygamy is a system in which MEN “progress” and “expand their stewardship” by increasing their patriarchal reach. They do it... -
17 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: True or False?
The last time this was laid out for me in a sunday school lesson I decided to diagram how it... -
15 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: The BEST Talks Ever
Based 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
“But PLEASE, for the love of God, don’t tell us that God hasn’t forgotten us. We’re not that small. Or... -
Moral Issues
Today on our local NPR affiliate, a local Stake Presidency member was interviewed about the roll-out of the “I’m a... -
Favorites: Heroic Aspirations, Gay Marriage, and the Mormon Church
This is a guest post I wrote nearly a year ago. . . DHO is still running around arguing that... -
10 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: The WORST Talks Ever
Based on an informal poll of cheap seaters, these are the worst conference talks, GA talks, and other official pronouncements... -
09 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Faith is the Miracle
Faith doesn’t affect anything. It doesn’t cause anything. Faith is a commitment to see the world in a particular way.... -
08 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Painting by the Numbers
It’s about the process, not the outcome. Painting by the numbers, regardless of how carefully, isn’t the same as painting... -
We Are Pioneers
As I was telling my Kindergartner earlier this month that we’re all pioneers in some way. Whenever we stand up... -
Family Home Evening at “God’s Favorite Musical”
Guest Post: by Ian – An Early Review of The Book of Mormon Musical. This past Monday I had quite...