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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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Tag Cloud
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religion Archive
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47 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: A Faith like Mine
Posted on December 18, 2012 | 7 CommentsI now admit, somewhat sheepishly, that one of the reasons I voted for Obama is because of his religious 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. -
Richard Dawkins, you’re an ass. Brandon Flowers, you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.
Posted on September 16, 2012 | 41 CommentsWhen we hear that a belief is ridiculous, the first thing we should ask ourselves is: ridiculous to whom? -
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. . . -
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. . . -
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). -
Santa and I
Posted on December 22, 2011 | 7 CommentsThe year I turned four or five, we drove to my grandparents in central Wisconsin for Christmas. Actually, we did this for most years of my early childhood- until I was 8 or so and we moved to Florida. Making the 1100 mile […] -
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. -
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. . . -
12 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Moral Imagination (Guest)
Posted on September 24, 2011 | 8 Comments[Heidi, a fellow cheap-seater, still has the floor.] In an earlier Cheap Seats post, Brent asked “Why do we spend so much time telling each other what spiritual experiences mean?” I think it’s an important question and it’s one I keep coming back to. […] -
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. -
Great Expectations
Posted on July 17, 2011 | 3 CommentsIn 2006, Elder Nelson spoke of his first wife saying, “When people have asked her how she managed with ten children with so little time available from her husband, she has responded with a twinkle in her eye, saying, “When I married him, I didn’t […] -
Joining the Jesus Freaks
Posted on June 30, 2011 | 1 CommentDo we believe, deep down, that the poor are that way because God wants them to be? -
Angels with Power Tools
Posted on May 12, 2011 | 9 CommentsWhen you hear the words “Compassionate Service” what comes to mind? This is like one of those word association games- just go with your gut feeling. Macaroni and cheese? Sign up sheets? Relief Society Board Meeting? A calling you hated (or […] -
Parallel Journeys
Posted on March 24, 2011 | 20 CommentsBy Claudia On my personal blog, I am known as “The Faithful Dissident.” For the past three years, I’ve been hiding behind that alias. Afraid of what, I’m not exactly sure, but some of my experiences during the past yearhave made me realize that I’m […] -
Talents: Addition and Multiplication
Posted on March 10, 2011 | 9 CommentsThis is a guest post from a favorite reader and commenter, Corktree. It may sound simplistic (or just serving of my purpose), but I’ve always read the parable of the talents to mean actual talents. It’s just easy to see how one might be […] -
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. -
Hate
Posted on February 24, 2011 | 7 CommentsAs an antidote to all the love around here lately, I thought I’d offer up a little bit of good old-fashioned hate. I grew up in a very low key household where strong feelings didn’t really have a place. My typical toddler tantrums were […] -
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 Trouble with Immaculate Contraception …
Posted on February 9, 2011 | 8 Comments… is that there are always exceptions. Love to Jesus and Mo. -
Mirror
Posted on February 5, 2011 | 9 CommentsWhen the Universe ends-or re-begins?-how will we know? Who will write the history of it? And what is the basis of any hope that anyone would care to read it? -
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 ... -
The Power and the Glory of Quirky Observation
Posted on January 22, 2011 | 11 CommentsI've recently been reminded of how some, more quirky observations can easily lead to delightful moments of wonder and a spine-tingling connectedness with the whole bad-ass universe. We might fail for words ... except perhaps an astonished, I know! -
Faith – Worth the Risk?
Posted on January 16, 2011 | 4 Comments*The following is a guest post by Dan Ron Kauk is one of the world’s most renowned rock climbers. A fixture at Yosemite during the climbing season, he’s pioneered routes on some of the most notorious walls, including a few first ascents on El Capitan. […] -
Bake-ru
Posted on January 15, 2011 | 2 Comments'Bake' isn't just about changing, its about the charm that transforms everyday innocuous items into unrecognizable, uncooperative objects through unknown mischief. When we find ourselves stupefied by keys that should work, or items that have inexplicably disappeared, it has 'bake-ru.' -
What The Church is Doing Wrong
Posted on January 13, 2011 | 16 CommentsSomething's better than nothing.... or is it? -
Lamb Chop In The Sky
Posted on December 18, 2010 | 4 CommentsIf a boy becomes a man and can still feel the tug of an emotion from across 40 years, one may guess that the experience was profound - and so it was. -
Let My People Go
Posted on December 15, 2010 | 10 CommentsMy little Stuart has a bleeding heart. He is unusually quick, I think, to identify a person or an action as being unfair or unkind and to want to right the wrong (unless it’s one of his sisters, in the which case it’s revenge, no […] -
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 […] -
Lunch 5- Out of the Comfort Zone
Posted on December 2, 2010 | 8 CommentsWe (and our children) have had to learn to be gracious guests at both cockroach infested decrepit apartments and mansions where we are served by The Help. -
Seminal Works — Gilead
Posted on November 16, 2010 | 11 CommentsThis meditative novel is an examination of faith, humanity and the unbearable beauty of everyday life; it is impossible to overstate the spare, lyrical beauty of Robinson's prose or the complexity and intellectual rigor she brings to her writing. -
Blessed Eve, Mother of All Living
Posted on November 13, 2010 | 8 CommentsThe opposite of life is not death, rather never knowing. Yet knowledge has been called a forbidden fruit and a poison … the root of all evil … a bitter token of death. And Eve, she who was tempted to partake, has been made to […] -
Top 10 Principles of Happiness That I was Never taught at Church
Posted on November 7, 2010 | 30 Comments1. Don’t believe everything you think. Putting aside all past conditioning — if that’s even possible – ask yourself, “Who am I?” At the core of your human experience, who or what are you? As you engage the question, attempt to answer it without […] -
A Man of Letters
Posted on November 6, 2010 | 24 CommentsEverything I have learned about God is written in a book. In fact, it's difficult to imagine how my worldview might differ had certain ideas not been memorialized, glorified, and canonized in the form of holy books ...