spirituality Archive

  • This Must Stop: A Call to End Sexually Invasive Interviews Between Priesthood Leaders and Minors in the LDS Church

    Posted on August 18, 2013 | 396 Comments
    TRIGGER WARNING: sexual and spiritual abuse When I was 13-years-old, I was violated in a very personal way.  A middle-aged man from my neighborhood pulled me aside, brought me into a private room, and asked me explicit sexual questions. It was a traumatic experience. It […]

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  • On Being a Christmasist

    Posted on December 19, 2012 | 11 Comments
    In the three years since I lost faith in Mormonism, I’ve tried on more than a few labels to describe my spiritual alignment: agnostic, atheist, humanist. I’m not content with any of them. It’s not that they are wrong, necessarily, but each fails to capture […]

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  • Encounters: We Are All Beggars

    Posted on December 10, 2012 | 3 Comments
    When we see physical need in others, it is merely an external manifestation of an inner need we all carry.

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  • Guest Post Invitation: Single Experiences

    Posted on September 10, 2012 | 13 Comments
    We want to hear your personal stories about why there is less than a perfect fit between your spiritual needs and what the church offers.

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  • Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: Sacred Artifacts and Rituals

    Posted on August 17, 2012 | 4 Comments
    I'm a faithful skeptic, a doubting believer; this is why these spiritual experiences were so unexpected.

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  • Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: An Object Lesson

    Posted on August 14, 2012 | 11 Comments
    I have felt those same feelings in and around mosques, synagogues, and churches of many different Christian denominations. Let's add mountaintops and porch swings, too.

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  • Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: Letting the Sea In

    Posted on August 10, 2012 | 9 Comments
    This wasn't how it was supposed to be. That thought thrummed constantly below the surface, a drumbeat following me everywhere.

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  • Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: You Don’t Have To

    Posted on July 29, 2012 | 3 Comments
    More 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.

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  • Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: The Mystery of Spiritual Experience

    Posted on July 24, 2012 | 11 Comments
    And it all comes down to one thing: experiencing a sense of Connection. Connection with God. Connection with other people. Connection with the natural world.

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  • Guest Post Invitation: Unexpected Spiritual Experiences

    Posted on July 5, 2012 | 7 Comments
    I begged God to change her. But instead, God changed me. . . By the time we arrived in Massachusetts for Cholene's wedding, God was already there.

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  • 30 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Higher Education?

    Posted on May 18, 2012 | 5 Comments
    Harvard 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.

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  • 26 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Joanna, Mr. Hancock, and Mormonism Lite

    Posted on April 6, 2012 | 49 Comments
    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, or a free-spirited "look, Mom, this is you and Dad in a rocket ship with a cow" masterpiece?

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  • 24 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: “We know that. . .”

    Posted on March 22, 2012 | 51 Comments
    I pick it up, open it, and read this sentence on page 3: "We know that gender was set in the premortal world."

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  • 23 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: A Few Questions?

    Posted on March 20, 2012 | 55 Comments
    1) 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. . .

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  • 15 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: The BEST Talks Ever

    Posted on October 22, 2011 | 14 Comments
    Based on an informal poll of cheap seaters, these are the 10 BEST talks ever.

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  • Finding Peace

    Finding Peace

    Posted on September 22, 2011 | 4 Comments
    Forgiveness.   As babies and young children, we can’t help but forgive those that wrong us.   We have no choice…. we are too dependent.   But somehow along the path to adulthood (and independence) we lose that.   Maybe rightly so- I think there […]

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  • The Wish Tree

    Posted on September 15, 2011 | 1 Comment
    I had my five year old daughter with me and I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't get her very interested in the bronzes. Then we turned the corner and beheld the Wish Tree.

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  • 10 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: The WORST Talks Ever

    Posted on September 3, 2011 | 67 Comments
    Based on an informal poll of cheap seaters, these are the worst conference talks, GA talks, and other official pronouncements in the last forty years.

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  • 08 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Painting by the Numbers

    Posted on August 21, 2011 | 24 Comments
    It'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.

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  • Stephanie’s Walk to “Church”

    Posted on August 14, 2011 | 4 Comments
    Today’s “Ride to Church” comes to us from Stephanie Durden Edwards of Missouri.   Stephanie writes: ; My Sundays used to look and feel a whole lot different than they do now.   Rushing around to have lesson materials ready, wrestling toddlers into dress shoes […]

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  • 10 Seconds with Tinkerbell

    Posted on July 31, 2011 | 9 Comments
    This week I found myself in that place Tinkerbell is so fond of — the place between asleep and awake. I opened my eyes from an awkward catnap on the I-80 in Nevada, and for a few brief moments I forgot which Honda I was […]

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  • We Are Pioneers

    Posted on July 28, 2011 | 4 Comments
    As 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.

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  • Joining the Jesus Freaks

    Posted on June 30, 2011 | 1 Comment
    Do we believe, deep down, that the poor are that way because God wants them to be?

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  • What Dreams May Come

    Posted on May 7, 2011 | 8 Comments
    There are two ways into the world of dreams. The first is to walk in consciously, the second is to achieve consciousness during or after it. These two modes suggest two ways of dealing with the unconscious mind: the largest part of our brain, and the seat of all that we do not understand about ourselves.

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  • Get Lost

    Posted on April 26, 2011 | 6 Comments
    Lately, I've been thinking a lot about what we mean when we talk about "losing ourselves in a good book."

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  • Parallel Journeys

    Posted on March 24, 2011 | 20 Comments
    By 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 […]

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  • Awakenings

    Posted on February 22, 2011 | 15 Comments
    "True spirituality is not a defense against the uncertainties, pain and danger in life, not an 'an inoculation,' as Joseph Campbell called popular religion, to avoid the unknown. It is an opening to the entire mysterious process of life."

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  • Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot?

    Posted on January 3, 2011 | 9 Comments
    The natural recounting of achievements and regrets with an eye to the future feels like a gift.

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  • Offering

    Posted on December 19, 2010 | 2 Comments
    What offering can I leave here, in this moment -- to help me remember that I am the source?

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  • Real Intimacy

    Posted on December 12, 2010 | 9 Comments
    Today, I indulged. I let my mind wander to one of my favorite fantasies. Do you want to join me? Be warned, it’s pretty damn sexy. Imagine — every time you open your refrigerator, it’s immaculate. It smells like fresh lime and each item is […]

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  • Banned

    Posted on December 7, 2010 | 23 Comments
    Some conservative religious communities build bonfires or try to get books banned from public libraries, Mormons censor themselves.

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  • I Want

    Posted on December 5, 2010 | 5 Comments
    Happiness comes from within. It may be one of the most overused spiritual statements, and most of us would agree with it — despite evidence to the contrary. Seriously, what evidence do we have that happiness comes from within? When I think about the things […]

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  • Get Real

    Posted on November 28, 2010 | 9 Comments
    Real. It’s one of my favorite four letter words. I can’t think of any better criteria for a friend – just be real. Satya is the Sanskrit word for truthfulness. It’s one of the main precepts of yoga and one of the first things yogis […]

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  • Taking Up My Mat

    Posted on November 22, 2010 | 7 Comments
    I thought about God asking me the same question one day and decided I don't want to be left offering excuses about why I didn't follow up on my dreams or let life pass me by

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  • The Places That Scare You

    Posted on November 14, 2010 | 7 Comments
    “Confess your hidden faults. Approach what you find repulsive. Help those you think you cannot help. Anything you are attached to, let it go. Go to the places that scare you. – advice from her teacher to the Tibetan Yogini Machik Labdron In 2009, fresh […]

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