The First Book of Ed
This is the accurate account of me, Ed, and my family. I am the previously unmentioned youngest son to my parents Lehi and Sariah, and have four older brothers, being called,(beginning at the eldest)...
View ArticleAdvice
I was 9 or 10 that summer. I lived to swim, ride my bike, play with my dolls and cars, read and daydream. The future seemed far away and church was just something I went to. We were at a ward...
View ArticleChristmas Fears
Last week I was invited to a gathering of moms and kids from my husband’s ward. (They split the wards just after I quit attending so I don’t actually know many of the people my family attends church...
View ArticleAnswers
I have attended something like 450 testimony meetings in my life and four times as many sacrament meetings, not to mention countless hours of sunday school, primary, Relief Society, seminary,...
View ArticleTowards A Mormon “Hall of Fame” of Books
Reading has always been in my blood. I can distinctly remember being 9 years old, losing feeling in my arm, being propped up on my elbow while underneath the covers with a flashlight and a book, and...
View ArticleSojourner in the Lone and Dreary World: Two Years Among the Apostates
My first foray into the online Mormon world occurred when I was 18 years old. As a young clean-cut Mormon getting ready to go on a mission, I was looking for anything about Mormons my own age, and...
View ArticleWhy The Church Hasn’t Condemned Its Racist Past
As a result of its interpretation of the Bible as forbidding interracial dating, Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina did not admit any black students prior to 1971. Between 1971 and...
View ArticleThe OTHER Mormon Moment
Many of you have heard of the “Mormon Moment,” and the items that have happened through the last year: Mitt Romney as a legitimately viable candidate for the Republican party candidate for President of...
View ArticlePart 1: Here I Stand
My relationship with Mormonism is complex. I have served as a commentator, critic, research, occasional defender, and a former member. I have been in the shoes of the skeptic and the believer; I have...
View ArticlePart 2: The Vanguard
There are many terms that get employed in metaphor so often that they begin to lose any real meaning. “The Vanguard” is one of them. In the age of machine guns and smart bombs, the term has lost much...
View ArticleMy Tentative Compromise
I have learned through sad experience that conversations online are sometimes incredibly toxic. If you don’t know what I mean, check out the comments section of any post on The Huffington Post, or the...
View ArticleFostering a Healthy Environment for Independent Thought (and Why the Church...
Hi, everyone. This is my debut blog post on the Mormon Expression blog. John said it was cool if I cross-post some of the blog posts I do at my original blog: Oxymormongirl, so that’s what I’m going to...
View ArticleThe Silence
. . . Do you hear that? That is the sound of fear. The sound of my standing – still – in my journey: Afraid to go forward . . . Not willing to go back. That is the sound of lips not speaking any words...
View ArticleI Lost My Faith
It’s such a simple phrase. Yet somehow, coming to grips with this reality has been a long, painstaking process. I ignorantly thought that once I accepted this statement, the hard part would be over....
View ArticleOuroboros
The Ouroboros or is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail. It is often used to represent repeated cycles. The philosopher Plato gave a very interesting interpretation of...
View ArticlePart 3: Amen and Amen
At the end of every talk and prayer in a Mormon service, the speaker pronounces “amen” which is followed by the audience repeating “amen”. The word roughly means “so be it” and is a way for the...
View ArticleA New, Non-Mormon Identity
For the first time in my adult life, I am living in a location where my status as a Mormon, ex or otherwise, is a non-issue. In a past life, my acquaintances knew I was Mormon, and then they knew that...
View ArticleThoughts On Daniel Peterson
Recently there has been a bit of a kerfuffle regarding the abrupt dismissal of Daniel Peterson as editor of the Mormon Studies Review (formerly FARMS Review). This event, and some of the responses...
View ArticleAre You Experiencing Ex-Mormon Stereotype Threat?
Recently the concept of stereotype threat has made it onto my radar. I think this particular concept might possibly explain some of the source of the anxieties I’ve been experiencing in relation to...
View ArticleThe Restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood
In the LDS Church priesthood is defined as the power and authority to act in the name of God. This right is delegated to man on earth as a sacred charge and a divine investiture of that authority....
View ArticleHow do I tell my parents I drink?
I drink, my parents do not. This should be a small deal, right? By most metrics, I’m an adult. (And now that SNL skit will be in your head FOREVER! You’re welcome.) My wife and I live in a house. We...
View ArticleSacrifice and Service
Recently I was asked to give a talk in church. When I first started this blog I was the elder’s quorum teacher and thought it would be neat to post all the “skeptical” stuff I was surreptitiously...
View ArticleTop 5 Things I Hate About Nephi
So every once in a while someone suggests I ought to try reading the Book of Mormon, “just once more.” Most of these suggestions come from people I really love and so I am occasionally inclined to...
View ArticleThe Mormon Christ
There has been a great deal of talk lately regarding whether or not Mormons are Christians. This is not a new argument, it is actually as old as the church itself. When the Church was first founded...
View ArticleWhat’s in a name . . . ?
I am still scared to say it. My secret name. My name that belongs to every other woman who received her endowments on the day I received my endowments . . . my name that isn’t sacred or even, really,...
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