Strengthening the Family
Let’s talk history for a minute. Family history. Or rather, the history of families. Throughout most of history, any mother wealthy enough to dedicate all her time to raising her children hired other people to do it for her. Many parents, both rich and poor, would...
Joseph Smith and The Order of Enoch
Joseph Smith and The Order of Enoch Michael asked me to last week to author a couple of posts about the law of consecration for the blog. He’d listened to Jared Anderson’s podcast on the subject, in which I participated as a member of the discussion group. It was one...
The Modesty Line
As a mother of two young daughters, I have been contemplating modesty in the LDS church and what I want to teach my daughters. It seems to be a tricky subject. In the Mormon culture, modesty is a wide, sweeping term. Our leaders have said that we should be modest in...
Fine Tuning the Message
A couple years ago when we were studying Gospel Principles in church, my wife and I were preparing for the week’s lesson. During our study I noticed some differences in my book (from my mission) from what she was reading online. Even though the changes were minor, I...
A Mother There. And Here.
In the heav'ns are parents single? No, the thought makes reason stare! Truth is reason; truth eternal tells me I've a mother there. ~ Eliza R. Snow . Part 1 The Motherless Child My first concrete experience of the divine feminine happened about twenty years ago when I...
Go Ahead and Skip That Temple Wedding
Note: This first appeared on Rock Waterman's blog, puremormonism.blogspot.com, back in February 2011. Rock has given us permission to re-post it here. Click here to visit his blog. GO AHEAD AND SKIP THAT TEMPLE WEDDING by Rock Waterman I'm not normally in the habit...
Separate and Special
In the past couple of months on Rational Faiths, we’ve been hearing a lot about the temple sealing ceremony and the role it plays as a part of LDS weddings. We’ve heard a lot from members overseas about the benefits of having separate sealings and wedding ceremonies...
The Road to Tyranny
The Road to Tyranny: (Steps to take in order to transition a limited government of the people, by the people and for the people, to a tyrannical government that runs the people.) 1. Wage war on independence and personal responsibility. Play up the victim angle....
The Devil Made Me Do It
About a week and a half ago in anticipation of writing this post I posted a poll in a Facebook group that is by and large inhabited by heterodox Mormons. There are other variations of belief ranging from none, to close to Orthodox but the meat lies in the middle. The...
The Rise of Post-Familialism: Humanity’s Future
Note: This orignally appeared in Newgeography.com. We obtained permission from the authors to repost it here on our blog. This piece is the introduction to a new report on post-familialism from Civil Service College in Singapore, Chapman University, and Fieldstead...
A Woman’s Blessing
When my oldest daughter was about 18 months old, my wife gave me the o.k. to buy a boxer puppy. I had wanted one for years. Their square heads, under-bite, and wiggly butts, just charmed me. We drove up to Grants Pass, Oregon on Father's Day and bought a...
A Brit Marrying in Utah
By Francis Williamson Having been born and brought up in the UK it had never occurred to me that, when it came time for my children to be married, I would not be able to take part in the day or witness their exchanges of wedding vows. Two of my sons have been...
History and #42
I love baseball. There is nothing better than playing ball with my kids or watching the Giants on TV with them. I love hearing my boy say that he just "crushed the ball like Buster Posey." Growing up I spent hours in my front driveway playing baseball with my friends....
Mormons and Mullets
As a young LDS child, I loved flipping through the scriptures in search of the pictures. I would imagine the prophets and key players in the scriptures as I saw them- unhumanly buff, thick jawlines, Anglo-Saxon, sword wielding demigods. We can all thank the late, and...
Is Feminism in the Future of Mormonism?
Is Feminism in the Future of Mormonism? By Father Tom Roberts, PhD “Feminism” is really a loaded term. It extends from conservative religious practices under studies such as A Women’s Strategic Place in the Church. Even evangelical feminists like to show just how...
An Email from Greg Prince
Note: A few weeks ago I was asked to teach a lesson to the 14-15 year old youth Sunday School class about the Great Apostasy. I reached out to Dr. Greg Prince for advice on how to approach this subject. His response was so helpful, I thought it would be worth being...
LGBTQ Mormon Crisis
Two Printable handout for bishops and stake presidents that talks empirically about LGBTQ suicides:
The LGBTQ Mormon Crisis: Responding to the Empirical Research on Suicide
Youth Suicide Rates and Mormon Religious Context: An Additional Empirical Analysis
The Barker Brothers’ Projects
These videos were created for Latter-day Saint parents and allies to voice their love for their LGBT brothers and sisters, sons and daughters. They want to give a message of comfort and support to other parents who are navigating the difficult conflicts that can arise in families around this issue.
“Cogito!” (“I think!”) follows the intellectual adventures of a recovering academic outside the walls of academia.
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