Right Wanting
I am an eternally recovering hyper-competitor. Perfectionist doesn’t quite cover the clawing array of symptoms I display when I’m on the trail of something (or someone). I don’t give up or give in until my body breaks or mind shuts down or someone literally screams...
I Sold My Birthright
This is about my birthright. This is about my potential. This is about what I was made for. This is about what I gave away when I was convinced it wasn’t worth anything. I grew up knowing I was meant for one thing. I was called to the highest, holiest, most noble...
What happened to the podcasts?
Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Divine Feminine, and Joseph Smith’s First Vision
My family and I recently moved to Mexico on a one-year assignment for my job. My wife and I were both Spanish-speaking missionaries (she in Panama and I in the U.S.) and we are excited to immerse ourselves again in the culture and language (not to mention the food!)....
The Consolation of Boethius
Sometimes in your studies, you run across pleasant surprises. Recently this happened to me. As I was studying medieval church history, I ran across the name Boethius. I learned that Boethius was a powerful influence on the scholastic movement with writers like Thomas...
Stop Insulting the Priesthood
There’s a new party line emerging in the Church about the priesthood. It is this: “No one blesses themselves through the priesthood, so everyone is equally blessed by the priesthood.” This is becoming the neat little response to concerns about the men-only nature of...
You are not porn. You are the Sun.
I often hear people talk about widening the canopy of Mormonism to be more inclusive of various interpretations, orthodoxy, and orthopraxy, similar to Catholicism. I’m highly in favor of such aspirations, particularly with regard to orthopraxy. While I stopped wearing...
Why Mormon Truth Claims Matter
The other day I was listening to a podcast about Mormonism when the host made the claim that it doesn’t matter whether the Church’s claims are true and that instead what matters is whether Mormonism is beautiful and good. It’s a viewpoint I’ve encountered many times...
173: The CES Podcast, episode 41: Romans 1 and 2
What did Paul tell the Romans about men who have sex with men and women who have sex with women? When did Christians first start calling Jesus "The Son of God" and "The Son of David"? Is "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth," a commandment or a...
Seeing the Lives Behind Our Words
Decades separate the two most important testimony meetings I have been a part of. In both instances, men I looked up to approached the pulpit with conviction and then proceeded to fall apart.The first time it was my father. This past Sunday, it was a man approximately...
Getting the Priesthood Story Straight
In the years that I have been engaged in openly and publicly advocating for female ordination in the LDS church, one of the most common responses from men and women in the church comes along the lines of, “if you want extra meetings on Sundays, I’d gladly trade you,”...
Book Review: “Days of Awe and Wonder” by Marcus Borg
Many Rational Faiths readers are likely already familiar with Marcus Borg. For those aren’t, I highly recommend getting to know him. Marcus Borg (1942-2015) was a highly-respected and renowned academic who specialized in religious studies, with a specific focus on the...
Those People
Before summer’s out, we’ll repeal/replace Obamacare w/ system based on personal responsibility, free-market competition & state-based reform pic.twitter.com/JzCyxX9kJb This tweet has recently come to my attention from our vice-president as part of the dialogue on...
172: The CES Podcast, episode 40: Introduction to Romans
How can certainty offer stability but at the same time become fragile when things change? How can Paul's Epistle to the Romans be dated around to the late 50 CE? How is Augustine's doctrine of Original Sin different from Paul's view of sin? All of these questions and...
171: The CES Podcast, episode 39: Philippians
Where the heck is Philippi and how did it get its name? Did Paul see belief in Jesus as a choice or as something that is just given to the believer? What did Paul have to say about white privilege? What important roles did women in the Philippian church have? Was...
From Our Ward: Love the Poor and Needy
Moroni is very specific here. He is talking to us. He is talking to all of us Mormons. We’re the ones reading the Book of Mormon, and this is 100% addressed to us. Virtually all of us are called out for pride, for pricey clothing, and all manner of iniquity. He does add the qualifier “save a few only,” but I’m guessing that like the Relief Society sisters, those “few only” are probably going to go away thinking that they should do better. Interestingly he doesn’t give the same qualifier when he calls out our church. “Your churches, yeah, even every one, have become polluted.” Again, he’s addressing us. He says “you do love… the adorning of your churches more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted.”
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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