In the Face of Diversity
I'm going to share a couple of impressions of the opening night of the Democratic National Convention, but first I want to share a little personal context. I have avoided overtly political posts on Rational Faiths. I've tried to stick with Mormon theology, personal...
The Day Heavenly Mother Lost Her Temple Recommend
A couple years ago, I began assisting as a moderator for the Finding Heavenly Mother Project, a Facebook group devoted to seeking out Heavenly Mother. It was an honor to have this special “calling” extended to me by my friend who founded the group. Over time, however,...
The ointment in the fly.
Einstein was divorced and married his cousin. Martin Luther King Jr. was a serial adulterer. Marie Curie’s affair with Paul Langevin ended his marriage. Thomas Jefferson fathered children with a woman that he owned. Mother Theresa called AIDS “a just retribution for...
Why Mormons and Trump Just Don’t Get Along
This post originally appeared on MormonPress. There are so many reasons Donald Trump should not be president. In fact, this list outlines in brutally efficient fashion a few of the ways Mr. Trump is entirely unfit to be President of the United States. Polls show that...
Holding Fast to Sacred Things
Sometime on my mission I read Alma 37 with new eyes. The main focus of the chapter is Alma’s counsel to Helaman about how to care for the records of the Nephites. I’d always read it as just another instance of the Book of Mormon reinforcing its own significance. But...
101: Surveying ‘The Next Mormons’ – Its Harder than it Looks
Here is a discussion with the minds behind a newly proposed study of The Next Mormons. Jana Riess and Ben Knoll talk with Thomas and I about their "survey that will teach us about Mormon Millennials (ages 18-35) -- and especially how they differ from three older...
BEING A NUDIST
Twenty years ago today, the only grown woman to ever see my grown, naked body saw it for the first time and she didn't run away (I'm a hairy dude). There is evidence that this occurred at least two other times as we now have two brilliant daughters. Recently our...
Dangerous Apologetics
I'm an Apologist My most read posts in the past include a review of An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, a personal response to the Letter to a CES Director, and a series of posts exploring the science of stylometry as it applies to the Book of Mormon. In each of...
FAITH CRISIS: A MOUNTAIN BIKER’S GUIDE
I like to mountain bike – a lot. That is an understatement; a huge understatement. Our youngest daughter recently outgrew her hand-me-down BMX bike and wanted a new bike – a mountain bike! In order for her to get a mountain bike, she had to meet the same requirement...
Far From the Madding Crowd
I have checked out from the world, as much as one can in this day and age. This past month I have learned that you can have worst events in life that lead to hard days, and then you can have a list of days so horrendous that they amount to worst weeks. Mine was the...
BLEACHING MUHAMMAD ALI
Trigger Warning: use of the N-word by Muhammad Ali. My daughters and I, and occasionally my wife, box. We wanted our daughters to know how do defend themselves if the time ever presented itself. So we asked around what kind of martial arts would be...
Excommunication: What I Learned
I was eleven years old the day I saw them from my bedroom window walk up to our front door. My mother informed them the man they were looking for was in the backyard. I raced from the front of my childhood home to the back window. With my nose pressed up against the...
Losing My Vulnerability
Those who have followed my posts here might know that I have had the benefit of a long and slow faith crisis... spread out over 20 years, since the beginning of High School to my recent decision to stop participating in the church for the foreseeable future. Though...
We Thought Love Would Be Enough
A poem that observes the limits of communities and institutions in being willing or able to include the suffering and even the existence of those who find themselves on the margins of their borders. Dedicated in particular to those who are grieving in the wake of...
The world is wide enough for Hamilton and me
I read the Federalist Papers for the first time when I was 18 years old. What else should a college-bound aspiring political science major be reading? I left for my mission after my first year at Utah State University. My version of missionary “apostasy” was...
Dollar
The Seeing Eye Dog – A Weekly Comic to Lead the Blind Where ‘ere They Go. By Jack Naneek
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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