Movie Review: ‘The Cokeville Miracle’
Most Latter-day Saint (LDS) movie goers are familiar with the work of T.C. Christensen from his past films 17 Miracles and Ephraim's Rescue (among others). These movies have earned Christensen a place in LDS cinema that will probably not be filled for some time,...
God’s Agents
One common way of explaining the need for priesthood authority in the LDS Church is the idea of authorized agents. Priesthood holders, especially those in leadership positions, are described as agents of the Lord with authority to act on his behalf in important...
Drowning Pregnant Mothers, Puppy Dogs and Panda Bears.
As a young child I had a Fisher Price Noah’s Ark Toy. It had a plastic boat and figurines of Brother and Sister Noah. There were pairs of zebras, tigers, giraffes, elephants and camels. The male animals were big and masculine looking and the females had lipstick or a...
62: Spiritual Watering Holes Part 2
Hearing the voice of the Holy Ghost and feeling the spirit often present themselves as elusive experiences that we want to have but just can't seem to grasp. In fact, when teaching the youth in my ward I asked the priests and laurels to rate their interest in about 20...
Power and Personal Disclosure: Are you LDS?
As a therapist, I sit in a chair and talk with people about their journeys in this life while they lie on the couch in my office. Sometimes my clients contemplate life. Sometimes they contemplate events. I’m often asked, because I practice in Utah, if I’m a Latter Day...
You Can’t Handle the Truth!
Possibly the least important question you could ask about a scripture story is, “Did it actually happen?” It doesn’t matter if Ruth or Nephi or Adam or Eve ever walked the earth or performed the acts imputed to them by the scriptures. It would be more constructive for...
Adam and Eve: Humans or Homo sapiens?
Last General Conference, Elder Jeffery R. Holland stated, "there was an actual Adam and Eve who fell from an actual Eden, with all the consequences that fall carried with it." And he continued, "I do not know the details of what happened on this planet before that,...
Truthiness (It’s All Relative)
I’d like to bear my testimony that I know my hammer is true. It is straight, it is balanced and in my hand, it does what I need it to do. Usually. It has smashed several of my fingers, or rather, I have smashed several of my fingers with it. I have unintentionally...
Of Pride and Prophets
People like me get called prideful all the time by our fellow Mormons. It gets old, to say the least. This accusation came up again in the discussion of a blog post titled “How to stay Mormon when you’re tired of Mormons,” which has been making the rounds on the...
61: Ask a Mormon Sex Therapist Part 8
In this episode of “Ask a Mormon Sex Therapist”, Laurel and Brian talk with Dr. Jennifer Finlayson-Fife on the topics of sexuality for singles who are keeping their commitment to chastity and the balancing of parenting labor in the home that does not overly burden...
Relief Society classes, wealth, racism, & classism
It would seem that our solution to avoid getting rich and kicking ourselves out of the church is to kick our teachings related to wealth out of the church instead.
The Temptation of Jesus the Christ in the Gospel of Luke
Embodied in flesh, Jesus was not completely exempt from the temptations of corporeal existence as highlighted in Mark 1:12-13, Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13. In this text, I will examine the temptation story found in Luke (4:1-13). My exegesis is shaped by my social...
Why I am a Christian First and a Mormon Second.
Ever since reading David V. Mason’s “I’m a Mormon, Not a Christian” (Op-ed, NYT, 12 June 2012), I have thought about how my experience as a Mormon Christian differs from his. Mason, who sees himself “about as genuine a Mormon as you’ll find” and “emphatically not a...
A Gentle Farewell to the Mormon Church
This essay was originally posted on the GailyMormon Blog Edward Jones III * ***** *** **** ***** Salt Lake City, UT 84101 May 11, 2015 Member Records Division, LDS Church 50 E. North Temple, Room 1372 Salt Lake City, UT 84150-5310 Dear Mormon leaders, I am writing you...
Elder Packer and Me
Elder Packer probably wouldn't be too surprised to learn that I have a relationship with him, despite our never having met. It's the price of being a public figure, I suppose. I know we are related, somehow, through my mom's mom, who was a Packer, and I remember being...
I Am Your Ally
Recently, I had a dream. (Warning, my subconscious is completely self-indulgent.) I dreamt I saw a lovely house local to me online and I wanted a closer look, so my husband and I took a drive to see it. We pulled up to the house and I looked at it from the outside....
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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