39: Diverse Mormons, Part 3, Interviews from the 2014 Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium
In the beginning of August of this year I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Sunstone symposium which is a Mormon conference that I look forward to attending every year. One of the many reasons that I love the conference is that it is one of the few times you...
Scarred, Broken, and Held in Trust
Someone else has left. Friend, family member, fellow guardian of once shared sacred truths. He’s found another path. Time will tell if she was called to this other path or if he was simply called away from our community, anywhere but here. He’s still here. God...
Book Review: Richard Davis’s The Liberal Soul
As my dad drove me home from some activity or other when I was a teenager, I asked him a question that had been weighing on my mind: “can Mormons be Democrats?” I didn’t really follow the news very carefully and I certainly didn’t follow politics. On this car ride,...
EQ lesson on Race and Priesthood
It has now been a year since the church first released the Gospel Topics essay about race and the priesthood. The following is a transcript of the EQ lesson in my ward on the first Sunday in December. I thought it was a great discussion and is a interesting case study...
A Christmas Search for the Divine Feminine
By Michael Barker Note: This is an expansion of a testimony I gave at my Fast and Testimony Meeting on December 7, 2014 Scripture is male-centric. That is a fact. It is that way because it was written by men. History, in general, has been written by men, so it...
Just a Coincidence?
Life is full of random chance and interesting coincidences: the pigeon that ruins your day with a well-aimed potshot, the lab partner in chemistry who turns into a life-long friend, or the refund check that comes just when you need to pay a bill. If one examines any...
The Only Gift
An open heart, accepting mind, "To me be as it pleaseth thee" she said. The glory would come. Until then; pain, pregnancy, parenthood. The discomfort of travel, disgrace of travail amongst unclean...
Peace On Earth
My favorite Christmas TV special is A Charlie Brown Christmas. The best part, which invariably reduces me to tears, is when Linus steps out on stage, the spotlight fixes on him, the children hush, and he narrates the familiar passages from Luke 2: And the angel said...
38: Christmas Episode
Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays! Due to the Holiday season we have decided to create a special Christmas edition of the podcast. In this episode you will hear thoughts about Christmas from a number of our perma-bloggers, some thoughts about advent from Brian...
Search, Ponder, and Pray: Authentic Scripture Study
We don't need to rehash all of the ways in which traditional approaches to studying the scriptures can leave us parched; the question is: how can we slake our thirst? After pondering that question, I decided to write a book that would be a guide--not a commentary, not...
Disgracing God to Save a Prophet
After the explosion of polygamy news and dialogue that followed the most recent essays put out by the church, the most common thing I have seen said by members of the church defending the practice is 1: they have known this since they were very young (which usually is...
Mormo Comics: The God Who Weeps
Moses 7: 28-32 28 And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the blog post on the internet, and he read the comments section, and he wept; and Enoch bore record of it, saying: How is it that the heavens weep, and shed forth their tears as the rain...
Seeking Liberation
I am thankful that my gift cannot be chosen, but only divinely given and only consciously received. My gift is my liberation. I seek liberation within this Gospel and within this life to be the gift I share with others.
The Lost Christmas Letter
Unbeknownst to many, one of the ancient texts in the lost 116 pages of the Book of Lehi is a very small sub-section called "The Christmas Letters of Sariah." However, we have recently unearthed one of them, believed to have been written around the time the family was...
Nature’s Law of Agency
Most of us are already thinking about Christmas and the birth of the God who made our universe. What I offer you, today, is the thought that our gentle and loving God called out, and our universe responded, choosing to follow God's will and become what we experience...
Torture and Violence
THERE IS NO WAY TO RECONCILE THE TORTURE OF GOD’S CHILDREN WITH THE LIFE AND MINISTRY OF JESUS CHRIST!
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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