Eve as Christ’s Precursor
A recent visit to the temple reinforced for me the idea that Paul got his parallel wrong: Christ is not the second Adam but the second Eve. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive,” Paul wrote (1 Cor. 15:22). But, considering our modern...
The Church is Not a Divine Sorting Mechanism (So Why Do Some People Think That It Is?)
In a recent meeting with local church leaders I was caught off guard by a question. I was leading a presentation on the challenges that lead many members to leave the church when one participant raised his hand and demanded, “What’s the point of this?” As I tried to...
How I went From Being Nephi to Korihor – Those Who Are Different
I was born of goodly parents. Both from a long line of Pioneer stock Mormons. One day my father awoke from a dream and announced we would be moving to a small town he had never visited. We had no family there. We had no friends there. Considering it was a town of 700...
What Mormon Church Do You Belong To?
The deeper inquiry of the Mormon faith is initiated for any number of reasons. We often find ourselves wrestling with scripture, church policy, "prophetic" utterances of all kinds, local leadership agendas, or the many colorful historical events (often more twisted...
A Wednesday Sermon
“A sort of damnation is revealed when what America is converges with what America thought it was.” —Janan Graham-Russell offers a prose poem on justice
Mormon Talents and the Five Factor Model of Personality
My wife and I teach the 5-and-6-year-olds in our ward's Primary, and we have distinct roles (I know "roles" is a loaded word on Mormon blogs, but bear with me). After we read the manual together, my wife prepares handouts, pictures, games/activities, and an...
31: Ask a Mormon Sex Therapist Part 3
In this episode of "Ask a Mormon Sex Therapist", Laurel and Brian interview Dr. Jennifer Finlayson-Fife about advice for women who are trying to cultivate desire followed by advice on how to decide what you and your spouse are okay with in the bedroom. Dr. Jennifer...
LDS.ORG Essay on Nauvoo Polygamy: The Pain Remains
On October 22, 2014, LDS.ORG posted three essays dealing with the practice of plural marriage by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints between the 1830s and 1904. Perhaps the most controversial essay is the one dealing with the earliest...
Hendrix in Heaven
"Bring beach gear because we're going on a trip." It had to be the best announcement for a mutual activity I'd heard up to that point in my life. Living in Fresno, CA the beach was always close enough to be a nice day trip, but far enough that we rarely went. However,...
Cheapo Mormon Halloween Costumes
It’s Thursday already and you only have a a day to find a costume for the wonderful reappropriated Pagan holiday of Halloween! Are you worrying about how to dress your kids for the Trick or Trunk/Trunk or Treat in a way that is both clever and wholesome? Do you want...
The Bastardization of Truth
It’s time we stopped idolizing truth. It’s time we stopped treating truth like a banner at the end of a mid-distance race. See, over there in the distance? That’s truth, we say. It’s just over there, and if you just put forth a little effort, you’ll find it. And then,...
The still small voice of FEAR
by Nik Rasheta In April 2014 I was invited onto FMH podcast along with anthropologist Chelsea Strayer to discuss Gavin de Becker’s book titled The Gift of Fear. As a Police Detective within the Special Victims Unit and as a Hostage Negotiator this book helped...
The Information Age is Over. Welcome to the Opinion Age.
"I think we risk becoming the best informed society that has ever died of ignorance" -Reuben Blades Information has no power to convince. It can't motivate us to action or modify behavior. Convincing, or conversion, is an emotional process. Info + emotion =...
Choose Your Own Universe
I have listened to and read many discussions regarding the existence or nature of God. It is one of those debates that I believe is unresolvable. The New God Argument motivates trust in God given a small number of assumptions, but doesn't suggest much about God other...
30: Diverse Mormons, Part 2, 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...
There are Save but Two Churches Only
For as long as I can remember there has been a part of me that tenses up when I hear someone bear testimony that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the only true church. Even as a youth who never doubted the validity of the statement, hearing those...
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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