... and I'm an Ex-Mormon

Life as a Reader: Benson's 14 Fundamentals and Modern Mormonism

Life as a Reader: Benson's 14 Fundamentals and Modern Mormonism

This October's General Conference for the LDS church saw quite a bit of attention, especially for Boyd Packer's talk about the "wickedness" of being gay and/or watching porn. HRC sent a letter to the church demanding Packer retract his false statements about sexual orientation being a choice for the sake of all the Mormon LGBTQ youth who see him as a man who speaks for God.

Something else that's been getting some attention in the blogosphere was the fact that two separate speeches quoted directly from another address (Duncan and Costa), given by Ezra Benson at Mormon-owned BYU in 1981. This speech is titled, "Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet," and as you can probably guess, it's about being obedient to the president of the church.

Life as a Reader: Stages of Grief in Leaving Religion Behind

Life as a Reader: Stages of Grief in Leaving Religion Behind: I'm at the point where my religious journey is kind of at a plateau. I think this is a good time to share some thoughts about where I've been in the last few years, mostly observations looking back on what the process of leaving religion behind is like from the point of view of a former zealot (I don't mean to label other believers with this word; looking at my own behavior, I know that I was a zealot).

Life as a Reader: A Mormon Vatican II

Life as a Reader: A Mormon Vatican II: This was originally a guest post I wrote for another blog, Molly Muses. I had a good time and felt challenged in writing it, so I thought I'd share it here as well. Enjoy.

Life as a Reader: Iron Rods and Liahonas: BYU Professor on Different Types of Faith

Life as a Reader: Iron Rods and Liahonas: BYU Professor on Different Types of Faith: Poll lays out two types of Mormons: Iron Rods and Liahonas. Essentially the Iron Rod sees the way to God as something obvious and clear, while the Liahonas see it as more difficult to discern, though no less true (hence the symbolic names). Both may have complete faith in the absolute truth of the Mormon faith.

What astonished me about this talk (I think it's a talk, considering the title of the list) was how very much it applied to both my husband and myself.

Life as a Reader: Millenial Star: The Book of Mormon as Inspired Fiction

Life as a Reader: Millenial Star: The Book of Mormon as Inspired Fiction: I encourage you to go read all the comments on this discussion, but so far I'm the only one anybody has said is providing a theory that says you can accept the Book of Mormon as inspired fiction (not a historical record of a real people) and yet still remain a faithful Latter-Day Saint, still accepting Joseph Smith as a prophet, and not simply because you don't think about all the repercussions of what you're claiming. I'm going to post here my comments along with the replies to my comments and some other comments that are relevant to the discussion. Some have been edited for length (removing comments/parts of comments that are irrelevant to the topic at hand).

Life as a Reader: Orson Scott Card: The Book of Mormon as Historical Artifact

Life as a Reader: Orson Scott Card: The Book of Mormon as Historical Artifact: This is a follow-up to my previous post on the Book of Mormon as inspired fiction. A friend directed me to this article by Orson Scott Card, and I just had a few things to say about it.