Mormon Culture
Good Friday, Easter, and Mormons
As Easter approaches every year, it seems that many people type “do mormons celebrate easter†into Google. If you do that right now, you will see that my post from 2008 is the #1 result on Google: Why Don’t Mormons Celebrate Easter? Frankly it’s shocking to me that my post is ranked so high on […]
Current Race Relations Within the LDS Church
Armand Mauss is an LDS sociologist from Washington State University. Â He wrote a chapter in the book Black and Mormon, where he discusses race relations within the church. Â He has both positive and negative things to say about race relations. Â I’ll start with the positive. Â Mauss notes that the LDS church has been involved in […]
Scholarship History of the Priesthood Ban
The Priesthood ban for black members of the church is a pet topic of mine. I have previously discussed Early Black Mormons who held the priesthood, as well as a long 10,000 word article discussing events leading to the ban. Newell Bringhurst and Darron Smith have put together a list of 9 essays highlighting different […]
Bishop Burton's Public Stand on Immigration
I’ve always believed the church has a right to make a public stand on political issues. Â In protest of the church’s position on Prop 8, gay marriage proponents have floated a proposal that the church should stay out of politics, and should lose their tax-exempt status. Â Now that LDS Presiding Bishop David Burton has come […]
Bishop Burton’s Public Stand on Immigration
I’ve always believed the church has a right to make a public stand on political issues. In protest of the church’s position on Prop 8, gay marriage proponents have floated a proposal that the church should stay out of politics, and should lose their tax-exempt status. Now that LDS Presiding Bishop David Burton has come […]
Racism, Bigotry, and Prejudice
In the past, I’ve talked about racism, bigotry, and prejudice.  Some of these issues have dealt with the mosque at Ground Zero, immigration, or statements made by church leaders about the priesthood ban for African Americans.  Prejudice, bigotry, and racism are often used interchangeably, and there can be a lot of overlap.  (In fact, one of the […]
Stapley/Wright Discuss Healings by Mormon Women
Last October, I wrote a post titled, Mormon Women Blessing the Sick, as a follow up to my post on Women with Priesthood in Ancient Christianity. Jonathon Stapley was the first to comment, saying Equating early Mormon female healing with evidence of female priesthood is folly. Kris’ and my paper on female ritual healing is […]
Debunking the Jockers Study
I really appreciate a comment by Chris Spencer on my previous post Dueling Wordprint Studies. In that post, I had discussed a controversial study completed by Stanford researchers Mathew Jockers, Daniela Witten, and Craig Criddle who concluded that 57% the Book of Mormon was authored by Sidney Rigdon and Solomon Spaulding. (There was an interesting discussion […]
LDS Film Festival 2011
There’s just 1 week until the LDS Film Festival. I love to go. Once again, there are too many films I would like to see, and not enough time off work. To see the full schedule with descriptions, click here. Here are some movies that sound interesting to me, though I won’t be able to […]
If God Looks Upon the Heart, Why do Leaders Look at Grooming?
1 Samuel 16:7 says, “But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” Why do LDS leaders spend so much time […]
Mormon Heretic 