We are pleased to present another piece of short fiction from guest poster Brett Wilcox. Brett lives in Sitka, Alaska, with his wife and their four children. As a Licensed Professional Counselor, he works with Alaskan adolescents in an experiential based wilderness program. Contact Brett at: brett@vpp.com or befriend him on Facebook.
Insane
Honey, you’re blowing this whole thing way out of proportion.
One. Honey is not a name you want to call me right now. And two. You just don’t get it, do you?
Julia. I get it. For the thousandth time, I get it.
No, Stan. You don’t get it. If you got it, you wouldn’t tell me I’m blowing this whole thing out of proportion. If you got it, you’d be just as horrified and angry as I am. If you got it, you would have stood up right there in church and flipped off the bishop or walked up to the podium and broke his nose or something. Instead you—
You’re hands are shaking, honey. Sorry . . . I mean Julia.
They’ve been shaking all week.
Look, if I could go back, I’d say something different. I didn’t know. It was just a hypothetical question. Continue reading…
I first noticed signs of depression and anxiety when I was in Jr. High School. I am now happily married with two young children. With the help of counseling and medication, I am as stable and well adjusted as the next girl. My friends would never guess I had such a rough patch in my life. The scars in my heart have healed, but unfortunately, the ones on my arms have not.
Continue reading…
There was very sad news from Visalia, California on Sunday. A mentally ill man named Kenneth Ward walked into a church looking for a leader. Members pointed him to a Bishop Clay Sannar, father of 6. Ward shot Bishop Sanner, and then fled. A few minutes later, he called police, confessing to the crime. As police arrived, he opened fire. Police killed the assailant. It is a truly senseless act. More details can be found at the KSL website.
Please pray for his family.
We’ve explored some of the answers members have posted on the mormon.org site in the church’s new profiles campaign. So far, we’ve discussed member answers to questions about polygamy, women& the priesthood, and politics. Today, let’s see what members had to say about gender roles. Continue reading…
Dear Ask Mormon Girl:
I grew up in a conservative Mormon home in a small rural town of southern Idaho. I am also gay. After serving a mission in Russia and graduating from BYU, I am now attending a graduate school in the Bay Area. I stopped attending church within the last few years and now consider myself agnostic or atheist (depending on the day). Without going into details about my transition out of the church—which is rather complicated—I think it is sufficient to say that I am very happy with the path in life I have chosen.
While I am at peace with myself and happy with the relationship I am in, I find it difficult, as a non-Mormon (or post-Mormon) interacting with my devout Mormon family. I have to give my family credit for still loving and accepting me and how well they have adjusted. I think they generally understand that being gay was never a choice I made and not something any of us can change. I see that they also want me to be happy but I am unsure how they feel about my relationship and lifestyle.
I generally try really hard to respect my family’s religious beliefs and hope for the same in return. Recently, while traveling with my brother I was waiting for a very early morning flight. I stopped to get breakfast and without thinking bought coffee. My brother was deeply offended. Several days later, my parents called requesting that I do not drink coffee in front of them because of its offensive nature. I understand that some behaviors may be offensive to them, but to what degree should I change my life to accommodate them?
I am personally a little uncomfortable going to church, reading scriptures, and having family prayer with them. I never refuse to do so because I do not want to cause drama. I now try to avoid situations where things like this are an issue, such as not visit my family on Sundays. I love my family very much and want to be close and involved in their lives, but what is the appropriate boundary between respect for their religious beliefs and compromising my lifestyle?
–JM
Continue reading…
Can you solve this?
A few years ago I wondered what it means to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
I wondered: is it ok if my testimony dwells down to, “I really don’t believe in all of this spiritual stuff, but from an organizational perspective, I believe that the church is great at moving and shaking…and it has moved and shaken me to be a better person”?
I concluded that was not ok. A religion isn’t just a collection of practical life advice and a church isn’t just the hub to receive and practice such advice. It is a community of faith, belief, and hope. (And when one is differently directed in the latter aspects, the organizational stuff will often wreak havoc as well.)
I realized that if I didn’t have those latter things (I don’t), then it wouldn’t make sense to do certain other things (e.g., keep pretending to have these things in order to “progress” in the priesthood, go on a mission, speak out publicly on behalf of the church, or, perhaps, even go to church.)
…Yet, I guess you’d call me one of those guys who leaves the church but can’t leave it alone.
Continue reading…
When most people use their rational faculties to test their testimonies about their religious scriptures, they tend to concentrate on things like history, archeology, or textual development. A number of writers on this site and elsewhere in the bloggernacle have far more expertise in those areas than do I. So I have to take their arguments second-hand.
Instead, I like to test my scriptural canon in the disciplines where I have my own professional training in college or experience on interdisciplinary teams later in life. So rather than argue about Mesoamerican artifacts, I like to look instead at Mesoamerican volcanoes.
Continue reading…
TBM? NOM? Ex? Post? Orthoprax & Unorthodox? Deist? Liberal? Conservative? Orthodox? Fundamentalist? Faithful?
I’m not sure what category, if any, I fit in. Sometimes I think categories are only useful or good for those who are doing the categorizing.
I suppose this post should be titled, “Tell me what kind of Mormon you think I am.” Continue reading…
What have been your favorite and most difficult Callings you’ve had at Church?
In some cases, they may be one and the same, but likely, they are different.
Continue reading…
There are lots of ways to start this off. I could start with the more than forty sexes of slime molds (why stop at 4 or 5 gender types when you can have 47 sexes). Or I could start with race and culture differences and variety and how they relate to sexual differences. Or how about the differences between the terms gender and sex as the words were used in 1770, 1970, 1990 and 2010. Should I dredge up fetish behaviors and the animal companion marriage movement? And just what does it mean to be human? How much difference is possible in this world or another for someone or something to be human?
So, how do I speculate without offending too many people or getting too obscure for anyone to care? After all, if gender is an essential part of human nature, what is gender, what is essential, and what part of it is human?
Continue reading…
OT SS Lesson #33
If your ward happens to be just a little bit behind on the Sunday School lessons, you might experience the synchronicity of having the Book of Jonah read on Yom Kippur. This year, the Jewish holiday falls on September 18 (close enough to Sunday the 19th!) and Jonah is traditionally read as part of the celebration.
Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) is the holiest and most widely observed day on the Jewish calendar. It is a day of fasting, lengthy confession of sins, prayer, and repentance. Jonah’s prophecy is included in the liturgy for that day as a symbolic spiritual journey that each person undertakes. I think the symbolism in Jonah’s story is very meaningful and I’d like to explore it in depth here. Continue reading…
I have been happily married for 7 years. I recently came across this anonymous chat website that lets you chat with a random stranger at the click of a button. It has become almost an addiction for me. I have problems making friends because of shyness, self-esteem issues but I am able to be freely and truly myself on this silly website. However, several of the best conversations I’ve had have been with men. I find it thrilling to know that they find me interesting and even sexy. The only one I’ve ever felt I could do this for is my husband. He was my first boyfriend, my first kiss, my only lover. Talking to other men like this makes me feel powerful and it makes me feel sexier. I have not told my husband that I chat like this. Three times now I have begun chatting/emailing certain men outside of this random arena who I’ve had very deep and meaningful conversations with. We’ve even exchanged pictures. Two of the “relationships” have had sexual questions posed and answered. I feel like I’m cheating on my husband, but I wonder what your opinion would be? I realize that the world of the internet poses many perception distortions – I know only what these men choose reveal and I have not built a life with them and they are not of my faith. But if this helps me feel better about myself and there is no real harm in it, is it okay? I never plan to meet, speak with on the phone, interact with on camera or interact any other way with them outside of chat and email. It has led to increased sex with my husband because I feel more self-confident that I really am attractive and sexy, not just to him. Is this the same as flirting with co-workers or receiving compliments or appreciation from the opposite sex about your ideas and personality? My husband goes out to work and has many interactions with women. Am I not just searching for the same type of validation?
Continue reading…
We’ve explored a few of the mormon.org profiles’ answers to tough questions on polygamy and women & the priesthood. Today let’s take a look at another topic not suitable for dinner conversation: politics! Continue reading…
A few weeks ago I made my own version of the “I’m a Mormon” ads the Church has been running and put it up on my friends YouTube account. [Note: The video ends with the words “I’m pro gay-rights, and I’m Mormon.” See it here.]
Making that video seemed like a great idea at the time. I got a lot of good responses at first. Then, I started to get Church members telling me I’d be excommunicated. And now the only people who seem to be viewing are hardcore Mormon haters. I tried to ignore them and deleted most of the comments, but you can tell by the dislike count that I’ve been getting a lot of ridicule now.
I should have just ignored all the comments, but one person told me about a video with Bill Maher and Craig Ferguson. I watched it and it had too much in it for me to just toss aside. I will admit, though I have a testimony of the LDS church, I don’t know as much about it as a lot of nonmembers apparently.
Bill talked about so many things I’d never heard of before. And he of course had to make a point that we are all extremely weird and something about how we ignore science and anything intellectual. I hate that stereotype more than any of the others because I am an intellectual.
Anyway, I don’t know if you’ve seen the video already, but he made a lot of really short points that supposedly proved our entire religion wrong. I’m sorry to bug you about this, but I can’t think of anyone else. All the members I know personally will only slap me on the wrist for watching the video and tell me that it was Satan or something. I don’t want to live the rest of my life just brushing these things off – I want to fully understand all of it so that I know my beliefs are justified.
Do you have any advice?
Sincerely,
SRK
Continue reading…
The seventh commandment, Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy (Exodus 20:8) seems like a fairly simple statement on the surface. But, in practice, its interpretation is as wide as the Grand Canyon.
Continue reading…
Lesson 17 of the Gospel Principles manual in use today for Priesthood and Relief Society is entitled “The Church of Jesus Christ Today.” Under the heading, “New Revelation from God” is this quote:
“…Since that time [the First Vision] the heavens have not been closed. Revelation continues to this day through each of His chosen prophets. Joseph was to be the one to help restore the true gospel of Jesus Christ.”
I do believe and accept the Church is receiving inspired counsel from on high. Not just the President, but at all levels down to families and individuals. However, it got me thinking, “where have all the revelations gone.”
Continue reading…
A viewpoint can change things. Consider Sir Thomas More, famous as a model of honesty, integrity and virtue. A man for all seasons and a Catholic Saint.
He is also the man truly responsible for William Tyndale’s being burned at the stake for translating the Bible into English in addition to those he was able to prosecute and burn directly for owning copies of the scriptures in English such as John Tewkesbury.
Continue reading…
OT SS Lesson #32
After the Satan figure is given permission to afflict Job as a test of his faithfulness, three of Job’s friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, come to visit him, sitting with him in silence for seven days. On the seventh day, Job speaks, beginning a conversation in which each of the four men shares thoughts on Job’s afflictions and adversity in general in profound poetic statements. This is a lengthy dialogue between characters who alter their moods, question their motives, change their minds, and undercut each other with sarcasm and innuendo. Although Job comes closest to doing so, no single character articulates one true or authoritative opinion. Each speaker has his own flaws as well as his own lofty moments of observation or astute theological insight. I believe the Book of Job is a jumping-off point for the reader to deeply explore questions of theodicy and the difficulty of understanding why an all-powerful God allows good people to suffer. Continue reading…
Recently a 16-year-old young man from our ward hung himself. It was a horrendous shock for everyone, as this was a handsome, well-liked boy. The young man’s family began immediately to say that it was an accidental death, but it was ruled a suicide by the coroner. Why does someone do something like this? Does the method of suicide give any clues? This apparently happened in a closet, and it was not a long closet. He REALLY wanted to end his life and it must have been a horrendous death. I appreciate any insight you may have on this issue in general.
Continue reading…
