Archive for the 'BYU' Category

Bombshell at the BYU Studies Symposium


Avatar-BiVA small crowd at the BYU Studies Symposium yesterday was on hand to receive Richard Holzapfel’s self-proclaimed Mormon history “bombshell.”  He presented the morning plenary session on Wilford Woodruff’s 1897 recorded testimony, the first sound recording made of an LDS General Authority.  The audience was treated to hearing parts of this recording, which is also available at the BYU Studies website. Continue reading…

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Ask Mormon Girl: What to do with BYU player haters talking anti-Mormon smack?


ask-mormon-girl-what-to-do-with-byu-player-haters-talking-anti-mormon-smack

This week, dear Mormon Matters readers, Ask Mormon Girl takes a foray into the wild world of sports.

Perhaps you’ve heard about the unruly behavior San Diego State University Aztec basketball fans directed at Brigham Young University on Saturday, January 23, when a few dozen SDSU fans dressed up as LDS missionaries (complete with name tags and bike helmets), held signs taunting illness-stricken BYU guard Jimmer Fredette (“Jimmer, which one of your wives gave you mono?”), and compensated for their 71-69 loss by chanting “You’re still Mormon!” at departing BYU players and fans.

The episode caught national attention when Sports Illustrated’s Seth Davis called the Aztec fan behavior “classless.”  Two days later, the Deseret News picked up the story, and the following letter appeared in the askmormongirl@gmail.com inbox:

Dear Mormon Girl:

Don’t you live in San Diego?  Don’t you work at San Diego State University?  Can’t you control your people???!!!

Signed,

J. D.
Continue reading…

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Articles of Faith of Mormon Culture


My only regret is that I cannot take credit for this wonderful bit of humor! They were originally posted by an author found here.  Please enjoy! Continue reading…

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Perspective


Everybody blogs, right? Why not me? Looking for my niche, my angle, and the one thing that seemed to make me stand out in my corner of the world. I found it: Being single. And 40. And Mormon. In a family ward. In a town where EVERYONE is under 30, sealed in the temple and constantly reproducing. The best humor is found in our painful life experiences. Read about mine and laugh with me. Or at me. Whichever Continue reading…

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Michael Smith Suspended for Iran Comments


Ok, I am when someone who get bothered when someone makes disparaging comments about another ethnic group.  Fox suspended LA Clippers announcers Ralph Lawler and Michael Smith for one game because of one email from “a viewer who e-mailed Fox to complain.”  Give me a break.  Please, what is so offensive about this conversation?

Continue reading…

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Romantic Paternalism


Mormon Matters welcomes our newest guest poster.  Kate Kelly graduated from Brigham Young University with a BA in Political Science. She served a mission for the church in Barcelona, Spain. She is currently in law school at American University’s Washington College of Law, the only law school in the nation world founded by women. She has had a career of various and sundry amazing jobs. She has been a mortgage counselor, an interpreter, an English teacher and spent last summer in Manhattan working at the Center for Constitutional Rights, as an Ella Baker legal fellow. She and her nurturing, gentle angel of a husband blog at www.kateandneil.com.

“Our Nation has had a long and unfortunate history of sex discrimination. Traditionally, such discrimination was rationalized by an attitude of ‘romantic paternalism’ which, in practical effect, put women not on a pedestal, but in a cage.” Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U.S. 677 (1973).

BYU is closing its Women’s Research Institute, and I, along with many others http://supportwri.blogspot.com/, am distressed by this decision. My distress comes, not only because of the consequences of this shortsighted move, but because it is emblematic of the overall problem in the church of romantic paternalism. Continue reading…

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Women’s Studies at BYU: Parity or Parody?


Avatar-BiV When I first discovered that BYU had announced the closing of their Women’s Research Institute, I was appalled, as were many interested parties both on campus and off. I sat down immediately to write a post on the subject, but soon I was brought up short. On Tuesday, when I heard the news, there were exactly two sources of information on the subject. One was a short article at “Square Two,” written by anonymous parties connected with the WRI. The other was the terse news release on the BYU website. Neither of these sources gave enough information for me to form an opinion on whether I supported or disagreed with the change, or for that matter, what exactly the change would entail. Continue reading…

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Dancing Through the Sidebar


Comment on any of the following articles – or anything else from the sidebar – or any other article of interest to this forum that we missed.

There is no such thing as being normal

If Kaimi were in dire straits, he would prefer to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s

Apparently, marriage is hard work

Gayby Boomers? Silly name, interesting phenomenon

An explanation for Utah bankruptcies

I don’t think PETA would approve of this

Aren’t you glad we have calculaors?

Even Orson Scott Card realizes that Mormonism is a culture

Another reason to have more kids – Placenta Helper

The Bible & Book of Mormon don’t teach of THIS Holy Ghost

New Dehli: New gay rights in a deeply conservative country

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Families Forver Naked and Not Ashamed


Mormon Matters Motto is Exploring Mormon culture in a balanced way- so bare with me on this one (excuse the pun). Continue reading…

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The Untold Story of Black Mormons by Guest


When I served a mission in eastern Canada in the early 90s, there were many things I was grateful for (warm boots, wool suits, fairly normal food). But above all, I was grateful that I was sent to a region with very few black people, as I was not looking forward to having to defend something in the Church’s past that had deeply troubled even a relatively immature teenager with a limited knowledge of Church history and doctrine.
Continue reading…

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What do you think about Evolution?


I know the LDS church has no official views on evolution. I had someone ask me what I thought about it, and frankly, I haven’t given much thought about it. As I understand, there are people at BYU who believe in evolution, but I think they believe that evolution has limits, and don’t rule out that God created the world.

DPC commented on my blog, Continue reading…

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Why aren’t Mormons Green?


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Abstinence= Don’t think the colour red! Don’t think the colour red!


“The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health” (Add Health),

  1. Found that conservative and evangelical Christian teenagers are more sexually active than mainline Protestants, Jews, and even Mormons. On average, white evangelical Protestants begin having sex shortly after turning sixteen, which is sooner than most other groups. Continue reading…
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What is a Testimony?


Ironically, some of you with “strong testimonies” may think that those struggling with their testimony make only a small percentage of us here today. The converse is also true; many of you who are “struggling” yourselves may believe that you are the only one in the ward that thinks or feels what you do or that there are only a few of you at best. The truth, however, is that most of us, if not all of us, are struggling to some degree—(admittedly, some more than others). For although many of us stand at this pulpit once a month and testify of things that we “know,” for most of us these things are merely things that we have accepted and in which we have practiced faith successfully.  Today’s post is from guest blogger Matt Lorenzen. Continue reading…

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Reflections on BYU


reflections-on-byu

Last week, I graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems.  In an attempt to make this post more than a self-congratulatory indulgence, I’d like to take a moment to represent myself as the “token BYU student” here at Mormon Matters, and offer my thoughts and perspectives about my BYU experience.

I took a fairly typical course: I lived in the dorms (Deseret Towers) as a freshman, took two years off for a mission, came back, got serious about a Major program, and finished it up in 3 additional years (plus some spring and summer classes.)

Overall, I am very pleased with my BYU experience, and look upon it in overwhelmingly positive light.  If I may, I’d like to highlight a few of the outstanding parts. Continue reading…

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