Somewhere in the roiling sea of the Gay Marriage Debate – where the determined, but overmatched boats of Prophetic Proclamation, Scientific Speculation, Political Posture, and Bleeding-heart Babbling bob and weave, toss and turn – stand two immovable pillars.  Like towering lighthouses, they patiently endure the pounding sea, barely taking notice of the pitching and tossing [...]

Like 750,000 other California Mormons, I sat amongst my fellow ward members in our local chapel today as our bishop read the Preserving Traditional Marriage and Strengthening Families memo over the pulpit. He followed that by reading a memo outlining the church’s views on political neutrality. He closed by asking each of us to ponder [...]

If Richard Dutcher’s latest film Falling ever sees the light of day in the form of a limited theatrical release, which seems debatable at this point, it will certainly alienate the last of his mainstream LDS fan base. Though the comments from the audience during the Q&A discussion following the private screening rang fairly universal [...]

Back again, this time with a pint o’ Wavy Gravy, toggling between a couple of pre-show warmup programs: American Idol and the Warriors-Mavericks game. I like Blake Lewis to go the distance in the former and Golden State in the latter. Okay, it’s 9:00, let’s get started!

Sitting here in my favorite t-shirt with a pint of Phish Food and my MacBook waiting for the PBS/Frontline documentary “The Mormons” to start. Thought I’d take a stab at keeping a running commentary…

A fascinating discussion is taking place over at Mormon Mentality with regard to recent changes made to the BYU honor code on the subject of homosexuality. Most interesting to me is the news that a group of gay BYU students took an active part in initiating and approving the changes to the honor code. [...]

I’ve been capsized, synthesized, de-emphasized, and frequently cut-down-to-sized (by my wife); I’ve been asked my suit size, shoe size, hat size, and cup size (for baseball); I’ve exercised, Mousercized, and once even jazzercised (long story)… but a couple of weeks ago was the first time I’ve ever been downsized (by my employer). As such, [...]

A blog post about Levi Peterson’s recent autobiography over at The Cultural Hall reminded me that I had intended to post Peterson’s classic 1988 Sunstone symposium speech (and later Sunstone magazine article) “A Christian by Yearning” shortly after posting my own blog post on the subject. Peterson borrows the name of his 1988 address [...]

“SHAME ON THE LOS ANGELES TIMES!”-Clifton Jolley, 2006 SLC Sunstone Symposium
With his voice rising and falling like a street preacher possessed by the Holy Spirit, and in a talk that can only be characterized as a degree or two shy of “performance art,” Clifton Jolley may have stolen the show at the 2006 SLC Sunstone [...]

I read Levi Peterson’s two short story collections, The Canyons of Grace (1982) and Night Soil (1990), as well as his two novels, Aspen Marooney (1995) and the incomparable The Backslider (1986) during the summer of 2005. At the time Peterson’s stories provided fuel for my mind and salvation for my soul. Both responses surprised [...]