Our resident gay Mormon blogger, Silus Grok, hasn’t posted a thing since Prop 8 passed. I originally thought it was because he was too busy pushing over old ladies and vandalizing Mormon temples, but as it turns out he’s just been busy with a 1,000-piece puzzle.

This is a podcast of me interviewing Silus about his experience coming out, his thoughts on Prop 8 and being an active gay Mormon. There could easily have been another two hours but we had to cut it down to 45-minutes. Enjoy!

Podcast (on Switchpod)

Podcast (on YouPublish)

Transcript (on YouPublish)

A new series, from the creators of My Name is Earl, The Office, and Everybody Loves Raymond, soon to be a major Broadway Musical!

Scene:  A Mormon household in the suburbs.  A husband and wife have returned from a family gathering, and are getting ready for bed, after putting five kids to bed.

Wife:  Did you see the way my brother treated his wife tonight?  Did you see him?  He always does those kinds of things for his wife, you know.  I see it all the time. (more…)

Dear Utah*,

You and I have had a rocky relationship. Its time we found some reconciliation. (more…)

Usually when I get one of those yellow notes from the postman, saying he tried to deliver a certified letter (and here are the options of how to get it to me) I get a sinking ugh-y feeling in my stomach. This time was no different. Usually “certified” means “legal,” and usually legal can’t be good. There was no sender’s name or address listed and only a parcel number to go by. So I went to usps.com, entered the number and got my second clue: It was sent from zip code 84070. I knew that zip– It came from Sandy, Utah. (more…)

We walked past a few packed pubs this past Sunday – at 2pm. Around here, the party gets started early. How on earth did the feast day of the Patron Saint of Ireland turn into another excuse to sip the happy sauce?

It may be that this is very close to how the Irish observed it from the beginning – eating, drinking and celebrating. There’s no doubt that this is how they do it today. But before you accuse me of being a teetotaling, party pooping, stiff, you should understand a few things.

My disgust for Paddy’s Day drunkenness does not come from a desire to return to the roots of a Catholic holiday or even to spare the Irish the indignity of the alcoholic label (I don’t think they mind). Instead, my motives come from an understanding of the man himself – his life, mission and legend. (more…)

After watching the controversial latest episode of Big Love, and reading several excellent posts and comments about it at BCC, Mormon Mentality, Messenger & Advocate and Times & Seasons, I’m left wondering what, if anything will be the effect of this.  (more…)

This will probably be my response if anyone confronts me about the Big Love. Maybe follow it up with something about how it’s all symbolic and when you strip symbols of their context/meaning they naturally appear kooky. And really, even the meaning behind the endowment symbols isn’t all that revelatory to anyone familiar with Mormon theology. I imagine it similar to a couple expressing oaths of love to each other, not something they necessarily want everyone else to hear, but also not really an expression never heard before.

I think this is so odd.  This week, my son’s 9th grade seminary (all classes) have been doing something called “Missionary Week.”  What is “Missionary Week” you ask?  A week where the kids learn how to spread the gospel, maybe?  No.  That would apparently be way too sane.  Here’s the dope:  All the kids have to obey the missionary rules.  That’s it.  No teaching the gospel.  No bearing of testimony.  Just a bunch of sucky restrictions from the white bible: no music, no cell phones, boys need to get haircuts, girls need to dress modestly, no email, no facebook, no TV… you get the idea.  The teachers make the kids sign a statement ratting themselves out every day if they don’t obey the rules.

Here’s my question:  What’s the point of those restrictions if you’re not teaching the gospel?  Why would anyone want to be a missionary if you have all the rules, but none of the reason for the rules?  Whose idiotic idea was this?  Does anyone else know about this?  Has seminary gone completely round the bend?  Help me out here!

Excuse me, let me give you the exact quote from HBO: “Obviously, it was not our intention to do anything disrespectful to the church, but to those who may be offended, we offer our sincere apology,” after which they revealed their intentions to continue doing exactly that which is offending Mormons.

Huh?

Someone needs to point out to HBO (more…)

“Are there experiences or qualities that tend to disqualify people for certain callings?”

This was asked on this BCC thread. A good question. As someone who participates in the discussions which lead to the extension of callings, I am in the awkward/uncomfortable position of making judgments on a member’s potential participation in a calling. (This shouldn’t be a newsflash to anyone, but determining who should be called to what is almost always much more perspiration than inspiration. I blogged about this in more detail here, but the short version is that I believe the Lord calls people because there are those who need to be served, not because you need a certain calling). I’m uncomfortable with this for many reasons, most of which revolve around the fact that I don’t like that my personal views and prejudices can potentially affect others, often to a great extent.

With that said, there are some things which, and I want to be perfectly clear, aren’t AUTOMATIC disqualifiers (which can be and have been discussed elsewhere), rather they put us in a difficult position for determining a prospect’s suitability for certain callings: (more…)