I’ve been thinking about Zion. I am one of a few fortunate Mormon feminists, I have a bishop and a Stake President who are first and foremost disposed toward love and mercy before judgment and punishment. They don’t agree with me on several points, but what defines their ministry is inclusion rather than exclusion. [Read More...]
Saving Zion from America: Theorizing in the aftermath
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Church Leadership and the Dilemma of Dementia
Towards the end of Ezra Taft Benson’s life I recall him being very unwell. I have a lasting image of his being seated in General Conference wide-eyed, bewildered and confused. I thought at the time, ‘He has dementia.’ But there were no announcements to confirm this. It was no secret that he was sick, [Read More...]
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Growing Bold Mormon Daughters: The Impossibility of Emma Watson and Jacinda Ardern
If I had a daughter I hope she would be Emma Watson. I don’t have any daughters. I have always wanted daughters, but unfortunately I can’t make them and nobody has given me any. This is a shame because I think I would be quite a good girl mother. In the absence of a [Read More...]
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Anguished Musings on a Frayed Testimony
What is the Atonement? I asked my elder foster brother Jeff. I was 16. During the preceding six years I had been on an enforced hiatus from church activity. I had been trapped, the child and stepchild of a failing mixed faith marriage where my step-father was on a crusade to rid the world of [Read More...]
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Why Leaving the Church Often Means Leaving God
This guest post is by New Zealander Mike Cammock who is originally from Christchurch. Mike has served a mission in Taiwan, and currently resides in Windsor, Vermont. He and his wife Chris are the parents of two children. My name is Mike Cammock. I am a Kiwi. I am also Mormon. I grew up on the [Read More...]
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The 15 Ailments of the LDS Church (With a hat tip to Pope Francis)
While Mormons are asked to, required to, strong-armed into ‘sustaining’, not questioning, obeying etc. every male above their own station (including it would seem the invisible worker bees in Church Administration), in the Vatican Pope Francis recently delivered a stinging rebuke to those who govern, administer and manage the Catholic Church. And everyone but the [Read More...]
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Digesting the Dehlin Drama: Thoughts in the wake
I’ve spent the last couple of days percolating the latest excommunication drama, waiting for the heavy weight of it on my heart to lighten somewhat. It hasn’t. It was sadly inevitable that John was excommunicated. Not because John did anything different to what he usually does – tell all, scrap it out to the last, and do [Read More...]
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Mormon Internet Trolls, Cyberbullies and Doxing
I’ve been in the blogging game for three years now. I’m used to trolls and comment preachers who call me to repentance for my wickedly evil ways, blah blah blah. I don’t really mind if they name themselves, even though the use of ad hominem is irksome I somewhat respect the fact that they stand [Read More...]
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Gloriavale and the Mormons: What New Zealand’s latest religious drama has to teach us
Nestled against the Western range of the Southern Alps in New Zealand is a Christian commune known as Gloriavale. It has always attracted attention largely due to its inauspicious beginnings surrounding the aberrant sexual ideologies espoused and at one time practiced by the central figure Neville Cooper who was jailed in 1994 for 10 counts [Read More...]
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Freedom for all, except people who disagree with me
This guest post is by Nicola Ward Petty, a convert from Catholicism, a returned missionary and a former Stake Relief Society President. Nicola and her husband Mark are the parents of two sons and the grandparents of one grandson. They live in Christchurch, New Zealand. At the recent General conference, Elder Robert Hales gave [Read More...]
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Polygamy – It’s in our bones
Ganesh Cherian, a former bishop from Wellington, New Zealand joins KiwiMormon once again as a guest blogger. Any good sculptor will tell you that if you want to replicate the human form you have to know the skeletal framework, how muscles attach and how that lays the ground work for the skin. But when you [Read More...]
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Choosing NOT to Serve a Mission
This guest post is by 21 year old Isaac McCluskey - my son. Raising children to be LDS is always difficult, particularly if they are male. To go on a mission is the epitome, the crowning glory of ones parental efforts. We had hoped that he would serve a mission because we know how profound and [Read More...]
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Intellectual Honesty and the Dance of Fear
Religion at its best should be biblically responsible, intellectually honest, emotionally satisfying, and socially significant. Robin Meyers (2009) I was added to a Facebook group some months ago. I surveyed the discussion and realized quickly that my contributions wouldn’t be entirely welcome. But I’ve been feeling impatient recently. Impatient for change, impatient with the [Read More...]
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50 Shades of Grey: Mormonism’s Accidental Allegory
The truth is we can thank the Mormons for 50 Shades of Grey. Stephanie Meyer’s sexually frustrated adolescent romp that saw her brooding ancient vampire hero hold onto his virtue long enough to virginally marry his teen first love seemed swoony enough to spawn a generation of (probably now embarrassed) Twihards. But it wasn’t [Read More...]
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A Book, A Buddhist, and a Change of Heart?
A review of “Navigating Mormon Faith Crisis: A Simple Developmental Map.” by Thomas Wirthlin McConkie I received an email in early October asking me if I’d be interested in interviewing the author of a new book ‘Navigating Mormon Faith Crisis: A Simple Developmental Map, for the ‘A Thoughtful Faith Podcast.’ I said ‘yes’ [Read More...]
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The Next Women in Jesus’ Life
In the summer of my 12th year my woman’s body began to take shape. In that space between childhood and adolescence I was largely oblivious to my physical maturation preferring the usual business of sports, music and friends. I was younger than most, having been put up a class. But I did notice a dramatic [Read More...]
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There are No Gays in Heaven?
Guest post by Mike Cammock – a New Zealand born Vermont marriage transplant. He currently serves as the Elders Quorum President and regularly loses his two children in the snow. For the better part of a decade my broader religious experience as a Mormon has been repeatedly sidetracked by public expression and action against [Read More...]
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What will it mean to be Maori and Mormon in 2050?
In November 2014 I was privileged to be asked to be the closing speaker at the inaugural Mormon Studies Symposium hosted by Waikato University. There we celebrated Selwyn Katene’s edited book: Turning the Hearts of the Children: Early Maori Leaders in the Mormon Church. and together explored both the past and future of Mormonism for Maori. [Read More...]
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‘Gospel’ Culture Shock
I grew up in New Zealand hearing a term that was frequently deployed in order to remind us that certain cultural practices don’t comport with one’s membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Gospel Culture has become a ubiquitous term that reminds us non-Americans that we are obligated to ‘pursue a [Read More...]
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How I Failed My Mormon Sabbatical
At the end of last year I tearfully thrust my Temple Recommend into my Bishop’s hands, I stopped wearing temple garments and I gave myself permission to walk away. Like many, I’d had years of feeling like the breath was being sucked out of me as I pulled into the meetinghouse car park; years [Read More...]
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