recent blog posts

Are garments really all about Jesus? Here are 3 other explanations for the garment mandate.

Blogger April Young-Bennett lists three reasons church leaders might be choosing to enforce a strict garment-wearing mandate, even if garments may not be effective at reminding people of Jesus Christ and their covenants.

Guest Post: The Visible Symbol of our Covenants

Guest Post
August 14, 2024
6 Comments
Family, women

"All my mom saw was that I was no longer wearing my garments and testified to me that there was spiritual power in them. She saw my choice as a departure from my covenants, unaware of the deeper context of my struggle. The irony was not lost on me: while she criticized the women in the park for their attire [the hijab]—assuming a lack of personal freedom—she simultaneously judged me for not adhering to my own tradition's instructions regarding religious clothing. It was a stark reminder of how complex wearing our temple garments is."

Wearing Our Feminism on Our Capped Sleeves

“I haven’t talked like this about God and gospel doctrine since college. I’ve just felt sort of alone when it comes to my feminist faith nuances.” My new friend Bethany said, “I must talk to people about it. It sustains me. I need the support of others who question some of the crazy things people say from the pulpit, and who, in some nuanced way, think like me. I couldn’t do it alone.”

American Zion and the 3 Paradigm-Shifting Fault Lines in Modern Mormonism

In American Zion, Benjamin E. Park traces the fault lines of gender equality, racial equality, and marriage equality as braided threads, demonstrating how while each has distinguishing features, these fault lines ultimately intertwine as one conflict against a patriarchy that privileges white, heterosexual men.

‘Curse God and die’

Heidi Toth
August 12, 2024
4 Comments
Gender, Gospel, women

Job's wife lost everything–first her livelihood and standing in the community and then, in one freak storm, the 10 children that she carried, bore and raised, then she found her husband close to death. The grief-saturated cry has been used to condemn a mourning woman who has never gotten justice.

What Everyone is Missing about Ballerina Farm

Guest Post
August 11, 2024
22 Comments
Belief, Culture, Family, Gospel, Relationships, women

Book Review: 50 Years of Exponent II

Lavender
August 10, 2024
2 Comments
book review

From the introduction to the narrative history to the photos and art to the essay and poetry selections to the #hearLDSwomen selections and the Afterward by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, the pages of 50 Years of Exponent II add “to the body of evidence of what it is like to be a Mormon woman” (xviii).

Guest Post: To The Brother Who Hates Lessons Taught By Women

"Dear Brother, ... Elder’s Quorum should not be treated as some “boy’s club” where you can put others down. The world is facing an epidemic of male loneliness, and many men are in crisis with how to define masculinity in a world where many women are allowed and encouraged to have careers of their own. Elder’s Quorum could be a place to address those things. Men could counsel together and support one another. Maybe that’s what you are trying to do. I do not believe that counseling should ever happen by putting others down, though. You men do not need to bond over how much women are inferior at teaching. Find something new."

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