Year: 2006

Mormon Feminists: A Divided Allegiance?

I originally began this post as a primer on feminism–a post on feminist ideological inconsistences and boundaries, and what the term “feminism” means–but the discussion following my previous T&S post on feminism and the comments on this post on FMH have got me thinking about the issue of allegiances and how that seems to be the main sticking point when it comes to Mormon suspicion of feminism.

Inactivity and Rumors of Inactivity

A recent post over at FMH set off a firestorm (over 170 comments and still going) with the news that the writer’s husband had “recently attended a church meeting where the leaders discussed, among other things, the new statistic out from church-headquarters that estimates 70% of those raised in the church will go inactive/leave by the time they are adults.”

The Emotional Component of Learning

I know I said I was going to make a follow-up post on the term “feminism� and why it might be useful, but I thought I’d make another post or two in the meantime on different subjects so people don’t get too burned out on the subject of feminism. This post is on two of my favorite topics: emotion and education.

Where is Mormon Theology done?

UVSC and Utah State have growing Religious Studies programs. The Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology will hold its fourth annual meeting at BYU in March 2007 (they are still accepting paper submissions). The broad title of BYU’s new Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship could be construed to include theology in its scope

Healing the Breach between Feminists and Non-Feminists

One of the hardest things for me to deal with when it comes to feminism and the church is not directly related to any of the hot button feminist issues (i.e. not having the Priesthood, worrying about polygamy, etc). Instead, I have a tendency to get upset about the tension-filled relationship between feminists and non-feminists* in the church and how that affects my ability to be honest about my own life journey with other church members.

Why Europeans look lazy

It is a well established fact that Europeans perform vastly less formal market work than Americans. A less known fact is that this is a recent development— in the late 50s, Europeans worked about 10% more hours, but this has been in steady decline for 40 years, until now they work about 30% fewer hours than Americans.

All-expenses-paid Guilt Trips

I had a beautiful experience last week. I went through the temple with one of my Sunday School students/neighbors, a young man headed to the MTC on Wednesday Sept. 13. Last week, another of my SS students/neighbors left for his mission. There is one other member of the neighborhood of age to serve a mission, but he will not be doing it. He is my son.

Religion class

I registered my two oldest children for school on Friday. The principal needed to know which church they belonged to so that he could assign them to the proper religion class. For a first and third grader attending public school in Bavaria, there is a class for Catholics, a class for Lutherans, or a course on ethics. Actually, we’re Mormons, I said, prepared to explain that I have only one wife and that we do use electricity.

Way Back When, When Mormonism Was Tight

I was asked to prepare and give a talk on my Grandmother Jolley’s life story at her recent funeral. In going back through her history, one thing struck me more than anything else: that the Salt Lake City she grew up in was crowded with people whose names, today, sound like a hit parade of a Mormonism gone by.

A Thank You, A Welcome

We want to give our hearty thanks to Tyler Johnson, who took a break from his wonderful blog Mormon Hippocrates to grace Times and Seasons with a brilliant series of posts on achievement, spirituality, survival, and God’s grace. Thanks in particular, Tyler, for sharing your father’s story (though really it was a much larger story than that) with us; it made great reading. We hope to see you around T&S often in the future! We are also pleased to announce that, after a long and delightful engagement, Margaret Blair Young–fine scholar, wise teacher, thoughtful author, superb blogger, sympathetic listener and occasional provocateur–has agreed to join Times and Seasons as our latest permablogger. She keeps telling us that she won’t have much time to blog; we keep telling her that our readership doesn’t care if it has to await, along as there is the promise of beautiful posts like this or this or this awaiting us. Welcome aboard, Margaret!