Why I Am Not A Mother (Yet)

I’ve been married for a little over two years now and I don’t have any children yet. I realize that isn’t unusual, even in Mormonism, and no one around me has put any pressure on me to start, with the possible exception of my mother, who I am pretty sure is joking. Mostly.

I’m sure we’ll have children eventually, though I’m a little less sure I can articulate the reasons why: we’d be good parents, at least to an emotionally tough child; people who have children seem to enjoy them; they’re the future, my genes are fantastic and deserve to be passed on, etc etc. This has been in my mind a lot lately, though: why aren’t we having them (or even thinking about having them) now? We’re in our late twenties, healthy, in a good marriage, and financially stable. In some ways, timing really couldn’t get better. Read More

Tithing Workaround

I love the idea of tithing.  It reminds me that money is just money–and if I can’t give it away then I don’t own it, it owns me.  It’s a wonderful reminder to set aside a percentage of my income to help those around me who are in a rough patch.  It makes me a better person to think outside of myself and fight any latent financial greediness that might creep up on me in the long term.

At the same time, I’ve had a complex relationship with tithing the past three years.   Read More

MHA Awards

Hey, all you scholars of Mormon history. Check this out. Prizes! Money! Everlasting fame!

From the Mormon History Association:

The Mormon History Association will give its yearly awards for the best books, articles, dissertation, thesis, and student papers published or written on Mormon history during 2011 at its annual 2012 conference, which will be held in June in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Read More

Practical Infallibility

We in the LDS church are fond of pointing out that we don’t believe in prophetic infallibility. At least in theory, we see prophets as human beings who sometimes make mistakes, and don’t expect them to be perfect. However, I’m not entirely clear as to what exactly what this means on a practical level. And the more I’ve thought about this, the more I’ve wondered whether we don’t believe in what I might term “practical infallibility.” In other words, while we reject infallibility as a theological proposition, in practice, it is difficult to see how our approach differs from a belief in infallibility.

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Apostasy Conference

If you’re around BYU, you should check this out. There’s some exciting scholarship going on in this area.

Please join us for a conference, “Exploring Mormon Conceptions of Apostasy” to be held on March 1-2, 2012 at Brigham Young University.

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