Zelophehad's Daughters

{{Oh snap!  What a hot-button title!  Don’t let it throw you off from actually reading the post!}}

I currently live in a city that used to be deep in former East Germany.  I’ve seen pictures of rows on rows of historic buildings painted grey and brown, falling down in the 1980s.  I’ve walked through the huge residential communist/brutalist-style neo-villages on the outskirts.  And, I’ve made a few friends who grew up in the DDR and have a lot to say about what it was like then, now, and during the difficult transition.

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How are you celebrating Convert’s Day?

When I walk home from the grocery store, the first thing I see as I exit those automatic doors is the towering gorgeousness of a 13th century church just inside a 12th century city wall.  And every time I see it, I think, “I need to blog about that.”

This is, I’m starting to suspect, a symptom of a nascent “lifestyle blogger”–someone who blogs frequently, using usually instagramed or picniked photos, about everything from their breakfast to the way their shoes look against the pavement.  Heavy on the color saturation, easy on the text.  Usually with an underlying thesis of something like, “I love my freakin’ life!” Read More

I recently saw this article linked from Facebook with some offhand, optimistic remark about the relationship between Mormonism and feminism. Always interested in Mormon feminism, feminist Mormonism, and procrastinating the final I’m supposed to be writing, I clicked on over, only to find the title “The Curious Appeal of Roman Catholicism for Certain Latter-day Saint Intellectuals” and the name in the byline, Valerie Hudson.

Hudson isn’t someone whose theology I find particularly reliable, honest, or convincing, but it is true that I enjoy a little Catholicism on the side, and I sometimes dress up as an LDS intellectual for Halloween, so I started reading. Read More

I would indeed be ungrateful if I didn’t acknowledge the contributions of my co-bloggers; Petra read an earlier draft and made a lot of great observations, many of which are included in the footnotes, and Kiskilili and Melyngoch kindly allowed me to quote them.

Many of you are probably familiar with Valerie Hudson’s talk, “The Two Trees.” (You can go read it here.) In this talk, Hudson explains that one of the things that she values about the church is its feminism. In her words, she seeks “to review the main points of LDS doctrine that make this a revolutionary religion from a feminine perspective.” I can see why people are drawn to the talk; it has some powerful imagery. I have to give her credit for arguing for an equality that in some respects goes well beyond standard Mormon apologetics about women’s roles. I like how she emphasizes roles for both Heavenly Parents, and is not shy about bringing Heavenly Mother into her scheme. I also like that both men and women are explicitly connected to spiritual power.

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One of my all-time favorite movies is Ordinary People. In it, there’s a scene in which Conrad, a teenager who was hospitalized for several months after attempting suicide and is now trying to re-adjust to life, gets together with one of his friends from the hospital. He asks her, do you ever miss it? When she asks why, he responds, because no one ever hid anything there. It’s a line that’s very much resonated with me over the years.

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Think about the following statements:

1) I have serious doubts about Book of Mormon historicity.

2) We need to return to the Constitution, and resist the ungodly socialist plot threatening America.

3) I have extensively researched the topic, and have concluded that the Lost Ten Tribes are on the moon. Read More

I’ve had various encounters throughout my life with anti-Mormons who were out to save me from this terrible cult in which I am a member. Needless to say, this is an attitude I find extremely off-putting—in fact, as an unorthodox Mormon who engages in plenty of my own critiques of the Church, there are fewer things that rekindle my loyalty and connection to it more than encountering people on a mission to rescue Mormons from their delusions. But this is the thing that really gets to me. That if you ask these people why they’re behaving this way, often they say that it’s out of love. That they love Mormons. All I can say is, please oh please save me from this version of love.

This is the problem. You can’t argue people into believing that you love them. Read More

I think Facebook is fun. Let me emphasize that I am not saying this to start  a debate about Facebook per se–why people should or should not be on Facebook, issues of privacy, what you think of the new layout, etc. I realize it’s not for everyone, for a variety of reasons, and I don’t want to hash that out here.

What I want to specifically talk about is a particular criticism of Facebook (or social networking in general) I’ve seen multiple times which I find somewhat jarring. It goes something like this: “I don’t want to hear about the mundane details of people’s lives. I don’t have time for such inanities.” Read More

The first time I ever watched or listened to a session of General Conference was my freshman year at BYU. And no, I’m not a convert.

Growing up, since we didn’t have cable TV and lived outside of Utah, our only option for watching conference was a TV at the stake center. I’m sure many of you did (and do) this, but, for whatever reason, my mom wasn’t into the idea, and my dad, always more than happy to skip church, didn’t object. (I seem to remember my mom once saying something about resenting the idea of getting dressed up to watch TV, but I may just be projecting.) Read More

It’s not quite General Conference time yet, but the semi-annual marriage question has arisen early this fall. After last April’s Conference, the Salt Lake Tribune popped the question; this time, it’s in the Sacramento Bee, of all places. The Exponent has talked about it lately, and after a fireside with Elder Oaks on Sunday night, my Facebook feed has exploded with discussion.  It’s the old menace-to-society dilemma: as the Tribute put it, why are young LDS men pushing back marriage? Read More

So…my old roommate announces that she’s been called as the Personal Progress consultant in her ward.  She asks anyone if they remember any good projects they did or really enjoyed in Personal Progress, to be used as suggestions for things she can organize.

Some people  I do not know replied thus, in no particular order: Read More

Please join us in fasting for Janet of fMh. Read more here.

Some of you requested the full-text for the talk I gave this last weekend on “Crises of Faith”…

Here it is.

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It’s feast or famine at ZD, and right now some of us, Poohlike, are wondering how to wait out the hurricane with only a few pots of honey.

But don’t despair! If patience isn’t your cup of non-caffeinated fruit tea and you need a Mormon feminist blogging fix, head over to Beatrice and Galdralag’s new blog, Both Sides Now. You’ll be sorry if you don’t.

A thought experiment:

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By divine design, it is the responsibility of fathers to glack in their families, in love and righteousness. Mothers are primarily responsible for kribbling.

Fathers are to glack in love and righteousness. Fathers are to provide their families with whatever glacking is necessary. A man who holds the priesthood will glack for his family in Church participation so they will know the gospel and be under the protection of the covenants and ordinances. Fathers should earn the respect and confidence of their children by their loving glacking.

The gift and role of mothers is to kribble for their their children and husbands. Mothers who know desire to kribble. They kribble strong and immovable, with guidance from heaven. Mothers who kribble honor sacred ordinances and covenants; they are leaders, nurturers, and teachers. Kribbling mothers do the work of God.

In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners.

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Since no one seems to know what “preside” means anyway, what if we just dropped it? Makes that the whole “equal partner” thing feel like a whole lot less of a contradiction.