Contemplative Dexterity

The state of Utah, in which I reside, staunchly promotes abstinence only education. Recently, a Bill was introduced, H.B 215, that would enact provisions related to reproductive health education. The Bill emphasized providing evidence based, age appropriate, information that have been shown to be effective in changing negative behaviors that contribute to teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases and infections. Last year, a similar Bill was introduced but was not passed, which seems to be the fate of H.B 215, as the last action taken on March 9, 2017 was to file it in ‘bills not passed.’ I thought of Abstinence only Education within the context of types of inaccurate information (i.e.  Honest Mistakes, Out-of-Date Information, Disinformation, biased information, misleading information, bullshit and withholding or removing information) and considered how this type of curricula falls into many of the previously listed categories of inaccurate information.  First, le

I find myself getting upset, maybe even angry, over small things on Facebook. All of them are in some way related to religion, whether it’s obvious upon first glance or not. I’ve told my husband on occasion that prior to leaving the LDS church, I never experienced true anger. Frustration? Countless times. Disappointment? Of course. Disgust or irritation? Yes. But never a pure anger. Some, especially those who are religious, might be thinking, that’s wonderful. Why would you want to experience anger? Anger is a negative emotion, therefore, it is from the devil. I grew up believing this wholeheartedly, which I truly believe contributed in good measure to my suppression of most emotions. But I’m angry now. Despite the belief among the religious that being angry at god is the main reason why individuals leave religion, I can’t claim that sentiment. I am not angry at god. I am, however, angry at Joseph Smith. This man was real. This is something that can, and has been, proven. I’m angr

I found Go Set a Watchman to be incredibly poignant, especially at this point in my life, having recently left my religion. While Watchman focuses primarily on the racial tensions of the 1950’s in the South, I felt that a lot of Scout’s thoughts and actions throughout the novel correspond to similar thoughts and actions that I’ve experienced throughout my life in regards to religion. Despite this being a new release, the most quoted line from the novel is as follows: “Every man’s island… every man’s watchman, is his conscience.” In the Bible, the term watchman is used to describe a ‘prophet’, or someone who is to become the moral compass of a home or town or civilization. The phrase, ‘Every man’s island’, or ‘no man is an island’, indicates that a person’s conscience is what influences their interactions with their surroundings and with others. When ‘every man’s island’ and ‘every man’s watchman’ come together, the quote is indicative of an individual’s conscience being what influ

In my last post I went over one of Matt Walsh’s articles entitled “Yes, Gay Marriage Harms Me Personally”. I am of the opinion, and I’m sure there are those out there who agree with me, that gay marriage does not harm anyone. But I contend that religion harms me personally. As it does everyone else who has had the misfortune (whether they see it that way or not) of being within its clutches. I had no choice in whether I would participate in a religion or not. I was born under the “covenant”, as Mormons love to say. This is their way of saying that I was born with privilege, because I was already within the grasp of the “one true church” and that much closer to achieving eternal exaltation. I was blessed as a baby by my father and baptized at 8. I attended Achievement Days and Young Woman’s. In my mind, I tried valiantly to like my Single’s Wards and to believe that my made-up callings in these wards were indeed inspired of God. I read the Book of Mormon through at least once, but af

Matt Walsh is an Idiot: Why “Yes, Gay Marriage Hurts Me Personally” is not effective. I am a glutton for punishment where Matt Walsh is concerned. He is a pompous ass, and reading his articles makes my blood boil, and not just because he writes for Glen Beck’s network and we don’t share the same opinions. Bottom line is that he is not a great writer. If he were to turn one of his articles into any of my University English professors, he would not have fared well. Even my 11 th grade English teacher would have ripped him a new one. Why: Because he cannot write an argumentative paper. Not a single one of his articles I have read has contained any semblance of argumentation. He likes to say things like, first and second, as if he’s actually introducing solid reasons to support his opinion, but they end up being wordy and condescending with an overabundance of analogies that don’t actually provide support. The article listed in the title of my post is one of Walsh’s more recent

(Apologies for another long post) In a perusal of my Facebook news feed, I stumbled across a lovely article that a neighbor of my parents shared entitled “So…You Think the Book of Mormon is a Fraud” . Mr. Trimble, who authored this lovely article, uses the typical Mormon circular reasoning that states that if the Book of Mormon is true, then Joseph Smith was a prophet; and if Joseph Smith was a prophet, then the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the same Church that Christ established while he was on Earth. So in the Mormon mind, it all comes down to whether the BOM is true or not, and for this, they rely on warm fuzzy feelings to confirm that the Book is in fact, true. Mr. Trimble states that he noticed that most of the people who criticize the Book of Mormon the loudest, have not actually read it. While this may be true, I don’t think a person needs to read a book fully to understand whether it’s true or not. That’s what research is for. Reading the Book of Morm