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Right now I binge watch "Mormon stories podcast" with John Dehlin and I am so fascinated about it. These episodes are so long and have multiple parts but I already watched 2 or three of them while knitting. It is so interesting. Does anybody else listen to these? I really like John Dehlins voice and the questions he asks, the stories of the guests are so various and interesting. He is doing this since 2005 and I definitely will search for his story when I finished the episode I watch right now (real housewives of Salt Lake City). I watched the one about Gretchen Day, that woman is really tough. I watched "Loosing faith as a BYU professor". I watched "mormon bishop loosing his faith and falling in love with a divorced woman". It somehow makes myself analyse my own faith journey during the last years as I switched from catholic to protestant/lutheran faith. It helps me to look deeper into my own reasons and feelings and I try to verbalise them more. My brain is stimulated listening to these people, I can't explain it better. Is anyone else watching this? Is there already a thread about it? I did not find one.

Three of my good friends YouTube I’ve stumbled across the YouTube channel Jordan and McKay. Married couple and they left the Mormon church about a year or so ago. Their YouTube channel exposes truth behind what goes on in things like the Mormon temple. And thought I would share. This one is part one of the temple rituals/the endowment And this one I watched yesterday. It discusses Baptism of the Dead. It may merge this with my post above, but adding the video on Mormon Influencers and how to tell that they aren’t wearing their garments

Well, Visions of Glory popped up again. This time Hidden True Crime has posed a 35 minute video involving a family related to that same book and were apparently physically located close to the Daybells. And apparently the missing 16 years old, Blaze, is the chosen one to issue in the second coming.

So - my path to this particular subject is courtesy Out Daughtered and Sweet Home Sextuplets. The Busby's have both Instagram and Youtube channels. The other family has Instagram. And Google then takes my looking at these and starts suggesting youtube videos for five.two.love. FIve.Two.Love - five is for quintuplets. two if for the two older boys. I like this family but dad has decided to make a living from youtube vlogging (at least until Youtube puts and end to this - which from all families seems to be an ongoing issue as far as content to keep them where they are and not moved to a children's category). I will admit that when compared to say Kate Gosselin this family is calm and amusing. They led me to (thanks to both cross-overs and youtube suggestions) the following. Not Enough Nelsons. Mormon family of (now) 16. Roughly half the kids are adopted. They are, for me, loud. (As in if they spent money on mic equipment or something they might be able to get rid of the shout/yelly end of things on every video). all the girls names end in 'ee' (although daughter Janie doesn't put hers out there that way and Kass has apparently lobbed the EE off hers). Gardner Quad Squad. As the name implies they have quadruplets - but their quads are two sets of identical twins. Another family that seems to either be full time vloggers and/or MLM schilling. Kids are on the loud side but they've also just turned 5. Meet the Millers - family with 5 kids. The youngest Jensen has medical issues, congenital defect involving his esophagus, almost died at birth. And hey, dad seems to have a regular job during the day so this is more Mom's gig. April & Davey - I'm going to have to go find the link to the videos that aren't on their main channel to post in here. April is ex FLDS. (but the story is a tad humorous because her family was less than exemplary and Mom seemed to be working the FLDS system for support post divorce). Very LDS - he does Temple shifts (I'm assuming volunteering). They've had a series of exchange students living with them. She just had baby #6 (and he got a vasectomy shortly after that baby was born). She's a hair stylist who does work at home. They have had a channel (or have a channel) for kids that involved superhero videos. I haven't' checked that one out.

(Note: I hope that this is the right forum. This post covers both political and theological conservatism.) Hi all. I'm almost 38 now, and I have so many thoughts to gather these days now that I have a seven month old whom I want to raise with some semblance of sanity in this society. It's got me to pondering matters like, is conservative Christianity really that united? Other than broad agreement on matters like abortion, homosexuality, and trans issues, I've learned over the last few years (much to my surprise) that conservative Christianity is all over the place. Members of different upbringings or denominations can think the other is outright Satanic. On a sub-forum for Christian mothers at the What To Expect forums, for example, there are some members there who think Catholics -- no matter how conservative (Matt Walsh, Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, to name a few) -- just aren't Christian, period. That goes further than even what my fellow WELS Lutherans believe -- we have this controversial doctrine where the office of the pope is viewed as antichrist, but we still think there are genuine believers within Catholicism, even though we think they're in great doctrinal error in other matters (Mary veneration, etc.). They're still trinitarian and mostly orthodox in other important doctrinal matters, so we always hesitate to "condemn" them. Many Baptists, on the other hand, are VERY quick to condemn Catholics as unbelievers, even if they agree on the typical conservative Christian topics like abortion, homosexuality, and trans issues. Mormons are another group usually condemned. In WELS, we think Mormons and JW are too outside doctrinal correctness to usually be considered Christians; we're much more skeptical of their believer status than Catholics. However, Mormons are -- percentage-wise -- the MOST LIKELY to identify as, and vote, Republican of ANY "Christian" denomination in the United States. I remember Jordan Niednagel, theologically conservative Calvinist, once chiding some fellow Calvinist friends of his for not being as outwardly moral as the Mormons are. Speaking of morality, there's division as to what constitutes works-based righteousness in American Protestantism as well. I've explained here before how I was raised in a fairly live-and-let-live environment, despite my parents identifying as conservative, and me being homeschooled. We didn't really identify with any group -- my parents left WELS when I was a little girl, and we never attended church consistently after that -- my parents just studied the Bible and came to their own conclusions (which included some false predictions about the End Times, and some beliefs in miracles that never took place, such as raising the dead and being healed from diseases). But morality wasn't something they focused much upon. In my teenage years, I ran around in short hair, suits and ties, and weird makeup, and I looked at pics of naked guys for hours, but they didn't think that was a big deal. My dad has also always liked women who were bold, opinionated, great at business, loved sports, and were talented in the arts. My mom passed away a few years ago, but his girlfriend of the last few years is very much like my mom. My dad doesn't like women who are passive, sentimental, and fastidious. He thinks they're boring. Even though he's a Trump guy, he's NEVER been the authoritarian, moralistic type. So I've always found it hard to relate to families where the conservative men are taught to be super authoritarian and moralistic, like in Vision Forum. The Niednagels weirded me out with that stuff for years; it was very foreign to how I was raised. Also, getting back to the End Times stuff a bit -- there's obviously a HUGE gulf between the pre-millennial sorts who usually think "the Rapture" is just around the corner, and the CREC post-millennial sorts who want to institute theocracy upon the lands. Both of those groups can have authoritarians, moralists, and ultra-conservative types, but their eschatology does NOT mix. Finally -- though there are many other issues I've not touched upon -- one last thing I want to mention is the response to COVID-19. Trump REALLY shocked a lot of the conservatives when he supported the vaccines toward the end of his presidency. Ben Carson did as well. Even though vaccines are NEVER mentioned in the Bible, many of the "Biblicist" types used peer pressure to make antivaxx something of necessary requirement/"doctrine" to be a "real" Christian. In many cases, it was elevated beyond traditional doctrines, such as the trinity! I'm old enough to remember when antivaxx was a fringe thing, and never heard about it in Christian circles. But now it's another issue dividing members, especially older ones who remember when polio was horrible. In WELS, we're one of the few conservative denominations that didn't give into the antivaxx pressure. We have a small number of those, but the official position -- and the one held by most members -- is that the vaxx isn't a big deal. All to say, after those many examples (I could give more -- stuff about alcohol, dancing, rock music, and whatnot in the more moralistic denominations, stuff that LCMS or WELS Lutherans would never strongly object to, etc.), I just don't think conservative Christians are all that unified. Yes, on some of the "big" issues they are, but I've now interacted with (and been a member of) enough groups to see that something like The Handmaid's Tale can't ever be instituted in the United States. There are too many other divisions elsewhere among the various camps of conservative Christianity for us to come together. I know I've been attacked/blocked by conservative Christians because I didn't think speaking in tongues was necessary (some Pentecostals think you HAVE to have this gift in order to be a "real" Christian), because I took the vaxx, because my dad let me marry an unbeliever, etc. Heck, there are even some conservative Christians who are uncomfortable with Trump because of his lax morality (never mind his vaccine stance). One thing I wish I'd learned earlier, and that I wish more Americans understood, is conservative Christianity isn't a monolith. It took me a long time to find any kind of circle where I didn't get the message that my family and I were complete and weird outsiders. I now consider myself only moderately conservative, and mostly theologically so. I dumped the Republican party and moved onto the American Solidarity Party in 2020 because there's WAY too much fringe weirdness splintering the Republican party now, such as the conspiratorial madness that led to Jan. 6, and all that crazy white nationalism crap that's become all too mainstream in the last few years.

@Witherwings asked about Mormon fashion bloggers in another thread. Some examples of blogs are: Barefoot Blonde, Pink Peonies.... In its corner of the internet, Mormon modest fashion blogging is huge, as are sites that sell LDS standard approved fashion. Here's a place to discuss the phenomenon.

Well this is part of TikTok that I never stumbled upon. Apparently, in the world of Mormon momtok, there has been a giant blow up of a swinging scandal. (And by swinging swimming partner swapping) and somehow at least one of the couples involved is headed for divorce. This is messy and complicated and I don’t necessarily understand all the personalities involved in this. I found this one because I follow Jordan and McKay on YouTube and they just did an episode about this. I did however recognize the last name of one of the couples involved because some part of their extended family is friends with one of the Mormon family bloggers that I actually follow and that one had me scratching my head. (Members of the extended Munday family are friends with the Our Life in Holland family)

Sometime in late November family bloggers five to love “took a break for the holidays.“ And they were supposed to come back after the holidays. But nothing for the entire month of January. And yesterday of work finally appeared. And in it Skyler the mail of the couple was the only one featured along withThe quince and one of the older sons. Apparently Skyler and Jamie are taking a break. They’re separated. And then Utah Mormon worlds correct me if I’m wrong but this is a big deal. They are shifting to two blogs a week. One on Saturdays with Kim. One on Wednesdays with her. All subject to change because you’re saying how this works. The quince and one of the older sons. Apparently Skyler and Jamie are taking a break. They’re separated. And then Utah Mormon worlds correct me if I’m wrong but this is a big deal. They are shifting to two blogs a week. One on Saturdays with Kim. One on Wednesdays with her. All subject to change because they’re seeing how this works. What I noticed in the video is that it looks like he’s working a real job. Based on the table in the living room area with computers and what have you on it. Also sounds like the house he’s living in is probably a house associated with someone on his side of the family that’s been there since 1860 or so. Based on the table in the living room area with computers and what have you on it. Also sounds like the house he’s living in is probably a house associated with someone on his side of the family that’s been there since 1860 or so. Very curious.

Ron Lafferty died in prison from natural causes. He was on death row for the murder of his sister-in-law Brenda and niece Erica. The murders were detailed in Jon Krakauer's book Under the Banner of Heaven. Lafferty was due to face a firing squad sometime next year. https://news.yahoo.com/utah-death-row-inmate-featured-172237286.html

[TW childhood sexual abuse] I just listened to last Friday's episode of The Daily podcast by the New York Times. It's called "Confronting a Childhood Abuser." Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/24/podcasts/the-daily/sex-abuse-sundance.html The survivor was abused by Sterling Van Wagenen, the founder of Sundance Film Festival and a well-known figure in the Mormon church. The abuse was handled within the church, as is often the case, but survivor Sean Escobar came forward with his story through a Mormon abuse whistle-blower website. It was a fascinating, raw story. I was absolutely struck by the way Sean described the lasting effects of this abusive episode on his life. So many themes shared are applicable to what we talk about here and the way abuse is hidden and whitewashed by churches at great cost to the original and likely future victims.