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Flunking Sainthood

Do you feel as overwhelmed as I do by statistics on world hunger? When I read about more than a billion people in dire poverty, it’s hard to muster any optimism that things will change. Children are starving. People are dying of preventable diseases. Yet those realities, while alarming, don’t do justice to the great…

I’ve blogged before on the new sociological research about teen spirituality, the main crux of it being that many Protestant and Catholic teens have very little idea what they believe. According to research by Kenda Creasy Dean and Christian Smith, Catholic teens consistently rank the lowest in their knowledge of the Bible and core doctrines…

The Bloggernacle has been buzzing for several days with reports of an uplifting and wonderful pre-stake conference church meeting last Sunday, September 19, in the Oakland, California stake. Carol Lynn Pearson has blogged here at Flunking Sainthood before about some of the beautiful reconciliation efforts that have occurred in that stake since the debacle of…

OK, I admit it. I’ve never actually read the Books of Chronicles before. I went to divinity school, and I’ve been a Christian since I was 14, but 1 and 2 Chronicles were among the many books of the Bible that I couldn’t have told you much about if someone held a gun to my…

If you’re like me, you’re cheering about the national rally that Jon Stewart is planning for October 30 in Washington, D.C. With all the fearmongering and hatred being spouted these days, we need Stewart’s “Rally to Restore Sanity” (as well as Colbert’s ironically named “March to Keep Fear Alive”) to help restore the middle ground…

Have you noticed that as the magazine industry heads into freefall, it’s turning more and more to reader-generated content? In 2008, This Old House had an issue filled with reader tips and renovations, and Budget Travel did an issue where readers contributed every story and photograph. They were both outstanding. I guess there is one…

Recently a young mother complained to me that a non-Mormon family member had given her children the They Might Be Giants album Here Comes Science, which contains a song about evolution called “My Brother the Ape” (check out the great cartoon music video). She was uncomfortable with the lyrics because she felt they were incompatible…

“But there were female prophets in Old Testament times,” I insisted. I was in the middle of an uncomfortable conversation with a fellow Mormon who had just made the claim that all prophets had always been men. “Well, no, not really,” he countered. “Women could be advisers, like to a king, but they were not…

Christian women might be addicted to porn? Pastors can be sexual predators? Evangelical teens are cutting themselves? Such are the revelations in Anne Jackson’s newest book, Permission to Speak Freely: Essays and Art on Fear, Confession, and Grace. It’s a beautifully designed collection that pairs Jackson’s own story of brokenness  with art and notes from…

I never intended to become addicted to another television show. For starters, I don’t have the time. But a  compelling secondary reason is that too many of the shows I have allowed myself to fall in love with in recent years (Arrested Development, Veronica Mars, Firefly) have fallen victim to cancellation shortly after I pledged…
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