When Mette Harrison was an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she found that many fellow members had rigid and doctrinaire views that required a sort of unthinking acquiescence. There was one right way to do everything, one right way to think, one right way to believe in God. Harrison, a Utah novelist, has recently stopped attending church and no longer considers herself a member. As she navigates her post-Mormon life, she’s noticed that some of the same rigid and brittle thinking characterizes some ex-Mormons. It’s like they’ve traded in one kind of dogmatism for another. Here, she reflects on five of the most common “doctrines” she sees in the ex-Mormon community. — Jana Riess , Religion News Service columnist If you’ve been an ex-Mormon for long enough to have a social group of other ex-Mormons, you have probably started to learn the doctrines of ex-Mormonism. They’re less strict than the rules of Mormonism, but they’re still rules. Sometimes it...
When the Utah Legislature decided in the 1940s to move the state prison from Sugar House to Draper, they could have decided to subdivide and sell the prison site for residential or commercial development and make some money for the state. Instead, they voted in 1947 to create what we know today as Sugar House Park. Sugar House would be a much different place today without the recreational opportunities Sugar House Park provides due to the Legislature’s foresight. Salt Lake City is facing a similar decision today. I was on the Salt Lake City Planning Commission when the Downtown Master Plan was adopted in May 2016. My only real disappointment with the plan, which I expressed at the time, was the lack of open space envisioned in the plan to provide recreational opportunities for all the new proposed residents and workers. Initially the plan had included the idea of a large amount of open space on the west side of downtown, along the I-15 corridor but over time that was reduced and fi...
Comments
Post a Comment