Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Never a Dull Moment in ExMormondom

Back when I was a Mormon life was a pretty dull ride. Thank goodness I've shifted gears as an ExMormon. Now there's never even a dull moment. Like this weekend when Mark and I headed up to Sacramento for the last of Jerry the Aspousetate's annual summer parties.

The following crappy photos are courtesy of the slightly buzzed blog owner:


Among the attendees were several members of the newly formed Sacramento chapter of Mormon Spectrum. Interesting folks with interesting stories - from a young man who is struggling to raise his kids alongside his believing ex, to a middle-aged woman who had married into Mormon royalty (with disastrous results), to an eighty-year-old who still endures the snubs and rebukes from her believing siblings some 60 years after leaving the faith.


Also we got to meet Mike, who is famous for his YouTube temple videos. He reminisced about those wholesome, bygone days when we got to pantomime our own deaths in the LDS temple. Ah...memories.

This prompted me to recall that smarmy Protestant minister in the old temple film, the one who hung out with Satan. ("We teach a religion made up of the philosophies of men, mingled with scripture.") Any of you old enough to remember him? He was played by none other than J. Spencer Palmer who taught World Religions at BYU. No irony there (snort).

But if you really want a laugh check out Mormon Temple: The Musical!

When we got back to San Francisco "The Galaxy Song" from Life of Brian was still swimming around my brain.**

Then yesterday I received a package from a Gentle Reader! Inspired by my recent post on rock music and BYU, he sent me some fun CD's. Do I have cool readers or what?

One is an LDS fireside featuring Lynn Bryson whose anti-rock music talks were popular in Mormon circles during the 1980's. Also an "Up With People" album (an LDS pop group circa 1970) and some "Sons of Mosiah," an LDS group formed in 1970 who look like they could be back-ups to Greg Brady's Johnny Bravo schtick.

Look! He even sent a spare album cover. 


The back cover is an article in the Washington Post, published 2/28/70

Thank you Gentle Reader/You Know Who You Are! I now have the makings of endless material for future posts. Also hours of anything but dull moments ahead of me.

**Don't get the Life of Brian reference? That's because you haven't checked out Mormon Temple: The Musical!

Friday, August 14, 2015

Donna's Mini-Break!

I've been off the grid lately, thanks to a wonderful visit from our son, daughter-in-law, and grandkids!

Mark, Meera, and adorable offspring
Since I understand the Mormon-themed media is obsessing over Joseph Smith's phony seer stone while the mainstream media is obsessing over the Republican phony, Donald Trump, I'm not suffering from any separation anxiety. In fact I'm having a blast!

Keya
Maya
and Max!
So, as you can see, Gentle Readers, I've no time left for the seer stone or the Donald.

But I will be back soon.