We’re big believers in blasphemy here at Mind on Fire, where we believe that the blasphemy taboo is mainly a means of control and social censorship. In honor of International Blasphemy Day, I’m resubmitting this post from two years ago: “All great truths begin as blasphemies” – George Bernard Shaw 1) Jesus: Jesus saith unto [...]

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I love xkcd, and I love this comic the most: In spite of (because of?) the instance of profanity it contains, it hangs prominently above both of my desks, at home and at work. I am, of course, the guy at the desk, and the girl’s voice is like a siren calling to me. I [...]

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It occurred to me on this morning (and this is what I think about in bed on a Saturday morning [when this post was written] when I should be dreaming) that there is probably an inverse relation between how much you use the term “I have a gay friend” (especially in political conversations) and actually [...]

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In spite of my various attempts to clarify my motives, people continue to ask why I have chosen to be so noisy and public as I exited the LDS Church. Most of these questions (and the occasional accusation that I’m insincere, or an attention whore) come from people who seem to be deeply connected to [...]

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Picture taken by @taojunky This post is mainly a recounting of my experience of being excommunicated. Mine was probably a strange situation, since I may be one of a handful of apostates who welcomed excommunication, who also chose to attend their disciplinary council. I may follow this post with some analysis in a day or [...]

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I just wanted to direct your attention to Jana’s experience of the disciplinary council. She’s a tough woman, but I acknowledge that this has been difficult for her, so I hope you’ll treat her with civility and compassion. I’ll try to fill some of the gaps in her recounting (when I was brought into the [...]

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Bang…bang…bang…bang…bang…bang. Were those gunshots? Firecrackers? Was that screaming? If it was gunfire, there were so many shots–was someone on the rampage? I told CatGirl to get down and I locked the doors. I called the police but the dispatcher put me on hold. And kept me on hold. I finally hung up. It was obvious [...]

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Being the violent yang to John’s Quaker yin here at MoF, the news of UCI’s shooting (see John’s twitterfeed) last night filled me with the desire for vengeance. Yahweh’s jealous anger has nothing on my righteous anger when it comes to domestic violence. Violence is not the solution to every problem (or even most of [...]

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Jana completed her 31+ mile race across the open water from Newport Beach to Avalon yesterday. I’m so proud of her! In one day, she had her first outrigger race over 10 miles, her first ride on the Pacific in a motor boat, first swims on the open water miles away from any shoreline, and [...]

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b&w lighthouse by john curley, shared under a creative commons license. I loved to sing as a Mormon. I sucked, but I didn’t suck so bad that I couldn’t do a public performance on occasion. I particularly loved singing in small, 4-man choirs. I was usually the baritone. One of my favorite hymns to sing [...]

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