My latest project

Once I commit to an organization, it's usually stuck with me. My Mormon feminist group, Exponent II, would be one of those groups.

Since September, one of my favorite friends, Aimee, and I have been rebuilding this historic paper as co-editors. And, today, we are excited to announce the publication of our first issue as co-editors (and the first issue since Winter 2009).

Aimee, our layout editor, Margaret, and our webdesigner, Jana, were lovely last week when I had to call 5 days before we published this issue and tell them, "Please change this and this and this and this, and I won't be of any help until next week if I'm even up to helping then."

It's been hard to get this out while we've been dealing with Starr's death, so I also want to dedicate my work on this issue to him. He was one of the best Mormon feminists I knew, and I'm grateful that he raised his sons to be like him in that respect. He always encouraged me in my graduate work in feminist studies, even expressing his pride in the work I had chosen to do. And, frankly, Starr put his own hours into this issue (Starr, could you watch the boys today, so I could get this part of the paper finished? And, what about next week when I meet with the Uppity Women's group for lunch?).

And, you can also see Nate's cousin, Tessa's lovely cover art above, and Nate's mom, Judy's diligent and inspired poetry collection as our poetry editor. Clearly, I married into an amazing family.

Mother's Day Talk

Some people wanted to see my Mother's Day talk (ok, my mom and her friend, Aunt Alice) that someone (Nate in bishopric meeting) volunteered me to give. I had hoped to get it done before Mother's Day and up on my other blog, but since I was still revising it--oh, on the stand before I stood to give it, that didn't happen.

http://the-exponent.com/2009/05/09/standing-on-the-shoulders-of-giants-a-mothers-day-talk/

Hopefully, if you have to give a Mother's Day talk in the future, you'll find something here that is useful.

He taught me how to praise my god and still play rock and roll

Love blog hopping (which I prefer to the term, stalking, though I'm completely guilty of that, too. But really, is it stalking if you don't know them? Or, is it just pathetic?)--anyway, how else would I have found this?

Oversensitive?

I'm currently teaching one of my online Old Testament classes. Usually, they run pretty smoothly, but every time I log-on to monitor class discussion, I hold my breath. We've had some pretty crazy stuff happen; I've had to jump in for racism, misogyny, and well, calling your classmate, "stupid" isn't acceptable either.

This week, we were talking about Abraham, so as an exercise in hermeneutics, I had my students compare the Judeo-Christian version of Abraham sacrificing his son with the Muslim version of the same story. Primary differences? Ishmael is the son in the Koran's version, and he's involved in the decision. Adds a whole new set of dynamics.

So, when I read the opening comment, "This is really interesting! It almost makes them seem human..." I felt my heart sink--did she really just say that about Muslims?

She meant Abraham and Ishmael, and then, everyone in the class went on to say how much they liked having the added perspective. Yay!

In that vein, enjoy this video my cousin-in-law sent me.

A helpful resource

I know, I know. Two posts in less than a week about my Mormon feminist group, but what can I say? I love this group...

This week, Exponent II came out with its latest issue (which is now free!) about an important subject, pornography addiction. For those who aren't LDS, the Church has been talking a lot about the accesibility of porn on the Internet and how that has led to problems with members of the Church becoming addicted to porn. My friend, Heather (an EXII associate editor and one of the best writers I know) spent years putting together this issue, getting experts, working with people who deal with this.

I was going to email this issue out to friends and family, but then, I thought, "Oooh, I don't want people to think I'm sending this to them because I think they have a problem with porn." You know, that would be a little tacky.

I read it cover-to-cover in a night. Whether you're LDS or not, addicted to porn or not, this compilation is eye-opening and heartbreaking.

Let those who have ears, hear (and remember)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18821021

Did you get the Biblical illusion in this post's title?