I’m not for mass appeal

As you can likely already tell, I am not a stereotypical blog for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I’m certainly not a typical Stoner. The name of my blog alone is a contradiction in some of your minds and blasphemous in others. I get that. You might be asking yourself, Mormon and Stoner – do you ENJOY being persecuted?

What I hope to accomplish, however, is finding a place for me to express my religiosity and interests without feeling the need to keep them separate. I’ve seen over the last couple of years a growing number of blogs and social media accounts claiming to be “real” members of the church, or “true” Latter-day Saints. This concept rings hallow for me as anyone who in good faith proclaims themself a member of our church, has the right to be a “true” or “real” person in the body of Christ.

I don’t claim to be more righteous or correct than any other member, although naturally I hold my own opinions. What I do claim to do, through this blog, is take an unflinching look at myself, the church, and my place within the church while hoping to normalize people like me. There’s a common sentiment within our community that our testimony and conviction to living the gospel as set forth by the institution of the church is an all-or-nothing commitment. I venture to say that life is not so simple and that idea is not realistic.

By taking a black and white approach to which actions and perspectives are deemed within the bounds of our religion, I believe we are limiting the potential of our church. That’s not to say all actions or beliefs can comfortably abide within its precepts. I implore the Socratic method to be used in order to define the Christian ethic.

Put in layman’s terms — call me out on my bullshit. Quite frankly, not all my writing can be condoned within the realm of the church and I’m well aware of that. I pray when you do reach out to me, you do so with the hope of actually having a dialogue or voicing your opinion. That doesn’t mean we’re going to see eye to eye, but at the end of the day I will still respect you as a brother or sister in Christ. I hope for the same in return.

I draw from a number of sources when defining my gospel opinions: The LDS canon, discourses, historical text, scholarship, and personal experiences. With that said, one of the more fascinating aspects of our theology is its sticky relationship with folk belief. I’m not above that, but I will try to avoid making statements based in something I heard at Stake Conference ten years ago.

Most of this is devoted to my church-themed posts, but that’s because I can’t imagine the stoner readers I do attract will be as fired up about my opinions as my LDS readers.

If you made it this far, I hope you stick around for more. It’s gonna be fun!

Deuces,

The Mormon Stoner