One early morning in our local nature preserve, my friend’s husband was out for a run. A middle-aged former college athlete, he noticed a young woman several yards ahead of him clocking an impressive pace through the wooded hills. In the absence of his running group or adrenaline-pumping playlist, he…

A talk given to the Stanford LDSSA, January, 2017 — I had the pleasure (really, it truly was a great experience) of doing a Mormon Stories interview last year, and one question for which I wasn’t prepared was my opinion on the Ordain Women movement. I had already thought through almost everything else John Dehlin might throw at me, and…

A talk given to the Stanford LDSSA, January, 2017 — I had the pleasure (really, it truly was a great experience) of doing a Mormon Stories interview last year, and one question for which I wasn’t prepared was my opinion on the Ordain Women movement. I had already thought through almost everything else John Dehlin might throw at me, and…

I’ve spent the past couple of months writing and speaking about the pain that is often caused by institutional patriarchy, which again, just so we’re on the same page, is defined as: pa·tri·arch·y ˈpātrēˌärkē/noun a system of society or government in which the father or eldest male is head of…

When Joseph Smith recounted God’s summary of the Christian creeds as “all wrong” and “an abomination in his sight” (JSH 1:9), he effectively discarded the 1,800 years between Christ’s original church and the Restoration. We Mormons grow up studying the standard works and the teachings of modern prophets, but not…

Four years ago I was given some advice by a seasoned, renowned, and beloved feminist Mormon heroine. I spent years trying to prove her wrong, but today I realized she was right. In early 2012 I was struggling with my place as a woman in the Church (surprise!), and a…

About a month ago, I found myself having an irrationally huge emotional reaction about a relatively minor hurt at church. It felt like the last straw, the feather-light flax that snapped my back, and so I looked backward to try to identify the mountain of straws as they had accumulated…

A few Sundays ago, you drove home from Church, swearing a blue streak. You tore off your tie, yelling and slamming doors, your kids and wife weeping in stunned dismay. You were as shocked as they were, frankly, your rational self scrambling to make sense of your sudden outburst. Your…