Thursday, May 28, 2009

Welcome to the Controversy

Today I planned to introduce a new endeavor. But DH has already written about it, and so I'm taking the lazy way out, and just quoting him:



My wife and I decided to combine our two opposing viewpoints on a new blog called He Said/She Said. My wife is a feminist Mormon housewife and somewhat on the liberal side who writes the Hieing to Kolob blog. She suggested to me that a Mormon audience would be interested to see an opposing viewpoint blog where an ultraconservative Ezra Taft Benson Mormon like me who writes the Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord blog takes on a feminist like her on hot Mormon issues.

Sometimes we take a consistent side but often we might have alternating viewpoints. Most of us are more complex than labels make us. Many of my wife's Sunstone friends even suggested to her that I should come to their conference this year so they could have the conservative point of view. Unfortunately I don't have the extra money or time off at work so they will have to read my opinions on our new blog He Said/She Said.

We intend to cover several controversial topics including, for example, birth control, stay at home moms, abortion rights, evolution, should LDS members sign internet protests, should temple goers wear their garments all the time, should members stay in the church versus leaving it, breaking the Sabbath Day, the inclusion or exclusion of gays, when you know a person has broken an LDS principle should you turn them in, is there a stigma to being married many times, should women give blessings, should every LDS girl serve a mission, is the lottery really gambling, what constitutes an honest tithe, can men read their minds wives, is Isaiah boring, is masturbation a sin, oral sex, do you have to live polygamy in this life, will fundamentalists or other religious people be in the Church of the First Born, is the LDS Church the only true church on this earth, etc. Our topics will draw on current issues and other controversial issues, you can consider this a mainline Mormon taking on a representative of the Seventh East Press or Sunstone or Dialogue or fundamental Mormonism or even a bleeding heart liberal. Let the smack down begin. There is no telling what we might say.

If you know Bored in Vernal (BiV) or me Dr. B. there is certainly going to be some fireworks that lead to knock down drag out written fights on our blog. We will try to be respectful and let our viewpoints speak for themselves. Many people out there already think some of my conservative and moderate ideas are whacked out already or that Bored in Vernal is really out there with her feminist liberal perspective. Others see us as having fresh perspectives and being in harmony with what they believe. We want people from all perspectives to come and comment whether LDS or not. We will use pictures, polls, and other experimental techniques to jazz up our participation.

We really hope that this will help us be closer as a couple since we will get to know each others views in a neutral environment and come to a more moderate viewpoint by considering new ways of thinking about LDS issues when we try out our thoughts in an open public forum. It will require thick skins and mature minds. I hope after a year or two we are still married and that this will be a constructive way to air our difference and expand our way of seeing our religion and faith. We both feel that even diversely opinionated people can have a healthy relationship and that this new blog He Said/She Said will help us as well as others clarify what they believe. I think the minds of many members are not so uniform as others believe.


Check out our first few posts:
Women Giving Blessings in the LDS Church: He Said, She Said
Should We Always Accept Church Callings? He Said, She Said
The Abortion Debate: She Said, He Said
Throwing Out the Hamburger: He Said, She Said

15 comments:

John Gustav-Wrathall said...

Sounds amazing, fun, fascinating...

Perhaps Göran and I could start a blog entitled "He said/He said," and he could explain his side of why he thinks Mormons are crazy, and why I'm crazy to be gay and still want to be one.

Bored in Vernal said...

LOL! That would be fun, I know a LOT of people who would read it! (I would be one, for sure.)

Kullervo said...

I tried to comment on the he said/she said blog but the ID verification pretty much made it impossible. I can't even cut and paste from the comment window, so my comment is lost. :(

Bored in Vernal said...

Sorry, Kullervo, I fixed the ID verification so it should be easier from now on. I'm so sorry we lost your comment. Hope you will visit us again sometime!

adamf said...

Too many good blogs to read!

John Gustav-Wrathall said...

I think you guys should set this blog up so that the two viewpoints can be read side by side and commented on together, rather than having separate comments for each post.

John Gustav-Wrathall said...

I loved both posts on the question of whether women should be able to administer blessings or not... Very interesting on both sides..!

Bored in Vernal said...

Yikes, John, what do you think I am, a computer programmer? I'll see what I can come up with, though, it sounds like it would be cool.
We are also going to be adding interactive polls. So keep visiting!

tommyflan said...

I love this idea. If you need some fuel for your arguments, I suggest www.procon.org where you can see pros and cons on many controversial religious topics.

Mormon Heretic said...

Interesting idea. I find that I am probably more liberal than my wife. I think it is great that you two can be so open with each other. I find that it's better if I keep my church opinions to myself.

The blog is interesting, but it does take quite some time to wade through all the issues.

Ardis Parshall said...

BiV -- Does your new He Said-She Said blog incorporate music or some other unusual feature? Everytime I try to open that site, my computer gives a funny pinging sound, and a few seconds later the window closes. It doesn't crash Internet Explorer itself, but just the window where I've tried to open your blog.

Anybody else report this problem to you? Any idea how to correct it? I have to assume the problem is with your website rather than my computer because this is the only place that ever happens, and it happens 100% of the time.

Bored in Vernal said...

Ardis, no one else has mentioned this. Very strange. Are you accessing it from the COB?? There is a post on p=()rn, but I have tried to disguise all of the objectionable words. However, the COB could very well be allergic to anything I write.

I would tell you to try Mozilla, but I just accessed it with Internet Explorer and had no trouble.

Let me know if you figure it out.

Bored in Vernal said...

OH--we have a lot of poll features on there. Wonder if that could be it?? We are using blogpolls.com
See if you have a problem accessing that site.

Ardis Parshall said...

I'm at home, not at the COB; there are no filters here. I've tried using IE and Mozilla, and on two different laptops. You crash my program every time, so I've given up trying. This is the only site this has ever happened with.

Bored in Vernal said...

That's weird, Ardis. Sorry about that. Kevin Barney said he's having a problem getting it, too, but only on IE. Wish I knew what was causing it. Is anyone else having this problem?