RicoBabalu wrote:
Welcome, Mike!
Pull up a chair, and tell us a little about yourself!
Thanks, Rico.
Born into the Church, pioneer ancestry on all sides. Served a mission, got involved in apologetics, joined FAIR (wrote a couple articles for FAIR, and a book review for FARMS), intended to enter a career teaching for the CES, then suddenly lost my faith. Left the Church and FAIR, but eventually came to terms with the fact that I remain a cultural Mormon. I now consider myself to be an
agnostic secular humanist cultural Mormon. I continue my involvement in Mormon Studies, although my approach now is secular. Got my MA in Liberal Arts (with a focus in religious studies), wrote my thesis on "The Development of the LDS Church's Attitude Toward the Cross," and am having an expanded revision of my thesis published through John Whitmer Books very soon. The title is "Banishing the Cross: The Emergence of a Mormon Taboo." I have spoken at several Mormon studies conferences and symposia the last few years. Hopefully my paper proposal to MHA is accepted, and I will be able to speak on the "Mormon Endowment and the Christianization of Freemasonry." I am applying to PhD programs now, with the plan to teach History of Religion in North America at the University level. My research interests include folk-magic, freemasonry, religious symbolism, and Mormon/Catholic discourse. I have been involved in online Mormon discussions for 15 years, started when ZLMB was hot place to be. After ZLMB's fall, I followed the migration to the FAIR boards, and then to MADb and MDb (their exile forum, run by Dr. Shades). As you can see below, my blog is culturalmormoncafeteria.blogspot.com
That's about it. If you want to know anything else about me, ask away!
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