Perry Ekimae

 Tyler J Perry If you as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints ever came across material such as Fawn Brodie's No Man Knows My History , the works of Jerald and Sandra Tanner, or the 1912 New York Times article about the Book of Abraham, you may have been told to dismiss them out of hand as “anti-Mormon lies". Indeed, this content that is damaging to the church and its reputation can appear to the believer as the work of the demonic Adversary whose sole goal it is to uproot the kingdom of God on Earth. It is, thus, convenient and, perhaps, even prudent to label this material as both “anti-Mormon” and “lies". However, a difficulty appears when one learns that Fawn Brodie’s work is shown to be truth faithful scholar Richard Bushman's biography of the Prophet Joseph Smith [1]. Worse still, the scholarly work of Jerald and Sandra Tanner has been moved from its place among the “anti-Mormon lies" and into the place of “uncomfortable truths"...

 Tyler Perry I have recently been listening to many interviews on Mormon Stories Podcast .   In part, this is because of a fascination with the history of the church of my heritage.   Otherwise, I listen to understand my own feelings through the context of the experiences of others. In Dr. John Dehlin’s 2014 article “A Comprehensive List of Reasons Why People Leave or Stop Believing in the LDS Church”[1], Dehlin notes that people frequently ascribe their disaffection as being caused by multiple factors, describing the experience as “breaking the shelf”.   In the analogy, people describe encountering difficult or challenging questions that they were willing to set aside and place on a “shelf”, to be answered at a later date.   Eventually, the weight of all the issues on that “shelf” becomes too great, and it collapses, dragging their testimonies along with it.   This can lead to a faith crisis, disaffection, and withdrawal from the church. Despite the sp...

Tyler Perry According to The Family: A Proclamation to the World, marriage is only authorized when it is between one man and one woman.   Sexual relations outside the confines of an authorized marriage are sinful.   Indeed, “man’s laws cannot make moral what God has declared immoral” [1].   Therefore, gay marriage is against the laws of God, gay sex is always immoral, and the only options for a gay member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are to stay celibate for the rest of their lives, enter into a mixed-orientation marriage (which can be extremely damaging to all parties involved), or exit the church. Furthermore, we learn that gender is characteristic of eternal identity, and that gender as defined in the Family Proclamation as “biological sex at birth” [2].   Therefore, if an assigned female at birth (AFAB) individual were to transition socially and physically, even though their behaviors and physical features, and I mean all of those physica...

  Tyler Perry Note: I get a little sweary at the end.   But it’s fine.   I’m fine.   We’re all fine here.   How are you? Because 2020 sucks, Jacob Hess has delivered a Part 2 to his eloquent and well-written dissertation on Mormons Building Bridges (MBB) and their ilk that is certain to convince all wayward souls to return back to the fold of Mormonism.   In an absolute stunning display of excellent pacing, smooth prose, and entertaining education, Jacob Hess has solved Mormon bigotry, cured the divide between LGBTQ people and the church, and offered up a stunning solution to world hunger.   He also included the chemical formula to a 99% effective COVID vaccine that is going to be available on the market next week. The above is what sarcasm looks like.   Sarcasm is my defense mechanism when I have decided that beating my head against the wall until either the wall breaks or I do is an improper strategy for coping with ignorance, condescendin...

Tyler Perry Are You Not Entertained? I am going to say something that will probably make some of my gay friends very unhappy with me. I love Ender’s Game .   Hands down, my favorite novel of all-time.   In so many ways, it defined my adolescence.   I felt such a connection to the struggle of Ender Wiggin as a kid who just did not quite fit in at home or at school.   I better understand the reasons why I struggled with those connections now, but that book gave me a sense of belonging and shared experience that I could hardly find anywhere else. Orson Scott Card, the author of Ender’s Game , tends to slip Mormon cosmology into his writing.   He literally wrote a series that is little more than a sci-fi retelling of the Book of Mormon.   He also participated in the writing of the script for my favorite original Xbox game, Advent Rising .   You have probably never heard of Advent Rising , as it was not terribly popular, it was super buggy, and it had...