#mormon adjacent

[wowbright]

I really need someone else two other people to post fic on AO3 with soaking in it and tag it as such so the tag can become canonical.

We can do it!

Tip: I've been using "Soaking (penetrative sex without thrusting)" as my tag.

[heathersdesk]

Why do I bother to vote blue in Idaho?

Because I refuse to participate in the illusion that the only way to participate in the government that represents me is to register and vote Republican.

Because I've already sent John McCrostie, a gay educator, to my state legislature. Voting Democrat in Idaho is NOT a waste of a vote. Democrats win elections in Idaho when they run and when they TRY. So many elections in Idaho are still full of Republicans running completely unopposed.

Because showing up for myself as a disabled, chronically ill woman matters. Showing up for other marginalized communities in Idaho matters. Surrender is not an option when you understand it's people and their lives, not numbers, on the line.

Because in order to change a state from red to blue, it doesn't take magic. It takes work. It takes uncomfortable conversations, challenging the status quo, and asking important questions for as long as it takes to go through all the shades of red, then purple, then finally to blue.

I did not fail. In my own small way, I have taken Idaho from ruby red to red violet. That isn't nothing. It's exactly what change in a place like this has to look like. Patient. Long suffering. Incremental.

I vote blue in Idaho because I understand the assignment. I'm where I'm supposed to be, doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm changing the soil so something different could actually grow and survive here.

Vote for the future you want, not for the future you have. And never tell yourself it doesn't matter and you're not making a difference.

[heathersdesk]

Random illustration from the Church website. Obsessed with the fact that Jesus is pink, ngl.

Source

[heathersdesk]

Introduction

Because I think it will provide some clarity, let's talk about a needed distinction for LDS folks when it comes to practicing a religion vs. being active in a religion.

I am a practicing Mormon. That is not the same thing as being active. I haven't been to Church in years because my local unit is not safe for me. So I do all of my personal worship in my home.

I pray. I study scripture. I rest on the Sabbath. I keep the Word of Wisdom, pay a full tithe, am honest in my dealings with my earth fellows, and still carry a current temple recommend. This is what I mean by believing and practicing.

The Book of Mormon teaches that my worship is no less valid because it takes place outside of a church building.

In fact, it puts into serious question why anyone would *need* a church building to worship.

The folks in Alma 32 were not required to subject themselves to abuses, dehumanization, and violence by being inside of the church buildings they built.

God came to them in their wilderness and blessed them as they were, with no mind to what they lacked.

I stand by that.

To the end of my days, I stand by that.

Why do I "bother" when so many people at church clearly don't want me around?

Because God does not belong to them to take from me. I refuse to give them that power because they don't deserve it.

You need a model for how to maintain your life of faith without being in contact with harmful people? Here it is.

You owe no one an explanation or justification for it. This is your life. It doesn't need to look like everyone else's to serve God and bring joy.

[heathersdesk]

If I'm a Baby Killer, then You're a Human Trafficker

Once upon a time, I was having a conversation with a man in my life who, in defense of his position on abortion, asked "what about the father's rights to the children he creates?"

That's not a difficult question to answer or address for anyone who has ever been exposed to Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.

I call it the Portia defense.

"So you want legal recognition for your DNA in a fetus as your property, something upon which you can have a legal claim?"

"Yes."

"Cool. You can have it as long as you don't take a drop of my blood in the process."

That's MY blood coursing through that fetal tissue. Those are MY lungs giving breath. That is MY stomach giving nourishment.

Men. Dudes. Owners of penises.

None of that belongs to you. You don't have a right to any of it because WE are not your property.

When y'all figure out how to separate the DNA you want claim over from everything else that doesn't belong to you in a pregnancy, then you can have your way. This is what bodily autonomy is: having ownership over your own body and all of its parts.

You can't take my blood just because you need it. You can't take my organs just because you want them. You can't forcibly use, take, or remove anything from my body just because it would serve you.

And unless you men, dudes, and owners of penises want to live in a world where anyone with enough money and power can take whatever they want from YOUR body without your consent, y'all need to stand up with us and say this is wrong.

Y'all are so used up being the beneficiaries of suffering, you forget that you're just as expendable as the rest of us.

If you don't want some celebrity or politician with enough money to forcibly take one of your kidneys, then you better start acting like it.

[heathersdesk]

When he looked straight up🤣

[heathersdesk]

Is it truly impossible to change the Church from within?

Or have you not yet deconstructed the worldview that taught you to devalue the kinds of thankless work that actually makes individual people's lives better because it was being done by women instead of men?

Nothing screams louder that you ate the food women from church made for you without ever once considering it a holy offering on par with giving a priesthood blessing, even though it had an infinitely greater practical value in terms of solving an actual problem.

The Relief Society is made of women who have been actively shaping and changing the institution from within, despite the lack of real support and sustaining from male leadership, since the Church's organization. That is the defining characteristic of being a woman in the Church in general: figuring out how to minister to others when you can't count on any of the male leadership around you for resources, or any recognition whatsoever for what you do accomplish.

Whenever I hear this profoundly stupid question, especially when it's coming from an ExMo man, I have to bite through my entire tongue to stop myself from saying the quiet part out loud and starting an actual fight.

[heathersdesk]

Lessons from the Silk Industry in Utah

Why do I have such an easy time being vaguely indifferent to things most church leaders say, regardless of who they are or what they want fr