Marriage & Family

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The real Big controversy

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I just finished watching this season’s second to last episode of HBO’s Big Love soap opera, and I believe there may be another hidden reason that the show makes Mormons uneasy. Much of the media’s attention has been on the fact that this episode portrayed a scene in a Mormon temple, however, the show did have one line that caught me: the main character expressly claimed that the Mormon church was just as corrupt as the show’s main antagonists who are practicing polygamy and generally in trouble with the law.


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Irony in the Big apology

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There is some real irony in this week’s apology from HBO regarding their anticipated controversial portrayal of a Mormon temple’s “sacred endowment ceremony” in the amazingly entertaining and insightful Sunday night soap opera Big Love. The show, which features a Utah polygamous family dealing with the challenges if interacting with both the secular world and with their fundamentalist roots, is genuinely known for portraying conservative religious beliefs quite sympathetically. Some would even say that it is (arguably) “one of the most sympathetic portraits” of such beliefs.


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Demons in an East Texas home

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You see, The Dallas Morning News has just finished taking a giant leap back into journalism history in a hellish three-part series built on the kind of serial, storytelling journalism that used to be common in American journalism. I think this is a good thing, when the material fits.


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Hey, Politico! Quote the bishops?

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This is one of those days when it’s easy to see why The Politico keeps making mainstream media people — a key cog in Democratic Party conversations — so nervous here in Washington, D.C. The new kids inside the Beltway continue to produce stories that stray way outside the borders of the establishment talking points.


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The fantastic world of the Mormon mom

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I’ve never been one of those parents who worries about exposing her kids to fantasy worlds, whether they be those of of J.K. Rowling, Lemony Snicket, or C.S. Lewis. Reading them and talking about them together allows their young minds to stretch their imaginations and distinguish truth from fiction.


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Dueling arguments

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Earlier this week, the California Supreme Court heard arguments for and against Californians’ right to define marriage as a union of one man and one woman. There are many reports about those oral arguments and almost every account says that the justices seemed inclined to uphold the voters’ decision in passing Proposition 8.


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Waiting for death with an expert

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One would think it might be a challenge to write about the subject of death and dying without discussing religion and faith. Of course, the absence of religion or faith in the subjects’ lives could limit the range or scope of the discussion. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t part of the story.


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