New Blog is Up: Cultural Mormon Cafeteria

[Mike Reed]

Old news on the opening page, but I'll try to add some fresh material in the near future. Advice is welcome.

Cultural Mormon Cafeteria

[Maxel]

Mike-

Do you consider yourself a "cafeteria" or "buffet" Mormon? A "cultural" Mormon maybe? Or a wholly faithful member of the Church?

Your blog's title made me think of the question.

[Mike Reed]

Maxel,

I am a non-believer. I left the Church a few years ago, but I continue to identify myself with LDS culture. I now consider myself to be an agnostic-secular-humanist-cultural-Mormon. My passion for Mormon Studies remains. I am not an atheist, and I am open to the possibility that a kind of divine inspiration may exist in the Church at times... but my over all perspective is secular, and my approach, an academic one. Instead of asking questions like "How does this make me feel" or "how does this teach me live a more Christ-like life", etc.... I instead ask questions like, "what is the social or historical context here," "what is this person trying to communicate to his audience," "Why did this event happen the way it did," "What are some identifiable key factors that have influenced this line of thinking", etc.

[Moksha]

When I heard the term cultural Mormon cafeteria, I thought of separate side dishes of green Jell-O, funeral potatoes, tuna casserole, etc....

Should have known it was something of an academic rather than a culinary nature coming from Mike. Will need to peruse this Blog further.

:)