Who Are These Guys?

I discovered a cache of blogging Mormons hiding out at Let Your Mind Alone, a group blog with count 'em 25!!! members listed as posters [link from A Soft Answer]. The site has no outgoing links on its sidebar, which might explain how it has managed to keep such a low profile for three months. And none of the listed bloggers ring a bell as having been regular commenters at other Bloggernacle sites. Nevertheless, in belated recognition of its being the largest group blog in the Bloggernacle, I have given LYMA a pro tem spot on my Top Twelve list.

How on earth do 25 people with addresses scattered across the globe even get together to form a blog? Are they all related, third cousins by way of some prolific Mormon patriarch? Were they all enrolled in a Blogging 101 course at BYU last year and decided to keep the class project going? Perhaps a half-dozen of them can drop by and tell their story. There must be a story.

Comments

[David H. Sundwall]

That's funny because I was wondering the same thing. I feel like I came across a lost tribe or something. I subscribe to a liberal Mormon list (like to learn how you guys think :-) ) and struck gold!

[Dave]

David, I would like to hear more about this "liberal Mormon list." Maybe see if I'm on it and learn what I'm supposed to be thinking. Personally, I suspect most Mormons apply political liberal/conservative labels when they hear "liberal Mormon," whereas I think of the difference between fundamentalist/Evangelical Christians and liberal Protestants.

Of course, orthodox Mormons (itself an awkward term) seem quite content to conflate the two meanings of liberal, equating left-wing politics with liberal Protestantism and right-wing politics with Mormonism. Except the GAs regularly caution against that identification--one can be an orthodox Mormon with left-leaning political sympathies or a liberal Mormon with conservative political views. Why is this such a difficult concept?

[David H. Sundwall]

I apologize if my clumsy terminology offended you. It was a conflation between political leanings and religious designation. I think the list was a Yahoo group "[Mormons for Equality and Social Justice]."

[Dave]

Oh, no offense, I was just musing a bit. The liberal/conservative or liberal/fundamentalist distinction has been discussed a few times lately around the B-nacle, so it's on my mind. Plus I just finished Karen Armstrong's Battle For God, so I'm finally figuring out the role of fundamentalism in modern religion. I'll blog on it soon.

[Kaimi]

I know a little bit about this group, since one of its members sits right around the corner from me. I think they've got some married couples and some friends from college, but I'm really not sure about most of them.

[danithew]

Maybe this blog is really just one person or a couple of people writing under a lot of various names. What a great idea ... :)

[Chris]

We're mostly just friends and friends of friends. Don't be decieved by the 25 - only about 7 or 8 contribute. A lot of the bloggers are new to the idea so we though we'd keep a low profile until everyone got the hang of it.

[John D. Payne]

To answer your questions about "Let Your Mind Alone," we are a loosely inter-connected group of people whose source of affiliation ranges from old mission friends to friends from BYU and Yale (some LDS, others not). We've all trusted each other to extend invites to potential bloggers who we think would understand the spirit of the blog, and who could both put in and get a lot out of it.

We use the blog for purposes ranging from anything as informal as a forrum for casual discussions on daily events, to discussions on timely topics, to doctrinal discussions, to a tool to develop our own respective academic / creative projects. So far, it's been great; we add new members every couple of weeks.

[Dave]

Chris, thanks for the update. Your cover is blown now, so no more low profile. You'll know you've really arrived when Kaimi shows up on your list of posters--he specializes in group blogs. ;~)