essays

My scholarship on American religion, race, culture, and social movements has appeared in leading academic journals including American Literature, PMLA, American Literary History, Early American Literature, William and Mary Quarterly, and the African-American Review.

I have also written for a number of major media outlets and blogs.  I was a regular blogger for Religiondispatches.org from 2011 – 2014and I continue to be an occasional columnist. Please visit my archived RD writings here.

Additional selected writing on contemporary faith and politics:

  • “LDS Church Labels Same-Sex Spouses ‘Apostates,’ Bars Children from Baptism,” Religion Dispatches (November 9, 2015).
  • “The Not So Secret History of Mormon Women’s Leadership,” Huffington Post (September 30, 2015).
  • “Revealing Joseph Smith’s (Well-Known) Polygamy Does Not Address the LDS Church’s Bigger Problem,” Religion Dispatches (November 12, 2014).
  • “The Real Mormon Moment is Now,” ReligionDispatches (June 24, 2014).
  • “Hard Truths Matter: I’m Mormon and I’m Voting for Obama,” CNN.com (October 18, 2012).
  • “This Week’s Presidential Debate:  Nothing Divine,” Huffington Post (October 4, 2012).
  • “Mitt Romney’s Best-Known Mormon Critic Tells it All.  One Last Time,” Religion Dispatches (September 10, 2012)
  • “Does Mormonism Teach LDS People to Lie?,” Religion Dispatches (August 8, 2012).
  • “A Mormon Girl Among Jews,” Tablet (August 8, 2012).
  • “Anti-Mormon Prejudice vs. Racism: Can they be compared,” Religion Dispatches / Salon.com (July 29, 20120)
  • “A Summer of LDS-LGBT Love?” Huffington Post (July 21, 2012).
  • “Muslims and Mormons:  shared beliefs, shared struggles,” Common Ground News Service (reprints worldwide; July 10, 2012).
  • “Mitt Romney, Mormon:  This I Know,” The Washington Post (June 14, 2012).
  • “What Mormon Women Want,”  The Washington Post (May 30, 2012).
  • “400 Churchgoing Mormons March in SLC Pride Parade” (June 4, 2012), Religion Dispatches.
  • “From Murderous to ‘MORG’:  Mormonism Meets the Press” (May 22, 2012), Religion Dispatches.
  • “Mormon Numbers Not Adding Up” (February 2, 2012), Religion Dispatches.
  • “Time for Mormons to Come to Terms with Church History” (January 31, 2012), Religion Dispatches.
  • “What 2012 Means to Mormons” (January 11, 2012), Washington Post “On Faith” blog.
  • “Still Uncertain About Mormonism after 180 Years:  Why Voters Need Coverage of the Faith that Moves Beyond Sensationalism”  (December 5, 2011), The Huffington Post.
  • “Five Myths About Mormonism” (August 5, 2011), The Washington Post; webchat (August 8, 2011)
  • “How Mormon is Mitt Romney? Not Mormon Enough, says Florida pastor; plenty, say the rest of us” (September 13, 2011), Religion Dispatches
  • “Openly Gay Mormon Appointed to Leadership Position,” (August 24, 2011) Religion Dispatches
  • “Mormons, Romney Presidency ‘Dangerous,’ According to Evangelical Author” (May 27, 2011), Religion Dispatches
  • “Mormon Leader:  ‘I’m Sorry’ for Hurtful Legacy of Prop. 8” (September 28, 2010), Religion Dispatches
  • “Bringing the Hammer Down: Glenn Beck Doesn’t Speak for the Mormons I Know” (March 19, 2010), Huffington Post
  • “When Mormons Mobilize: Anti-Gay Marriage Prop 8. Effort ‘Outed’?” (January 31, 2010), Religion Dispatches
  • “Mormonism’s Black Issues” (October 25, 2009), Religion Dispatches
  • “Mormonism and Glenn Beck’s Tears” (October 26, 2009), featured as “Idea of the Day,” New York Times
  • “How Mormonism Built Glenn Beck” (October 7, 2009), Religion Dispatches; reprinted in Strange Brew, ed. Laura Flanders (O/R Books, 2010).
  • Regular column / blog at Religiondispatches.org
  • Regular column at Askmormongirl.com

On interfaith family life: