Comment Policy

There are lots of places you can go for discussion and community within Mormonism. There are clearly defined places for TBMs, Devout and Literalist Intellectuals/Lawyers, Believing Mormon Mommies, LDS Apologists, LDS Feminists, and (perhaps the greatest reservoir of all) Damu blogs and forums. All of these niches have been more than filled by a few, if not many blogs.

Where there is not a clear place (at least in the LDS blog world) is for those with non-traditional testimonies (or even complete non-belief of LDS doctrine and/or theology), but who still desire to remain within the church for social, cultural, intellectual, moral, or health reasons.

This is what and for whom theculturallhall.com is intended.

Consequently, we’d like to really clearly specify what is, and is not, welcome in theculturalhall.com.

What is welcome:

  • Any and all comments from folks who have had their traditional LDS testimonies fall apart (in part or in whole), but who are still trying to figure out how to proceed within a Mormon context (this may include church activity, and it may not)
  • Any discussion that can be viewed as constructive, productive, or edifying within the context of exploring ways to find “Value, Meaning, and Connection” within Mormonism, for whatever reason.
  • Believers of all shades who respect the effort to find a “third way” in Mormonism.
  • Disbelievers as well (many of the permabloggers fit this category), as long as the conversation remains constructive.
  • Activity in the church is NOT IN ANY WAY a requirement–only full support of those who have decided to remain (at some level).
  • Sincere expressions of grief or frustration within the context of “How can I deal with this?” or “Please help me understand why people act this way?”

What is not welcome:

  • Meanness of any kind.
  • Any discussion of divine truth or falsity claims–either within the LDS Church, or within religion more broadly. We have ZERO interest in folks trying to prove the church, or any part of its doctrine, either true or false.
  • Rants about the evils and past lies/deception of the LDS Church, Christianity, or organized religion in general. Again–we are way past this. For us, the relative value of constantly criticizing the LDS Church and its members approximates the value in constantly criticizing the human race, the animal kingdom, or natural law more broadly. What is the point?
  • Attempts to gratuitously link to other sites that are not in keeping with the spirit of this blog.

While we feel like we must enforce these policies, please know that this does not in any way represent a sense of disrespect or judgment of those who have decided that Mormonism is not for them, or that the LDS Church is Satan institutionalized. We empathize fully with the anger, bitterness, and resentment that many feel (most of us have had to work through this ourselves), and we even understand the sincere concerns that some voice about the relative health of the LDS Church to its members, and to humanity at large.

However, within the context of this blog, we acknowledge and affirm that:

  • Some people simply either must, or genuinely desire to stay affiliated with Mormonism, for whatever reason
  • There is still a great deal of good within the LDS church and its surrounding culture, and that
  • In the end, Christmas can be enjoyed, even if Santa isn’t quite what we thought he was when growing up.

To enforce this policy, we will attempt to follow this protocol:

  • When someone makes an offending comment, one of us will email them and let them know that their comment falls outside the comment policy
  • We will most likely delete the offending comment
  • If problems continue to arise, at some point we will put their name, email address, and IP address into the “penalty box”, to try to block out additional comments (we hope it will never get this far)

Anyway, peace and love to all. We look forward to many more uplifting, constructive conversations about making peace with Mormonism, and our potential roles within it (warts and all).