What Will I Tell My Kids About Sex?

WARNING: This post contains a frank discussion of human sexuality.  If that makes you uncomfortable, I encourage you skip it.

Article of Faith

Today, I simply want to affirm that my approach to the gospel can summed up by the 13th Article of Faith:

We believe in being honest, true…

This touched me on multiple levels tonight, as I realized how painful honesty can be.

Sometimes, it means sacrificing my public face in favor of acknowledging a private truth, even when it makes me look bad.  At other times, it means standing up for my beliefs, even when my culture or community might reject me or my interpretation.  It might require that I relinquish power, authority, or control in order for another person to be free.  In almost every instance, it means being willing to let God to shine a light on injustice, cruelty, violence, hatred, bigotry, and intolerance wherever it exists — but especially in my own heart — so that I may see it for what it is, and do what I must to root it out as quickly as possible.

Confessions of a Licked Cupcake: The Fortune Cookie

I listened to Elna Baker’s interview on Mormon Expression podcast today and enjoyed it immensely.   Then I Googled her, and came across this:

And You Thought BYU Was Bad…

It sounds like a story straight from Footloose.

Or maybe BYU.

Because 17-year-old high school senior Tyler Frost is about to be kicked out of his own graduation…for dancing.

Frost, a student at a fundamentalist Baptist high school in northwest Ohio, plans to take his girlfriend to her public school prom–but if he does, he’ll receive an “incomplete” on remaining assignments and be forbidden from attending graduation.

What’s more, “if he’s involved with sex or alcohol at the prom, he’ll be expelled.” (Full story here.)

Riiiiiiiiiight.

Because slow dancing to Bryan Adams is just a heartbeat away from fornication.  Obviously.

Confessions of a Licked Cupcake: Episode #1 – The Twinkie Smear

I am pleased to present the first in what I hope is a semi-regular series of short audio interviews about LDS chastity metaphors for Young Women…

CONFESSIONS OF A LICKED CUPCAKE

(IMPORTANT NOTE: a podcast follows this brief introduction; scroll down to find it.)

After years of feeling traumatized by an entire adolescence filled with sometimes ludicrous and always uncomfortable sex lessons in Sunday School, seminary, and Young Women, I realized something extremely important recently:

Those lessons were damn funny.

And thus, this series was born.

Here’s the audio.  In Episode 1: The Twinkie Smear, my sister Jenny shares one of the most visual represenations of what-not-to-do-while-kissing I’ve ever heard of.  The whole thing is about 4 and a half minutes.  Click play and enjoy!

Why the Licked Cupcake?

The licked cupcake is a somewhat widely-used chastity metaphor in Mormondom…wherein the girls are compared to cupcakes, frosting is compared to virtue…and the moral of the story is that if someone’s licked your frosting, no one will want you.

Hogwash.

This is dedicated to all the licked cupcakes out there who feel helpless and alone.  Remember, you’re never so far gone that Jesus can’t re-frost you–and this time, you’ll even have sprinkles and a cherry on top. 😉

This post is one in a series.  Get the rest of the series here.