That is indeed the very bullshit with which most Mormons rationalize the existence of polygamy. A cursory reading of any of the General Conference addresses from guys like Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball in Journal of Discourses, however, quickly blows that bullshit up.

Tell me about it. My kid has a Studio C "Shoulder Angel" T-shirt she wears in hopes of getting her non-Mormon friends to ask her about it and eventually get baptized.

…and the mid-1800s in terms of social mores.

I'm not technically an "apostate" because they haven't yet discovered that I'm posting things like this on the A.V. Club comment board (also, THANKS EVERYONE for the free catharsis!), but within our local congregation it's understood that I'm a "Do Not Contact." My wife and kids are looked upon as virtual martyrs,…

Am I the only one who was disappointed to discover that Melissa Benoist's name is pronounced "Ben-noist" instead of "Bennow-ist"?

Mormons are very conscious of the benefits of belonging to a Mormon community - to the point where many actively fear or shun other communities. My kids go to Mormon prom, not real prom. They do trunk-or-treat in the church parking lot. They only go out on dates with non-members if it's a group date, and even then…

There are actually multiple decapitations described in the Book of Mormon, including one near the end that features a guy raising up and struggling for breath after his head has been lopped off.

They don't count posthumously-baptized dead people as members in their public accounting; were that the case, they'd be into the hundreds of millions by now.

I was a Mormon most of my life (I was very nearly made a bishop in my local congregation before I "opted out," as it were). For all that I could say about the church and its infrastructure and doctrine, I feel nothing but empathy and pity for the members. They are asked to do the nearly-impossible in the service of…

It is definitely a Mormon cultural comedy. It so perfectly encapsulates what it's like to grow up and live in small-town Idaho or Utah that it could be considered a documentary. I had to laugh when I read the initial reviews of the movie and the reviewers' complaints about how the music was anachronistic and how the…

For those who haven't read the Book of Mormon, this incident refers to the book's early hero, Nephi, stealing a copy of what is basically the Old Testament from a local politician in the dead of night, and God basically tells him to cut the guy's head off as an afterthought because he's wicked. This episode is taught…

It's hilariously ironic that conservatives spew conspiracy theories about Obama and other liberal figures pledging their secret loyalty to one group of puppeteers or another…

"Studio C" is starting to gain some traction on the television side. It's basically SNL done by BYU students.

I'd have to take issue with the "sincerely happy" bit. They really strive to appear that way in public but Mormons as a group - especially Utah Mormons - have an extremely high rate of depression cases.

(proffers right hand to shake hands, claps other guy's shoulder with left hand)

Sadly, that's more of a PR image than truth.

There are many Mormons in the military, and many more in government service. They are heavily recruited to the CIA and FBI because of their perceived ability to be honest and keep secrets.

Please be advised that the Mormon Church's reported membership numbers includes a vast swath of people who are inactive or completely separated from the faith and just haven't bothered to have their names removed from the books. For marketing purposes, the church fails to report this caveat publicly.

I unfortunately have no need to look up what an episiotomy is because I witnessed two of them - not to mention the post-procedure lecture on how to help manage the healing process.

IMO it was kind of nice to see Howard be the asshole for a change, rather than wishing that the increasingly-unbearable Bernadette would get launched into the sun for the umpteenth straight episode.