Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Writers of Faith United: LDS Writers Blogfest



It's wonderful when writers who have love for Our Lord and our Heavenly Father work together to help one another. I've discovered that some writers of the LDS (Mormon) faith are currently doing so through an event called the LDS Writers Blogfest.

Now, as a Catholic, when I'm looking for correct theology it's not the LDS church but the Catholic Church that I turn to. But for other purposes the LDS folks are just as much my brothers-and-sisters in Christ as Catholics, Baptists and Moravians are.

There are a number of ways that we writers of the Christian faith can unite with one another. We can unite along denominational lines, as the members of the LDS Writers Blogfest are doing. I've noticed Catholic writers doing the same thing as we link to the blogs of other Catholic writers. Some people might be concerned that this might be prejudice--- certainly I've encountered Evangelical preachers who have extreme negative views of Catholics and consider a Catholic as unsaved as a Satanist. But I think for most of us it's more a matter of liking to be together with similarly-believing Christians.

Another way we can unite is by genre. There is something called the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blog tour, which monthly picks out a Christian book in the speculative fiction genre and reviews it on their blogs over the course of three days. Though most of the members of the blog tour seem to be Evangelicals, there are also Catholics, a Lutheran pastor, and many other denominations.

A third way we might unite is by connecting to writers who share a similar theme, across genres. Some writers often or always include certain themes in their writing--- child abuse, women's issues, a certain disability. A fantasy writer who writes about characters with autism spectrum disorders (like Asperger's syndrome) might connect with mystery and romance writers who write on this theme as well.

In my case, my theme is characters with same-sex attraction (gay/lesbian orientation or identity), in a fictional universe where respecting the Biblical/traditional/sacramental view of marriage isn't considered hate (or h8) and chastity is always an option. If there are any other authors out there writing books like that I'd read them even if they were romances or westerns!

Here are the list of participants in the LDS Writers Blogfest. I'm living proof that you don't have to be LDS to enjoy the posts or the blogs!


Annette Lyon: “Desire”
Annie Cechini: “The Spirit of Revelation”
Ben Spendlove: “The Atonement Covers All Pain”
Chantele Sedgwick: “LDS Women Are Incredible!”
Charity Bradford: “LDS Women Are Incredible!”
Jackee Alston: “The Eternal Blessings of Marriage”
Jenilyn Tolley: “What Manner of Men and Women Ought Ye to Be?”
Jennifer McFadden: “Establishing a Christ-Centered Home”
Jessie Oliveros: “Establishing a Christ-Centered Home”
Jolene Perry: “It’s Conference Once Again”
Jordan McCollum: “What Manner of Men and Women Ought Ye to Be?”
Kasey Tross: “Guided by the Holy Spirit”
Kayeleen Hamblin: “Become as a Little Child”
Kelly Bryson: “The Atonement Covers All Pain”
Krista Van Dolzer: “Opportunities to Do Good”
Melanie Stanford: “What Manner of Men and Women Ought Ye to Be?”
Michelle Merrill: “The Eternal Blessings of Marriage”
Myrna Foster: “Opportunities to Do Good”
Nisa Swineford: “Desire”
Sallee Mathews: “The Eternal Blessings of Marriage”
Sierra Gardner: “The Atonement Covers All Pain”
The Writing Lair: “Waiting on the Road to Damascus”

7 comments:

  1. I think when our focus is Jesus Christ, it's easy to connect. He is the center of our belief system and a great reason to love and respect each other. After all, He teaches that we're all His children and when we see each other like He sees us, what's not to love!

    Very interesting post on the different ways we connect. :D

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  2. While we must never ignore theological truth--- everything God says matters--- we need to lead with love.

    People who lead off saying 'Here is what you darn Catholics [Evangelicals, Mormons, Protestants] have got wrong' are not only not showing love in a way the other person can see, they are usually pushing the other person further away from any truth they might be trying to teach.

    Thanks so much for commenting!

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  3. This is a great post! I agree that we can connect on so many different levels. Being a religious person, I agree that we all have many things in common and those are the things that we can focus on, instead of getting into all the differences and hating each other for them. Like they always say, "Can't we all just get along?"

    Would you like a list of the blogposts with the actual post link? I'd be happy to get one for you.

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  4. Thanks, Kayeleen, I'd love a list of the blogposts. (My email is: inaekyo @ yahoo.com

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  5. Inae Kyo, thank you so much for posting about the blogfest! You. Are. Fantastic. And you're absolutely right when you say that we all share our most basic belief, which is our love for and faith in our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Those things are at the center of everything else.

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  6. Hi Inae- what a nice post. It's my opinion that if we all just lived the religion we claimed to believe-whatever Christian denomination, Muslim, etc. then we'd be in great shape.

    I lived in PA for a while and much of the population is Catholic up there. I joined up with a Catholic sponsored preschool co-op and met some really amazing women of faith, some Catholic, some protestant. It wasn't a big deal-in fact it was a great experience. Nice to meet you!

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  7. Thanks Krista and Kelly! Glad that you stopped by my blog. I believe that even though truth--- even truth about religious things--- does matter, that when you cut yourself off from people whose ideas about what is true differ from yours, you are cutting yourself off from a part of the truth. Jesus was willing to talk to the Samaritan woman about something other than how the Samaritan religious beliefs were wrong. I'm hoping I'll always be smart enough to follow THAT example!

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Welcome to my blog! Comments are most welcome. But if you swear in your comment or say impolite things about Catholics, Christians in general, people with Gay/Lesbian orientation or same-sex attraction, or any other group of people, your comment will have to be deleted, defeated. So play nice!