My Religion Blog

Jerome, 2026

Monroe, 2026

Paisley, 2026

Hopefully the next three images, tentatively titled Baker, Fillmore, and Meridian, will be finished by the end of the year.

These are just my personal favorites, but please check out these artists because they have so many other beautiful pieces, depicting both religious and non religious topics.

Also I'm pretty sure I checked everyone's repost policies but if you don't allow reposts or know that any of these artists don't please let me know and I'll take it down!

Putting it under a cut bc it gets long.

I used to be the primary’s pianist at my old ward. I loved my calling and I looked forward to seeing the children come in each week with big smiles on their faces. I liked hearing them sing while I played. It was a small ward, only half a dozen kids in total, but that’s okay.

Two of these children were Lucy and her older brother Sam. They were both part of the Cole family. Lucy had just turned three when this story happened, she loved primary and loved the sunbeam class even though she’s the only one. Her mother taught sunbeams and she would always sit in her lap during primary and sing on the top of her lungs, she was thankful for all the daddy kitties and momma kitties and wanted a pair of “puppy kitties”. Her brother Sam was 11 and was nearing the end of his time in primary. Because of this, he often got bored and did silly stuff to rile up the rest of the primary. But he was a good kid.

The Cole family have been a staple in our ward, they’ve never missed a single week of church. So it was weird when they didn’t show up to church for three weeks straight. I asked around if anyone knew where they were and they just said that they were going on a trip. It was weird since if that was the case, Lucy would’ve told me.

I was happy to see them back but the Cole’s were acting odd. They sat in the way back and were carrying Lucy. Lucy looked odd, her eyes were blank and her limbs were stiff and thin, she didn’t blink once or smiled. I went up to say hello to her, but her parents left the chapel before I even had a chance to. Lucy was there in primary with her mother as usual, Sam sat as far away from them as possible and instead of making the usual snide remarks about the lesson, he was quiet. While I was playing the piano, I noticed some of the children were holding their noses and complaining about a stench, I smelled it too. The primary leader noticed and told everyone that one of the toilets in the bathroom had backed up and flooded.

When the children left for third hour, (this was back before the switch to two hour church) I stopped sister Cole and asked if everything is alright. Nothing confrontational, just a polite, “hey I haven’t seen you in weeks! Where were you?” She said that they just went out on a trip to visit family, I asked how Lucy was doing and she said that Lucy is doing great and left.

The next Sunday things were the same, the Cole’s sat in the back and carried Lucy around. She was in a long sleeved pink dress and looked more like a rag doll than the girl who would crawl under the pews. Her chest looked like it was about to burst through the seams of her dress. During primary, I noticed that she was wearing a thick layer of makeup and foundation. It was a hundred out and the same smell was back. The stench was unbearable, it was so thick that you could taste it. The kids tried to sing while holding their noses but the smell just rested in their mouths, a few had to spit out the stench. Once again, the primary leader told everyone it was just from the backed up toilets and our building has been having trouble with the old septic tank.

As the children were leaving for class, Sam slipped me a note begging me to come talk to him after church, he looked extremely sick and was struggling to keep his eyes open. After church I went to the classroom that he told me to meet him at, and he wasn’t there. I asked around and someone told me they’ve left after second hour and to mind my own business.

I like to stay after church and practice the piano in the chapel. I have a keyboard at home. I live in a small apartment and the walls are pretty thin, my next door neighbor likes to watch sub anime on max volume every Sunday, making it hard for me to practice. I also live next to a busy street and I like having a bit of quiet time to myself. I don’t know how long I have been practicing, but I heard water coming from the baptismal font. We didn’t have any baptisms and out of curiosity, I went to check it out.

I regretted the choice, the baptismal font was full of thick, brownish red sludge. There were pieces of who knows what floating in it. The stench was so unbearable that I threw up. I ran down the hallway and found the bishopric and a few other brothers, I told them about the font and what I’ve seen. They said that they were just flushing the pipes out. I put my foot down and told them that I saw pipes being flushed before, I know something was going on and I demanded to speak to brother Cole. I was done playing games with him, something happened to Lucy and I wanted to know.

The bishop yelled at me, he told me to stop sticking my head into other’s people’s lives. Lucy was obviously okay as she was at church. If the Cole’s didn’t want to talk about it, they didn’t have to, and I was causing a big deal out of nothing. Lucy is fine. I even showed him the note Sam gave me that day and he said that Sam was just trying to pull a prank on me. Don’t believe anything that Sam says, he’s just a prepubescent boy trying to cause problems for laughs. He took the note though.

I dreaded going to church the next Sunday. When I did, the first thing I noticed was that Lucy was not with the Cole family. They were back to sitting in their usual spot near the front. Sam looked terrified and ill. He didn’t move or speak or even looked at his parents. The Cole’s were back to their old self smiling and putting their arms around Sam, each time, Sam scooted away.

Finally during sacrament. Sam burst into tears and ran out of the building. Brother Cole went after him. Neither Sam nor sister Cole were there in primary. A few men left the building to go search for Sam. They found him running on the side of the road and brought him back, he was kicking and screaming about not wanting to go back. They shoved Sam into their car and locked the door.

Before they left, I tried to make conversation with them and asked how’s Lucy. They said that she was home sick and she’ll be back next week. Sam was still screaming and pounding on the windows to be let out. I asked if Sam was okay too and brought up his sickly appearance. I also let slip about Lucy, how unusual she looked last time I saw her. They said that both children just got a bad flu and were okay. They hurried off before I could press further.

The next Sunday the Cole’s were back with their children, except it wasn’t their children. Lucy was an older looking girl and looked to be Asian descent, while Sam was a taller, lankier boy with brown hair instead of blond. I went over to say hello but was stopped by a few other members. The other members were addressing them as Lucy and Sam and treated them like they were actually the children. I asked someone who they were, and they gave me a funny look and said that they were obviously Lucy and Sam.

During primary, the girl looked uncomfortable sitting in sister Cole’s lap, the boy was more interested in playing on his brand new smartphone than the lesson. When asked a question about the nephites, he looked up and said “who?”.

I had enough of this by now, I don’t know what compelled me, but I jumped up and yelled as loud as I could that those children were obviously not the real Lucy and Sam, and that they’re not fooling anyone and I was sick and tired of their lies and to fess up and tell us what happened to the real children. Sister Cole and I gotten into a huge shouting match where I slapped her. The rest of the children were taken out of the room.

The bishop talked to me afterwards, he said he was growing frustrated with me and my behavior and I was obsessing over this family and it was making them uncomfortable, I called him out how between the disappearance, the smell, Lucy’s appearance, and now how the parents are trying to pass off two strange children as their own, it should be obvious that something is up. The bishop got mad at me and told me that I was no longer allowed in this building, and if I try to enter, he will call the police for trespassing.

I have been best friends with the bishop for years. He’s never raised his voice once, and was very soft spoken and kind. I felt like I was in the emperor’s new clothes, the emperor obviously is wearing nothing, but no one will acknowledge it.

The weeks got weirder for me, I reported the Cole’s to the police and suddenly two members got a job at the pizza place that I work at. Then while I was making deliveries, I noticed that I was being followed by the primary president in her mini van. When I got back to my apartment, another member had moved in next door and I saw another brother parked right outside my apartment window. Everywhere I went, I was being followed by someone from that ward. I decided to try and drive out to the Cole’s house in hopes that maybe we could talk it out peacefully and this was just a misunderstanding. But as soon as I pulled onto their road, the car behind me passed next to me and pulled out a pistol and fired a warning shot.

I wasn’t injured, but I had enough. I texted my mother about the situation, and she agreed that something was going on and I should move back in with her. Don’t worry about anything, she and my father will take care of it. She lives a good seven hours away and out of state. I packed what I could and took off in a friend’s car in the middle of the night.

It’s been a good several years since the incident, I had a mental breakdown and became paranoid for several years afterwards. I told my therapist about it and she agreed that something was up. I am at a new ward and they all found the family to be suspicious and agreed that the entire ward was probably in on it. I was put on medication for my anxiety and got a new job at a grocery store.

We need people pushing back within the faith as well as outside of it, because that destroys any edifice that this is about Christianity and religious freedom.

You can be a devout Christian and also:

Openly, proudly, and without being forced to remain celibate or otherwise limit your full expression of self, identify as LGBTQ+ or be a supportive ally.

Advocate for full reproductive autonomy and comprehensive sex education.

Love and support people of other religious groups, non-religious people and/or atheists, by choosing to believe that a truly loving God would not pursue anything less than universal salvation.

Stand against evangelism and proselytizing as they have thus far been interpreted and used, because there are ways to interpret the Great Commission that don't promote colonialism and cultural genocide.

A steward of the earth, protecting God's beautiful creation and lovingly tending to it as the unique and incredible gift that it is.

A believer in science, rationalism, and human progress as part of God's divine plan for humanity.

A believer in history and someone who understands that the Bible can be both divinely given and open to interpretation (no really)(if you're confused, please talk to a knowledgeable traditional Jew)

An ally to Jews, who stands against supercessionism and antisemitism in the church.

And in before regressive Christians come shouting at me that (1) what do I know, I'm a Jew and (2) no lol you can't because of ___ reason:

My source is that I've personally met and talked to Christians of great faith and integrity - people who embody the closest forms of kindness I've seen to what Jesus himself advocated - who are each of these things.

Inside the San Diego California Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Read the Church Newsroom article. Learn more about Latter-day Saint temples, their functions, and find a temple open house near you.

This Father’s Day I just want anyone who might not have a father worth celebrating that you at least have an uncle who’s worth celebrating: good old Uncle J. Golden Kimball

And now a relevant J. Golden Kimball story

When he was serving in the Southern States mission, uncle Golden and his companion were out walking when they encountered a priest. The priest sneered at then and said, “Good morning, you sons of the devil!”

Neal A. Maxwell: When the veil which encloses us is no more, time will also be no more. Even now, time is clearly not our natural dimension. Thus it is that we are never really at home in time. Alternately, we find ourselves impatiently wishing to hasten the passage of time or to hold back the dawn. We can do neither, of course. Whereas the bird is at home in the air, we are clearly not at home in time—because we belong to eternity. Time, as much as any one thing, whispers to us that we are strangers here. If time were natural to us, why is it that we have so many clocks and wear wristwatches?