In my last post it was brought to my attention that I mentioned women twice in closing. I suppose I do often have females on the mind and will dedicate my next couple posts to why. First and foremost my best friend and companion in life and hopefully beyond is a woman. She is an amazing inspiration and source of strength for me in my life. I know that I am a better, wiser and more compassionate person due to her influence. She very much owns the title of feminist. When I first learned this about her years ago I thought it was kind of neat she had such passion for women's rights. I must confess though that the title of "feminist" had kind of a negative slant in my mind. It could have been from the media stereotype of feminists or how they often are the butt of stand up comedians and tv sitcoms. It was also apparent from LDS culture and rhetoric that being a feminist really is not the best aspiration one can have. In recent years many within the LDS community have really owned the idea of being both a mormon and a feminist and the blogosphere is full of great examples of women and men pointing out the inequalities that exist within their beloved culture.
My greatest qualm however was probably that, from my perspective, women had it just as good if not better than men. The girls and women I knew seemed just as happy as the guys. My school chums that were girls typically did better academically than the boys. Girls didn't have to worry asking boys out on dates or being the initiator for any of that horrible social awkwardness but rather they were pursued! The worries of future career and jobs were not as present for gals because I knew many of them would grow up and be stay at home moms...living the sweet life. Time went by and I carried these perspectives into my 20's.
Fortunately things change. I began to read books with characters that were not wizards and dragons and follow news other than that of the local variety. My first best friend that was not the same sex came along and with her unique and new conversations. College and education has a way of opening your mind and eyes to the world outside your own, some might say this is a liberalizing experience. All of these forces came together and I underwent a paradigm shift. I now very much consider myself a feminist and this springs from the compassionate heart that both my Christian and Buddhist practices instill in me. The ability to forget myself and look for the suffering in others.
I recently had the opportunity in my capacity as a middle school counselor to go around and speak with students about the power of words. To kind of kick of the meat of the lesson we watched an anti-bully video where a girl was texted "you ugly bitch." I then asked the student if any of them had heard that word used at school. Every single kid always raised their hands. I would then ask in the last week? Today!? Most would still have their hands up. We then talked about these negative powerful words and even wrote them on the board in every class. One thing that I began to notice is the amount of hurtful words used in this very wealthy Mormon middle school directed toward girls far outweighed those toward boys or even gender neutral! Scary stuff.
Stay tuned for Women: Part II next post where I'll go into greater depth with the possible problems and solutions. Please share comments, insights, questions, criticisms! 

My name is Jared and this is my story...hope that's an alright way to start a blog. I grew up in a very religious home always knowing I was loved by parents and sibling alike. Although we were not rich by any stretch of the imagination I would have to say that we were comfortably middle class. I did occasionally receive discount lunch at school but with a dad that taught high school math and a stay at home mom I never really wanted for anything. In fact recently in a "family counseling" university course the professor had us go through a family privilege activity and I answered positively for every single item, I am 100% privileged! A huge part of my family culture was and is faith, especially of the LDS Christian variety. AKA Mormons, not the polygamist ones. Temples, forever families, The Book of Mormon (along with The Bible), contemporary prophets and apostles (like Joseph Smith and Brigham Young), and abstaining from alcohol/tobacco/sex (pre-marriage)/rated R movies were all parts of daily life.  Faith in Jesus Christ and knowledge of a loving God were instilled from my earliest memories. Most of my friends shared the same faith and I had a very happy childhood in a small world.

Yet now as a 29 year old young adult my faith story is not quite so simple. And I am not alone. My generation (go millennials!) is having a tough time connecting with religion the way our parents did. Of course there are many reasons for this. A recent survey shows why fellow Mormons are weighing the pros and cons of sticking around, echoing similar experiences for flagging faithful of all stripes. We live in an age of war that doesn't make sense to more and more young people. The long term economic crisis that hit right when I graduated from college has turned a lot of the societal truths upside down and brought an increased awareness to corruption, the emptiness of consumption and the problem of inequality. And for many privileged middle class millennials the recession has brought perhaps our first taste of an economic pinch and opened our eyes to the suffering that is present around us in the USA and in the world. Technology and social media have brought information of all kinds to our minds and have in some ways really shrunk our interdependent world yet at the same time exponentially increased our viewpoints as we can easily access millions of different thoughts and perspectives. The changing bond between religion and politics has left a sour taste in our mouths and many are carefully chewing deciding whether to spit it out or swallow it down convinced it's good for us.

Many issues weigh on my soul and cause me to question, ponder and pray. I was raised with the hope and belief that if I did these things my Heavenly Father would guide me to the truth. Yet as Gandhi learned in his lifelong pursuit of the divine "What may appear as truth to one person will often appear as untruth to another person. But that need not worry the seeker." I have very much grown into a seeker of truth and divinity.  Do I still believe in God? Yes, but it is no longer something I take for granted and my relationship with him/her (see what I did there) is constantly changing and evolving as I learn, live and grow. Am I still Mormon? Yes and no. I still identify as LDS but at times that brings me great pain and confusion along with peace and hope. I am not exclusively anything and do not believe in "The One true" blank. I am a Christian and a Mormon, but I am also very much a Buddhist aspiring to end all suffering as a Bodhisattva. I am a progressive Unitarian Universalist, a humanist promoting justice, reason and ethics, a Taoist seeking the unification and healing of all living things and so much more. This is my experience with faith in the 21st century.

My hope for this blog is to share my faith experiences and insights (or lack thereof) in various areas including: homosexuality, women, video games, climate change, inequality, spiritual gurus, technology, science, women, current issues and much more over the weeks and month to come. It is quite probable no one will read this and I'll have a nice "deep thoughts" by Jared, journal blog. However I do hope that you read then share comments, questions and most importantly your own experiences and that we may help each other strive toward being more compassionate, nearer to the divine human beings.