John Steinbeck wrote, “We are lonesome animals. We spend all our life trying to be less lonesome. One of our ancient methods is to tell a story begging the listener to say —and to feel—'Yes, that’s the way it is, or at least that’s the way I feel it. You’re not as alone as you thought. '” The Millennial Mormon Project aims to promote understanding, community, and empathy. It hopes to show that there are fewer Mormon norms than we like to imagine. It is not easy to feel that you are the only one living your individual life, but I believe there is great power in knowing someone else has gone through or is experiencing similar emotions, obstacles, and triumphs. Millennials (those born approximately between 1980 and 2000) have often intimately felt the impacts of recent social, technological, religious, and political change. The world has become both a more connected and more isolating place for many of us. This project aspires to fight isolation and nourish co
A note from the editor: A couple of weeks ago I read a play called The Christians by Lucas Hnath. It’s about a pastor who, in accordance with his own changing beliefs, one day preaches to his congregation that there is no Hell, which ends up causing a big schism in his congregation as people try to grapple with what the universe would look like without the idea of Hell. He begins this initial sermon with his desire to talk with God, “I have a powerful urge to communicate with you, but I find the distance between us insurmountable.” He then later remarks, “We put the distance there. When we shun our neighbors, when we judge our friends, when we look down at people from other places and other religions, we create an insurmountable distance where there is no distance at all.” I liked this play for many reasons. It felt complicated and sticky, not unlike my own self, and there was no clear resolution in the end. There was only distance. Distance that could continue to g