It started out as a bit of a joke.
“Mormon in Manhattan” Natalie Hill felt a world away from her Utah family. She started her online diary, (NO) Sex in the City, to share a laugh with her sisters and cousins about her dating disasters.
“I was totally not into the blogging world,” Hill said. “I could barely read e-mails.”
Then, her sister, A Little Sussy, photographer Nicole Gerulat, linked (NO) Sex in the City with her own popular blog.
And, faster than many Mormon coeds get married, Hill’s blog sped around cyberspace and “Mormon in Manhattan’s” adventures were famous.
“I have over 2,000 hits a day,” she said.
Hill started her blog about a year ago, months after M. Russell Ballard, one of the leaders of the Mormon Church, encouraged young Mormons to e-mail, text, Twitter, Facebook, and blog their friends into the eternal kingdom.
“Join the conversation by participating on the internet, particularly new media, to share the gospel,” he told graduating seniors at Brigham Young University’s Hawaii campus.
Ballard repeated his comments at the school’s Idaho campus.
“Most of you already know that if you have access to the internet, you can start a blog in minutes and begin sharing what you know to be true,” he said.
We’re Mormons, We Love to Keep Records
Ballard’s words were seeds of encouragement for Mormons who hadn’t yet started online diaries, and manna of affirmation for countless others who were already blogging. No one knows how many Mormon blogs exist, but those who monitor the movement say there’s a never-ending flow, and more are popping up every day.
“You can probably associate it with Elder Ballard’s call to blog, but you have to also understand that, well, we’re Mormons. We love to keep records!” said Emily Jensen, who blogs about Mormon blogs for the Mormon Times, a newspaper based in Salt Lake City.
There are thousands—perhaps even tens of thousands—of blogs that are written by Mormons or link directly to the LDS church, she said.
The first wave was the “Mormon mommy blogs”—stay-at-home moms who proudly post photos of their children and preen about their husbands. Many Mormon women, who are often encouraged to stay home and raise children, soon discovered that they could make money by journaling about homemaking and parenting—all skills prized by the church.
From there, blogging exploded among Mormons, Jensen said. The phenomenon grew so quickly that observers in Salt Lake City coined the virtual world the “Bloggernacle” (a take on the Mormon Tabernacle Choir).
“Mormons are natural storytellers,” said Courtney Kendrick, author of C Jane, a collection of daily life stories that are at once witty, sharply humorous, and honest.
“We are commanded to research our family history and family stories, and to take an account of our lives,” said Kendrick, 31.
Somewhere between stories of living in a Mormon town “where everyone knows your name” and a blog masthead that is a tongue-in-cheek image of Kendrick with a photoshopped halo and set of angel wings, the Utah mom has drawn many of her fans into the Mormon fold. Kendrick said readers e-mail her to say she’s inspired them to visit a local Mormon church.
Sometimes, the e-mails aren’t so supportive. When Mormon Church leaders spoke out last year against gay marriage leading up to a California vote on the issue, Kendrick’s readers asked why she didn’t broach the topic on her blog.
“Some Mormons wanted me to write about it, but others said, ‘You’re one of those people who doesn’t believe in giving rights to everyone.’” Kendrick said. “I decided that instead of writing about it, that I would just show who I am, and let people decide for themselves if I am an unkind person.”
Other readers write to express their surprise that Kendrick’s sarcastic sense of humor spills onto the pages of her blog.
“I probably get an e-mail a day from somebody who says, ‘I thought Mormons were like the Amish,’” Kendrick said. “It’s important for us to show that while we have peculiar beliefs and we believe in being a peculiar people, we also are lovers of life and art and science. We are open to new ideas.”
Naomi Davis, a Mormon who lives in Manhattan with her husband, shows off her vintage-modern fashion sense at Rockstar Diaries, where she journals about life in a 455-square-foot Harlem apartment. A large tag on the sidebar announces “We are LDS.” Thanks to the blog’s popularity, Davis, 22, was recently featured in Time Out New York magazine.
“Our blog isn’t necessarily to promote our church or push it on anyone, but it is such a big part of our lives and has brought us such joy and happiness that it is something we want to share,” Davis said.
The Bloggernacle’s influence reached a tipping point last year, when Kendrick’s sister, blogger Stephanie Nielsen of Nie Nie Dialogues, nearly lost her life in a private plane crash. Word of the crash zipped around the blogosphere and landed in newspapers and television shows nationwide, including The Today Show. Thousands of fans who already read Nielsen’s blog multiplied many times over. Kendrick, who blogged for months about her sister’s recovery, also gained countless readers.
“Stephanie is so colorful and so fun that when this tragic thing happened to her, it pulled bloggers together,” said Jensen, the Mormon Times blog reporter.
My Fertile Womb Garden
The Bloggernacle isn’t without a backlash. As Kendrick, Nielsen and others openly revel in their faith, others have finessed the art of the virtual eye roll. Teeming with references to Mormon stereotypes, sacred undergarments and gender issues, these blogs are written for humor while acknowledging that Mormons, as Kendrick says, can be “peculiar.”
“We got PREGGO!! THEN we found out my fertile womb garden was growing TWIN FETI planted by JJWT’s [an acronym for her husband] righteous seed,” writes the anonymous author of Seriously So Blessed, a blog that satirizes the most cringe-worthy of the Mormon mommy blogs, right down to poor spelling, self-righteous comments and unearthly family pride.
“We are a lot of fun to poke fun of,” said Davis. “We have so many idiosyncrasies that even we as LDS people make fun of ourselves.”
But it’s not clear whether church leaders appreciate the humor.
“I’ve heard people say that if we ever got caught, we’d be dead,” said one anonymous blogger who uses the name “Peter Priesthood.”
Priesthood said his blog, Why Mormon Girls Stay Single, got more than 35,000 hits in its first month. He said he started the blog partly in response to the blog explosion, but mostly to poke fun at the girls he meets in church. When hits to his blog rose above 10,000, he realized he’d hit a nerve.
“These are real issues but they’re taboo to talk about,” Priesthood said.
Among the complaints on his blog: Mormon girls who volunteer for 18-month missions are sent to safe cities in the United States or tropical climates, while the boys are packed off to Siberia.
“We call them ‘cupcake missions,’” he said. “They just go and prance around and look happy and bake brownies.”
Priesthood also charges church leaders with visiting the homes of attractive young women more often than other homes, and complains that single Mormon men are encouraged to ask out unattractive Mormon women “just to make them feel better about themselves.”
“I truly believe that if these situations weren’t real, I wouldn’t have as many complaints,” Priesthood said. “It just hit a nerve.”
Priesthood said he doesn’t know whether he would be chastised if church leaders discovered his identity, but he doesn’t plan to find out. Despite his anonymity, Priesthood said it’s a relief to have a place to joke, at the church’s expense.
“It’s such a big thing with our church that probably 90 percent of the girls I know have blogs,” he said. “It’s a way of documenting their lives, but it’s also about validation. You get noticed, and they like that.”
Tags: bloggernacle, bloggers, dating, family, generational religion, internet, krista kapralos, lds, mormon in manhattan, mormonism, mormons, natalie hill, sex
Not to marginalize mommies and Manhattan Mormons, but the Bloggernacle, as a group and concept, did not originate as this article implies. The 'nacle began when Mormon intellectuals began keeping blogs in 2002 or so, with Dave's Mormon Inquiry, Faith Promoting Rumor, Times and Seasons, and By Common Consent representing the most read and established blogs. Although many portals exist that bring these blogs together, the most established is ldsblogs.org. Any discussion of the "birth of the bloggernacle" that ignores these blogs is missing the boat.
There are thousands and thousands of blogs written by mormon women and men, and its a safe bet that ninety-eight percent of them have never heard of ldsblogs.org.
The Bloggernacle as you define it is largely irrelevant to the mormon blogging world. The fact that the folks who hang out at ldsblogs.org have used the "bloggernacle" nickname for a number of years doesn't mean they have any current relevance in the larger mormon blogging world as it exists today.
CJane and NieNie could eat the bloggernacle (as David defines it) for breakfast (not that they would).
Sue, here's a tip about how blogs work. Most blogs are pretty ephemeral--they only last for a few months before people get bored. Also, if you're not tapped into a network, chances are not too many people are reading what you write. So longevity does count for a lot more than you give it credit for, and all of the blogs I mentioned began producing quality posts years before the bloggers mentioned in the article had even heard of the medium. In addition, all of the blogs I mention have large readerships, especially T&S and BCC. I'd be willing to bet that those blogs receive exponentially more hits per day than all the blogs mentioned in this article combined receive in a month.
I love the Mormon Mommy blogs -- lots of fun, and CJane and Nie Nie, for example, have been providing insightful, uplifting content for quite some time that is obviously very meaningful to a lot of people.
The way Emily Jensen has apparently described the beginnings of the Bloggernacle to Krista Kapralos for this post, however, is not accurate in several different ways.
My view of the "Birth of the Bloggernacle" is as follows and could, of course, also contain certain inaccuracies although I think it hits a lot closer to home than Emily Jensen's descriptions as reported here.
To the best of my recollection, the Bloggernacle traces its roots back to a blog called Metaphysical Elders run by then law student Nate Oman (now a law professor at William & Mary) and some of his friends. By 2003, that had led indirectly to a project called Times & Seasons run by a group of lawyers, current and former Mormon grad students and law students around Kaimi Wenger, also now a law professor (with Nate Oman's involvement). At the same time T&S was starting up, a few other early Mormon blogs were also being set up, including By Common Consent a few months later (a project largely run by Steve Evans at the time). Approximately one year after T&S first started, a number of Mormon blogging enthusiasts collaborated to create the aggregator of Mormon blogs known as the Mormon Archipelago, or the MA, at ldsblogs.org.
The actual term "Bloggernacle" was coined in the first year of T&S's existence by a blogger named Grasshopper, if I recall correctly (I think it was in a discussion with danithew). Emily Jensen is paraphrased above as explaining that "The phenomenon grew so quickly that observers in Salt Lake City coined the virtual world the 'Bloggernacle' (a take on the Mormon Tabernacle Choir)." This is only accurate to the extent that Grasshopper might have been living in SLC at the time that he coined the phrase (I'm not sure if he was). I am pretty sure that this was long before any Mormon Mommy blogs existed or were widely read. Perhaps someone can remind me but I am wondering whether Feminist Mormon Housewives had even been set up by that time.
At any rate, for about three years (maybe more depending on the exact date of the term coming into use) before Elder Ballard gave his talk encouraging Mormons to blog about our religion and its influence in our lives, Mormon bloggers whose blogs were aggregated at ldsblogs.org (the Mormon Archipelago) had already been flooding the internet with discussions about the Restored Gospel and the Church from a relatively faithful perspective, thus providing competing content for the massive oversupply of anti-Mormon content available on the internet. The term "Bloggernacle" not only has had currency among Mormon bloggers since long before Elder Ballard gave his talk at BYU Hawaii about using new media, but also, I believe, before Mormon bloggers were using Mormon Mommy blogs to "make money by journaling about homemaking and parenting", which Emily Jensen has apparently described as part of the "first phase" of Mormon blogging.
It might be worth noting that Emily Jensen herself is a relative latecomer on the scene. Perhaps that is why she apparently doesn't know the history of the "Bloggernacle". Her activity at Mormon Times, an online subsection of the Deseret News, began long after dozens of Bloggernacle blogs had been established and providing top-notch quality content for years. A substantial blog called the Bloggernacle Times had already run its entire course before "Mormon Times" got off its feet.
Just some interesting facts about the "birth of the Bloggernacle" to be aware of in reading this post.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloggernacle
Your article clearly lacked vital information. Though Mommy Bloggers are an important component of the 'Nacle, that wave came many years after the 'Nacle had been created and named.
Thanks danithew for reminding me of the Wikipedia link. It jogged my memory that the actual date of the coining of the word "Bloggernacle" was on March 23, 2004 at Times and Seasons. Grasshopper (Christopher Bradford) was responding to Kaimi's invitation for people to supply a term to refer to the Mormon blogging community. The date reminds me that the term does indeed long predate the Mormon Mommy blogs (was Mormon Mommy Wars even up and running by then?).
I don't think anyone is disputing where the name the "Bloggernacle" came from. What I'm saying is that the mormon mommy blogging phenomenon didn't stem from the same place.
"Sue, here's a tip about how blogs work."
Um... Thanks? As the owner of Mormon Mommy Blogs, with 869 blogs listed, I kind of think I get it.
"Also, if you're not tapped into a network, chances are not too many people are reading what you write."
This is laughable. If you think T&S or ANY of the old school bloggernacle blogs get more hits than CJane, you're DREAMING. My own blog gets thousands of unique hits per day, and my technorati authority for both blogs eclipses all of the "big" ldsblogs.org.
I get so irritated by the dismissive, uninformed male bloggers dismissing the mommy bloggers who are KICKING THEIR TRASH.
I don't see it as a contest at all although obviously some others do.
What intrigued me about this particular post was how it described the birth of the "Bloggernacle" without even mentioning the original Bloggernacle or any of the academic-type blogs at all, focusing solely on the social and family blogs. In addition, the information paraphrased from Emily Jensen was simply wrong in terms of the "first phase" of the Bloggernacle being Mormon Mommy blogs and then the Bloggernacle stemming from some observers in Salt Lake City coining the term.
For those who were involved in the genesis of the original Bloggernacle as represented in part by the blogs listed by David G. but also by the rest of the blogs traditionally listed at ldsblogs.org, it just seemed like an alternative universe was being described and a little bit like revisionist history.
That said, I think that Sue's project of aggregating the Mormon Mommy and family blogs is a wonderful service and provides tons of value. I just hadn't realized that people blogging there considered themselves to be participating in the Bloggernacle. But I've learned something.
Sorry for getting a little riled up there. I misinterpreted some things, and then came out with guns blazing.
David, apparently you don't do your homework. CJane has blogged quite extensively for the bloggernacle since 2005 when she opened the Segullah blog as their only weekly poster. She did a guest post for Mormom Mommy Wars in 2007. Among other networks, her personal blog is connected to Segullah and Mormon Mommy Blogs. Futhermore, she was published in Sunstone magazine's Bloggernaccle issue making her one of the first published Mormon bloggers.
According to Times and Seasons blog counter they've had over three million hits since 2003. I believe CJane and Nie Nie can easily do that in one month on each of their personal blogs. Their readership has stayed with them for four years now, I think that counts for longevity in blogging terms.
Chris, perhaps you've missed the discussion going on over a BCC, but over there I acknowledged to Sue that my second comment was based on faulty assumptions and I apologized for being "condescending."
That said, the issue here is when the bloggernacle was born. My second comment was not an argument that no Mormon mommy bloggers are meeting the requirements I set concerning longevity, networking, and readership, but rather that the blogs I mentioned have been producing quality posts and sustaining readership for a longer period of time than the Mormon mommy blogs. Your comment simply confirms my point. I think it's great that c jane has been actively blogging since 2005, but the blogs john f. and I mentioned have been around since 2002-2003. Ergo, "the birth of the bloggernacle" cannot be truthfully be traced as it has been in this article.
Now, Sue has claimed that mommy blogs started appearing in large numbers at about the same time as the other blogs we've been discussing, and I'm more than open to being persuaded by the evidence that she or anyone else can produce that would revise the narrative I've argued for here.
Thanks for all the great comments regarding this story. While the LDS church (and most religious and faith movements) have a cadre of bloggers who focus on doctrine and academic issues. The focus of this story are those blogs that have large readerships outside the LDS church and interested academics.
It’s not a story that there have for years been blogs looking specifically at church/doctrinal issues (such as Times and Seasons), but it is a story that this new wave of mommy, design and lifestyle blogs are taking the blogosphere by storm. It’s true that the initial trend in Mormon blogging was in the realm of academic and religious issue blogs, but that’s true of most faiths. I opted to focus on the several “waves” of Mormon blogs that are unique among faith-based bloggers. That was by design – it’s what makes Mormon bloggers different. Sure, there are mom and lifestyle blogs by people of all faiths, but the Mormons have created a distinctive community.
As for the word “Bloggernacle,” it seems there is debate as to when it took root. I heard several versions during the course of my reporting, but went with that explanation because it was most often echoed among others I interviewed and was confirmed via other sources. However, as with all things internet (the blogosphere being the prime example), certainty, as proven by these comments, is elusive. Clearly, there is more than one explanation floating around.
Keep ‘em coming!
What I think remains unanswered is whether the people running the types of blogs that Krista is highlighting here actually consider themselves to be participating in the Bloggernacle. I hadn't thought so until reading Sue's comments here. I had thought that for most of them the actual "Bloggernacle" was completely irrelevant and that they did not consider themselves part of the Bloggernacle but rather as simply Mormon bloggers. I thought most of them were encouraged by Elder Ballard's talk about using new media and decided to give it a try.
As to the term "Bloggernacle", I don't see how there could be legitimate competing claims to its "birth". Of course there can be competing stories but the fact is that the term was coined on March 23, 2004 by Christopher Bradford at Times & Seasons. That's simply not debatable. If there are Mormon mommy bloggers or others in the broader Mormon blogosphere who think that "observers in Salt Lake City" (presumably meaning Church leaders?) coined the term after Elder Ballard's talk and the rise of Mormon mommy blogs then they only think so because they don't know about the community of blogs that traditionally self-referenced as the "Bloggernacle", i.e. those listed at ldsblogs.org and ldselect.org and others. March 2004 is already ancient history in Mormon blogging terms -- many of the main/core Bloggernacle blogs (e.g. T&S, BCC) were still on their first or second hosting platform -- Feminist Mormon Housewives hadn't even started yet; November 2003 (when T&S started) is the stone age; and the activities of the Metaphysical Elders in 2002 might as well be pre-history.
The truth is that I am puzzled that there is more than one explanation floating around about the genesis of the Bloggernacle. It was surprising enough to learn that Mormons writing the mommy, design and lifestyle blogs had even heard of the Bloggernacle and considered themselves to be participating in it (because the Bloggernacle I was familiar with wasn't relevant to those projects). It was even more surprising to learn that they considered themselves to be participating in a Bloggernacle that had started roughly with Elder Ballard's talk and that the Mormon mommy blogs were therefore the pre-history of the Bloggernacle (the "first phase", as described here) rather than the Metaphysical Elders and Times and Seasons.
I'm used to commenting at blogs that don't require log in so I absent mindedly put my name in the comment title field without looking b/c that is normally where the name field is. Just thought I should explain the odd title of my last comment.
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