The Mormon Alumni Association announces the “Spawn of Brodie” awards!! They’re like Oscars or Emmys for X-Mormon online excellence! Obviously, the idea is based on the Bloggernacle’s Niblets awards, which we’re participating in (see, for example, Sunday in Outer Blogness in the write-in category). However, in comments around the Bloggernacle, some of the faithful made it clear that having apostates hanging around is cramping their style. (Note that this is not an invitation to respond to them in kind by dumping on the Bloggernacle.)

As much as I don’t like this “us-vs-them” mentality within Mormonism, it makes sense for the non-TBM-Mormons to have a separate set of awards. Our discussion on the Internet is big enough, vibrant enough, and diverse enough to have a wide range of writings and other creative endeavors that deserve recognition! As in the William Law X-Mormon of the Year (which we’re still voting on), the “X” in X-Mormon is a variable that can stand for whatever you like, such as “ex”, “post”, “former”, “cultural”, “New Order”, etc. Since a lot of the discussion takes place outside of blogspace, I’ve contacted the admins of some forums and other sites in hopes of getting participation and nominations from their communities as well.

Since this is the first batch of “Spawn of Brodie” awards ever, we need suggestions on award categories as well as nominations for specific posts, threads, comments, pages, sites, etc. You can start by looking at the Niblet categories for ideas, but don’t be limited by them. My opening suggestion is that we should have an award for “best deconverstion story” (on changing your beliefs) and a separate one for “best exit story” (on actually leaving the fold and/or getting excommunicated). But feel free to suggest anyone/anything that you think deserves positive recognition for online X-Mormon excellence!