Sunday in Outer Blogness » Main Street Plaza

Sunday in Outer Blogness: Handicrafts Edition!!

You may have heard that a lost civilization was discovered in the jungles of Honduras. Evidence for the Book of Mormon? Sadly, no. Simon Southerton gave an overview of the main apologist strategies for dealing with the problem, and Mithryn made an excellent point about the central problem with Book of Mormon archaeology. (He also wrote a an interesting review of Ryan Cragun’s religion and science podcast.) Now that the CoJCoL-dS has stopped working against it, marriage equality is gaining Read more [...]

Posted by chanson on May 20th, 2013 | No Comments Posted in Sunday in Outer Blogness

Sunday in Outer Blogness: a woman’s worth edition!!!

On the even of the most dreaded holiday for women on the Mormon liturgical calendar, Elizabeth Smart made a statement explaining what’s wrong with object lessons teaching girls that after having sex, they’re used-up and disgusting, like chewed-gum, sparking lots of discussion (including about other unhelpful chastity lessons). But since it would be unimaginable for Mormons to drop object lessons altogether, some folks have come up with some more positive metaphors illustrating that your worth is Read more [...]

Posted by chanson on May 12th, 2013 | 3 Comments Posted in Motherhood, Sunday in Outer Blogness, Women

Sunday in Outer Blogness: The Power of the Book of Mormon Edition!!

From Deseret News, my favorite news item of this week: “My mom will sometimes say, ‘I can’t believe I brought you to that show. None of this would have happened.’[...] While the musical has been called irreverent and crude, some of the lyrics still have special, sentimental value to Morong. The words, “If you believe, the Lord will reveal it. And you’ll know it’s all true — you’ll just feel it,” from the show’s song “I Believe,” still resonate with Morong because she feels Read more [...]

Posted by chanson on May 5th, 2013 | 2 Comments Posted in Sunday in Outer Blogness

Sunday in Outer Blogness: to life edition!

“Since my religious disaffection from the Mormon Church, I have had to come to terms with the fact that I am going to die.” That’s Steve Bloor facing his mortality — read the rest here. So Says Me told the tale of getting over the self-hatred of an eating disorder, while the Cotton Floozy offers some fatspiration. Maybe not quite as serious, but still poignant was Leia’s story of a beautiful gown (from her Mormon grandma!) that wasn’t quite modest enough — next time call Randy! Calling people Read more [...]

Posted by chanson on April 28th, 2013 | No Comments Posted in Sunday in Outer Blogness

Sunday in Outer Blogness: the gun issue, again edition.

I missed a lot of the details of what happened in Boston (since I was on a nearly Internet-free vacation in Austria), but from my blog reading this morning, I find another national tragedy, and another round of discussion of gun legislation. Apparently, some simple points like background checks (widely supported) have been obstructed to death. Some blame the NRA, while others argue the problem is simply that Americans are complete morons: It is emotionally satisfying for various liberal hacks Read more [...]

Posted by chanson on April 21st, 2013 | No Comments Posted in Sunday in Outer Blogness

Sunday in Outer Blogness: the Lord’s side edition!

Blogland has had a week to chew on the latest General Conference, and it looks like the most memorable image is this one (courtesy of Boyd K. Packer’s values and GyeongnamStyle’s styling): Yes, it is the dreaded Tolerance Trap! Here’s BKS’s dire warning about tolerating families like these and Just Jill’s response: “The permissiveness afforded by the weakening of the laws of the land to tolerate legalized acts of immorality, does not reduce the serious spiritual consequences that result Read more [...]

Posted by chanson on April 14th, 2013 | 5 Comments Posted in General Conference, Sunday in Outer Blogness, Tolerance

Sunday in Outer Blogness: A Woman Prayed in Conference Edition!!!

Yes, at this latest semi-annual General Conference, in addition to the usual topics, something interesting happened: a woman prayed!! Maybe you saw it live, but don’t miss Donna’s preview and Matsby’s replay!! Of course gender roles are still with us, but people are analyzing how this change happened and getting big ideas. Hoping this will lead to even more advances. For example, female missionaries now have some leadership positions — yet it looks like they carefully crafted it so that women Read more [...]

Posted by chanson on April 7th, 2013 | No Comments Posted in General Conference, Sunday in Outer Blogness

Sunday in Outer Blogness: Gay Family Easter Edition!

I was expecting that this week would be a standard round-up of posts about Easter — but the Supreme Court of the US spared us from this fate!! Particularly, the liminal Mormon part of Facebook exploded with battles over marriage equality. (I’m not linking to all, but if you check out the exmo reddit from earlier this week, you’ll see almost nothing else.) Here are some highlights of the question from blogspace: I was proud of my son for having posted this, but I was even more proud to see Read more [...]

Posted by chanson on April 1st, 2013 | 4 Comments Posted in Sunday in Outer Blogness

Sunday in Outer Blogness: Ordination edition

chanson is on vacation this week, so I’m going to attempt Sunday in Outer Blogness. On the faithful side of outer blogness, things have been astir about female ordination. Not surprisingly, many faithful mormons disagree about this issue. Considering the last time feminists called for female ordination they were excommunicated, my hope is that this time will be different. Personally, I want to cheer the small victories, but it also seems a little like crumbs from the table… On the Read more [...]

Posted by aerin64 on March 24th, 2013 | 4 Comments Posted in LGBT, Sunday in Outer Blogness, Women

Sunday in Outer Blogness: St. Patrick’s Day Edition!

Yes, today marks everyone’s favorite excuse for serving green beer and other Irish treats, plus some other important occasions such as my half-birthday (I guess that makes me 41 1/2), as well as the International day of action to defend apostates and blasphemers. In Theology, Roger D. Hansen made a powerful argument against dumping unique LDS doctrines in order to seem more “Christian.” Yes, some old LDS doctrines and some new stuff and embarrassing apologetics belong on the garbage pile, but Read more [...]

Posted by chanson on March 17th, 2013 | 6 Comments Posted in green Mormonism, Sunday in Outer Blogness