Sunday in Outer Blogness: Fantastic Stories Edition!

This week, the authors of Outer Blogness have outdone themselves with a collection of analogies, fantasies, dreams, and even down-to-Earth narratives that have absolutely blown me away!

First, I was touched by Jeremy Firth’s beautiful tale (with pictures!) of what heaven (if there is one) will look like. Hypatia posted a hilarious video imagining a world where BYU sells caffeinated beverages on campus. (Lost sheep would be happy. 😉 ) Hypatia also had a disturbing dream comparing the church to a body. In other intriguing analogies, G took the “Heavenly Family” doctrine to its logical conclusion.

In an interesting point-counterpoint, Philomytha takes on Orson Scott Card‘s gay-rights-Abraham’s-sacrifice analogy, while Chris Smith is nonetheless still impressed by OSC’s fiction writing.

In down-to-Earth stories, this great Reddit feed turned up two exits: Dancing Nancy’s resignation and Bodanger’s tale of the day he decided to leave Mormonism and never look back.

Then we saw some great responses to theological platitudes. The Urban Coda analyzes the Godly reasons why sh*t happens, and Daniel Midgley asks for a few clarifications on another great devotional. And Jon reports on an excellent Catholic response to the “Intelligent Design” political movement.

Now for those pesky non-white/het/male folks who just won’t disappear! Stephanie starts with an open-minded approach to “Fascinating Womanhood”, and, well, just go read it — it’s amazing! Coincidentally, Holly just got a piece published in Bitch Magazine with more great insights on the same disturbing topic:

Indeed, Bella would have been the perfect Fascinating Womanhood case study. The book freely scorns women who insist on believing that really sensible men, the kind they admire, would be repulsed instead of attracted toa childlike creature who stomps her foot and threatens to tattle to her husbands mother when he misbehaves.

Jesus’ General has some great ideas for Ron Paul’s white money. In positive gay stories, Emily reports about some fantastic bridge-building between the Mormons and the gay community! On the other side, boo to Iowa legislators who have proposed specifically excluding GLBT teens from an anti-bullying law that otherwise protects all students. Then Todd gives us a blast from the past which (at least) shows us how far we’ve come.

Also, if you haven’t yet, don’t forget to vote in the Brodies!!! IMHO, Our community is amazing, and it wouldn’t hurt to pass around a little praise — even if it’s just an amusing game that wins you nothing more than a little graphic to post on your blog/site if you like. 😉