Sunday in Outer Blogness: Easter Meat and Milk Edition!

We’ve had quite a collection of both hearty thought-provoking articles and light funnies in Outer Blogness this week!! I’ll just mix them up and let you guess which is which!

First — in honor of Easter — a bunch of news from the Catholic Church. The evidence of institutionally-endemic child abuse is getting to the point where it’s no longer possible to just sweep it under the rug. Naturally, Catholic leaders respond by accusing other people of being Nazis. Yet, the real shocker is that the Catholic Church is covering up an even more surprising scandal!! (And check out this other Easter cover-up!)

Speaking of meat, Chandelle presents a fascinating three part review of The Vegetarian Myth — agreeing and disagreeing with the author in ways that may surprise you! Neece offers a selection of seasonal LOL-cats for your Easter pleasure. Jon James reports on the “Climategate” investigation results. Austin Cline analyzes the tea-bagger movement, while Djinn completes the picture with a collection of images the teabaggers’ signs — eloquently written in “teabonics”!

And don’t let me forget about the Mormon-specific news of this week! Here’s the most hilarious piece I’ve seen in some time:

In a recent press release, Church authorities announced that the forthcoming Priesthood/Relief Society manuals will be issued in the form of a board book entitled Goodnight, Brain. In order to broaden their accessibility, lessons have been streamlined and simplified into telegraphic language, such as God good. Devil bad. Each lesson will take up a single page and will include not only questions for discussion recitation but also appropriate answers.

Andee also recommends a video about the Young Women’s new pink! books. Andrew discusses the competing celebrations of Easter and General Conference. (I don’t know what he’s talking about — I always though listening to old guys lecture on porn was an integral part of a traditional Easter celebration…)

Note that I’m not bothering to link to any of the many General Conference photo spreads on the Bloggernacle. Not only do they all look alike, but nobody even bothered to photograph the garment-waving counter-cult people. (What happened — did those guys forget to show up this time?) Instead, we have first-hand reports from an even more interesting conference: Sunstone West! Mike Reed describes the panel (with Newell Bringhurst, Robert Rees, and D. Michael Quinn) featuring his forthcoming book Banishing the Cross: The Emergence of a Mormon Taboo, and Chris Smith gives a whole series of highlights.

In other Mormon updates, our favorite reddit feed brings the news that the CoJCoL-dS is finally embracing the term “Mormon” (instead of telling people to call them “LDS” or a bunch of other suggestions that never caught on). And the newly-named “Mormon Times” is making a splash with interesting articles like this one Brad found about single men and their terrorist tendencies. Runtu posts the latest installment in his series on Postmodernism and Mormonism. And Leah tells what she does believe, while El Guapo reports on Mormons’ “Frequently Avoided Questions”.

Whew! I can hardly believe that I only got three things accomplished this whole sunny Sunday: this roundup, The Humanist Symposium (which I’m hosting this time: it’s the Super-Humanist Edition!), and a fabulous lunch-plus-afternoon-with-family-and-friends Easter party!! So I’ll close by wishing you all a very happy Holiday with two cartoons and a very funny video!!