Sunday in Outer Blogness: Gender Grab-Bag Edition!

It’s November now, and you know what that means: time to participate in NaBloPoMo and in NaNoWriMo!!

It seemed like the big topic this week was gender roles! Feminists are fun — especially the atheists — but the Mormon feminists face special challenges, what with the theology of gender and its obvious interpretation. Men have the priesthood and women get to obey, right? (Of course, it looks like the rules are tightening even for the guys…)

Flowing along with this stream of consciousness, let’s talk about the dynamics of Mormon marriage. There are those couples who win the race to the temple (before SEX), then there are the losers of the temple/eternity doctrine. And if you think modern Mormon marriage has its challenges, just remember what it used to be like! (Of course those are the points Mormons like to downplay, except on Fakebook.) Ah, early Mormonism! So unlike the modern, corporate LDS church with its profitable hunting preserves and its correlation department (dumbing all of the controversial stuff down to tepid milk), not to mention the sausage factory, a.k.a. “Church Office Building.”

In other gender-and-family issues, John Dehlin’s interview with BYU-Microbiology-prof-and-father-of-a-gay-son Bill Bradshaw got some big thumbs up! The trouble with statements like those made by BKP is that many people will believe him instead of hard evidence. (On a tangentially related note, Andrew S reports on atheist bloggers discussing what [hypothetical] evidence would convince them of the existence of God.)

On to a bit of a grab-bag of interesting topics! How do you keep your mixed-faith family from turning into us vs. them? Goodbye Kitty is hoping to perform some gay marriages and Froggie has just produced a gorgeous new cookbook! Which is the brighter jewel — the moon or the riches of Switzerland? When the public refuses to support the arts, does that job fall to covert operations??? The atheists of BYU apparently don’t think highly of the doctrine of use-up-all-the-resources nor of the Bible. OTOH, The First Human gets high marks.

Now we still need to wrap up last week‘s topics! First off, the US elections! I should have followed them better, but it was one of those things where I couldn’t bear to watch. Fortunately, a number of other people wrote interesting takes, see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. On a lighter note, check out this collection of cute Halloween costumes!

Folks, I’m sorry I’ve been so absent from posting, commenting, etc., the past couple of weeks, but I’m hoping my real-life commitments will lighten up a bit soon so I can join you all more regularly on the Internets. And now back to your regularly scheduled Sunday activities! 😀