Sunday in Outer Blogness: Family Secrets Edition!

Is there a secret to family happiness? Every marriage brings together two (or more) very different perspectives, and differences in beliefs and orientation bring added stress and challenges. Sometimes, you have no choice but to move on. (Heck, marriage is not the be-all-end-all of life!) Then there were some great stories this week of fun, of family rituals, and about what parts of your (former) religion to pass along to your kids (starting from how your parents’ beliefs and traditions shaped you).

Secrets have been the big topic this week, what with Wikileaks and all! John Larsen makes a fascinating point:

The more an organization demands its own sphere of secrecy, the more it seems to be interested in intruding upon the secrecy of others. Take the most secret organizations, like the CIA or the KGB. These organizations spend the most time prying into the privacy of other institutions and individuals while guarding their own details with extreme prejudice. You can almost guarantee formulaically that the more an institution guards it own privacy and secrecy the more it will be intruding into everyone elses secrets.

It’s an interesting point to keep in mind when reading the news, for example of testing drugs on prisoners at Guantanamo, systematic cover-up of child abuse cases, Obama holding legislative negotiations behind closed doors, Sarah Palin demanding that Wikileaks director Assange be hunted down and captured or killed. In lighter information control, Aaron Shafovaloff claims that the Gospel Principles manual advises people to read the correlated manuals instead of the scriptural canon. (Sometimes others know your secrets better than you do! Too bad that kids will believe anything.) Fortunately the DADT and Prop 8 hearings are wide open, and Pride in Utah is bringing you the videos!

Now, for our weekly dose of Gospel Doctrine! For the hard stuff, Zelophehad’s Daughters bravely attempt to make heads or tails of Elder Oaks’s explanation of presiding, and LDS Anarchy tries to figure out the CHI’s temple wedding rules. But if that one makes your brain hurt — fear not! — Jesus and Mo have managed to make church history even simpler than what you’ll find in the Gospel Principles manual! Between the poles, you’ll find Curmudgeon’s “colorfully flawed LDS leaders”, Kuri’s parable explanations, and Hackman’s ideas on keeping the sabbath. Amy asks if an omnipresent God would allow you to be alone and Molly tackles the theological questions of Lucifer and hell. Plus, some interesting follow-up on why young people are leaving the church.

And — this week especially — we need some funnies!! Jesus’ General has posted another great review, and — for Stallone fans — Insidiously Unsubtle has a review that’s probably a lot more entertaining than the movie! Someone had an interesting Thanksgiving. Two people liked this ad, and I was tickled by Janet’s funny snow.

I hope all of you are doing well, and here’s to a great week to come! 😀