Sunday in Outer Blogness: Other People’s Beliefs Edition!
This week’s theme was people commenting on other people’s beliefs, such as conservative Christians’ views on pagans or Buddhists. Some people find others’ beliefs stupid, ignorant, or hurtful. And how believable are people’s claimed beliefs? Some are analyzing why others claim to be “spiritual but not religious”. It’s easier to express your beliefs when others agree and tricky to learn about unfamiliar beliefs. But the prize in this category goes to Brent’s list of the worst talks ever — check if your “favorite” is on the list!
In the department of LDS church PR and marketing, Joanna Brooks again demonstrates that you can’t say anything about Mormonism without somebody complaining — this time incurring the wrath of the LDS Newsroom Blog for writing about Mitch Mayne — but Atticus F. McConkie has her back. Meanwhile, Deseret Book has merged with Distribution Services, and Starfoxy explains how the new book Daughters in my Kingdom documents the decline of sphere of influence of the Relief Society.
In the department of spiritual (or religious) journeys, check out this tale of a Guatemalan Mormon who grew up in the hood! There’s some confusion as to whether this is an exit story or not. Miguel has spent the Summer church-hopping. Yet, the more we change, the more we stay the same.
Then, a grab bag of interesting topics! In Word of Wisdom news, an invisible beer Nazi has mysteriously expanded the Zion Curtain. Plus some advice from your Stake President. As much as Obama deserves criticism, there’s a wrong way to do it. Fixing what ails public education is difficult, but not impossible if there’s a will to do it. Do you want to live forever? In our usual modesty discussion what about sexualizing babies as a joke? Chris got a short story published! And iBear is writing a book. See also these other hot stories for your reading pleasure, or this amusing anecdote. And if you’re tired of reading, you can peruse Louise’s 30-day photo challenge or listen to the new Cultural Hall Podcast!
One last note: I haven’t really made this explicit before, but I mean for SiOB to be an open thread where people can comment on the links here, or on the sidebar links, or on other Mormon-themed news and links that we’ve missed. It was fun last week, and you’re all invited to participate again!
Chanson, thanks again for another great column. You’re so nice to do this for us every week!
Oh hey, I didn’t know I showed up on the radar. And I’m still not sure why I’m reading that book!
+1 to the “thanks for compiling this” thing!
This link has the more readable version of the first link in the list. Sorry, for some reason I got into the habit of using my LiveJournal as my website instead of my (shinier) Dreamwidth journal.
Thanks for linking to my blog photo challenge, you’re awesome!
Here’s my contribution to the open thread: I think we need to have a contest to see who can come up with the pithiest/aptest/cringeworthiest 140 character tweet describing that LDS Newsroom post… Alan inspired this attempt from my side:
Seriously. Lyman Kirkland/LDS Newsroom and Terry Mattingly/GetReligion smugly lecture Joanna Brooks on the proper journalistic uses of attribution but somehow manage to never mention her name? Not even once between the two of them?
And maybe T&S could talk about tmatt’s and lkirk’s antics during their discussion about the LDS practice of shunning (which, of course, has never happened and nobody has ever heard of a single instance).
Or maybe just try leaving a comment at that GetReligion thread. Mine’s currently in moderation. Anybody else blocked from dialoguing with d-matt?
The Newsroom article kind of smacks of… something. Trying to put my finger on it… sour grapes? Condescension? I never got the impression from any stories I read about Mitch that official doctrine was changing. But it is a sign that more church members’ attitudes toward LGBTQ are changing – whether SLC likes it or not.
One upside in all of this is that Andrew Sullivan is helping spread the word that Joanna Brooks is now a leading Bloggernacle blogger. Kudos, JB!
And it’s all thanks to LDS Newsroom. Lyman rocks! 🙂
Thanks, everyone! And very cool that Andrew Sullivan is hooked on Mormon Stories!