Sunday in Outer Blogness: Standing for Something Edition!

Yet another week’s discussion revolves around President News H. Room‘s recent cola revelation!! The people who want to hold themselves to a stricter law are, understandably, upset, as are the fans of honesty.

In related news, Brigham City protects its Temple area from free speech, and Exmormon.org has banned references to the exmormon Reddit website.

The other big topic was the movie about Muhammad that inspired a violent reaction. Some suggest that Islam is significantly worse than other religions, others point out that this didn’t happen in a vacuum, and add some nuance and historical perspective.

There were some misunderstandings across belief lines this past week. Nobody likes being part of the object lesson at church or emotional blackmail. Brandon Flowers was apparently ambushed into a confrontation about Mormonism with Richard Dawkins, and initial reviews indicate that Dawkins made an ass of himself. Also, people who don’t want further contact with the CoJCoL-dS have some trouble getting that request honored.

In the department of book reviews, post-Mormon girl reviewed Non-Believer Nation, while the believers are mostly talking about the unvarnished Brigham Young biography. (Yes, he was controversial for a reason.) Interestingly, the women make more sympathetic advocates for polygamy. Fortunately, FAIR is there to help out:

FAIR is actually a great resource because not only do they utterly fail to provide adequate answers to these mysteries, they also validate that they are in fact mysteries that justly trouble many LDS.

On a related note, there were some interesting exit stories this week, plus a Mormon teen masturbation memoir. Other personal stories included thoughts on suicide.

In theology, Jake has an interesting exploration of the idea of blaming human actions on the Devil. And Dave has discovered the Keebler Elves using the essence of other people’s good works for their own nefarious purposes. The Peacewriter struggles to understand her faith while Andrew H says faith shouldn’t get preferential treatment. Kullervo explains that “some approaches to Christianity offer made-up solutions to a made-up problem.”

And the must-read topic is the follow-up to the talk on “wifely duties”. Meanwhile, little Mormon girls don’t get to sing about hoping for a mission call. And Romney? Can’t forget him! This week we learn that he could probably beat Obama at Spartan wrestling.

Happy reading and have a great week!