Sunday in Outer Blogness: Is the election over yet edition?!

Yes, that’s the question everyone on the interwebs was asking this week! But I guess there’ll be plenty more to say about the US election over thenext few weeks. Can you guess which side God is on?

And don’t forget — other countries have interesting politics too!

In other hard-to-resolve conflicts, the Circling the Wagons conference organizers are divided over whether it is appropriate to give a platform to a representative of North Star and to Josh Weed (poster boy for mixed-orientation marriage):

We had no discussions of doctrine, and we each agreed wholeheartedly that our respective talks will focus on our individual journeys and what we personally have learned from them. We agreed that there will be no attempts at conversion at the conference. We will discuss, but we will not debate. We may not embrace each others beliefs, but we do embrace each other as men who have each struggled with this thing called homosexuality and another thing called faith. We have ended up in different places, but we have all shared aspects of the journey.

vs.

The messages that will be delivered in this Novembers Circling the Wagons are in direct conflict to everything my heart and spirit tell me about the nature of being a gay Mormon. North Star encourages LGBT Mormons to view themselves as broken and afflicted, while Mr. Weeds message is routinely co-opted by many within our faith as the preferred path for LGBT Mormon youth, despite his insistence that it may not be the path for everyone.

And Dad’s Primal Scream added a number of great points. Here’s one example:

I know that theres a huge difference between a man, already married, who may find comfort at North Star and a young man not yet married making huge life choices. For the former, I concede that men like Steven Frei may have been helped by North Star. But the danger comes when single LDS men look to it as a model to emulate before they have been so entangled and end up messing up not only their own lives but a young ladys life as well.

Plus, check out these other conference reviews as well!

And here’s a tantalizing trace of a drama I’m sad to have missed: Dan Peterson (apparently?) mistook our own Chino Blanco for Dr. Scratch of Mormon Discussions and was going to sue one or both of them for reasons unknown. Sorry I didn’t catch the details before they were deleted (darn you, Minecraft!)

The other question on everyone’s mind is: what to be for Halloween? Is the paranormal scarier than the Bible? Or real-life horrors? Then, when you come home after a hard night of trick-or-treating, curl up with a mug of pumpkin soup — I tried this recipe myself, and it’s delicious!!

There were a number of great life journeys! We have a new exit story, a high-profile resignation, leaving again, a two years later, and a tale of moving on. And then the next stage: mixed–faith parenting. Plus growing up gay, being socialized Mormon, and tragedy while on a mission.

In the department of “now for something completely different” — here’s an interesting discussion of a (uniquely?) Mormon doctrine. And what do you think of year-round school? That’s what we do here (in the parts of Europe I’ve lived in): several shorter breaks instead of three months of Summer vacation, and I think it works great!

Out my window I see a beautiful snow-covered Winter Wonderland! And you? Happy reading!