Sunday in Outer Blogness: the Lord’s side edition!

Blogland has had a week to chew on the latest General Conference, and it looks like the most memorable image is this one (courtesy of Boyd K. Packer’s values and GyeongnamStyle’s styling):

Yes, it is the dreaded Tolerance Trap! Here’s BKS’s dire warning about tolerating families like these and Just Jill’s response:

“The permissiveness afforded by the weakening of the laws of the land to tolerate legalized acts of immorality, does not reduce the serious spiritual consequences that result from the violation of God’s law of chastity.”

I can’t wait for ‘legalized acts of immorality’. Oh, wait a minute, Mr. Packer, there are already plenty of ‘legalized acts of immorality’ some of them are lying, prejudice, sexism, bigotry, chauvinism, discrimination…

It’s interesting that he’s willing to admit that tolerance is a virtue, but the fundamental culture-war framing remains. BKP and his side would like everyone to agree that they are the ones holding themselves up to a higher standard that others (deep down) wish they had the strength to hold themselves up to. In reality, many people view the religious right leading the fight for deplorable values like unfounded prejudice and unwarranted discrimination, instead of charity for charity’s sake. Just check out Dan Savage’s take on Giving Christianity a pass as well as this earlier discussion about conservative politics hurting Christianity’s image. And it isn’t simply a question of perverting Jesus’s message — as this post explains, the people who claim that Jesus taught love for your family is more important than your ideology are the ones misrepresenting the Bible.

Of course, the CoJCoL-dS is still having difficulty with the social media age in which people can easily suggest to others to do the math themselves when the membership figures don’t add up. Plus there are some pretty strange rumors afoot….

Meanwhile the discussion continues over women and the priesthood (read: women in leadership) and other gender roles.

And now for something completely different: some beautiful photos, new books, and tales of tragedy, discouragement, economic analysis, and new beginnings.

Happy reading!!