Aside from a few posts on the article in the New York Times, there wasn’t really one hot topic this week — it was more like a variety of interesting insights. I will try to group them as best I can:
The “Relief Society” is something of a shadow of its former self, but perhaps it could be revitalized by going back to its service-oriented roots, or — if you want to get really radical — let the women run it. Something is clearly wrong — just look at the responses to this survey of young LDS women!! (Of course it could be worse — remember that whole polygamy thing?)
Apparently, the CoJCoL-dS recently scheduled that lovely lesson about apostates. Sigh. At least they’ve improved the accuracy of the “eye of the needle” lesson. (See Mithryn for the opposite lesson.) And if you want some serious scripture study, there’s Elisha’s less-famous-than-the-bear-mauling child death incident, plus other gory stuff. Or, if you’d rather talk about ancient stuff that actually happened, check out this interesting piece about prehistoric bug-consumption in (what is now) Utah. In more recent history, Daymon Smith presented a new interpretation of Joseph Smith’s original plans for the Book of Mormon.
The secrecy of the CoJCoL-dS can be a bit of a problem. It would be nice to be able to clear up this mysterious transaction. Then there was some fun with humility and more problems with Mormons and boundaries! I especially appreciated these double-face-palm stories!!
But no — this was not what this woman was worried about. She curtly informs my friend that she is appalled to see her three-year-old’s nakedness on display because this woman’s seven-year-old son could possibly have seen her. Three levels of crazy here: 1) There is a posted sign asking parents not to bring children of the opposite sex over the age of five into the locker room, so her son shouldn’t have been in there anyway. 2) What mother obsessed with protecting her son from the female form would ever bring him into a locker room, where women of all ages have every right to walk around naked?
Language is fun! We can analyze our own usage habits, play with words and images, or create nonsensical, convoluted orations. In the department of totally random, it was moon day, and these historical cocktails look pretty interesting…
I hope you have fun with this week’s discussions! I want to go back and read some of them more carefully myself — I was out-of-town with limited internet access for most of the week, but now I’m back online!! Briefly, anyway — I guess next on the to-do list is to unpack and go to bed. Have a great week!
OMG the comments on the Mormon Mentality Modesty thread. People are siding with the mom who won’t let her three yr old play with another little girl in a bikini. They missed the point and just thought they were reading another shitty friend story.
@1 I don’t see it. It looks to me like neither of the two comments is siding with the mom who won’t let her three yr old play with another little girl in a bikini.