Sunday in Outer Blogness: Corporations are people edition!

You’ve probably heard some very disturbing news from the United States Supreme Court this past week. If not, John Oliver nailed it:

We’ve all had some laughs over this piece on reasons not to leave Mormonism. I like Profet’s response and hawkgrrrl’s:

There’s an implied set of cautions for the church in all this too. Here are the five things this says about what we as a church should do:

1. Quit being offensive.
2. Quit being so vague about the doctrine and conflating policies and practices with doctrine.
3. Quit making church soul-crushingly boring and difficult to balance with normal life commitments.
4. Own up to the full picture on tricky issues (this has begun albeit slowly).
5. Quit favoring sins of hypocrisy over other sins.

Leaving is not as simple as the CoJCoL-dS would lead you to believe. Dad’s Primal Scream wrote one of the most honest and insightful pieces I’ve read about it:

In my recent post, Mormon Courts of Luv; My Experience, I related how some bishopric members I’d worked with in the past had seemed to harbor a “prodigal brother syndrome.” I define it as being jealous that someone else got to sin and yet have a happy ending. It’s a rather ungracious but human emotion.

I fear I have its equal emotion for gay post-Mormons.

While I know that finally being honest and authentic were the wisest and best choices for my emotional well-being, it does honestly irk and sting to see others choosing obedience, compliance, vague faith and turning the other cheek to reason and truth… and coming out OK on the other end.

In aftershocks of Kate Kelly, Post-Mormon Girl explained what’s at the root of it:

One woman wants to stay in. Another woman wishes to leave. Neither of us have been granted what we desire. And in the middle is a church that seems desperate for control. Control over a pesky woman who dared asked for equal rights. Control over a pesky apostate who wants to leave.

On the plus side, the CoJCoL-dS is pro-choice, really. OTOH, it doesn’t have a plan for current and future realities.

In scripture study: Who’s worse? King David or Justin Bieber? Steve Wells has been especially prolific this past week, compiling the commandments in the Bible, most of them odd, to say the least:

All fat belongs to me. So you and your descendants must never eat any fat or any blood, not even in the privacy of your own homes. This law will never change. Leviticus 3:16b-17

But in fabulous scripture study, a big group got together to watch God’s favorite musical — I wish I could have joined them!!

There was a fun holiday this past week — keep in mind that the “divinely-inspired” founding fathers weren’t quite as Mormon-approved as you might expect.

In books, J. Seth Anderson has a new review of the Lavender Scare, the Overeducated Housewife reviewed “Suddenly Strangers”, and Roger D Hansen discovered an interesting mission memoir. I have to admit this series reading along with Atlas Shrugged has been one of my favorite weekly for months! So many of these read-along-with-a-book series fizzle out, but I guess Rand provides a sufficient stream of “OMG! I can’t believe these characters are supposed to be the good guys!” moments for Adam Lee to keep it entertaining. 😉

And don’t forget the Sunstone Symposium is coming up!! I can’t go (because I’ll be at Camp Quest), but you should take their quizzes to see if Sunstone is right for you!

Have a great week!