It was a bit of a light news week in Mormon-land — no crazy scandals to get everyone riled up. Perhaps the worst of it was the super-wealthy Marriotts’ tacit admission that they underpay their cleaning staff. So lots of people blogged about random life stuff like a gay dad at his gay son’s wedding, tossing out religious books, trying to get a job, visiting Athens, explaining entropy, and photographing flowers!
Of course the CoJCoL-dS provided some discussion fodder with more emphasis on dress codes at one of the top-ranked party schools (with the resulting corrosive judgment). Also, the church’s corporate side is showing. Even more amusing — they’ve stealthily redefined “translate” (since the standard definition didn’t work for some of Joseph Smith’s translation work) while reporting less and less data. Who’s the apostle du jour? The church is still battling gay marriage — plus, don’t forget the underwear! Also, the some Mormons are taking advantage of the Hobby Lobby decision.
And don’t miss this exclusive interview with Insana Dee — including previews of what she’ll be presenting at the ExMormon Foundation Conference, October 10-12, The Double Tree Suites, Salt Lake City. Or if you’re still in the CoJCoL-dS, there are other opportunities for activism.
Now for scripture study! Every Jot and Tittle is up to Inheritance laws and animal sacrifice. In Book of Mormon study, we find a terrible metaphor following some questionable poetry:
Not only did God hear Zenos’s prayer when he was in the wilderness, but he also heard Zenos’s prayer when he was in his field, in his house, in his closet, in the midst of congregations, and when he had been cast out and despised by his enemies. Sure, you could argue that the passage is poetic, but I think the point is made quite effectively in the first example. Any modern reader would have understood perfectly without some poor Nephite schmuck slaving over a slab of metal to scratch in all the poetic repetitions.
And our Old Testament lesson covers the usefulness of prophecy:
A prediction needs to be specific in order to be any use. I mean, it’s not much of a prediction if you can’t tell what it refers to until after it happens, is it? There’s no point in predicting that (say) a war will happen, but not giving a specific time or place. Wars are always happening, and it would be easy to point to some war, and claim a fulfilment of prophecy. There’s no point in predicting it will rain, but at some indefinite point in the future, and then claiming fulfilment when it eventually rains. Seriously, what wouldn’t count as a fulfilment of prophesy using that principle? “The cat sneezed. Isaiah was right again!” You could drive a truck through that.
The scandal in the atheosphere continues, so I wrote a series of posts comparing our current situation to earlier divisions in the feminist movement. Holly also had a spike in blogging this week, with a review of Outlander (“a super boring, super bloated paean to how great it is to be dominated by some big dude in a skirt and no underwear and learn to call him master”) plus some insights about letting Calvin off the hook from The Tudors.
Have fun with this light reading! Personally, I am enjoying a visit from my cousin (the brother of MSP-regular Aerin), and looking forward to getting back to some good conversation. Have a great week!
Let’s all send empty envelopes to the Marriott corporate headquarters and to Maria Schriver’s foundation to “educate” them about how empowering an actual living wage is.
Chanson thanks for the shout out to my blog and the conference! Enjoy your visit with your cousin.