Sunday in Outer Blogness: Taking sides edition!

So, nothing dramatic happened in the Mormonspace in the past week, but the community became more polarized in the wake of John Dehlin’s excommunication. Runtu found Elder Holland’s discourse surprisingly defensive — and David T found it disingenuous — whereas Geoff B found it reassuring. Oh, and a stream of people on the fringes headed for the church exits:

I don’t want to have to choose between honesty and my church membership – nor do I expect to. But John’s excommunication has made something very clear. There is no room in the church for people like me.

This leaves the church itself a bit more homogeneous:

A monoculture will thrive only when the environment favors its growth and foreign species can be controlled. That is no longer possible in the world we share. The health of the Mormon church, and its ability to be a force for good in the world around it, depends on its ability to adapt to the turbulence at the edge.

How will they arrive there? Excommunicated apostates can’t move them — that’s the point of expulsion. Angry protests from out-groups and mass resignations from disaffected members only strengthen the resolve to defend the monoculture.

Now the CoCJoL-dS now actively prevents members from providing their own new contributions to the dialog. And it doesn’t have to be that way — people can provide beautiful acts of service when they’re not too micromanaged.

Of course people leave for all sorts of reasons! ExmoTales analyzed the standard stereotypes about why he left. The Mormon Child Bride wrote a poignant essay about how her own invisibility was what ultimately led her out of the church.

The sexism is a real problem (with deep roots) even for people who want to stay in the CoJCoL-dS. Allowing women the opportunity to give feedback is not enough. The disparity between girls’ and boys’ programs is substantial, and the rhetoric used to justify it harms boys as well. You’ll get the picture from this beautiful tribute to Lesley Gore. Fortunately some understand the value of diverse perspectives.

And that brings us to the scriptures. Did you know that the Book of Mormon includes a tale of scalping? (for realism?) And Daniel Midgley took a closer look at the good, the bad, and the ugly in the Sermon on the Mount. (In practice, it doesn’t appear to lead to a healthy self-image.)

Now for the non-Mormony stuff from our community! This ranking of presidential portraits left me laughing my ass off! (Yes, so funny that I spelled out the acronym!). 3-time Brodie winner Kuri has posted again for the first time in almost a year with an anecdote about giraffes! Froggey photographed a tiger as well as some beautiful scenes from Fort Worden. And Heather is testing the 21 Day Fix.

And, finally, folks — I’d like to share with you a little video I made this morning. It is not remotely Mormon-related, but I spent a few hours on it, and I’m pleased with it, so I want to share it. It won’t make sense unless you’ve read and/or seen the entire Harry Potter series, but — if you have — well… I’ll just say my kids found it hilarious. 😉

Have a great week!