Sunday in Outer Blogness: Reacting to tragedy edition!!

Before we begin this week’s round-up, I’d like to remind everyone that you have only until this Friday to cast your votes in the Brodie Awards — and some of those races are really close!!

I have one more announcement: I’m working on upgrading the server, so you may see this page at some point in the coming week. I will do my best to ensure that access to the Brodie Awards voting is not interrupted. (On a related note, the wheatie/tearific winners have been announced.)

And now for this week’s news. Unfortunately, the news is not so entertaining as usual. It appears that “the policy” has led to a number of LGBT youth suicides. The CoJCoL-dS has expressed grief, but — considering the church’s role in causing the problem — some feel it’s insufficient, even inappropriate, especially without a promise or plan to make amends or at least to stop actively causing harm. Or something:

The church has repeatedly stated that those who feel same-sex attraction and yet choose to live the commandments of God can live fulfilling lives as worthy members of the church.

They can’t get through a statement recognizing the tragedy of these suicides without reiterating the very principles that caused the problem in the first place. It would be unfair of me to say that this is an awful article because after that line, I couldn’t finish it. I’m giving the 15 the benefit of the doubt when I say that they have no concept of what their teachings do to the minds of LGBT children, because if they did, they would be almost completely devoid of humanity.

Unfortunately, the leadership of the CoJCoLd-S tied its own hands when it announced that the policy change that got slipped into the secret handbook (and then got “clarified”/changed), was in fact a revelation on the hotline from God. This conceit has raised a few questions.

That little romp in the bird sanctuary is also wrapping up with a tragic ending, as one of the criminals has been shot without trial. According to the US constitution, people should be presumed innocent until proven guilty and given a fair trial — but the overabundance of guns throws a monkey-wrench into the works, as the suspect appears to have been reaching for a gun. And, while they deserve a fair trial, their case looks fairly straight-forward:

The misguided protesters believe that this treasured wildlife refuge, a sanctuary for more than 300 bird species, should be handed over to a small group of rule-breakers to exploit and profit from as they wish, at the expense of the public and of future generations.

Fortunately, we have lots of other dispatches from Mormondom! Indie Mormon shared what he’s learned over the past year. the Mormon Therapist offered a counterpoint to the church’s advice for the faithful who have family members who don’t believe. How is the CoJCoL-dS like North Korea? Zelph on the Shelf responded to LDS Living’s article on Mark Twain and discussed missionary conversion techniques. Ordain Women described how correlation broke the financial independence of the Relief Society. Alex analyzed an allegory from Hinckley. And Sheep Dip brings us the nefarious effects of sex ed:

Of course, the most shocking part of this story is Marie’s scientific knowledge about the spiritual consequences of sex and her cold and calculated advance planning to avoid God’s wrath. “It’s really terrifying,” said Helen Hayworth of the Eagle Forum. “How do kids learn the importance of abstinence if they aren’t properly ashamed of their bodies and haven’t developed a healthy fear that God will curse their private parts with a devastating plague, if they already understand how to protect themselves from chlamydia? It kinda takes the drama out of the whole situation.”

A recent study conducted by Liberty University confirms Hayworth’s worst fears. As young girls and women learn about sex from a secular source (aka “science”), their intellectual capacity to connect sinful behavior to God’s wrath severely diminishes and in some tragic cases, completely disappears.

In scripture study, Steve Wells presented some really interesting analysis — for millennia people have cooked the books to make the number of commandments come out to 613!

In spite of the tragedy, I hope you’ll have a lovely week — and don’t forget to have a look at some more categories in the Brodie Awards!!