Sunday in Outer Blogness: The best defense edition!

So, the CoJCoL-dS decided to decided to respond to its bad publicity situation by — wait for it! — shooting the messenger! As usual. Because a church that never apologizes because it’s always right can’t possibly need a little help. On the plus side, at least they’re making an attempt to get serious feedback on this issue.

Some argue that failing to send assault victims straight to the honor code office (to be investigated/punished themselves) would result in increased false accusations, but Julie M. Smith really, really nailed it on how to protect our boys from being falsely accused.

Speaking of help, the Exponent II is in the middle of a critical funding drive to archive data.

This week’s miracle — some LDS “sister missionaries” (i.e. missionaries, but female) are allowed to wear pants! (And mishies are now also allowed to protect themselves from the sun with hats and sunglasses!) Leona made a very good point about women’s work and a famous Bible story:

The work still needed doing. And if she’d sat at Your feet, it wouldn’t have gotten done. Her sin wasn’t in the doing, it was in complaining about Mary. But if she hadn’t complained out loud, she would have resented her still, and things might have festered, and that would have been bad. I know about quiet resentment. I know what it’s like to feel like I’m doing nearly all of the rowing. All women do. It’s not a happy feeling. And yes, Mary was doing something higher, better, more important. But Lord, for Heaven’s sake, Lord, Martha’s work still had to be done. Probably right then. There are many, many time-sensitive elements when it comes to housekeeping (particularly when you’re doing it with no indoor plumbing or refrigeration).

In other gender-and-sex, I really enjoyed this Mormon Expositor podcast about women and “sacralized sex”, and I’m planning to listen to this podcast interview with Affirmation president J G-W. Transgender folks — the Bible offers you little help.

In history, Steve Otteson found a historical parallel that may interest you!

In excommunications — now a regular feature! — a friend of Denver Snuffer got snuffed, and not just him:

Not only was Louis targeted for Church disciplinary actions, but his son, who had been serving an LDS mission, also was targeted and labeled an apostate and sent home (on April 22, 2016) dishonorably from his mission for being associated with his dad, even though his son did not endorse his father’s testimony nor has he read any of Snuffer’s books or participated in any activities associated with Snuffer.

And the procedure had a particularly Orwellian flavor:

Louis’s court statement is that the mission president called his son into his office on a Thursday and told his son he had a plane ticket for him to go home the very next day (on Friday). That means the Mission President (or his superior) had already decided to send Louis’s son home before even talking to him. And as you’ll read, there were ward members in his mission boundary that knew his son was going home before he even did.

[…]

The Stake President required that Louis sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) if he was to attend the council.

The news is pretty disturbing, so let’s go straight to personal stories. Chris Smith recounted speaking in tongues. And I posted a group portrait of the characters from my comic book! 😀

Have a great week, and good luck not getting X’d!!