I was kind of planning to call this one the “no news is good news” edition — since apparently the worst scandal of this week for the CoJCoL-dS was missionaries baptizing kids without their parents’ consent. Then I logged into Facebook one last time before beginning, and saw everyone posting the breaking news of the largest mass shooting in US history. Americans and their guns. I guess we’ll hear more about that story in the coming week.
There were a lot of great podcasts this past week, including an interview with Judith Freeman, one with John Dehlin, God-Awful Movies review of Saturday’s Warrior, Irreligiosophy on Mother Teresa, plus WMS recommended a podcast from the Orthodox Jewish community that perhaps we can relate to!
The rape discussion continues! Runtu suggested a simple new symbol for BYU alums to express their disappointment with their alma mater. Julie M. Smith argued that the New Testament Gospels condemn rape culture.
In other discussion topics, Zina of Zelph described the ways religion is not beautiful and told an amusing tale about Bednar, and Mithryn demonstrated that Hugh Nibley was an apostate.
In church history, did you know that Joseph Smith was convicted of assault? And that Lorenzo Snow’s polygamy is perhaps more shocking than Joseph Smith’s? And this story about poisoning?
In church-watch, the CoJCoL-dS is moving towards having seminary students master doctrine instead of scripture. Maybe we’ll finally get to learn what is doctrine and what isn’t!
We can still study the scriptures, though. For example, the Book of Mormon clarifies (modifies?) one of JC’s central messages:
The implication, at least the way I’m reading it, is that God will ensure that his chosen leaders will have adequate food, shelter, and raiment. Everybody else is on their own, at least in the Nephite world.
Why would the Book of Mormon make this change, narrowing a beautiful promise from the Son of God to encompass not everyone but only a select few? Could this implication that apostles needs and worries are of greater importance than the common man’s be one of the origins of the modern church’s hero-worship of its leaders?
In personal stories, we have careless mishies, more tragedy for the Adult Onset Atheist, and personal improvements for Alex.
So, my condolences to the victims and families of the most recent horror in the US. Maybe someday we can find the political will to put a stop to this. Until then, try to have a nice week. đ
I also wrote a couple of posts about the TBM mom in AL who apparently killed herself and her kids over a custody battle with her ex, who had evidently decided to leave the church. They may be worth a read. Or maybe not. After today’s news, it sort of pales in significance. đ
Hi Knotty — yes, I saw you wrote a lot of posts about Mormonism this past week. I just picked the two that were most connected with the hot discussion topics to link to, but I definitely encourage people to swing by your blog and read your other posts.