Awards season is almost upon us, and this year’s race for X-Mormon of the year is likely to be our most exciting ever! I hope to have the nominations thread up on Friday of this coming week.
The depressing part is that things are still not OK in this world. In addition to all the Fascism and sexism, it’s starting to look like we’re losing the race between fixing things and extinction. Maybe it’s time to join the resistance? I hope it will not be futile.
Anyway, sorry to be Little Miss Sunshine all the time. Let’s have some stories of hope! Novus Uomo is getting back to embracing life. GenX Gillian found the opportunity to apologize for a past fault. And some formerly-active exmo bloggers have started a new blogging community!
Other people are doing lots of cool stuff! Ben is creating a space for gay Mormons in Tucson, Froggie is making caramel apple pie, and Tracy M is stress-knitting.
Then we have church-related discussions like what’s up with Jesus, when Mormonism stopped polygamy, and fixing the problems with Gospel Doctrine lessons and the problems with priesthood.
The CoJCoL-dS has produced another round of ad-hominem for those who leave the church:
In many cases, students in similar circumstances made opposing choices. She went back through taped interviews with students and detailed what she learned in a spreadsheet.
“What I have been able to understand is why people stay,” she said. She boiled it down to character. Those who stayed active in the church exhibited patience, faith and trust in Jesus Christ, hope, knowledge and wisdom, obedience, diligence and persistence, humility, repentance and forgiveness, charity and virtue.
In lessons for ladies, we have adventures in modesty enforcement, and the subtext of some church lessons:
In my ten year old mind I translated this lesson as: I am just something to trade around. I am an object. I won’t have a voice in this world. Nobody mentioned if Heber’s wife had a say in the exchange. It was just a fate she needed to accept.
Those are the realities I began to understand as a ten year old girl- these are the teachings that shaped my understanding about myself and what my destiny and purpose was: that God blessed men with women. The more righteous a man, the more women he would be rewarded with.
That message just continued to be reinforced as Johnny Lingo became a seminary and YW/YM favorite. Women do not have a choice. We marry for the priesthood. A man will decide our worth.
And some women are seeking the divine feminine.
Here’s to surviving another week!