So, the first installment of my new rebooted version of SiOB is only a day late, so we’re off to a great start! you’d think that since the Pokémon Go servers have been rarely reachable this past weekend, I’d be more on the ball, but the thing is that I’ve really been on a roll with my comic book drawing. That and I found another one of those popular-book-deconstructions (this time it’s 50 Shades), and those things are like crack to me. Anyway, let’s get to the news!
Despite some progress, being gay is still a big problem for Mormons, given discrimination and rising suicide rates. Some, like Laura Root and Ben, are trying to make it work — despite the fact that the CoJCoL-dS has doubled-down on its gay marriage as “counterfeit” rhetoric. Dad’s Primal Scream has just launched a new resource website for gay dads (and he could use your help). He has a few of his own ideas on what makes an marriage counterfeit:
Counterfeit marriage…
Lie to a woman. Continue lying to yourself. Hide your feelings. Shield your thoughts. Do everything in your power to ignore the uncontrollable reactions that your body produces when particular men sit close, or casually touch your shoulder, or even make eye contact from across the room. Swallow the pain that you feel in isolation and fear. In fact…remain apart. Don’t associate too closely. Feelings might develop. Don’t touch another man. At least not in any way that could be meaningful. Dedicate all touch to your wife.
Pretend that it doesn’t hurt. Act as if you are excited and glad to be physical with her. The thoughts passing through your mind would hurt her immensely, so hide them completely. Don’t ever admit that you couldn’t function as a husband if you didn’t turn your thoughts to “dark and twisted fantasies.” If you encounter struggles in your physical relationship, and your sweet and trusting wife asks what is wrong, think through the panic and come up with something to say that might be believable as an explanation for your inability, on that particular night, to do those things that men are supposed to do spontaneously with the woman they love. Lie. Lie. Lie.
Then there was some entertainment in Mormon-online-discussion-land as John Dehlin posted a podcast which included some audio from a General Authority and a historian working for the CoJCoL-dS — but there was one little problem: they didn’t know they were being recorded nor did they consent to having their remarks published. Apparently this is legal, but JD ultimately decided it was not ethical, so he pulled the podcast from his website, which naturally made about ten times as many people want to hear it (like me! while drawing!) — and consequently the Infants on Thrones site crashed from all the people trying to download the still-available version there. Then Glen of the Infants cut the thing into three pieces which you can listen to here.
I found the above series a little more interesting than the Infants’ other recent leaked-info podcast, the one with the Mormon Leaks Guideline Responses to Common Questions. The most interesting thing about that leak (IMHO) is that it demonstrates that the maddeningly evasive/misleading responses you often hear from church leaders are in fact centrally-coordinated talking points — not just individuals choosing to “answer the question you should have asked” on their own. But actually listening to these official unofficial non-answers is kind of irritating. Just read Alex’s take on it (though the questions did apparently inspire Andrew S to write an interesting analysis of Mormonism’s relationship with the doctrine of trinity).
In other news, Denver Snuffer is now the prophet of a new schism in Mormonism!
In personal stories, Jana is celebrating her brand-new marriage, and Myrtlejoy is celebrating her mixed-faith marriage:
Really? I responded. None? You don’t regret marrying someone who started out Mormon, and ended up a happy agnostic atheist?
No, he said. I love the woman you have become as much as I loved the woman I married. More, even.
In life journeys, some Mormons brainstormed some ideas of what they’d take up as a replacement if they were to leave Mormonism and Froggie took some lovely photos of Fantasy Canyon, Utah!
Gina Colvin has some hesitations about teaching people that the Book of Mormon is historical:
Yet, holding on to the claim that the BOM is indeed an ancient record of Native American and Pasifika ancestry does violence to Indigenous knowledge. Contemporary scholarship is pointing to the impossibility of the culture described in The Book of Mormon and choosing to see yourself in Book of Mormon ancient identities is often done at the expense of the tribal and cultural identities offered up in the present.
In books, Nancy Ross wrote a new review of the Garden of Enid — in a nutshell she seems to think that Hales has some good ideas but that they’re maybe a bit too complex for the format of a series of one-page gags:
Hales talks about his purpose in the interview. He was interested in telling the story of the family who needs a lot of love and support from the ward as a way of showing the goodness of Mormonism. As someone who occupied that difficult space as a Young Woman, it looks a lot different from the way in which Hales portrayed it: full of guilt for being that-needy-family (there is a brief reference to this), full of remorse for not being able to fix unfixable problems with greater faith and obedience, full of experiencing other people’s well-intentioned ignorance about the limits of your situation, capped off with a healthy dose of Mormon rejection when you are unable to be loved out of your problems.
I hope you’ve found these discussion interesting! Next week — on to something new!