Sunday in Outer Blogness: May Day edition!

Yay, Baring Witness got an honorable mention in the Association for Mormon Letters Awards! Rachel Whipple wrote about her anxieties as a contributor to the collection. As a contributor myself, I’m pretty happy about the award.

In Mormon news, Utah liquor laws have added a new twist, and Mormon History scholars filed a brief against Trump’s Muslim travel ban.

The Salt Lake Tribune just won a Pulitzer Prize for its reporting on how BYU’s Honor Code contributes to the problem of sexual assault. Hal Boyd wrote an opinion in the Deseret News claiming that the Honor Code may help prevent sexual assault, and Adam Lee offered a counterpoint.

In Mormon discussion, John C discussed why it’s easy for men not to see the worst of the church’s sexism, and Sam Brunson analysed how Trump’s proposed tax reforms will likely affect Mormons. (I think it seems rather optimistic of him to assume that Trump will still be president and we’ll all still be alive when tax time rolls around again…), and MyrtleJoy discussed the role of emotions in decision-making:

Feelings matter. I pay attention to my feelings, and I examine them closely for nuggets of truth. I trust my feelings, because they have often led me to good things. Like my beloved spouse, and my delightful child.

But, they do not verify truth.

In scripture study, Alex is up to the Tower of Babel part. In meta-scripture study, Mary Ann hasn’t given up on Book of Mormon archaeology, and Alan Rock Waterman has a clever new excuse for why the Bible quotes in the Book of Mormon come straight from the King James Bible.

I hope you’re enjoying my new series (analysing the CoCJoL-dS) as much as I am! Mette Ivie Harrison wrote a post on ways the CoJCoL-dS has changed within Gen-X’s lifetime, and I will definitely be discussing some of these points! Lynette also posted some doctrines that are getting de-emphasized.

In life journeys, Joseph Broom said goodbye to a friend, Steph’s marriage ended, Sam Young wrote some mishie erotica, Jen opened up about anxiety attacks, and Lynette expressed some frustration with members of the CoJCoL-dS:

Defenders Of The Faith: I beg of you, please stop saying “but men and women are different,” or “God is in charge of the church and doing things his way,” or “you just have to realize that the temple is all symbolic” in a tone that suggests you think these radical ideas have not occurred even once to the person raising the feminist critique. Because, surprise! I’ve actually heard assertions like these before. I’ve heard them a whole lot, in fact. I’ve heard them over the pulpit as well as in informal conversations for almost my whole life. Believe it or not, I’ve actually already read most of the talks that get quoted at me that are supposed to solve everything. Sometimes I feel that I’m being talked to as if I’d just come across an anti-Mormon pamphlet claiming that Mormon women are oppressed and had naively swallowed it whole, and I just need an enlightened Latter-day Saint who truly understands the gospel to clear up my misconceptions. But the reality is that I didn’t need to read even a single anti-Mormon pamphlet to notice the glaring reality that women don’t have equal opportunities in the church; I was actually asking questions about the disparity long before I knew what an anti-Mormon pamphlet even was (or, to challenge another assumption I sometimes encounter, before I went to college and was exposed to evil liberal professors who tried to brainwash me into becoming a feminist).

And let’s close with a poem/prayer by J.A. Carter-Winward.

Maybe one of these days I’ll succeed in getting back to posting on Sundays! Yesterday I actually spent most of the day wrestling some unruly, proprietarily-formatted data into a relational database (with a little time off to catch Pokémons). Thanks for your patience!