Hard to believe, but it looks like the CoJCoL-dS may be moving on from the 1950’s to… the 1970’s I guess…? Female church employees are now allowed to wear pants (naturally, I’m more astonished to learn that they weren’t…) and the dudes can wear colored shirts!
The most baffling part was Elder Cook’s quote: “I would hope that Latter-day Saints would be at the forefront in creating an environment in the workplace that is more receptive and accommodating to both men and women.” I can’t even imagine what he thinks he meant by that. Is he crowing about being more progressive than the FLDS? Or maybe he hasn’t set foot in an ordinary workplace in 60 years…? Or maybe he meant “I would hope Latter-day Saints would be at the forefront — and it’s really disappointing to see how far we are from that aspiration.”
Also the Zion curtains are tumbling down and BYU is making progress on its rape problem! But the changes don’t seem to be coming fast enough to retain the Mormon Millennials.
But aside from all of that, the Mormon discussion this past fortnight was really dominated by the ripples of Savannah’s story.
In discussions, we have a new allegory, a discussion of the importance of diversity in Mormon literature, and a list of Mormon doctrines that have been jettisoned:
These are not peripheral Mormon doctrines. These teachings have been CORE to Mormon Doctrine since the beginning. You might argue that Joseph Smith and early church members literally fought, starved, bled, and (in some cases) died for these teachings. Plus, these teachings are encoded into our Articles of Faith, canonized scripture, and sacred temple ceremony.
What led to the changes? Social pressure – in every case. At the end of the day, the Mormon God seems to cave to social pressure, if the pressure is significant enough.
And so I am bewildered by the fact that so many educated, thoughtful, modern-day Mormons haven’t really noticed, let alone contemplated the implications of these core changes to Mormon doctrine…and instead remain devoted (with money, time, and reputation) to a church/religion that clearly is not what it claims to be…but more importantly…is becoming less and less of what it once was with every passing generation.
It reminds me a bit of my own recent post on the subject — which is part of a series that I will be continuing and wrapping up soon!
Naturally there’s been further commentary on the ongoing tragedy in the United States, and what can be done. Sadly, the atheist movement is currently in no condition to be of any help. The climate is also getting scary — maybe we can do something about that.
In personal journeys we have an image of reconstructing one’s faith, a journey through ex-Mormonism, rosé and remembrance, contrasting one’s current and former self, and a tale of a Mormon family trying to stop an interracial marriage.
In fun, Paul Bunyan and the Mormons, chocolate chip cookies, and a list of celebrities you perhaps didn’t know were ex-Mormons!
Next weekend I hope to get back on track with my series analysing the CoJCoL-dS — we’ll see how it goes. Have a great week and happy reading!
Two or your links (new allegory, importance of diversity) pull up the same story. I’m guessing that’s not intentional. 🙂
Jeff — Thank you so much for catching that! Crazily enough, the missing link was to Johnny Townsend’s SL Trib Op-Ed about LGBTQ Mormon literature — an article that mentions your work. It’s definitely a link I want to share with everyone. It’s fixed now.