It seems like a couple of years ago there was some LDS-related scandal practically every other week — often making national and international news. Now, not so much. I guess the CoJCoL-dS can’t compete with Trump. Those were the days.
Well, let me scrape together what Mormon news I found over the past few weeks. The highlights were mostly personal stories like Joseph’s reminiscences of love, Samantha’s path to joy, Gina’s love of her husband’s long hair, Anonymous’s experience with waiting until marriage, Jana’s list of life goals, John’s weird dream, and Laura-Denise’s tale of getting kicked out of church for standing up to racism.
In other personal journeys, Steve Otteson has decided to join the Community of Christ, apparently after listening to my brother’s thoughts on the subject.
This month folks have been remembering the discriminatory policy that the CoCJoL-dS launched two years ago; some discussing the parallel LDS exclusion policies for children of polygamists and children of gay couples; others leaving the church. Heather Armstrong spoke at the 8th annual mass resignation.
Then there were some fascinating discussion topics:
Joseph Peterson argued that the cookie-cutter LDS meetinghouse is a design triumph. Alex analyzed the mysteries in the wording sacrament prayers, plus other way the Book of Mormon’s teachings diverge from modern practice. Facsimilogos reviewed a piece from the LDS Newsroom about avoiding doctrinal deception:
Maxwell also accuses the members of the members of the church of not only being gullible but that they (we) lack doctrinal sophistication. Hmmm, I wonder whose fault that would be? If members of the church lack doctrinal sophistication – and LDS church members are highly active among church going people – where does the fault lie? Perhaps the leaders should provide a little more of that doctrinal sophistication. This highlights the perpetual behavior of church leaders towards the members. Everything is always the fault of the members! It just reminds me of dealing with a spoiled child. Nothing is ever their fault.
Sam Young is continuing his series on the problems with Mormon bishops grilling teenagers about masturbation, and some others have spoken and written about it this week as well, including John Dehlin. Nate Bagley recounted his shame surrounding masturbation as a Mormon teen, and apparently concluded that porn is the problem.
But it’s not just the really, really bad stuff that makes people leave the church. It’s also about failing to build a community that motivates people to stay:
In the 1970’s, during my teenage years at church, I had a wonderful time. This was a time of YM/YW activities that didn’t have to have a “Priesthood Purpose” . We played basketball, went golfing, chased the girls in the ward (literally and figuratively), went to trips to Los Angeles including a NBC studio tour and saw the filming of the sitcom “Sanford and Son”. Went water skiing, snow skiing, and anything else we could think of. We did road shows, and had church sport leagues, with regional games that included overnight road trips and sleeping in a hotel.
And then there’s another big hole in the church’s tent:
I remember first mulling over the reality that a ward could run without any women at all, that if all the women stayed home on Sunday, you could still have church services. (I guess the only possible wrinkle would be what to do with the male Primary children, who could still have Primary teachers—just not a Primary presidency to keep the whole thing running.) If all the men stayed home, on the other hand, there would be no church services. Full stop.
Well, let’s close with some fun, like General Conference Slam Poetry. Or a photo of Fantasy Canyon. Or — strangest of all — some Mormons took clips from Trump’s gaffe-filled trip to Puerto Rico interview and turned it into an interview about his Mormon mission! Fascinating that some Mormons still wish to claim Trump as one of their own…
See you in another couple of weeks!