This week’s biggest topic was Elder Christofferson’s talk about how it’s now (sort of?) OK for faithful Mormons to support gay marriage. See this great analysis:
Oops, he does go ahead and mention that by short term he really means “all of mortal life†– and then he doesn’t bother to remind you that on the issue of homosexuality, the “commandments and principles†of the church are that it is 1) an immoral sexual perversion 2) something which can be eliminated through the process of repentance and 3) completely in conflict with the sacred institution of marriage and as such can have no tolerance or acceptance among the righteous.
There seems to be some backlash among the faithful. The homophobia may have been one of the selling points of Mormonism for some people, so even this grudging step in the right direction is a step in the wrong direction for some.
It was a big week for interfaith interactions! Alex has his own Mormon spy! Then there was a temptation to say “I told you so”, some very funny stuff, and a tale of getting shunned for apostasy. Plus a Mormon Stories episode on speaking to loved ones about faith differences. This essay on Faith, Doubt, and Context is also related.
In the annals of gender, we have some commentary on traditional marriage, there was a really interesting personal account/analysis of being a woman in a singles’ ward:
Most importantly, by separating single people, it is easy for other church members, and most importantly leaders, to loose touch with what the needs of the YSA members actually are. And because there are more single LDS women than men, this also means that Sister’s concerns get pushed even further out of the forefront.We should be taking every opportunity to strengthen women’s voices. Inadvertently (I hope), YSA women are all to often left out of conversations.
Clearly, auxiliaries aren’t designed to address women’s concerns.
In church-watch, we have the leaked secret handbooks, why all-testiomony-all-the-time is a counterproductive strategy, polygamy opinions, the Mormon Duggars, a timeline of the rise of the modern church, the CES Letter at a crossroads, and when not being able to say the real word is worse than saying it. Note that the secrecy goes way back.
In response to apologetics, the church is now passing off obvious forgeries as “facts”, but Runtu is on the case. Runtu is also continuing his concise dictionary of Mormonism and came up with a fabulous list of 52 Questions That Might Lead You to Mormonism!!
In other random fun, we have this weeks biggest design fail, and some fun recipes! Also, the awesomeness of post-Mormon baby showers, the example of Taylor Swift, and some fascinating photos of cemeteries. Plus, PUAs attempt to write poetry.
Folks, sorry this SiOB is a little late. My niece (across the ocean from me) just got her first Minecraft account, so I spent a big chunk of the weekend building a castle in the new world we set up on my server to play with her! The first house she built was beautiful, and we’re looking forward to some more fun in the weeks to come! I hope you all are having fun times as well! 😀