This past week we’ve celebrated two of the most favorite holidays on the exmo calendar: Pie–N-Beer Day (a.k.a. Pioneer Day) and Mass Resignation Day!! Regarding all the resignations: don’t worry, the CoJCoL-dS has an awesome plan:
When asked how they planned to cope with the fact that as many as 80 percent of the single Mormon women between 18 and 30 are no longer active in the LDS Church, Elaine Dalton, Young Women president, said, “That is the question of the day. . .I don’t know that we have all the answers right now.”
Dalton said she and her two counselors plan to “reach out and strengthen those young women. . .to help them understand who they are and the divine mission they have on earth.”
Yeah, that’s totally gonna work. Also note: watch out for trek…
Another favorite Summer event is on the horizon: the Sunstone Symposium!! Speakers include Mithryn and Joanne Hanks. Speaking of Joanne Hanks, The audio version of her book It’s Not About the Sex, My Ass just came out.
Unfortunately, there were also some tragedies in the US — types that are starting to become very predictable. A black person is dead as a consequence of traffic violation, and there was yet another bigotry-inspired mass shooting:
we’re always being told to pray for the victims (“Now it’s time to shower the victims with love and prayers,” says Bobby Jindal) and not for a sea-change in our country’s attitudes, not for people (men, mostly white men) to stop thinking shooting a bunch of strangers is the answer, not for the government to do something. No, “pray for the victims”. So even the praying we do is meaningless by design.
I think it would be a good idea to get out and see the film that was the catalyst for this latest terrorist attack:
Like the angry YouTube commenters he almost seems to be cribbing his critique from, White is especially offended that Amy — it’s not clear if he’s talking about Schumer or the character she named after herself, or both — can be so unapologetically sexual without suffering “social stigma.â€
Here are the LDS news short-takes: Various plans of happiness. One of the most harmful books ever produced by the CoJCoL-dS is slipping into the black hole of “we never taught that.” Are there any unique doctrines left?? The Stuart Udall sequence continues! Runtu provided this week’s analogy. The Family Proclamation may be related to the Internet. And hawkgrrrl distilled 9 ProTips from Richard Bushman:
What fundamental difference is there in those who let the knowledge negate their faith and those who let knowledge sustain it?
[…]
I have come recently to ask people how they feel about Christ. If they still value him, I think they will be okay. But many have given up on Christ and even on God. Their problem in other words is a Christian, not just a Mormon, problem. I don’t know why that happens. People are left without a spiritual anchor of any kind. My hope is that wherever they land they will have the strength to reconstruct a belief they can live by. I don’t like it when anti-Mormonism becomes their religion. That is not a good way to live.
This leads me to a “pro-tip” of my own: Stop asking the faithful why people leave the faith. Just stop. They are simply going to keep repeating the same myopic, self-serving nonsense you see in the quote above. If you actually want to know why people leave (and not just hear why you can dismiss them as lost, sad, misguided, inferior to the faithful, etc.), then ask the people who know. We’re right here on the internet, just a couple clicks away from you. You can start with some of my earlier essays here and here.
In this week’s New Testament Lesson we learned about the importance of backing claims with evidence:
But now here’s Jesus with the kicker.
John 20:29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
Here we have it, folks. This is the one that I count as the worst verse in scripture. Jesus is saying that evidence is fine, but no evidence is just as good. Maybe even better.
By insisting that believing without evidence is somehow on a par with believing with evidence, Jesus takes the metric that rational people use to evaluate claims, and turns it on its head. If we all did this, there’s no limit to the mutually exclusive and contradictory claims we could believe. To accept this way of thinking is to abandon reason.
If you care about getting the answers right, you can’t just believe whatever you want.
In personal journeys, the Sinister Porpoise is learning new ways of expressing emotion, Mike C’s beliefs have evolved, and Kiley shared some tales of Mormonism’s effects on her family relationships.
In fun, we have 11 Signs You’re Dating an RM from the 19th Century, more of the Duggars’ many flaws, and a chart evaluating the crop of Republican presidential candidates!!!
I hope you’re enjoying a great Summer!! (Or, if you’re on the flip-side, I hope you’re having a lovely Winter. 😀 ) I just got back from a fantastic vacation visiting my family in the US, and I’ve got some book reviews coming up for you in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!! 😀