Yes, earlier this week, we celebrated the National Day of Reason, and now today we celebrate the hand–wringingest holiday on the Mormon liturgical calendar: Mother’s Day!! Let’s have a look at this year’s rendition of this yearly spectacle: If you have all the mothers stand up to receive a gift…
Sunday in Outer Blogness:
It’s been a slow week in Mormon news. The biggest item seems to be that you can now pay your tithing online (though you still can’t keep the amount confidential from your local leaders). Remember, tithing is basically the most important thing to do. Oh, and don’t criticize the leaders,…
Final religious amicus brief on US same-sex marriage
I’ve been following the same-sex marriage debate on the legal front since the days of Prop 8. In 2010, Judge Walker gave his damning ruling that “a gender restriction on marriage is nothing more than an artifact of a foregone notion that men and women fulfill different roles in civic…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Changing of the guard edition!
The CoJCoL-dS has a very interesting way of including God in the process of deciding who gets to be the next supreme leader: of the eligible prophets, seers, and revelators, the president is the one with the most seniority that God hasn’t killed. Yet. Now it looks like God is…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Opposition Edition!
What’s up with those who voted “opposed” in conference? Maybe this interview will help explain it. One person who participated (in spirit) described some reasons: My main issue is that the church needs to have a way for the average member to bring up an issue without being demonized. He…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Conference Review Edition!
General Conference was last weekend, so this SiOB is the traditional wrap-up of the commentary after everyone’s digested it a bit. Especially the nardoo: My faith is starving, full of nutritionless spiritual nardoo but too weak to stand, and I’m scared that our tiny baby steps of progress—women praying in…
Thoughts on RFRAs and Nondiscrimination
Renewed interest in Religious Freedom Restoration Acts (e.g., Indiana, Arkansas) has arisen because everyone knows the US Supreme Court will okay gay marriage for the country in a few months. Conservative religious people and entities want to be in a comfortable position when this uncomfortable reality hits — they want…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Easter Conference Drama Edition!
What’s the best way to spend a long holiday weekend? If you said “watching General Conference“, you may be Mormon! Normally the most boring activity known to man (the faithful give tips on making your kids watch and staying awake), this conference was livened up by five people who decided…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Y Be Free edition!
The challenge to BYU’s accreditation has hit the presses!! Let’s see what happens! Theoretically it’s OK to be gay at BYU, but not everybody got the memo. In the meantime, FreeBYU has started posting profiles. And what is the CoCJoL-dS up to these days? I mean, besides conference. Not what…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: New directions edition!
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…