Folks, I’m very sorry to have taken off an entire month from my usual Internet activities. First I was in Paris — which sounds more exciting than it was — I was hanging out with my kids in the ‘burbs while my husband was running a Math conference. Then for…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Response edition
The big news this week is that Kate Kelly has appealed her excommunication. In her appeal, Kate wrote: I am, and have always been, a faithful Mormon. My only “sin†elucidated by you has been speaking my mind and pushing for gender equality in the Church. Far from being wrong,…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Reflection Edition
Chanson asked me to fill in for SiOB this week – I think it’s been a quiet week. (Sort of like Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon – it’s always a quiet week). But this week is quiet for many reasons – perhaps we’re all still reacting (or not reacting) to the…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Corporations are people edition!
You’ve probably heard some very disturbing news from the United States Supreme Court this past week. If not, John Oliver nailed it: We’ve all had some laughs over this piece on reasons not to leave Mormonism. I like Profet’s response and hawkgrrrl’s: There’s an implied set of cautions for the…
The Church asks its gay members to water-down doctrine
The LDS gay community has had ideological ties with the evangelical gay community for many years. Both groups went through an “ex-gay” phase from the 1980s to the 2000s and now both groups are in a phase of “you can be gay, just don’t act on it” after the near…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: They did it edition!
Yes, they did it. They excommunicated Kate Kelly. For asking questions and for her “tone”. And perhaps John Dehlin will be next. They even have this helpful “steadying the Ark” story from this week’s Gospel Doctrine lesson to back the leaders up on this, and Jesus isn’t as helpful as…
Server maintenance Thursday
I will be doing some server maintenance tomorrow (Thursday the 26th). There may be some down time.
New Church Survey
Mormon Open Letter has added a survey to their site in a new tab. The purpose of this survey is to gather information about any church action or threatened church action (such as excommunication) that Mormon church members have experienced due to their outspokenness or questions in regards to doubts,…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Let’s talk about excommunication edition!
Now that it’s been more than a week since the bomb dropped, the whole excommunication thing has gone into the discussion phase — and (as Andrew S noted) everybody has something to say about it!!! Even this week’s Old Testament lesson has some (tangentially related) points about how prophetic authority…
Why You Should Read and Sign The Mormon Open Letter
On February 7, 2014, we wrote the Mormon Open Letter addressed to Thomas S. Monson. The church had already started publishing essays in the Gospel Topics section of LDS.org. These essays introduced and attempted to explain some of the troubling historical events and doctrinal issues (e.g. translation of the Book…