The biggest Mormon headline this past week was the appearance of some companies owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Panama Papers. It was reported on the exmormon subreddit and discussed in a Zelph on the Shelf post that doesn’t appear to exist anymore and in a BCC post that suggests that at most one of the companies listed has ties to the CoJCoL-dS. Then Deseret News claimed that neither company listed in the papers is church-owned. So it looks like it’s a non-story (but I wouldn’t be surprised if some other church-owned company with a better disguised name is in there somewhere…)
In other news, it looks like the Catholics are ahead of the Mormons in slow march towards finally ordaining women! Also, Tyler Glenn’s faithful Mormon mom wrote a thoughtful response to her son’s “Trash” video. And Nearing Kolob reported on the dissolution of the one LDS stake in Armenia, on mishies in Japan being given a goal to baptize at least one person before the arrival of a GA — and on another GA’s talk rounding the number of active Mormons up to 14 million!
Sadly, it looks like one of our number posted a suicide note — the good new is that it appears that the exmo redditors rallied to get in touch with local friends of hers who (it appears?) were able to put a stop to it. I hope to see more confirmation that she’s safe.
In history, Richard of Zelph explained the origins of the “three degrees of glory”. And check out this excerpt from Christopher C. Smith’s Sunstone presentation on Joseph Smith.
In theology/philosophy, the Adult-Onset Atheist turned a broken chain into a metaphor, and in Mormon culture, Knotty contemplated the problems with the door-to-door model.
Life journeys! Joseph Broom has started his new life journey with a new blog. Zina of Zelph wrote a retrospective of her past year in post-Mormonism. AleixsAR recounted her experience as a candy-striper. And as part of a series on the experience of singles in the church, Mary Ellen Robertson wrote a great piece on how the expectations and judgments make things worse when it’s time to divorce:
One of the most difficult things I finally acknowledged to myself—and eventually to others—was that my marriage was NOT WORKING. It was a difficult, conflict-riddled, abusive, and often unbearable nine years punctuated with a smattering of brighter moments, but not enough positives to offset the negatives. What made it worse: I hid the realities of my situation from nearly everyone I knew. I was embarrassed that I wasn’t “making it work,” that counseling with four different therapists had produced no discernable improvement, and that I had stayed years longer than I should have. When I first started “coming out” about the divorce, most people were supportive and kind; others reacted with various measures of surprise or pity or they backed away as if my uncoupling was somehow contagious. In some ways, it parallels the negative reaction toward people who express doubts about LDS Church doctrine or history. There is risk in disclosing one’s countercultural beliefs.
In books, there are htree new reviews of various books of LDS thought, and we have a new installment of The Incidental Prophet!
Happy reading!