Brother Smoot was one of the few Mopologists with enough of a spine to try and engage Philip Jenkins a couple of years back, and indeed it is with great courage (or foolhardiness?) that he's now pursuing a degree in Egyptology at a Canadian university, apparently in a bid to become the successor to John Gee in the field of Book of Abraham apologetics. But today we want to recognize Young Smoot for his contributions to the study of Mopologetics--more specifically, his revelation that Mopologists think that many of the Brethren's rules are silly and/or stupid:
Steve Smoot wrote:...we should think very carefully about what is and isn’t important in building Zion and edifying the Saints. In short, we should question our shibboleths. Does it really matter to God what coloured shirt someone wears when they pass the sacrament? Is someone really of morally dubious character if they have tattoos? If aunt Suzy likes to read the Ensign and not Sunstone or watch Fox News and not MSNBC, does that really make her an intellectually stunted simpleton, racist, or homophobe? Before we cast judgement on others because they don’t properly articulate our preferred shibboleths, we should ask ourselves if the outrage has any actual moral foundation in the first place.
Of course, as the illustrious Dr. Shades has been saying for well over a decade, the Mopologists (i.e., Internet Mormons) believe in an entirely different Church--one in which they are free to interpret the rules of the Brethren in peculiar ways. (Is it really any surprise that their latest venture is named Interpreter rather than, say, Believer or Disciple?) So three cheers for Steve Smoot, the Mopologist-in-training, for providing all of us with a valuable reminder about how the Mopologists don't feel constrained by the dictates of the Brethren. This award, I believe, has been long overdue.
