Welcome to the second virtual co-ed 3rd hour. This week’s lesson is a topic that is often a seething hotbed of Mormon Matters controversy: “Obedience: When the Lord Commands, Do It.” Continue reading…
Archive for the 'politics' Category
Perhaps our feelings about tomorrow’s letter were abreacted in last week’s multifarious and sporadically acerbic discussion. My purpose here is to highlight some of the feelings and perspective of one who is connected to many aspects of the Church’s political action regarding gay marriage. My sister Emily is a lawyer in California, and gay (also kind, witty, and sagacious, but that is beside the point). Her journey through life has had a positive and profound impact on my family and I. I have learned a lot from her, but this issue specifically has inspired me to be more thoughtful and considerate of those who are different from my straight white male middle-class American self (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
News Flash: The LDS Church WILL be actively opposing gay marriage in California this November, and is encouraging members to actively oppose gay marriage in California.
They are asking all members of the church to, “do all you can to support the proposed constitutional amendment by donating of your means and time to assure that marriage in California is legally defined as being between a man and a woman.”
Here’s the memo to the church, which will be read to all members in California next Sunday.
Ouch.
Are teens who practice polygamy devout or brainwashed? Are teen terrorists devout or brainwashed? When is a teen old enough to be held accountable for crimes, but not old enough to make his or her own life decisions? Continue reading…
Should our political views always align with our moral views? When and if they don’t align, why not? Guest blogger Ray explores this idea in today’s Guest Post:
In a previous post, I explored the idea of defining “political” vs. “moral” issues for purposes of deciding when (and how) the Church should get formally involved. A related issue is whether we, even without formal instruction from the Church, are obligated to cast certain, pre-determined votes on select issues. Put another way, does my Mormonism require me to vote in favor of all manner of local referendum banning homosexual marriage? If so, how far does this unwritten rule go? And what about my free agency?
“I’m so glad I was born in this, the one true church of God.”
“Please bless the party leaders tonight [of the Republican Party] that they may be guided to make the right decisions.” Continue reading…
The general election is looming, which means that soon, we here in the U.S. will be hearing an official First Presidency statement in our wards regarding the Church’s political neutrality. You’ve heard the mantra before: the Church does not get involved in political issues, but it does take a stand on moral questions. Despite its seeming simplicity, this statement raises a host of unanswered questions regarding the wisdom of Church involvement in domestic political movements, and its seeming unwillingness to get involved in issues affecting Saints in other parts of the world.
The raid in Texas is interesting (and differs from AZ and UT prosecutorial efforts) in that polygamy is being attacked directly. So, will this shift in approach result in the end of polygamy (again)? Continue reading…
At the recent press conference (April 6th 2008) celebrating Elder Christofferson’s Apostleship, he was asked to comment about a local issue by The Salt Lake Tribune’s Jessica Ravitz. The question was about a situation that centered around a local group’s wishes to erect a monument displaying their, 10 commandments style, ‘Seven Aphorisms of Summum‘. The group wishes to erect their monument next to an established monument of the ten commandments which is located in a public city park. Jessica asked Elder Christofferson if he had anything to say regarding their wishes. Continue reading…
I am not an Obama supporter and this article is not politically motivated. It is actually a commentary on how the media often creates a controversy rather than reporting an existing controversy. This issue has been weighing on my mind since the Danzig case and the Salt Lake Tribune’s quick retraction of the headline. The Samantha Power story seemed like an apt example.
‘Hillary Clinton’s a monster’: Obama aide blurts out attack in Scotsman interview
Since news first broke that the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (or FLDS church) was building a new Zionic city in western Texas, I’ve been excited to watch history unfold (and perhaps repeat?) At first there was little more on the site than three large dormitories masquerading as “hunting lodges.” However, it didn’t take long before aerial photos began to show an expanding grid of roads. The grid reminded me instantly of Joseph Smith’s “Plat of Zion,” after which so many 19th-century Mormon towns were patterned.
MY DISENCHANTMENT WITH THE STATE
Perhaps I should blame Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Amy Goodman or John Pilger for my enlightenment. Or perhaps I should thank the neocons, George Bush and Tony Blair for waging an illegal war, as judged by the UN, in Iraq and destroying my naive ideal of the United States & UK. I am only 25 and had never experienced the fears of recession or seen, first hand, the duplicity of my own government before. As time went on, I began to read, download, and read more. Why was the world I knew as a student and a young man at secondary school not the world I was seeing and learning of?
Continue reading…
I was in the offices of the new Kirtland Temple Visitor Center last Thursday when the call came through. According to the mayor’s office, Bill Clinton was coming to Kirtland on Saturday — to hold a rally and to tour the Temple. This would make Clinton the first US President to tour the Temple since James Garfield.
The Temple staffmembers were excited, but skeptical. If Clinton were coming, wouldn’t they have heard from the secret service directly? Continue reading…
Title: The Mormon Church On Trial: Transcripts of the Reed Smoot Hearings
Editor: Michael Harold Paulos
Publisher: Signature Books
Reviewed by Nicholas S. Literski
For decades, talk of the Reed Smoot Hearings has conjured up claims of religious persecution, duplicitous testimony, and shocking admissions. Intimidated by the multiple volumes of original source material, would-be historians have settled for short excerpts and whispered rumors. That day has passed, and we have Michael Harold Paulos to thank for it.
Condensing thousands of pages of testimony into a single volume presents tremendous challenges. Editorial bias, consciously or not, continually threatens to interfere with an honest, balanced impression of the whole. I’ll admit I was initially concerned when I read that Paulos attempted to “balance testimony favorable to the LDS church with testimony that was not.” In spite of Signature Books’ solid track record in documentary history, I worried that Paulos might distort the overall tenor of the hearings by forcing a “balance” that did not exist in the original. My fear, however, was entirely misplaced. Continue reading…
When I was a kid in Southern California, it was obvious to me that there were two kinds of people in the world: Mormons and the rest. As I got older, the rest became more differentiated; there were Catholics and Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Baptists, Syrian Orthodox, Church of Christers, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists and even some people who claimed to have no religion at all. I was puzzled at one family’s celebration of Christmas when they apparently didn’t really even belong to any particular religion that I could discern.
As I attended high school and early-morning seminary, I began to notice that there was more than one kind of Mormon in the world as well. Some Mormons had such different attitudes and beliefs from me that I sometimes felt like I had grown up in a different church. Also, some Mormons I knew made strange comments, like whites shouldn’t date those of other races because the prophets have counseled us not to, or Americans shouldn’t pay income taxes because the prophets said not to. To my horror, as one raised by a baby-boomer mom to respect Martin Luther King and John Kennedy, some even used statements of the BRETHREN to condemn the civil rights movement as communist-led and hence Satanic. Continue reading…
Many of you may be aware of an ongoing case in Utah involving Peter and Mary Danzig. I’m not going to summarize here, as you can read about the details on various sites, but I’ll post links to the back-stories below. This post is just about opening a conversation. The core issues I feel are under debate are about how much involvement the LDS church officially has in the opposition of same sex marriage. The Danzigs resigned their membership because they felt the church was pressuring them to act against their own consciences. The church says (in a very unusual press response to a personal case) that it does not encourage one position or the other, but rather to be active in politics to support your values. Continue reading…
There’s a lot of talk in the media and across the ’nacle to the effect that Romney’s Mormon identity was the critical factor that torpedoed his candidacy. The argument is that a large percentage of Republican primary voters have anti-Mormon sentiments that kept them from supporting the candidate who, by the numbers, shared all the values positions that mattered to them most. The comparison has specifically been drawn with Log Cabin Republicans: Are Mormons a second group in the GOP’s big tent that find themselves despised by their fellow Republicans?
If that’s where Mormons find themselves, we should ask: What lessons can they learn from Log Cabin Republicans? Continue reading…
The wires are alive with the story that Romney is dropping out of the race. More as the story develops.
See Breitbart, TIME and CNN for the story. Romney is quoted saying:
This is not an easy decision for me. I hate to lose. My family, my friends and our supporters … many of you right here in this room … have given a great deal to get me where I have a shot at becoming president. If this were only about me, I would go on. But I entered this race because I love America, and because I love America, I feel I must now stand aside, for our party and for our country
During this campaign season I’ve been helping Newell Bringhurst and Craig Foster edit their forthcoming book, The Mormon Quest for the Presidency. The book tells the fascinating story of 9 Mormons who ran for president prior to Mitt Romney’s bid and I thought I’d briefly share their stories while Mitt’s fate is being decided today…
1844 Joseph Smith Jr. (no party) — In an era when the separation of church and state were still absolute, Smith was the first clergyman to run for president. As such, he did not emphasize his role as a prophet or as president of the Mormon church. Instead, he campaigned as “General Joseph Smith” (of the Nauvoo Legion of the Illinois militia). Smith organized the Council of Fifty whose chief goal was to campaign to get him elected president. The Fifty ratified Smith’s choice of Sidney Rigdon for Vice President, and then spread out across the country campaigning for the Smith-Rigdon ticket. Smith’s positions were expressed in a widely distributed pamphlet entitled “General Smith’s Views of the Powers and Policy of the Government of the United States.” Dominating the day was the question of Texas annexation, which Smith favored. This was a very popular position in the western states which were interested in expansion and cheap land. People in the eastern states viewed the question more soberly because annexation meant an unprovoked war with Mexico. Continue reading…
I just got back from my neighborhood polling place, where I voted for Mitt Romney in the Michigan primary. Let me tell you why…
Mitt Romney is a terribly weak candidate. He comes off as a phony, primarily because he is a phony. The charge of being a “flip-flopper” has stuck to him (because it’s true) and Romney’s counter message — that he’s legitimately changed his mind and become a true believer in regressionism — has gone no where because it’s not genuine.
Ultimately, even if Romney eventually is the last man standing in the Republican primary season and becomes the nominee, he will not have the support of the core voters in the GOP coalition: fundamentalist Christianists. Christianists know “Mormonism is a cult” like they know that “the fossil record is explained by the Flood.” Although Romney would still be able to count on some in this group — hard-core racists if Obama is the Democratic nominee and hard-core Clinton-haters if Clinton is — a large proportion will stay home come November, rather than vote for a cultist. Meanwhile, Romney is so weak that if he loses Michigan, he’s probably washed out. Continue reading…
We know there’s a problem. Here’s how the bulk of us as Mormons see the problem:
SYMPTOMS: Americans have an anti-Mormon bias which manifests itself on the right with Evangelicals who call Mormonism “non-Christian” (and who cost Mitt Romney the Iowa Republican Caucus) and on the left with secularists and atheists decrying Mormonism’s foundational stories as an obvious “fraud.”
DIAGNOSIS: Mormons are “persecuted” by non-Mormons for their “weird” beliefs.
RECOMMENDED TREATMENT: De-emphasize (or eliminate) weird beliefs. Explain Mormonism using highly-nuanced language, which we (as Mormons) believe will satisfy non-Mormon ears (”milk before meat”).
We keep going back to the doctor because the symptoms persist. We keep refilling the prescription — and we now seem addicted to the medicine. Continue reading…
In Part 2 of this series, review the “Mormon angle” of Mitt Romney’s much anticipated religion speech entitled ” Faith in America “, delivered on December 6, 2007.
Panelists include: John Fowles, John Hamer, Tom Grover, Russell Walker and John Dehlin.
All music from my podcasts are provided by Clayton Pixton and Skye Pixton.
In this episode, we review Mitt Romney’s much anticipated religion speech entitled ” Faith in America “, delivered on December 6, 2007.
Panelists include: John Fowles, John Hamer, Tom Grover, Russell Walker and John Dehlin.
All music from my podcasts are provided by Clayton Pixton and Skye Pixton.
