Despite the best efforts of the Brethren to energize the Saints for Proposition 8, the initiative has little chance of passing. According to David Magleby, the premier scholar of referenda from BYU, initiatives typically start out with overwhelming support, which erodes when the opposition uncovers the complexity of the issue…
Author: Hellmut
Beyond Conservatism
The popularity of the Sarah Palins among the Republican base explains a lot about America. I have never been to Alaska but Palin reminds me of my friends and neighbors in rural Nevada. Her attitudes about sex education, evolution, and library books are fairly typical in broad swaths of the…
The Conservative View of Marriage
People who have sex shall be married. Gays and lesbians have sex. Therefore gays and lesbians need to get married.
The Context of Perfection
Some of you might have seen the Tribune’s report about return missionary Micah Wilder who is a member of a band of Mormon converts to evangelical Christianity. Reading the Bible more closely, Wilder says, that he has discovered that the Mormon God is too vengeful rather than forgiving. Naturally, orthodox…
When Love Requires Respect and Recognition
John Dehlin raises the question what we can do to stop the suicides of our children. Our children commit suicide because we deny them the love and respect that every human being requires to prosper. Unable to reconcile the Mormon idea of goodness and their gender, self-destruction appears to be…
The Humanity of Marriage
If quality marriages were about minimizing differences then incest among identical twins would result in the best marriages. Obviously, that’s absurd. What really matters is not similarity but compatibility. We all belong to the same species. Therefore, all sort of people can successfully procreate and live a happy live. Of…
Child Protective Services Are Exposing FLDS Children to Chaos
The Dallas Morning News reports that CPS is unable to properly house a mother with her new born baby: “This woman has been removed from the birthing center with a brand new baby boy and is now sitting in the offices of CPS because they don’t have anywhere else to…
Motherhood in FLDS Culture
Carolyn Jessop puts the protest of FLDS mothers into perspective: I had eight children in 15 years, but I did not know what a miracle it is to be a mother. I had no way of knowing the deep gladness mothering gives. I didn’t know because in the FLDS, great…
The Logic of Power and Salvation
In disfellowshipping or excommunicating scholars (like Michael Quinn, Grant Palmer, and others) Church leaders create a theological paradox. Assuming that such actions are eternally binding implies that, regardless of researchers’ choices, it becomes impossible for them to obtain the benefits of the Savior’s atonement.
The Priesthood, Power, and the Rule of Law
In light of the sensationalist press coverage of Mormon fundamentalism, the LDS Church is eager to disassociate itself from more traditional forms of Mormonism. Whatever the historical and theological relationship between mainstream and fundamentalist Mormonism may be, there is, of course, a big difference between the LDS and the FLDS…