Anne Case quoted in a Washington Post interview describes our times in a nutshell:
“In a previous generation, you had the chance of getting a good job with only a high school degree — a job where you could move up the ladder, where there would be what we call ‘returns to experience’: that as you grew older, your wages would rise. (more…)
I.
“Mottramism” is a term that Rod Dreher has periodically employed to denote an unreflective acceptance of eccesiastical authority. The term was coined by Mark Cameron, who describes it thus: (more…)
“The baseball season is only a few days old, but already Stephen Piscotty has had what is going to be one of the weirdest, scariest innings of the year.
“The St. Louis Cardinals outfielder managed to get plunked by a baseball three times — in the elbow, the other elbow and finally the head — in roughly three minutes during the Cardinals’ 2-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs.
“‘ … [T]hat was probably the toughest trip around the bases I’ve ever seen,’ said Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright. ‘You just hope he’s okay.'”
[Note: The Cardinals didn’t win; they lost 2-1.]
A friend said, forget politics, the basic program for righting the world is three simple steps.
1. Get yourself together.
2. Get a good family going.
3. Get your kids to repeat steps 1-3.
He’s right.
[Google Images result for “Contemplative Pepe”]
I have a theory about the rise of the Alt Right. Or maybe that’s too specific: I have a theory about why the American Right has become considerably more verbally aggressive, politically incorrect, and nationalistic over the last 2-4 years, a phenomenon that encompasses Trump and Trumpism, the Alt Right, the rise of Breitbart and Steve Bannon, etc. (more…)
“Harry Potter has become a surprisingly obsessive allegorical tool for liberals’ opposition to the Trump Administration [ . . .] I’ll disobey Occam’s Razor and offer another mostly unrelated hypothesis about why Harry Potter stories are such useful allegorical material for contemporary liberals, aside from a general hunger for myth and meaning in a post-religious age.
“Harry Potter, especially the movies, is about the legitimacy of authority that comes from schools.”
If I were a lawyer working in Phoenix with mostly Spanish-speaking clients, I would try to get for my office the phone number 602-214-0857, though any number in the range from 0783 to 0931 would be close enough. And I’d have a 1 kilogram silicon sphere on my desk, and somewhere where everyone could see it, a 22.4 liter bottle of gas (any gas, ideally). The thought of it makes me want to order a burrito at Chipotle and say “yes” when asked if I want to pay extra.
So, who does have that number?
What’s the right way to act when you disagree with the Church?
I’m not asking this question because it’s some sort of novel situation I find myself in. Far from it. Who doesn’t have disagreements with the Church? Even with the prophets, dead or living? Even with (*installs lightning rod*) the Word of God itself as recorded in the scriptures? There are thousands of pages of scriptures, conference talks, Church policies, Sunday School lessons, half-remembered anecdotes from your batty old aunt about how they used to run things in the pre-war M.I.A., etc. The odds that you could thoughtfully ponder all that and not find some points of honest disagreement are astronomical. (more…)
A certain man fell among thieves, and was robbed and beaten and left for dead.
A Levite walking by took a selfie pic with a concerned face, and posted it to Facebook, with the comment that somebody should do something and it was time to stop the hate. It got lots of likes and re-shares.
And a priest walking by also saw the man, and a took a photo, and tweeted it, #NoMoreRepublicanSpendingCuts. And lo, the hashtag trended, and a celebrity did retweet it. And verily the counter hashtag, #VictimLivesMatter, which shared a clip of a Democratic congressman calling for an end to oppressive policing in the Jerusalem area, also trended.
And a Samaritan passed by, who possessed not even a smart phone, neither did he watch the news. And he had compassion on the man, and bound his wounds, and took care of him.
Who then was this man’s neighbor?
His Majesty keeps a small trove of candy in the cabinet above the microwave.
Every year there is an end to Christmas day and an end to the Christmas season. It is always a bit melancholy. Each of us will have a last Christmas of our life. That will be a bit melancholy too.
Our kind of Christmas will end someday too. Someday there will be a Last Christmas within the circle of the world.
But this year I have had an intimation that at the true last Christmas, Christ will be there. It will not be sad at all. (more…)
Helpless as a Baby and Helpless as a Child–what we learn from Christ taking on the feeble helplessness of an infant.
How we are Mary and Overlooked Christmas Scriptures and We are Joseph and Mary and Holding the Messiah–four essays on being a father or a mother or a recipient of revelation. See also this brief meditation on the comparison between Mary and the tree of life.
Provo’s Daily Herald reports the death of Bruce Porter, an LDS General Authority. His death leaves me with questions, all of them irrelevant: (more…)
