Impose upon yourself “a future as irrevocable as the past.”
Ross Douthat does his best to sound Mormon.
Women as likely as men to physically attack the one they love.
“I have been converted to the Scouting program.”
President Monson’s closing talk is going to be one that’s worth returning to, time and again. (more…)
This is an interesting problem for missionaries. Being a missionary is wierd. It is not “just like you.” But if the missionaries do too much to overcome this barrier, its not obvious that they have anything different to offer. Maybe its not coincidence that in Spain most of the members came from the minority of Catholics who took Catholicism pretty seriously.
On the sweetness of Mormon life. (more…)
I’m guessing Philadelphia is a gun-free zone. (more…)
“A clause in the bill likely would allow most Amish families an exemption from the insurance requirement, but the bill could still create sticky issues for the young people who have not formally joined the church.” (link)
A disturbing aspect of laws with religious exemptions is the notion that religious beliefs are the only legitimate kinds of personal preference. Something matters so much that we pass a law or ruling to make that the way things are, yet there are exemptions for members of religious bodies that don’t think that’s the way things ought to be? Kind of lousy for the person who also disagrees with the law, but for non-religious reasons.
Liberty has to be upheld for everyone. Any law that can justifiably have a religious exemption is a law that shouldn’t exist at all. A person shouldn’t have to belong to a church to get relief from laws running his life. If religious people are only defending religious liberty, and that becomes the only liberty left, then soon enough it will be curtailed as well.
Mormon SF readers will enjoy this First Things essay.