We have lost faith in the idea of self-government that animated European nations since they began to take form in the high Middle Ages. Simultaneously … we have lost faith in Providence, in the benevolence and protection of the Most High; or, if these expressions appear really too obsolete, we have lost faith in the primacy of the Good. … And yet the two operations of freedom are inseparable, as are action and hope. Every action, and especially civic or... Read more
Trump University is accused of fraud. Hearing the case is U.S. district Judge Curiel, an American born in Indiana. Trump objects because Curiel’s parents were Mexican immigrants. But does it matter who his parents were? Of course not: this is the only possible American response. The whole point of America is supposed to be the individual’s freedom from inherited classifications or identities. Americans hold that all human beings are created equal and should be treated equally under fair and equal... Read more
This post is part of General Conference Odyssey. This conference, which marked the beginning of Harold B. Lee’s service as President and Prophet, was notable overall for its firmness and clarity in declaring the unique and critically important truth of the Restoration of the gospel and of the priesthood through the Prophet Joseph Smith. In this Sunday Morning Session, Pres. N. Eldon Tanner notes some German astronomer’s call, in order to save our civilization from disaster, to “listen hard for... Read more
This post is part of General Conference Odyssey. Pres. Harold B. Lee, the newly ordained prophet, at the conclusion of this Priesthood Session, recounts his being called “just as a young man in [his] thirties … to head up the welfare movement to turn the tide from government relief…” Aware of the magnitude of the task and of his own inexperience, he was staggered by the assignment. As I kneeled down, my petition was, “What kind of an organization should... Read more
This post is part of General Conference Odyssey It turns out that doubt was not invented by the highly intelligent and critically thinking Mormon bloggers of the millennial generation! One could get the impression from our activist bloggers that belief used to be easy and comfortable, before the internet and the discovery of equality and all that. Weirdly, we find Elder Loren C. Dunn (“How to Gain a Testimony”), already 44 years ago, not only acknowledging doubt but also finding... Read more
This post is part of General Conference Odyssey Elder Marvin J. Ashton’s idea of friendship (“What is a Friend”) was more or less common sense in 1972. It would be considered cruel and bigoted today, at least by the elites who seem to get to decide what counts as “bigoted.” Ashton’s idea includes the lovely Arabian proverb: “A friend is one to whom one may pour out all the contents of one’s heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that... Read more
I had been serving as a missionary for three months in Reims, France when this solemn assembly was held to sustain Harold B. Lee as prophet, seer and revelator. Pres. Lee’s opening address, as he assumes the mantle of prophecy, is solemn indeed: Again in the might demonstration of this solemn assembly, I am moved with emotions beyond expression as I have felt the true love and bonds of brotherhood. There has been here an overwhelming spiritual endowment, attesting, no... Read more
[This is another addition to our ongoing General Conference Odyssey — which project you can also check out via our facebook page. To learn a little about the reasons which motivated this project, you can visit this article at Meridian Magazine.] The massive repudiation of the debased Donald Trump by Utah Republicans last week has provoked a fair amount of respectful reflection among conservative intellectuals on the Mormon difference. It tends to take something like this form: “You’ve got to... Read more
Peter Lawler is right of course to call attention to the connection between the politically worthy habits and dispositions of Mormons and the fundamental beliefs around which Mormon communities build themselves. This week is another notable week for the development of a Catholic-Mormon partnership in facing the challenges of an ever more thoroughly secular America, and of the real friendship upon which such a partnership must draw… To read the rest of the article, click here. Read more
[This is another addition to our ongoing General Conference Odyssey — which project you can also check out via our facebook page. To learn a little about the reasons which motivated this project, you can visit this article at Meridian Magazine.] Elder Hartman Rector, Jr. of the Seventy, in “Our Witness to the World,” insists on the Christianity of Mormonism, and then proceeds to an interesting effort to situate the LDS in relation to Protestants on the one hand and... Read more
The Soul and the City
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