Making our history one step at a time
I re-checked out Jerry Z. Muller's comprehensive little library of conservative theory "Conservatism: An Anthology of Social and Political Thought from David Hume to the Present" this past week, because I kept wanting to quote it, but I hadn't written down any quotes when I first read it! Checking it out from the UW library,... Continue Reading →
With the world cup upon us, I thought it would be fun to reflect on the first time I really got excited about the soccer when I was in Germany back during the 2010 games in South Africa. At the time, I was still serving in my first assigned area, the beautiful city of Münster.... Continue Reading →
Rating: 4/5 Stars Genre: YA Fiction Spoilers: No Reading time: Read entire book on a Saturday Goodreads summary Three years ago, Tanner Scott’s family relocated from California to Utah, a move that nudged the bisexual teen temporarily back into the closet. Now, with one semester of high school to go, and no obstacles between him... Continue Reading →
Trains. Sitting by the window seat on the inter-city express from Hamburg down to Münster watching the yellow fields of raps (the canola in canola oil) speed by was the first moment of semi-peace I had felt since the long flight across the Atlantic to begin my assigned labor in the corner of the Lord's... Continue Reading →
This past Sunday, a youth speaker was asked to give a talk on the Be One youth event given by President Nelson. As asked by the President of the Church, I had also been participating in the social media fast that week, but I didn't have the opportunity to watch the entire broadcast. My interest... Continue Reading →
I absolutely loved Craig Harline's memoir of his mission in Belgium in Way Below the Angels, and I hoped he had written more. It is funny, moving, and honest about the spiritual growth and trials built into serving a mission. It turns out that he is a history professor at BYU now, and he just... Continue Reading →
My mind has been turned recently due to a constellation of reading material and personal interactions to the topic of guilt. Guilt seems to have become a widespread phenomenon within the Church-- and particularly in the LDS LGBT community. It seems to be an ever-present burden, and the negative aspects of it have caused some... Continue Reading →
I read this interesting exchange between the Israelites, Moses, and the Lord this morning on my scripture study. It involved at heart what I would call a "democratic" rebellion against Moses as the representative of the Lord, and it had some pretty harsh consequences (I just include excerpts here, but a few people get swallowed... Continue Reading →
Planet Narnia was a Goodreads recommendation based on my Favorites shelf that is clearly dominated by the works of C. S. Lewis. I haven't read a book by C. S. Lewis for a good two years now, and I was wanting to rekindle some of the spiritual insights I had gathered while reading his works.... Continue Reading →
In politics, each side usually blames all the problems on the other: it's either the rainbow-loving communist godless liberals or the oppressive wealthy capitalist overlords and their witless redneck cronies. But here in Why Liberalism Failed, Deneen argues that the problems are systemic, built into liberalism itself and its underlying assumptions. By liberalism, he... Continue Reading →
History Engineers 