Making our history one step at a time
Richard Bushman analyzed Joseph Smith's claims of authority as prophet through the lens of Max Weber's concept of political legitimacy. So I went straight to the source and read Politik als Beruf in the original German!
Rabbi Sacks' last book "Morality" is a deeply moving call to action to rediscover our shared responsibility to one another. If COVID-19 teaches us anything, it is that we need each other and our actions have direct consequences on those around us.
A political outsider with a mass following comes to the top post in the nation at the invitation of an embattled party wanting to ride on his popular appeal. They are convinced they can control him, but woefully miscalculate. Sound familiar? I picked up Volker Ullrich's recent biography of Adolf Hitler, wanting to understand all the details that led to the fall of Weimar Germany's democracy. In this first volume of a three-part biography, Ullrich covers Hitler's beginnings as transient artist to political agitator to chancellor of Germany.
It is an absolute pleasure to read Midnight Sun just to cringe at it. But I am here to make it even cringier! I'm sure they have been WAY too many Twilight metaphors, but I'm adding one more to the pile: behold, Twilight through the lens of my gay Mormon religious trauma.
I've been curled up on the couch with a Lewis's Letters to Malcolm book this week. He never wrote a book on prayer, because, well, who am I to tell one how to pray? but his personal field notes on prayer have left me reflective on my own spiritual life.
I chose to read *Saving Faith* by John Gee because I knew I would strongly disagree with it. I don't usually do that with the books I read in my free time, but this one touched a chord as a gay Latter-Day Saint and a survivor of sexual abuse.
Stevens was a top Republican campaign strategist for many state and national elections, including Bush and Romney. His thesis: Trump isn't an aberration of the Republican party; he is its culmination. What happened to balancing the budget? Small government? Personal responsibility instead of playing the victim? Character counts? These principles that were supposedly the bedrock of the Republican party were abandoned over night when Trump was elected.
Hayek and Chesterton gave me a healthy skepticism of expert opinion, but the fact still stands: we do ourselves a disservice when we refuse to listen to our experts. In the era of COVID-19, we are seeing battle lines drawn yet again. Tom Nichols' book is an excellent look at where we went wrong.
While historical fiction surrounding the events of Christ's life can be fun, even inspiring, this one hasn't aged well. From Nicodemus's rant about the decline of Roman family values (even fitting abortion in there) to making Judas a rapist, it was WIERD.
For many in this country, the reality is you are guilty until proved innocent. This beautiful narrative illustrates one story of hope where a wrong was made right. I pray that we may have more such stories of healing in our broken system.
