As Latter-day Saints, we know that every sin, every heartache, and all suffering can be redeemed through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We also know that the Savior is the only way to find redemption from and through these things. But how does the atonement do this? And why is it the only way? Honestly, I don’t think we fully know. There are a number of LDS authors who have provided insights, but I don’t think any of their theories are definitive.

I would just like to talk for a moment about the penal-substitution and the debtor theories of the atonement, and why I don’t like them very much. I think they are certainly useful metaphors, but neither describe the way I experience the atonement in my life. Let me explain: the penal-substitution theory of the atonement is, as C.S. Lewis states it, “the one about our being let off because Christ has volunteered to bear a punishment instead of us.” Every sin as a certain amount of suffering attached to it as punishment. Either we can suffer it ourselves, or Christ can suffer it on our behalf. Continue reading →

Several months ago, Orson Scott Card published an article in the Mormon Times that describes the loneliness he felt when he was a child, when everybody seemed to value athletic prowess and neglect intellectual curiosity. He explains, “This is the era when kids who actually excel at school are called by sickening epithets like ‘nerd’ or ‘geek’; intellectual or artistic students are usually treated as pariahs by their peers, unless they are also either rich, rebellious or athletic.” There is, indeed, a culture among our youth that prizes athletic talent and downplays and even ignores academic talent. I don’t think these values come from nowhere. Children are taught what to value by their parents and their teachers, in addition to their peers.

Wait, what? Parents and teachers teach children to value athletic prowess more than academic achievement? Most of us would reject that accusation. Certainly none of us value athletic accomplishment more than intellectual accomplishment. How and why would we ever teach them to? The truth is that we vote on what our youth should value with our wallets, our time, and our praise.

Orson Scott Card provides a case example of how we do this: Continue reading →

Law School Prof. Butler Shaffer makes an interesting distinction between freedom and liberty. Liberty, he says, is what the state (meaning overweaning government) decides to grant you in terms of personal freedom. Freedom, he says, is your individual ability to do what you want with your time, believe what you want, think what you want. Freedom is in your core being and cannot be taken away, even by most totalitarian governments, although they may try.

In other words, freedom is your free agency, given to you by the very act of being born. Liberty is a governmental structure that hopefully allows you freedom of life, liberty and property (but almost never does).
Continue reading →

I’m interested in having a post that has tons of comments. So I thought I would combine a couple popular M* posts and see how it goes.

Voldemort’s views on modesty….

Discuss.

Gabriela Calderon de Burgos wrote an article at CATO regarding the end of free speech in Ecuador.  El Universo (The Universe) newspaper in Quito had a mostly blank page for its cover today.  The only thing on it was a quote from Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged:

When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion–when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing–when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors–when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you–when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed.

Why is this on the front of El Universo?  Because the newspaper, its editor, and other contributors were sued in criminal court by the leftist president of the country for libel.  The newspaper’s directors and editor will spend 3 years in jail. Fines of $30 million were ordered, as well as $10 million to be given to Ecuador’s president.

Oh, this is the fifth judge on the court since February.  He became judge on Monday, and issued the order just minutes before his week long term ended!

We now see that liberal efforts in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador is shutting down free speech and imprisoning innocent people that oppose tyranny. Continue reading →