A guy in our ward told one of the best sacrament talk stories I have heard, and I wanted to share it with you. He was asked several years ago to volunteer to drive from Provo out to the “Tree of Utah” sculpture in the middle of the salt flats along I-80. This sculpture was done by a Swedish artist, and apparently a high-level Swedish official was coming out to visit it, and my friend was asked to drive there to make sure the area around the sculpture was clean.

He spent an hour or so cleaning up beer cans and other garbage, which he loaded in bags in his car. And then he had to contemplate driving back to Provo. He could take the easy way or the hard way.

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People who choose to visit the M* site should read the following by Jon Max Wilson.

I will highlight some crucial paragraphs below. I do not always agree with my on-line friend JMax. In fact, he has written a lot of things I don’t agree with. But we have maintained a good relationship because we have disagreed in a civil manner.

His concept of a blog being a digital living room is extremely important. Continue reading →

In a previous post, I showed why all people who love the Constitution should oppose Obamacare’s attempt to use the commerce clause to justify mandating economic inactivity. Many people saw this as a partisan issue, and indeed it is mostly the left and Democrats who find common cause in defending Obamacare.

In this post, I will appeal primarily to Republicans and conservatives to take another look at the Constitution and re-consider support for the PATRIOT Act. I hope we will see less partisanship on this issue.

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Not that I was watching TV on a Sunday, but did anybody else notice Mormon actor Kirby Heyborne in the Mini-Coooper commercial? In an apparent sexual reference, Heyborne puts a lot of stuff in the back (boot) of a small Mini Cooper car. This is not the first time Heyborne has been seen doing controversial things during commercials: some people didn’t like his participation in a Miller Lite commercial.

Brother Heyborne is best known in the Mormon world for his roles in the “RM,” “Single’s Ward,” and “The Best Two Years.” I thought he was hilarious in “The Best Two Years.” My take: give Kirby a break, it’s not easy making it in the acting world.

One of my favorite stories in the Old Testament is that of King Josiah in 2 King 22. One of his priests discovered the scriptures in the temple. The words were read to King Josiah, who “rent his clothes.” Josiah realized that the people of Israel had not been paying attention to the word of the Lord, clearly laid out in the scriptures. He then read the words of the Law to the people in an attempt to help them repent and turn back to the Lord, which is what the scriptures told them to do.

This is the amazing thing about going back to source documents — over time, people can lose their way unless they continually refer back to the originals. This is one reason Lehi was told to bring the brass plates to the Americas with him: without the source documents, the people would be lost.

The United States has a source document called the Constitution. Over time, it’s been forgotten and forsaken. Every once in a while something comes along that refers us back to the Constitution, such as Judge Vinson’s decision on Obamacare. I will argue in this post that getting back to the true meaning of the Constitution is something that people of all ideologies should rally around. Overreaching government — which the Constitution was intended to prevent — is just as likely to be used by Big Government conservatives as it is by Big Government liberals. In that case, it is only the Consitution that protects us all.

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