This is a guest post by Michael Towns, long-time commenter and friend of M*.

I was recently struck when I read a blog post by the versatile Rod Dreher. For those who don’t know Mr. Dreher, he is an American author and columnist. He was a longtime Catholic who converted to Eastern Orthodoxy in the wake of the Catholic Church’s child sex abuse scandal. I have found his blog posts and musings to be trenchant, important, and often amusing. He covers a lot of cultural ground, delving into politics occasionally but usually hewing to topics of societal issues and influences.

The recent posting was entitled “Can There Be Jews Without The Jewish God?” It was a response to Jonathan Tobin’s analysis of a Pew survey of American Jews. It deals with Jewish assimilation in secular society and the resultant loss of distinctive Jewish identity.

Essentially, “irreligion” has taken center stage in American Jewish life. As Dreher summarizes:

The main lessons, it seems to me, are as follows:
1. Without belief in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and in the absence of anti-Semitism, there’s no binding reason to be Jewish.
2. Unless the Jewish community is willing to police its boundaries, to draw sharp lines between who is and who isn’t in the tribe, it will dissipate.

He goes on to note:

Fifty years ago, there was a lot more cultural pressure to affiliate with a church. You felt that you should, that it was the right thing to do. That’s long gone. In a free society in which there is no serious penalty, social or otherwise, for not being Christian, you have to give people a reason to want to be a Christian. As we’ve observed in this space, no church has found the solution to waning Christianity (see Pew’s study on the “Rise Of The Nones”), though the Jewish experience seems to confirm the idea that a religion that does not offer something meaningfully distinctive from the mainstream will not endure. If you fling open the windows of the Church to the world as it is today, you run the real risk of the winds blowing your house down.

Continue reading →

This is a guest post by Huston, who is a high school and college English teacher, a convert, and the father of six.

Five years ago, my wife’s grandfather had a major stroke. A physically active man throughout his adulthood, he saw most of his strength evaporate overnight. In the immediate aftermath of the stroke, he needed constant care. Was his life ruined?

Not at all. He and his wife had had eight children. Each of those eight had had several children. By the time of his stroke, most of the grandchildren themselves were adults who were starting families. Between the descendants and their spouses, there was an army of dozens who were ready and able to serve.

The grandchildren utilized social media and coordinated around-the-clock care for him for weeks. Then we helped move him and his wife out of the home they could no longer care for themselves in. Today, they live with a son and daughter-in-law who are themselves empty nesters with decades of independence ahead of them.

Financial burden to society: zero.
Continue reading →

Fifteen years ago I woke up with a massive hangover and decided something had to change. The night before I was pouring myself a drink and my little girl came up and asked me for some. I said, “no, this is poison.” She didn’t know what the word poison meant, so she said, “I want some poison.”

Something had to change.

I was not a huge drinker. I don’t know if I was technically an alcoholic, but I was getting to the point where I would have many drinks four or five days a week. I was waking up at 3 a.m. with a hangover all the time. I did not like where my life was going, and I felt an incredible sense of guilt pressing on me, like I was wasting a precious gift.

A few weeks before I had begun, out of the blue, to read the Bible. I had reached the age of 35 without ever reading more than a few passages. I could sense that something new was coming, something frightening but also promising.

So I woke up one morning 15 years ago, feeling disgusted that I was drinking poison, and told myself I would never do it again. And I haven’t.

I was luckier than other people. I did not feel any withdrawal symptoms, my hands didn’t shake, and within a few days I was really OK with this new reality, the sober me. I never went to AA or any other similar program. I took it one day at a time. When I thought about getting a drink, I would simply force myself to think about something else. I changed my habits. For months I would go out of my way not to drive by my favorite liquor stores.

It was easier for me than others. The Lord was helping me. He was holding out his hands. I was taking some steps toward Him, like a toddler toward a parent. And then He was holding me, but I didn’t know I was being held at the time.

When I was drinking, I did not see any way out. My vision was very limited. I would spend a lot of time every afternoon anticipating that first drink, telling myself how fun it would be to buy a six-pack and watch a football game. I would spend all week thinking about those pitchers of beer at the bar, but afterwards I would say to myself, “is this all there is?”

Reading the Bible got me thinking. God was not the stern authoritarian I thought He was. He was forgiving and loving. Even though His people kept on doing stupid things, He kept on offering them another chance. All they had to do was take a step toward Him.

When I finished the Old Testament, I thought I might be a Deist because I definitely could believe in that God. I had no knowledge of both the Father and the Son. So I read the New Testament, and I remember very clearly the moment I read the Sermon on the Mount. This was the Man I wanted to follow, the Man I wanted to be. Why didn’t the world know how wonderful this man, this Jesus, was?

I had some Christian friends at work, and I would talk to them for hours about this man, this Jesus.

And then, completely unexpected, my sister called to say she was getting baptized in the LDS Church. I said, “Religion is good, I believe that now, but a Mormon? Don’t you think they just want you for your money?” She laughed and said no and asked me to fly out for her baptism.

It was at her baptism that the heavens opened. I was surrounded by Joy. I could not stop smiling. I felt love for everyone and everything. I felt true hope and I felt like my life had a direction, although I had no idea what that direction was.

Five months later I got baptized after reading the Book of Mormon for the first time. I am happy to report that I have read the Bible and the Book of Mormon many times since then.

Did the journey start when I first picked up the Bible, or did it start 15 years ago when I woke up one morning with a hangover and decided not to drink again? I don’t know. But I know I am blessed. Five kids, a wonderful wife, a beautiful life with opportunities to help others and be a tiny bit like that Man I love. Thank you Lord for these 15 years. I could not have done it without you.

In the wake of the unsuccessful Republican-led fight to defund Obamacare, and the shutdown of (a small part) of the federal government, many of my Republican friends are in despair and my Democrat friends are chortling with glee.

If you live in a world where you derive pleasure or become lugubrious because of the short-term tactical blunders of your friends or opponents, this reaction is very understandable.

I tend not to live in such a world. Make no mistake: my goal is to promote policies and ideas that decrease the size and power of government. This is the only solution to our long-term economic and societal problems. As such, I tend to look at things from a long-term perspective.

I don’t really care if the Republicans are well-positioned for 2014 or 2016, if all we are going to get from the Republicans is more Bush/McCain/Chris Christie, etc, etc, etc. I don’t see how that will resolve anything important.

If, however, we are creating the long-term conditions for a significant decrease in the size of government, then there are reasons to be optimistic.

With that in mind, let’s look at some (small) reasons for optimism.

Continue reading →

Discussions in the Mormon blog world regarding social issues are often very frustrating because many readers refuse to consider what prophets have actually said regarding the issues they discuss.

The purpose of this post is to reemphasize — using the words of modern-day prophets, seers and revelators — the Church’s clear position on these social issues.

Elder Russell M. Nelson on same-sex marriage:

“Regardless of what civil legislation may be enacted, the doctrine of the Lord regarding marriage and morality cannot be changed. Remember: sin, even if legalized by man, is still sin in the eyes of God. While we are to emulate our Savior’s kindness and compassion, while we are to value the rights and feelings of all of God’s children, we cannot change His doctrine. It is not ours to change. His doctrine is ours to study, understand and uphold. Marriage between a man and a woman is God’s pattern for a fullness of life on Earth and in heaven. God’s marriage pattern cannot be abused, misunderstood or misconstrued.”

Elder Dallin H. Oaks’ talk reminded listeners that the 10 Commandment prohibition on idols is not only aimed at man-made statues. Idols are beliefs or world views that contradict God’s eternal truths. One of these idols is political correctness.

The Deseret News summarized Elder Oaks’ talk this way:

“We believe that, as an essential part of His plan of salvation, God has established an eternal standard that sexual relations should occur only between a man and a woman who are married,” he said.

The importance the Church places on the law of chastity explains its commitment to the pattern of marriage that originated with Adam and Eve and establishes God’s pattern for the procreative relationship between His sons and daughters for the nurturing of His children.

“There are many political and social pressures for legal and policy changes to establish behaviors contrary to God’s decrees about sexual morality and are contrary to the eternal nature and purposes of marriage and child-bearing. These pressures have already permitted same-gender marriages in various states and nations.”

Laws legalizing so called “same-gender marriage,” he added, do not change God’s law of marriage of His commandments and standards.

“We remain under covenant to love God and keep His commandments and to refrain from bowing down to or serving other gods and priorities — even those becoming popular in our particular time and place.”

Continue reading →