Meg Stout has been an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ (of Latter-day Saints) for decades. She lives in the DC area with her husband, Bryan, and several daughters. She is an engineer by vocation and a writer by avocation.
Meg is the author of Reluctant Polygamist, laying out the possibility that Joseph taught the acceptability of plural marriage but that Emma was right to assert she had been Joseph's only true wife.
Janet Christiansen (sitting in a white dress at the far end in front) in the 1990s with her parents, siblings, and other family.
Janet was a tall, willowy woman, seventh of ten children in a family that even now belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ.
This Friday evening, ABC will air another special focused on how Janet, a stunning beauty, was murdered by Raven, her handsome husband. No doubt the wedding photo taken the day Janet and Raven married in the DC temple will be featured, symbol of the hope and love shattered by Janet’s death.
To you Janet and Raven are likely strangers, though perhaps you will feel some kinship because of the Church. But I had known Janet since she was born. I coached her Church basketball team. She was in the same classes at Church as my two youngest sisters.
Elderly adults in the United States spend an estimated $400 Billion per year supporting their adult children. (Illustration by Patrick Leger for Barron’s)
A couple of years ago, the Church launched a series of Self Reliance workshops. These can help individuals and families understand their current status and future, then take action to provide for a future that will be a blessing to themselves and others.
When does helping an adult child go from compassion to willing participation in exploitation? When does helping children, grandchildren, and friends go from being helpful to debilitating the very individuals we seek to help?
Hotter than this thermometer can measure? Don’t drink it.
In 2016, the International Agency for Research on Cancer[ref]The International Agency for Research on Cancer is associated with the World Health Organization.[/ref] identified one carcinogen as “drinking very hot beverages above 65C (150 degrees Fahrenheit).”
This 2016 guidance has recently been validated by a study published in the International Journal of Cancer. Researchers studied over 50,000 people in Iran. The risk of developing throat cancer was nearly double in those who reported drinking very hot tea (at temperatures higher than 65C or 150 degrees Fahrenheit).
This makes sense. High temperatures are used to kill micro-organisms in organic matter. This process is called pasteurization, and is a great thing for killing microbes in a product you might wish to store for future consumption, such as milk. Need to ensure water is safe in a survival situation? Many folks keep a Water Purification Indicator (WAPI) in their emergency kit, which measures when water has been heated to 150 degrees for long enough to be safe.
So 150 degrees Fahrenheit is something of a magic number.
Do pasteurize food and water.
Don’t pasteurize your throat.
For what it’s worth, this correlates with other behaviors that damage body tissues, such as the link between excessive exposure to UV radiation (sun burn) and skin cancer.
As members of the Church of Jesus Christ, we already avoid caffeinated tea and coffee. In the spirit of reducing cancer risk and being heedful of counsel, feel free to put ice cubes in hot soup, milk in hot cocoa, and let the herbal tea steep for a spell before taking a sip.
A few years ago a young person I know took the ACT and scored a 34. Or 35. I don’t remember.
To those who may not know, that’s a high score. And in the case of my young friend, the score was a reasonable representation of their academic acumen. This young friend reported this score as part of their application to the only school they wished to attend: BYU.
I remember talking with this friend about other possibilities: Stanford, MIT, Harvard. This young person would just shrug their shoulders.
I heard that when they submitted their combined BYU/BYU-I application, they were accepted by BYU-I within hours. It took BYU considerably longer to tender an offer.
This episode came to mind as I read about the college cheating scandal, where dozens of individuals, several of them famous people, paid tens of thousands of dollars for professionals to take entrance exams on behalf of their college-bound children. One woman paid $50,000 and in turn was able to provide her son a 35 on the ACT to use in his college applications.
In another story that caught my eye, fentanyl is now killing enough people that America’s life expectancy is on the decline. The stories related to that headline are filled with those who have lied. In this case, their lying is associated with thousands upon thousands of deaths.
In a third story, Venezuela is tumbling into fatal disarray. The root cause: fraud and corruption (fancy words for lying).
Exodus 20 doesn’t actually include, “Thou shalt not lie,” as one of the commandments. We are warned against two similar sins: stealing and bearing false witness against a neighbor. Leviticus 19 explores the various deceits that are related to unrighteousness that are to be avoided (Leviticus 19:11 specifically mentions lying). Suffice it to say that anyone raised in the Judeo-Christian tradition has learned from their infancy that lying and deceit are bad.
On the other hand, I have in my day been entrusted with sacred or personal or state secrets. My failure to shout these secrets from the housetops does not constitute lying. Or, at least, were I to disclose such secrets in public, I would lose my friends, affiliation with my faith, my job, and my liberty.
There are those facts which need to remain hidden in order that the world may be healed. This is the purview of holy individuals, friends, and nation states.
Then there are those facts which were created in order to rend the fabric of the world for the unholy benefit of the few. These must be exposed. This is the purview of honest individuals (whistleblowers), law enforcement, and the United Nations.
I would offer a third category: facts which were hidden to heal the world of the past, but which need to be revealed in the present so that a proper understanding of the past can be had for the benefit and healing of the present world. This is the purview of historians.
Don’t lie. Don’t cheat. Don’t steal or kill or bear false witness. Obedience to these things is not childish, nor does it matter if surveys suggest modern folks don’t care as much. The outrage against the college cheaters is proof that modern folks do indeed care very much.
I was delighted to hear the announcement that the Church’s website will now be ChurchofJesusChrist.org. The companion website for those interested in learning about the Church will now be ComeUntoChrist.org.
I’m also looking forward to General Conference, which I imagine will include at least one (or two) delightful surprises.
