By: the Pseudonymous George Rasmussen

A Houston businessman named Sam Young is currently staging a hunger strike on the sidewalks of Salt Lake City. Young describes himself as an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but I will leave it to you, gentle reader, to determine for yourself what the evidence shows.

Young is hoping to exert sufficient pressure on the Church to force the adoption of his demands. Please note that the Church put out a statement on Sunday that says Church leaders have met with Sam and that the Church will not be caving.

What are his demands? It is difficult to be sure because they have changed so much over the years, but we have some indication from a petition from October 2017:

“We call on the LDS Church to immediately cease the practice of subjecting children to questions about masturbation, orgasm, ejaculation, sexual positions or anything else of a sexual nature. This applies to all children up to and including age 17. There should be no one-on-one interviews with children. A parent or other trusted adult of the child’s choosing is to be present. We call on the LDS Church to publicly disavow this practice. We call on the LDS Church to ensure that all congregational leaders, as well the general membership, are informed that this practice is prohibited.”

(Readers, please note that Church policy clearly states that bishopric members may ask about chastity during temple recommend interviews. Children from the ages of 12 to 17 are asked if they follow the law of chastity, just as adults are asked. Claims that bishoprics are asking detailed sexual questions of members are wildly exaggerated, but all bishoprics have been informed of this issue. Bishopric members always have another adult nearby when doing temple recommends. It is clear that Sam Young has grabbed on to a cause that will bring him attention, but as this post will show, we have reason to doubt his sincerity on this and other issues because of his constant complaints about many Church practices.)

This petition is the first exposure most people had to Sam Young, but it wasn’t the start of his activism against LDS doctrines, teachings and practices. Young describes on his website how he lost his testimony in 2014. “Over the past couple of years, unexpected philosophical developments have shaken my life. They have been quite disconcerting.” He tells a tail of being set adrift and of being lonely and scared. He recollects that his family and friends couldn’t understand what he was going through.
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It’s summer. I wander through life thinking thoughts and saying to myself, “That would make a great M* post!” And then someone in real life has an urgent need, and I put the thought on the back burner. So today, with all my IRL concerns sorted, I am going to that back burner and pulling off things that still feel fresh and relevant.

Questions

I enjoyed the 12 July interview the Mormon Channel (Amy) held with Steve Harper from the Church Historical department. There are no answers to specific questions (unless you still believe in Santa or didn’t know Mark Hofmann was a fraud and inept bomber). But Steve Harper talks about how he was taught to approach troublesome issues having to do with history. Specifically, he talks about how our expectations are the cause of our difficulties.

While Steve Harper didn’t say so, it’s a bit like expecting something so much that you are disappointed in the actual thing, even when the actual thing is amazing and wonderful.

Steve Harper makes the great point that questions are perfectly acceptable, even scriptural. I would quibble a bit, in that as a teacher at Church in the 1980s (give or take), there was a policy discouraging teachers from incorporating any extra-curricular material in lessons. So it isn’t just random cultural habits that have made people loath to look outside of official Church publications. However, the Church has migrated to a more open and transparent model, so we should remember that our culture is to go and do as directed, not bask in the comfortable ignorance of the past.

Truth

The gospel is true. When I say this, I mean that the gospel is aligned with God’s purposes. But so often people presume that “the gospel is true” means that every word and action of any individual associated with the Church must be entirely factual at all levels, else the Church/gospel is necessarily not true. Continue reading →

There are many facts about Trump that most people seem eager to ignore or not consider. Let me list a few.

1)Donald Trump spent many years as a real estate developer in New York. He was fairly successful at it.
2)If you want to build a building in New York, he you have to negotiate, or “make deals,” with a variety of different people: politicians, unions, the media, rival real estate developers, contractors, construction companies, etc.
3)These are difficult negotiations and very complex. All of the involved parties — including Trump but certainly the politicians — are morally suspect in one way or another. These are all rough people.
4)These negotiations are about “making a deal.” Think about how often Trump uses the word “deal” in his public talks.
5)For a deal to get done, there will be winners and losers. The losers will be rival real estate tycoons. The winner will be Trump, if we are talking about a building being built with Trump’s name on it. But others will win. Some politicians will win because they are providing jobs to key groups. Union leaders will win for the same reason. Contractors and construction companies will win business. The media will win if they can break the story about the new deal (this is why Trump had such a good relationship with the media until he became the Republican nominee, and then suddenly, inexplicably, he became Hitler. It would seem strange if not for the fact that the same thing happened to Bush, McCain, Romney, etc).
6)Trump has spent most of his life doing this. His experiences will inform how he approaches his job as president.
7)Trump understands marketing. He puts his name on buildings. He says memorable, catchy things. He had a very popular reality show all about him. He understands modern media and entertainment better than just about anybody. He knows how to capture the attention of key groups and tell people what they want to hear. But most of all, he is an entertainer. If you have never done so, take a half-hour to watch a Trump rally. It really is quite entertaining.
8)So, let’s review: Trump will approach politics, both domestic and foreign, the same way he approached his job as a real estate developer. Trump wins if he builds something. All of his life, he won if he got a big shiny building with his name on it. How does this translate into politics? It should be obvious: Trump wins if he looks good, if he gets reelected and if the U.S. economy improves (ie, he “built” something). But note: in Trump’s world, other people win when he wins. In real estate, jobs are created and certain pressure groups win — bigly. So, the deal is not just about Trump winning — it is about most people winning (in Trump’s mind).

Dear reader, have you internalized these eight points? If not, please read them again, because U.S. politics with Trump as president will never make sense to you if you don’t internalize those eight points.

Now, let’s look at some questions about Trump’s behavior.

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