About Critical Race Theory
Yesterday morning, my wife came upstairs and told me that NPR had a story about taxes. She also mentioned that it would probably annoy me. (She gets me.) But I decided to turn it on just to see who...
View ArticleBelieving in the Big Lie
Almost exactly a month ago, the Public Religion Research Institute released a survey looking at partisan and religious belief in the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. To be...
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The Child Tax Credit and You
Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash The American Rescue Plan, signed by President Biden in March, includes a lot of things. For many U.S. readers of this blog, perhaps the most notable and salient is...
View ArticleHIPAA and the Church
Just to be clear, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”)[fn1] does not prevent your bishop from asking you about your vaccination status. It doesn’t prevent your ward from...
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Grading the Church’s Pandemic Response
Photo by Daniel Schludi on Unsplash Almost a year and a half into the pandemic, I’ve been thinking about how the church has responded to it. And [deeply fatherly voice]: I’m so disappointed. It didn’t...
View ArticleRegrading the Church’s Pandemic Response
Or maybe: awarding the Church’s pandemic response some extra credit. Last week I wrote that the church had done a poor job encouraging members to get vaccinated against Covid. While leaders had shared...
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Masks and the First Amendment
Photo by Kyle Austin on Unsplash Effective today, the city of Chicago has reinstituted an indoor mask mandate. And we’re not alone: Washington state and Washington, D.C. have them. Dallas appears to...
View ArticleLet’s Talk About Money
I don’t have any idea if $100 billion is a good amount for the church to have in its endowment. Personally, I tend to think, given its revenue and expenditures, that the number is high. At least as...
View ArticleI Want It Back
There are two recent lawsuits filed against the LDS church that are worth taking a look at. Both lawsuits demand that the church return donations to the donor (or the donor’s heirs). And both face a...
View ArticleThe Texas Abortion Ban and the Death of Constitutional Rights
Got your attention? Great! As I’m sure you’ve heard, the Supreme Court didn’t stop a Texas law that bans abortions performed by Texas physicians after six weeks from going into effect. The Texas law...
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On “Hot Drinks”
Photo by American Heritage Chocolate on Unsplash I suspect that we’ll never find a definitive explanation of how the proscribed “hot drinks” in D&C 89 came to be interpreted by the church as...
View ArticleJames Huntsman Lawsuit Dismissed
A quick follow-up to one of my previous posts: a federal judge dismissed James Huntsman’s fraud lawsuit against the church on Friday. This may not have been an absolutely forgone conclusion, but it...
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Mitt Romney, the Expanded EITC and Marriage Penalties
On Thursday, Utah Senator Mitt Romney sent a letter, signed by him and 34 of his Republican colleagues, to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden. In the letter, he...
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Do Church Members Have a Scriptural Obligation to Revere Christopher Columbus?
That’s quite the lengthy post title, right? Fortunately, the answer is far more succinct: No. Of course, I can elaborate too. I base that no on two considerations. First, there’s no textual reason to...
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“Severe, Pervasive, and Objectively Offensive Race-Based Harassment”
Photo by Rolande PG on Unsplash Yesterday the Salt Lake Tribune reported on the end of a Department of Justice investigation into the Davis School District in Utah. And frankly, its findings were...
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Vaccines Approved for 5-11-Year-Olds in the U.S.
Photo by Daniel Schludi on Unsplash Last Friday, the FDA authorized the emergency use of the Pfizer vaccines for children ages 5-11. Then, Tuesday night, the CDC recommended the vaccine for children....
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Religion and Abortion
Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash As I type this post, the Supreme Court is listening to arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. In that case, JWHO is challenging a Mississippi law...
View ArticleThe Church, the State (of Utah), and Welfare
On Thursday, ProPublica and the Salt Lake Tribune published a fascinating article detailing a link between Utah, the church, and welfare payments. I assume most readers here have already read it. If...
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Butts in the Pews(?)
Photo by Drew Murphy on Unsplash Over the last month or so, I’ve heard from several family members and friends that their wards are trying to wind down online church. There are variations, of course,...
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Handbook Changes: Music at Church
When I was in high school, I volunteered to have my saxophone quartet play a special musical number in sacrament meeting. My offer was declined. I suspect it was declined on church policy grounds. The...
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