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Pastors’ Housing Revisited (Again)
(Note: this is the fourth installment of a series (Part 1: Money for Nothing and the Housing for Free; Part 2: Pastors’ Housing, Take 2; Part 3: Pastors’ Housing Revisited) that spans four years and...
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Brigham Young, John P. Taggart, and the Federal Income Tax
Deseret News and Tithing Office Buildings, Salt Lake On January 3, 1871, Brigham Young sent a telegram to his counselor Daniel H. Wells. The LDS Church History Library only has the first page of the...
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#MutualNight: Diwali and Indian Jazz
(Quick reminder: if you’re curious why I’m writing about music on a Mormon blog, this post will summarize what #MutualNight posts are.) Subharnab Majumdar, The Rangoli of Lights. CC BY 2.0 Diwali,...
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BYU and Classical Radio
BYU has just announced that it is planning on dropping Classical 89, the classical music radio station that it runs. I’m going to be tremendously blunt: this is a terrible idea, and it betrays the...
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Mormons and H.R. 1
Photo by Chris Baker. CC BY 2.0. On Thursday, the House released H.R. 1, its fundamental tax reform bill. (It also released an 82-page summary of the 400+-page bill, and a 300-page JCT report on the...
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Quick Update on Politicking at Church
On Monday, I wrote about a couple ways that the House tax bill might impact Mormons. Well, today Kevin Brady, the chair of the Ways and Means Committee, introduced an amendment to that bill. One of...
View ArticleWhat if Beehives Passed the Sacrament Too?
I can still remember turning 12. At least the church parts of it. After I turned 12, my dad ordained me to the Aaronic priesthood, and then I got to pass the sacrament. And I continued to pass it for...
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Book Review: The Mormon Hierarchy: Wealth and Corporate Power
D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Wealth and Corporate Power (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2017). When I heard that the third volume of Quinn’s Mormon Hierarchy trilogy would deal with the...
View ArticleMormons and the Tax Bill
Five and a half weeks ago, I posted about a couple ways that the House tax bill would impact Mormons and the Mormon church. Since that time, the House passed its tax bill and the Senate passed its...
View ArticleThe Median Mormon Family and the Tax Plan
Plenty of people are wondering how the GOP tax bill will affect them personally. Although pretty much everybody has been wondering, the Washington Post recently spotlighted a Mormon family with those...
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Christmas in Three (Musical) Acts #MutualNight #ChristmasEve
Chicago Decembers are a great preparation for Christmas. Between the Holiday Train, the lights on Michigan Avenue (and everywhere else), the Christkindlmarket, the Neapolitan Crèche at the Art...
View ArticleLesson 2: God Knew Abraham #BCCSundaySchool2018
Readings Abraham 3, Moses 4:1-4 Learning Outcomes By the end of class, class members will be able to Describe strategies for profitably reading Abraham. Evaluate what it means that God knew us before...
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Announcement: Church History Symposium 2018
News and tithing office buildings, Salt Lake This semester, I’m teaching a course on not-for-profit corporations. Today’s class deals with the duties of charitable trustees and board members to invest...
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Reminder: Church History Symposium tomorrow and Friday
Just a quick reminder: the 2018 LDS Church History Symposium is happening tomorrow at BYU and Friday at the Conference Center in Salt Lake. The topic—“Financing Faith: The Intersection of Business and...
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Protests, Parkland, and BYU
Photo by Fibonacci Blue. CC BY 2.0 In the nearly-immediate wake of the tragic school shooting in Parkland, Florida, the superintendent of a Texas school district announced that students who...
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Lesson 11: Because the Lord Was With Him #BCCSundaySchool2018
Photo by California Musical Theatre. CC BY-NC-ND 2. Readings Genesis 34, 37-39[fn1] Learning Outcomes By the end of class, students will be able to: Discuss how and why the scriptures subvert our...
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Women in Jazz #MutualNight
(Quick reminder: if you’re curious why I’m writing about music on a Mormon blog, this post will summarize what #MutualNight posts are.) We’re nearing the end of Women’s History Month; in light of both...
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Why Mormons Should Root For the Ramblers in the NCAA Tournament
So there are four teams left: Kansas, Villanova, Michigan, and Loyola University Chicago. And as Mormons, you should probably be cheering for Loyola this weekend. Why? Let me count the reasons: This is...
View ArticleOn Kirton McConkie’s (Lack of) Women Shareholders
The other night, I was listening to the most recent Slate Money podcast. In its second segment, the hosts talked about the recent gender pay report in the United Kingdom. They specifically mentioned...
View ArticleTaxsplainer: How the Utah Legislature Is Raising Taxes By Doing Nothing
Well that stinks. #utleg #utpol Utahns with large families could be paying a lot more in state taxes next year, via @sltrib https://t.co/kShKOo1nGw — Michelle Quist (@MichelleLQuist) April 9, 2018 The...
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