Gay Marriage and Polygamy, The Angel and The Beehive

Two major court rulings have shaken shibboleths of Utah society and in the process revealed some major aspects of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as it acts in the world.  

Reaction and Prophets in Mormonism: An Anthropological Meditation

Why has the LDS Church hewed such a socially conservative line in the half century or so  of my life and what does it meant? These questions have been bothering me for a long time and here I want to explore them.  

The questions are difficult because they seem to pose a theological question and because they raise an issue that, though evident in my experience, will be denied by others as soon as the going gets rough. Leaders of the Church, and other Latter-day Saints, in my experience, often change the ground of argument when it suits them.

Culture and Theology: The LDS Statement on "Race and the Priesthood"

In trying to clarify the LDS Church’s position on Blacks and the Priesthood, and acknowledge its problematic past exclusion of Blacks from the LDS priesthood, the church throws itself into a swamp of messy and troublesome words. 

It makes you wish for a conceptual rail to lead you through the fog. But there is none, although the statement does attempt to distinguish one. The solid, the constant, the firm path seems what the document calls “theology” and pairs with “practice”.  

In the statement, “theology”, seems a summary of what Latter-day Saints think is key to their Church, divine guidance and revelation.  

Halloween and Its Changes Make Sense

No surprise, Halloween has changed, and those changes are very meaningful.  They map the changes in American society and its place in the world.  

As someone of a certain age, my evaluation of Halloween can easily fall into the nostalgia for youth, a time when the world was somehow pure, following that American romanticism of small towns, suburbs, and coming of age.  

Sure, I remember making my own costume--already a kind of obstreperous rebellion against commercial costumes that filled stores in the strip mall about a mile away from home.  I also remember, sword in hand and armor on chest, leaving the safe boundary of my immediate neighborhood into a world of shadows and potential nightmares beyond the well known to knock on unknown doors, that seemed just like the ones in my neighborhood strangely, yelling out “trick or treat” and receiving candy along with oohs and ahs for the creativity of my and my friend’s juvenile costumes.  

The Contemporary Crisis in Mormon Faith and Its Social Bases

Mormons are leaving the LDS Church in record numbers, according to recent press coverage. Though much of the story attributes the inactivity or loss of members to the internet and their learning historical and other material that contradicts their ideas of Mormonism, there is undoubtedly much more to the story. 

Surplus Yo Momma, an Argument with Krugman on Economic Development

New York Times columnist and Nobel Laureate, Paul Krugman made an observation today about China that has resonance far beyond China. If taken as a guide for planning--which it is--then it upsets people around the world and has serious consequences for global development. 

While discussing the economic crisis China faces that, he argues, will be disastrous for the world, Krugman mentions the development model China has followed and quotes “an old insight by the economist W. Arthur Lewis, who argued that countries in the early stages of economic development typically have a small modern sector alongside a large traditional sector containing huge amounts of ‘surplus labor’ — underemployed peasants making at best a marginal contribution to overall economic output.”

Bolivia, Snowden, and Empire in a Rapidly Changing World

The world is changing rapidly and dangerously. Fallout from the Snowden affair shows portions of that change that should make Americans sit up and take notice.  

Global stability depends on checks and balances on power in the relationships among countries as well as a fragile set of norms, often called International law, established through treaties. Both have been thrown out of whack, at a time when the world’s institutions are stressed.