“Before you were formed in the womb …”
October 17, 2008
LAWSUIT AGAINST GOD DISMISSED for failure to obtain personal service. But Ilya Somin objects: “I’m not entirely convinced that the ruling is correct. After all, if God exists, he must be omnipresent and omnipotent. Therefore, it logically follows that he can be served with court papers anywhere; after all he is present everywhere in the universe at all times. Indeed, service of process is a pointless formality when it comes to God. Since the Lord is omniscient as well as omnipotent, he surely knew about Senator Chambers’ lawsuit even before any process servers were sent out. Indeed, he must have foreseen that Chambers would file the suit long before Chambers himself knew that he would do it.”
Yeah, wasn’t there something like that in Jeremiah? “Before you were formed in the womb, I knew you would sue me. . . .”
Mesa Arizona Temple
May 26, 2008
Here are some photos that I took on the night of Monday, May 26th.
Prayer Monitors
April 21, 2008
I’m having a little trouble seeing why the judge would even think of this:
Addressing the concerns about prayer, Walther said she was aware of a community of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in San Angelo. While acknowledging LDS Church members are not from the same group, she asked attorneys to see if the LDS faith would be willing to monitor the prayer services of the women and children who remain in the shelter.
“How would I stop someone from practicing their faith?” the judge asked.
She acknowledged concerns from Texas child welfare authorities about improper communications between mothers and children that could occur in such private prayer times and have an affect on the pending investigations.
“If they cross the line or coach the child or make any kind of comment on litigation, all bets are off,” Walther said.
The president of the LDS Abilene Texas Stake, which oversees San Angelo, was surprised by the judge’s request.
“They think we’re the same ones because we use the Book of Mormon,” said Charles L. Webb. “I’m dumbfounded they would suggest that.”
Webb plans to contact church headquarters in Salt Lake City for guidance.
This thing does NOT involve us and we should not be dragged into it in any way, shape or form. I don’t understand how the judge just doesn’t understand this fact.
UPDATE: To my question of, “Why the hell are we getting dragged into this?” my friend, Jon, answers:
Because these “law enforcement” people in Texas appear to be morons. I will be *very* surprised if LDS HQ in Salt Lake allows a local ward to have *any* involvement in this, much less to monitor prayers of mothers and children!
I loved this:
“The Court finds that an unknown number of males of reproductive age reside, or have resided, at the ranch during the probable time of conception of one or more of the children the subject of this suit,” her order says. “The court further finds that an unknown number of females of child bearing age reside, or have resided at the ranch and could be the mother of one or more children the subject of this suit.”
So, in other words, the Court finds that some people may have been there and could have made babies. Wow, a real surprising find!
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Don’t Want McCain? Blame the Evangelicals
February 18, 2008
Ed Morrissey has a nice write-up and commentary on a Dan Gilgoff article about how evangelicals (not individually, but the evangelical movement in general) are to blame for McCain being the Republican nominee this year.
I certainly don’t know everything there is about politics but I honestly feel that Mitt Romney was the best that the Republicans had to offer this year. My prediction is that the Republicans will get crushed in November, thus opening the door for a Romney run in 2012. We’ll see … eventually.
Theocratic Rule
February 17, 2008
Ed Morrissey wonders about the government’s role in the saving of American souls.
“People mocked Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney for their religious backgrounds often during the presidential campaigns, but at least they never claimed to be on a mission to save the souls of Americans through government action. Oh, people accused them of wanting to do so — to impose Southern Baptist or Mormon theology on an America that wants relentless secularism, but in point of fact both men gave stirring speeches on how their faith informs them personally but not their governance.
One campaign really has explicitly claimed to be on such a mission, however. Michelle Obama gave a speech at UCLA earlier this month in which she told supporters that her husband was the only man who could fix American souls — if we elect him President first.”
I always find it amazing how fickle people can be. There’s a sentiment of, “If my candidate is doing it, it’s great. If the other guy is doing it, though, ridicule him.” Check out the rest of it, as well as the comments.
Mormons and the Political Limelight
February 15, 2008
I’m kind of bummed that Mitt Romney didn’t win the Republican nomination. I really don’t like McCain or Huckabee. I don’t like Clinton or Obama. The only person I really liked apart from Romney was Thompson and that sure didn’t turn out so well. So, I was reading this evening about how Romney’s candidacy affected, and was affected by, the LDS Church.
Before Romney ran, Mormons thought they were generally accepted in the mainstream, especially after their previous success in the world spotlight: the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics.
Yet, in November, half of respondents to an Associated Press-Yahoo poll said they had some problems supporting a Mormon presidential candidate. Among white evangelicals, more than half expressed reservations about backing a Latter-day Saint.
“I was surprised at the level of intensity and sometimes flat out animosity,” said Lowell C. Brown, a Los Angeles attorney who is Mormon. “I had no idea. I’m in my 50s, I’ve been a Mormon all my life, I’ve lived in L.A. for 25 years, and it floored me.”
Seeing as how I live in Utah, I didn’t exactly witness any of the anti-Mormon, anti-Romney sentiment. That said, I couldn’t believe it when I read some blog comments like, “I’ll never trust a Mormon.” I’ll admit that it was little depressing. I certainly hope that all of the effort that we (collectively) put forth to be good people and do what’s right isn’t for naught.
The Zarqawi Legacy
June 8, 2006
Human Events Online has a write-up about the final atrocities of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the latest big-name terrorist to meet his maker at the hands of the United States Armed Forces.
If you are looking for the legacy of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, do not look in the concrete rubble of so-called safe house in Baqubah that became his final resting place. Instead, look less than 10 miles to the west, on the side of the road in the desert town of Hadid, for a pile of cardboard banana boxes.
Some of the heads still had their blindfolds on. Iraqi police are still attempting to identify the murdered men.
Critics of President Bush and U.S. foreign policy say that the world isn’t a safer place with Zarqawi dead. I say, “It may not be, but it sure is a better place.”
On Mormons and Republicanism
June 3, 2006
The New York Times also has a story on how much support President Bush has in the state of Utah.
Here in what may be the reddest city in the reddest of states, where Democrats sometimes gather like lost souls at the one Starbucks, most people are standing by President Bush.
When he gives a speech that angers voters or brings ridicule from other parts of the country, people here pick up different messages. They might break with Mr. Bush on the war in Iraq or on illegal immigration, but not with the man himself.
Basically, if a Republican president can’t keep his support strong in Utah, he’s in for a LOT of trouble nationally. Utah is the only state in the nation in which Bush won every county in each of his two elections. I think that says a lot about how red the red state is.
Maria’s Treasure
June 1, 2006
Times and Seasons has a wonderful story about one woman’s treasure.
Maria, a seventy-five-year-old widow, member of our tiny Mormon branch, had asked me to meet her at a Notary’s office. She wanted me to be the executor of her will. I reluctantly agreed, remembering the council of a friend to avoid that kind of responsibility. But since I was the branch president …
Her desire was simple: after her death, what she owned was for the Church. The Notary had made up the papers. From behind a majestic desk in his baroque office, he read us the document where words like “inasmuch” and “notwithstanding” and “within the boundaries of the law” created intricate sentences, worthy of the environment. Maria and I looked at him as if we understood everything, then signed. Two bored clerks joined as witnesses.
I appreciated Maria’s gesture, but I admit I did not pay much attention to the matter, because I thought she was not wealthy.
Read on …
