Open Letter from a Former Pornography Addict
A former pornography addict learns the virtues of spiritual exercise.
By Geoff Steurer
A Need for Unity — as Citizens and as Disciples
In this election year, we would do well to consider two ways how God would have us work with one another and how we may make wise decisions in the civic arenas.
By Stephen M. Studder
Global Warming — Latest Excuse for the War on the Family
Global warming cultists are starting to blame religion and family as a big source of what they see as climate change—and in a recent article, the Latter-day Saints were mentioned by name.
By Don Feder
Promoting
Pornography? LDS Consumers and the Apparel Industry
Most parents wouldn’t let their
children wear pornographic brand clothing. Or would they?
By
J. Scott Askew
Why
Mccain Should Pick Romney
John Nance
Garner IV, the nation's 32nd Vice President, once
described the office of the vice presidency as being "not
worth a bucket of warm spit." This year things
are different. At a time when our homeland security, economic
health, and national condition are being daily assaulted,
who McCain picks as his running mate really does matter.
By
Stephen M. Studdert
New Book to Help Victims of Pornography Find Hope: A Call for Submissions
Submission are being sought for a book that talks about the effects of pornography on society and how families have battled pornography and won.
By Cherilyn Bacon Eagar
An
LDS Washington DC Insider Says America is in Danger
Steve Studdert, who has
been a White House advisor to three U.S. Presidents, says
that ignorance is not bliss when it comes to understand ten
major dangers looming on the horizon for America.
By
Maurine Proctor
New
Religious Survey Reveals Youth Swelling Ranks of Unaffiliated
“If you want to understand
America, you have to understand religion in America.”
A new survey shows some fading in religious affiliation.
By Maurine Proctor
Religious
Bias and Mitt Romney
Super Tuesday is behind us and
watching Mitt Romney’s inability to penetrate the South
— he consistently came in third place after McCain and
Huckabee — raises the question that has haunted his
campaign from the beginning.
By Maurine Proctor, Editor-in-Chief, Meridian Magazine
Mitt
Romney Hits a Home Run
Mitt Romney hit it out of the
ballpark yesterday at the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library
in College Station, Texas, as he delivered the speech about
how his religious faith will affect and inform his presidency.
By Maurine Proctor
It's
Not Too Late to Say Thank You
There are people in our lives
who bless us, and yet their kindness is so constant or so
much time has passed that they go unrecognized and unthanked.
It's not too late to let them know that what they do is noticed
and remembered gratefully.
By Orson Scott Card
Mormonism
and American Politics
The Center for the Study of
Religion at Princeton University is bringing historians, political
scientists, philosophers, legal scholars, award-winning journalists,
documentary filmmakers, and noted public intellectuals from
a variety of faith traditions to discuss the contested intersection
between religion and American politics as this issue is playing
out currently on the national stage with regards to Mormonism.
Romney
Wins Value Voter Straw Poll
All nine Republican
candidates for president tried to convince values voters they
were the man this weekend at the Washington Briefing.
By Maurine Jensen Proctor
How
to Civilize a Child
If you don't think your child
can be civilized, you're wrong. Here is a method that can
turn chaos into civilization. The success of this program
only depends on you, the parent.
By Orson Scott Card
Does
Civilization Begin in Sacrament Meeting?
Parents train their children
to be irreverent. For children by nature can be both attentive
and inattentive, obedient and disobedient, and — wittingly
or not — parents choose which behavior to reinforce
at different times.
By Orson Scott
Card
How
to Know Your Neighbor
How do you make your neighborhood
so inclusive and h appy that nobody wants to move?
By Whitney Johnson
The
Dangerous Lure of Stuff
It took 45 years of marriage
to accumulate all the trappings of family life. But now a
recently-retired man realizes that the time has come to let
go of those worldly possessions and move on to other things.
By Steve Orton
How
Music Reflects our Values
Once we become accustomed to particular
forms of entertainment, the values embedded within that entertainment
begin to become enmeshed with our own.
By Loran Howard
Blood
The
Aftermath of Tragedy
When things go terribly wrong,
it is only natural to want to find someone to blame. But assigning
guilt to others isn't always possible. And even when it's
possible, it may not be the right thing to do.
By Orson Scott Card
Being
in the Politically Correct World but Not of It
What we think about ourselves,
our relations with others, and about the great and greatest
questions of life depends to a great extent upon the way we
use language. As our language is altered and corrupted to
reflect the agendas of the world, we begin to confront the
world more upon its own terms than upon the gospel's.
By Loran Howard Blood
When
a Handshake Isn't Enough, Part 5
To the Wife of the Grieving, Depressed, or Traumatized Man
If you want a husband to
lead in love, then you must follow in love. If you want him
to listen and remember, then you must listen and remember.
If you want gentleness and tenderness, you must give gentleness
and tenderness. If you want a husband whose life is centered
around gratitude, service, love, and sacrifice for his family,
then you must return it in kind; otherwise you will be telling
him that you no longer wish these things from him.
By Bruce T. Forbes
Lessons
Children Learn from Sports
I'm glad that people who love
sports have had a good time with them. But don't ever, ever
say, "This is a life lesson that you
just can't learn any other way." There are no
life lessons that you can't learn any other way.
By Orson Scott Card
Science
Takes a Leap of Faith
Is faith scientifically irrational?
Scientists say yes because it involves feelings. However,
when we put the microscope to faith, we discover more than
meets the eye. Faith, like science, is a quest for truth involving
the unseen world.
By Donald M. White and Marcus C. White
Life
after Surviving the Storms of Grief, Depression, and Trauma
There are two types of people
who make it through the storms of life —
the ones who believe they battled their demons alone, and
the ones who give credit where credit is due.
By Bruce T. Forbes
Sources
of Tension between the West and the Islamic World
There will always be some stress between
the historically Christian West and the world of Islam, if
only because of normal and predictable religious disagreements.
But shared theological territory exacerbates the doctrinal
differences between them.
By Daniel C. Peterson
Music
to Calm the Beasts of Depression, Grief, and Trauma
When human beings are grappling with
depression, music can literally save their lives. Here is
one man's perspective, along with a fascinating tidbit that
explains why the use of a conductor's baton may make all the
difference in the quality of music in your ward.
By Bruce T. Forbes
Liberty
in Law
Those who
gave us our freedom were the sort "who more than self
their country loved, and mercy more than life." They
sacrificed. Thousands died. Thousands more were maimed for
life. Wives and children wept. Homes burned to the ground.
Fortunes were scattered to the wind. Poverty and disease ran
rampant. This was freedom's heavy cost. It always is.
By
Steve
Farrell
One Man’s Journey
through Grieving, Depression, and Trauma
All men are different. Because we are
all different, we all react differently to negative events
in our lives. Don't let stereotypes tell you how you should
react and then make you feel a failure because you didn't
measure up.
By
Bruce T. Forbes
The
Nation's Top Journalists Question Richard Bushman about Mormonism
Mitt Romney's candidacy has
put Mormonism in the spotlight—sometimes in ways laced
with misconception and bias. The Pew Forum recently
invited Richard Bushman to field the toughest questions of
the nation's top journalists. This is a transcript of
his talk and his answers.
Know
Your Neighbor and Beautify Your Community
Does it really matter what the
media say about members of the Church, if people who live
among Latter-day Saints don't like us? It may be possible
that the early Saints suffered because they became enemies
with their neighbors instead of friends.
By Whitney Johnson and Roger Johnson
When
a Handshake Isn’t Enough
How to Help the Grieving, Depressed,
or Traumatized Man
If you think a man doesn't suffer, think again. That wall
around him may be about to fracture, leaving him vulnerable
and unprotected. There are ways to help.
By Bruce T. Forbes
Peterson's
Rule
It isn't necessary, in considering another
system of beliefs, to accept it. But it is necessary, if you
truly want to understand it, to try to imagine how someone
else could believe it, could find it emotionally appealing
and intellectually satisfying.
By Daniel C. Peterson
A
Letter to the Pastor
This letter was written by Margaret
Blair Young to a pastor friend after he watched the PBS documentary
The Mormons and was still unsure what members of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints really believe.
By Margaret Blair Young
How
to Help Troubled Children
What about
the child who plays with fire, self-injures or sneaks out the
bedroom window in the middle of the night? Who will give the
primary caregiver respite and love such a child?
By
Deborah Atkinson
So Why Know Your Neighbor?
Even after all the publicity of the Salt Lake Olympics, a poll revealed that the first thing most people think when they hear the word "Mormon" is polygamy. As individual members of the Church, we have the power — and the responsibility — to change that image.
By Whitney Johnson
Dinner
and a Mormon
Why
don't people try to understand Mormons? Can't they see that
we are really good people? If we could only offer those people
who think negatively about Mormons the chance for "Dinner
with a Mormon," how quickly their thinking might change.
By Whitney Johnson
Modern-Day
Stripling Warriors
The stories of the young women
who have and are choosing modesty don't make the front pages
of the popular worldly magazines, but as the angels above
are writing the history of the world, their headlines may
include the efforts of these modern-day stripling warriors.
By Keith Halls
The
Secret Curse of Hollywood 'Stars'
For every self-destructive superstar
who dies a sad, early death, there are hundreds of celebrities
who live profoundly dysfunctional, conflict-ridden lives.
These people seem to possess everything most of us secretly
covet —
talent, fame, good looks, wealth, adoration. So what goes
wrong? What secret curse afflicts them?
By David Kupelian
All
in a Good Cause
What if you made up a lie? What
if other people believed that lie and turned it into a religion?
By Orson Scott Card
Mitt
Romney Makes It Official
Yesterday,
Mitt Romney returned to his roots in Michigan, where he was
born, to make his formal announcement and declare his candidacy
for president of the United States, running as a Republican
and seeking to strike an inspirational note as he called for
innovation and transformation in creating a new and renewed
future for the country.
By Maurine Proctor
Thinking
Above the Line: How Our Thoughts can Affect Teen Behavior
If you and your wayward
child are at an impasse, it may help you and your child if
you lift your thoughts "above the line."
By Anne Hinton Pratt
Loving
the Prodigal Child
Adam and
Eve had a wayward child. Lehi had a couple of them. Alma the
Elder had one. Alma the Younger had another one. Some of these
wayward kids turned their lives around. Some didn't. How does
a parent cope with the possibility her child might not work
things out in the end?
By Deborah Atkinson
What
Do We Do For Our Kids?
Most of what our children need to learn
to succeed as adults, they learn simply from being in a well-functioning
family.
By
Orson Scott Card
Romney
Raises $6.5 Million for Early Momentum
Mitt Romney
gathered nearly 400 of his supporters into the Boston Convention
Center on Monday for a unique National Call Day that generated
$6.5 million and put contenders on notice that this is a campaign
with muscle and energy.
By Maurine Proctor
Keith
Halls takes on Fashion Industry
With Beautifully Modest Clothing
At Meridian,
we believe in standing for something and we try to highlight
people and organizations who will stand for the values that
we all share. Keith Halls is one of those individuals who
has taken on a whole industry with great zeal and vision,
whose business is not profit driven but cause driven. Don't
miss this remarkable story. Your daughters and granddaughters
will be glad you read this article, and so will you.
By Maurine Jensen Proctor
A
Romney Candidacy: What To Watch for in the Press
With Governor
Romney's announcement of a presidential candidacy comes a
wave of religious prejudice directed against Mormons. In a
Q and A with Meridian, Mitch Davis, who heads Run Mitt Run,
tells us what might lie ahead.
By Mitch Davis
Why
a Mormon Can Be President
The media can't stop talking about Mitt
Romney's religion. Will that put a damper on his presidential
aspirations?
By
Maurine Proctor
Building
Better Children
If you want your children to get ahead,
flash cards are not the answer. The best tactic in a parent's
arsenal may be to stand back and let the child learn at his
own pace.
By
Orson Scott Card
Today’s
Elections and the War on Terror
Although the moral issues
at home should be enough to convince any American voter to
go to the polls today, here is another reason why the stakes
in today's election are so crucial.
By Orson Scott Card
Why
Do We Still Get Homework?
Children
and parents should start every day of every week of school
assuming that unless something important comes up, there won't
be any homework. So that when there is homework, it's important.
It's something so major that it really can't be completed
on school time.
By Orson Scott Card
Homework
— The Worst Job in the World
We made laws abolishing child labor,
yet we tolerate burdening our children with a steadily increasing
amount of homework at night, on weekends, and during holidays
and vacations.
By Orson Scott Card
Addiction
Affects Us All
The mortality
rate from indulgence in tobacco, alcohol and drugs is now
exceeding 500,000 deaths per year in the United States. But
that's not all. People can get just as addicted to gambling,
pornography, money, and other facets of modern life, creating
exactly the same symptoms as addiction to chemical substances.
By Dr. Dean W. Belnap
A
Brain Gone Wrong
Pornography: Molesting the Minds
of Our Youth
Today's society is spinning
downward into such a culture of bizarre mindsets, beliefs
and practices. Sex is paraded about like the ice cream truck
on a Saturday afternoon. The result is being recorded —
we call it imprinting —
on the brains of the young.
By Dr. Dean W. Belnap
Abuse:
When Home Isn't a Haven
Abuse in the family is a complex and
painful tragedy. It is important to remember that the power
of the gospel can greatly help both the abuser and the abused,
freeing them from the pain, sorrow, and captivity they may
feel.
By M. Gawain Wells and Leslie Feinauer
Da Vinci
Doubts and Reason’s Rebuke
There are so many errors of reasoning
in The Da Vinci Code that no believing Latter-day
Saint should get caught up in its webwork of lies.
By Karen Boren
IT'S
FOUR-TWENTY
DO YOU KNOW WHERE OUR YOUTH ARE?
Okay, let’s have a show
of hands out there. How many parents know what the number
420 stands for in current popular culture? Anyone? No? Okay,
what if we break it down into it’s common parlance,
four-twenty? Still nobody? With paucity of parental hand waving,
perhaps the better question is how many of our teens recognize
this term. Don't be surprised to find out that many of them
know all about four-twenty.
by
Paul Bishop
LDS Family Services Addiction Recovery Program Guide
If you know someone who is battling
addiction to pornography or to harmful substances, find out
what you can do to help.
By Dr. Rick Hawks
The
Lure of the Web
Many parents
fret about video games, but blogging has made the X-Box the
lesser of the two evils. Written by a police detective, this
is the internet article your blogging teenagers do not want
you to read.
By Paul Bishop
“A
Brain Gone Wrong”
How
the Brain/Body Reacts to Anxiety and Stress
Understanding the truth about what occurs
in the brain and body when the stress cycle remains unchecked
is the first step in empowering us to break the debilitating
cycles of worry, alarm and anxiety.
By Dr. W. Dean Belnap
Creation
and Evolution in the Schools
Evolution and Darwinism have
been treated as synonyms for so long that too many people
think they're the same thing. But they're not, and never have
been.
By Orson Scott Card
Espousing
Politically Incorrect Doctrines — Counsel to Unwed Parents
Despite the threat of being viewed politically
incorrect, there are six points of true doctrine that, if
understood and followed, would heal the pains and misfortunes
of millions of children.
By
Kevin Broderick, M.S., LMFT
Plain
and Precious Things Restored: Margaret Barker and the
Queen of Heaven
The Mother of God, Wisdom, the
Queen of Heaven. Are all the same? And what significance to
they have to LDS theology?
By Kevin Christensen
Missing
the Mark with Religion, Part 1
Modern
Liberalism
One of the most controversial and confusing
of all issues for many is, just what is the proper role of
religion and morality in public life?
By
Steve Farrell
Pornography:
Molesting the Minds of Our Youth
Sex is paraded about like the
ice cream truck on a Saturday afternoon. And the result is
being recorded —
we call it
imprinting —
on the brains
of the young.
By Dr. W. Dean Belnap
Window of Faith:
God in Modern History
In your quiet moments,
have you ever wondered why things happen the way they do?
Is there an overriding purpose in the affairs of men?
Edited
by Roy A. Prete
Window
of Faith: Latter-day Perspectives on God in History
In a time of devastating natural disasters,
including tsunamis, hurricanes and earthquakes, what could
be more meaningful than to consider the role of God in history?
Edited by Roy A. Prete
The Children of Divorce
Divorce is an ever-present possibility
in the world all of our children live in, no matter the condition
of our own marriage. Thus every divorce makes every child
at least a little less certain of the permanence of his own
home.
By Orson Scott Card
Plain and Precious
Things Restored: Margaret Barker and Wisdom
The Biblical prophets Joseph
and Daniel have some interesting parallels to the Book of
Mormon prophet Nephi.
By Kevin
Christensen
Connecting
Saints with Mental Health Services
So much of what traditional
mental health professionals preach is contrary to what Latter-day
Saints believe that Mormons often assume there isn’t
any help for them in the medical community. Fortunately, they’re
wrong.
By Kathryn H. Kidd
Sexual
Offenders — Serpents Amoung Us?
Thanks
to Megan's Law, we can often know who sex offenders are —
knowledge which can be used
to save or destroy families.
By Paul Bishop
The
State of American Culture and What can be Done about It
The culture war must be fought more
and more by organized groups, not just individuals griping
or writing letters to their congressmen.
By Robert Bork
An
American Litmus Test
Either life matters, or it doesn't. Either
life is a right, or it isn't.
By
Steve Farrell
Is
Same-Sex Marriage No Big Deal?
Evidence from Massachusetts
People who say that legalizing same-sex
marriage won't affect our world aren't aware of the grave
consequences already evident in Massachusetts and Canada.
Excerpts
from a talk by Scott Fitzgibbons
10,000
Californians Needed to Protect Marriage Now
If
you are from California or know anyone to pass this article
on to in California, please read this important message.
Massachusetts
Marriage Petition Drive Needs You
If
you are a citizen of Massachusetts, this article is very important
for you.
Meridian
Announces the Family Leader Network
Please join us to stand up and be counted
in the great causes of our time. We've formed a new organization
"Family
Leader Network” so that you can stand fast for the
principles of family, faith and freedom.
By Maurine Proctor
Horace
Mann's Balanced Vision for Public Education
The fundamentals of what was once considered
vital to a public education, here in the United States, have
spiraled dangerously downward over time more than some of
us care to admit, or even realize.
By Steve Farrell
Plain and Precious Things Restored: Margaret Barker and Josiah’s
Reform
The lifetimes of Jeremiah and
Lehi were punctuated by profound changes. Methodist scholar
Margaret Barker explains the beliefs of a time in a way that
bolsters Book of Mormon scholarship.
By Kevin Christensen
Education
Series, Part 14: Joyce Kinmont, Homeschooling Pioneer
I don't believe Latter-day Saints
can continue to send their children to schools that teach
false doctrines and not put them in spiritual danger. The
enemy is closer, more sophisticated, more dangerous than ever.
By Darla Isackson
U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Physician-Assisted Suicide Case
As I helped her into our car, she said,
“He wants me to kill myself!” She and I were devastated.
How could her physician, her trusted physician, subtly suggest
to her that she take her own life?
By Kenneth R. Stevens Jr., MD
Plain
and Precious Things Restored: Spiritual Blindness
Biblical
prophets who lived at Jerusalem described spiritual blindness.
By comparing their words, we can get a better view of
what defines the condition, what wisdom was lost at the time,
and what the contrasting condition of vision should be.
By Kevin Christensen
Partial
Birth Abortion Fight Gears Up
The Bush administration has asked the
Supreme Court to reinstate a federal ban on partial birth
abortions. This will serve as the first significant test of
how willing Chief Justice John Roberts is to overturn precedent.
By Austin Ruse
War
on God Continues
So the courts have struck down
The Pledge of Allegiance in three Sacramento, California elementary
schools. What else is new?
By Steve Farrell
Plain and
Precious Things Restored: Why Margaret Barker Matters
What does a female Methodist
preacher from England have to say to LDS scholars?
By Kevin Christensen
Californians—Easier
Instructions to Stand for Marriage
Californians: Please call or
email this morning to take a stand for marriage.
Californians-Take
Five Minutes to Stand for Marriage
A
same-sex marriage bill just passed the California Senate on
Thursday and will be voted on on Tuesday in the California
Assembly. Your help is urgently needed. If you know anyone
in California, please pass this on.
Virginia,
Maryland Meridian Readers—We Need You
If you live near Washington
D.C., you can help make a stand for family and religious freedom
next week.
By
Maurine Jensen Proctor
The
NEA & God: A Partnership in Denial
The NEA has done an about face
since it published its 1941 American Citizens Handbook.
by Steve Farrel
Constitutional
Myths and Realities
As a people, we know that the
Constitution is an inspired document. As John G. Roberts is
soon to come before the Senate for Supreme Court confirmation
hearings, are there any myths you might believe about the
nature of the Supreme Court?
By Stephen Markman. Justice,
Michigan Supreme Court
New
Research May Point to Moral Procedure for Obtaining Stem Cells
Scientists at Harvard may have
found a way to produce embryonic stem cells without destroying
human embryos.
By Austin Ruse
What’s
Happening in Your School?
Blindly trusting that your children's
school is making good decisions regarding what they are being
exposed to is not simply a foolish mistake, but a serious
danger. What we don’t know could hurt our children.
By Gary and Joy Lundberg
What
Even Good Kids Need to Know about Date Rape Drugs
Choosing this topic for Meridian may
surprise some of our readers. However, the problem is
more prevalent than most people know. We hope the knowledge
shared in this article will alert parents and youth to a growing
problem and spare some in our reading audience great pain.
By
Paul Bishop
The
Forbidden Book
When your business is communizing
America, it is vital that access to the truth about America's
founding be denied to every student of American history, culture
and law.
By Steve Farrell
God
& Country in 1941: An NEA ‘Coming Out’ Party
If the Second Coming were to
occur in a public classroom today, the NEA would insist that
a cadre of psychologists swarm in on the community to undo
the damage to children, teachers, and family before the school
could open again.
By Steve Farrell
Steel
in the Book of Mormon
The concept of "steel"
(the metal) seems to derive from "steel" meaning
hard or strong, not the other way around.
By
William Hamblin
New
Study Shows Access to Contraceptives Doesn’t Stop Unplanned
Pregnancies
According
to a new abortion study from the research arm of Planned Parenthood,
widespread access to contraceptives does not stop unplanned
pregnancies, not by a long shot.
By
Austin Ruse
Spiritual
Healing of Mind and Body: The Brain Gone Right
I never expected to find myself
in a testimony meeting of psychiatrists in the Ivy League
Halls of Harvard.
By
W. Dean Belnap M.D.
The “Right”
Not to be Offended
If you want to watch human reason descend
to its lowest form, tune in and observe the finger wagging
parade of "experts" on the evening news.
By Steve Farrell
Teaching
Vocabulary and Teaching Moments
The elderly sister just
thought we were forbidden to drink alcohol, not to
avoid it completely. To her, drinking an alcoholic beverage
out of a glass was not the same thing as sipping it from a
spoonful of fruit pieces.
By John A. Tvedtnes
Education
Series, Part 13:
ABCs
of Homeschooling
If one of my children is being difficult,
it helps me to realize that he is better off with me. I think:
"If I feel annoyed, how would a school teacher feel?"
By
Darla Isackson, with Diane Hopkins and Heidi Hanks
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part
4 Part
5 Part 6 Part 7
Part 8
Part 9 Part 10 Part
11 Part
12
Videogames
and Other Brain-Training Adventures
After five weeks of training, twelve
out of twenty ADHD kids no longer met the clinical criteria.
In other words, while they might not be "cured,"
they could no longer be diagnosed as ADHD.
By
Orson Scott Card
The
Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers
"In nearly every area, using a variety
of measures, Mormon young people showed the highest degree
of religious vitality and salience."
By
Romney Biddulph
The
Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama is the world's last surviving
god-king, a ruler thought to have special relationships to
the heavens.
By
Daniel C. Peterson and William J. Hamblin
Is
It Bad to Be Fat?
We are a society on diets, but
what do the studies really tell us about being fat?
By
Orson Scott Card
The Great Pillars of American
Liberty
American school children are
not being taught something critical about the nation's founding--the
central role of Christianity in the underlying principles.
By Steve Farrell
Shinto:
the Way of the Gods
The traditional national religion
of Japan is Shinto. In many ways it is more than a religion:
Shinto is a reflection of Japanese sensitivities, culture,
attitudes and nationalism. In some ways it could be described
as the veneration of Japaneseness.
By
Daniel C. Peterson and William J. Hamblin
Education
Series, Part 12:
To Homeschool or Not to Homeschool?
Have the public schools become
less supportive of the values we cherish? No doubt.
By Darla Isackson
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part
4
Part 5 Part 6 Part 7
Part 8
Part 9 Part 10 Part
11
Always
Choose Life
Is the government fulfilling its duty
to protect life?
By Geoffrey Biddulph
The California Mission
System
It was the very economic success
of the missions that led to the end first of Spanish and then
of Mexican control.
By Daniel C. Peterson
and William J. Hamblin
The
Riots of the Faithful
The greatest asset that Osama
has is the fact that a new religious movement "politically
correct puritanism" is perilously close to seizing control
of the governments of most of the major nations of the West.
By Orson Scott Card
What
Think You of Terrorism, Mr. Jefferson?
Adams was being honest. He never
had a hand in it. Can we say the same of ourselves?
By Steve Farrell
Religious
Commitment Is Lead Voting Indicator
Church attendance is a greater
indicator of how one voted in the 2004 presidential election
than "such demographic characteristics as gender, age,
income and region" and is "just as important as
race."
By
Austin Ruse
Silencing
the Truth for the Sake of Party
We all need an occasional reality check.
It's hard not to take sides with party, when party is what
defines all too many of us.
By Steve Farrell
Hillel,
a Founder of Rabbinic Judaism
When Peter and
the apostles were on trial before the Sanhedrin for blasphemy,
Gamaliel’s plea for tolerance — undoubtedly based in part
on the teachings of his grandfather — saved their lives.
By
Daniel C. Peterson and William J. Hamblin
The
Descent of the Holy Fire in Jerusalem
Symbolically
the descent of the Holy Fire commemorates the moment of the
resurrection, when the power of God descended into the tomb
of Christ, transforming death into life.
By Daniel C. Peterson
and William J. Hamblin
Education
Series 11: Mom Schools and Co-ops
Classroom teachers can only tell children
about how plants grow or what a policeman does for the community.
Mothers and other interested persons can show them and give
them hands-on involvement.
By Darla Isackson
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part
4
Part 5 Part 6 Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Bastiat’s Christian
Defense of Morality in the Law
A man's life, then, is not simply
what resides in his heart, as important as this is, but how
his heart reflects in his speech, his moral choices and his
labor.
By
Steve Farrell
Rabi’a, A Woman and a Saint to Muslims
It is said that, when death
was near, she asked her friends to leave and to make way for
the messengers of God. As they departed, they heard God’s
voice welcoming her into Paradise.
By
Daniel C. Peterson and William J. Hamblin
The Natural Family: A Manifesto
Finally, an Agenda for Us
"The only real perils our
future faces are the forces eroding the foundations of marriage
and family. The Family manifesto is not only a blueprint for
survival, it is a bugle call."
By Maurine Proctor
Knowing
History and Knowing Who We Are
One thing leads to another.
Nothing happens in a vacuum. Actions have consequences. These
all sound self-evident. But they're not self-evident —
particularly to a young person trying to understand life.
By David McCullough
Christianity's Debt to
the Vatican
What should Latter-day Saints
make of such a man, and of the institution that he led? As
worldwide attention now shifts to the selection of his successor,
what should be our attitude toward the Church of Rome?
By
Daniel C. Peterson and William J. Hamblin
Why
I Miss Karol Wojtyla
He was a hero of mine. I felt
better and safer about the world because he was in it, and
I feel that we are just a little worse off, in a little more
danger, because he’s gone.
By
Orson Scott Card
A
Republic, Not a Democracy
What, then, is the real object
of a national educational establishment that has rewritten
our history books and imposed curriculum mandates that teach
the rising generation that the American Founders gave us a
democracy?
By
Steve Farrell
Quetzalcoatl
The conquest of Mexico was in part stimulated
by the perfect faith of the Aztecs that Quetzalcoatl would
one day return as promised.
By
Daniel C. Peterson and William J. Hamblin
Jewish
Sect Finds Their Messiah
Although Schneerson apparently never
made any explicit statements on the matter, many of his followers
came to believe that he himself was the promised Messiah.
By Daniel C.
Peterson and William J. Hamblin
Saints Seek Solutions
to the Education Dilemma
I was amazed at the titles and
stated purposes of their textbooks. For example, a math book
is titled Applying Mathematics; Learning How to Self-Govern
Using Correct Principles.
Featuring Alison Holmes and Gary Arnell
Introduction by Darla Isackson
Part
1 Part 2
Part 3 Part
4 Part 5
Part 6 Part
7 Part
8 Part
9
Whose Life Is Worth Living?
Nobody would suggest euthanizing
a person because she’s suffering so terribly about choosing
a table and chairs. No, we’re still slightly
careful about whom we can kill and then feel noble about it.
By Orson Scott Card
Blessed Tolerance: The ‘Virtue’
of a Republic in Decline
Inevitably, we reap what we sow
— andd so, a culture defined by selfishness breeds a
nation of idlers and infidels, drunkards and dependents, scoundrels
and sluts, power-hungry politicians and apathetic citizens,
and by and by, a nation ripe for tyranny.
By Steve Farrell
A Brain
Gone Wrong: The Essence of Agency
Part Five of a Ten-Part Series
Inner conversation can paint a new internal
picture of us: What we would like to be, we can be.
By Dr. Dean W. Belnap
Cosmic
Optimism
The great religions of the world
are united in declaring that there are great and good things
in store for the faithful, and even, in some versions, for
all or virtually all of humankind.
By Daniel C. Peterson and William J. Hamblin
Why Making Choices Is So
Hard
Why is it that even though we
live in the richest country in the world and have an enormous
number of choices we can make every day, we Americans show
signs of being unhappier than we were thirty or fifty years
ago?
By Orson Scott Card
Religious
Art: Symbols of the Divine
Throughout most of history the
vast majority of art has been based on religious themes and
patronage.
By
Daniel C. Peterson and William J. Hamblin
Denying
Spiritual Man
Despots have always
known that disconnecting man from God has been vital to holding
him down.
By Steve Farrell
"How
Can You Believe That?"
Every religion that has appealed
to large numbers over extended periods of time has contained
elements that appealed to intelligent people.
By Daniel C. Peterson and William
J. Hamblin
America's Health Burden from Promiscuity Three Times Higher than Others
Some 7.5 percent of Americans
suffer a negative health incident resulting from sexual activity,
and that 1.3 percent of all deaths in America can be attributed
to sexual behavior.
By Austin Ruse
In
Memoriam: Hugh Winder Nibley (1910-2005)
Professor Nibley had
the rare gift, not of telling his students what they should
know, but of inspiring them to learn for themselves.
By
Daniel C. Peterson and William J. Hamblin
Ashura
Reenactments of his brutal death
whip devout Shi'ites to a high pitch of religious enthusiasm,
reminding them of all the injustices and usurpations they
have suffered over the centuries.
By Daniel C. Peterson
and William J. Hamblin
Religion
and Presidential Politics
If a Latter-day Saint were a
serious contender for the presidency, would his religious
affiliation trouble substantial numbers of American voters?
Evidence and intuition both argue that it would.
By
Daniel C. Peterson and William J. Hamblin
Fact,
Fable, and Darwin,
Part 2
Darwin himself once wrote that
he could not understand how anyone could even wish that Christianity
were true, noting that the doctrine of damnation was itself
damnable.
By Rodney Stark
Fact, Fable, and Darwin,
Part 1
I write as neither a creationist
nor a Darwinist, but as one who knows what is probably the
most disreputable scientific secret of the past century: There
is no plausible scientific theory of the origin of species!
By Rodney Stark
A Brain Gone Wrong.
The Brain Believes
What You Tell It
Part Four of
a Ten Part Series
Put simply, the brain believes what you
tell it most. What you tell it about you – what you
like, what you do, what you want, what you need ? will create
you as your brain sees it.
By Dr. W. Dean Belnap
Desert
Monasticism in the Judean Wilderness
When Christianity became the
popular and prestigious religion of early Rome, thousands
of monks fled to the Judean wilderness to practice what they
felt was a purer version of Christ's teachings.
By
Daniel C. Peterson and William J. Hamblin
Evolution
vs. Creationism
Perhaps the most educated man in this
nation's history, Thomas Jefferson, saw in the Universe what
your children and my children are not permitted to hear, to
consider, or endeavor to prove.
By Steve Farrell
Liberty Letters, Thomas Jefferson, Letter 20
G.K.
Chesterton's Modern Relevance
“The next great heresy,”
wrote G.K. Chesterton, “is going to be simply an attack
on morality, and especially on sexual morality. The madness
of tomorrow is not in Moscow, but much more in Manhattan.”
By
Daniel C. Peterson and William J. Hamblin
Education Reform from
the Bottom Up
What
changes at school would it take for our children to become
passionate about learning?
By Lynn Stoddard, with Introduction by Darla Isackson
Part
1 Part 2
Part 3 Part
4 Part 5
Part 6 Part
7 Part
8
Check Evil at the Door
A slumbering giant is awakening.
But why did it take so long? The Founders would call our wait-for-a-crisis
approach, foolish.
By Steve Farrell
Liberty Letters, John Dickinson, Letter 16
