Gregg Collett is the father of 10 children and a Libertarian candidate for District 11, Position A of the Idaho House of Representatives. He relies upon Medicaid to pay for his children’s medical expenses. He is also a Mormon. So does that make him a hypocrite? Here is how he answered the question. “Am I a hypocrite for participating in programs that I oppose? If it was that simple, and if participation demonstrated support, then of course. But, my reason... Read more
Halloween is fun. For me, it also poises a fun opportunity to examine how we use truth claims over the most trivial of things. What is Halloween all about? There is a history of how Halloween has evolved from Medieval time to now. However, our celebration of Halloween today has little to do with those roots. Sure, we borrow certain images from that tradition. But even those images are more Madison Avenue and Hollywood than they are All Hallow’s Eve.... Read more
Last Thursday, former United States Senator Robert Bennett (R-UT) spoke about the current political scene in the United State at a university forum at Brigham Young University-Idaho in Rexburg, Idaho. “Beware of the Slogan Screamers,” said Bennett in thinly veiled reference to the Tea Party. Bennett said that Democrats are the party of government solutions and Republicans are the party of market solutions. And both sides can be correct. He praised the Democrats on Civil Rights and shared some touching... Read more
For me, appeals to free will and human agency have never been particularly satisfying when considering the problem of evil. If anything, I think they might tell us more about how we conceptualize God than how we conceptualize evil. I will need to spend more time studying the philosophy of religion before I can more fully respond to this question, but I found this video from the Center for Philosophy of Religion at the University of Notre Dame to be... Read more
Last night, Stephen Colbert took a look The Neiman Marcus Christmas Book. “Its the perfect place to find a gift for person that has everything except taste,” said Colbert. Colbert used this opportunity to not only remind us of the some of the idiotic excesses of extreme wealth, but also to remind us of some of the horrors that take place as part of the pursuit of extravagant luxury. I wonder if Neiman Marcus has a good Black Friday sale? Read more
In the following one minute video, Dutch economist and philosopher Ingrid Robeyns shares some brief thoughts on the intersection of entrepreneurship and society. Noting that entrepreneurs are important to society, Robeyns has two tips for entrepreneurs and future entrepreneurs: 1. If you choose to start a business, address an issue that is an important challenge facing society over the next decade. 2. If you are successful, use that opportunity to give something back to society. Check out some of the... Read more
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The following is a quest contribution to “Are Mormons Christian?” An Interfaith Round Table As a Muslim, I am supposed to follow the Qur’anic injunction, that when speaking to Ahl al-Kitab – the Family of the Book (“people of the book” is really not a good translation; “Ahl” means, primarily, “family”), I should try to discuss the things we hold in common, and not the things we hold in dispute. Qur’an also assures us that people will argue about the... Read more
Monday, September 30th, we were told incase of a government shutdown contingency plans are in place to suspend our training program, that we had been in for eleven weeks, with only one more to go until graduation of our phase 1 part of training for a new job I had secured serving the government. After weeks of hard work, our momentum was propelling us to the end, and it couldn’t come soon enough. That day I remember everyone wondering what... Read more
As a devout Mormon who is also an out gay man, I occasionally get letters from people looking for insight, validation, or a simple sounding board. So I wasn’t surprised when, a few days ago — in the wake of some unfortunate remarks made at my faith’s semi-annual conference — I received a letter from a friend of a friend. She was distraught and wanted someone to listen to her as she wrestled with feelings that had no other outlet.... Read more
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