We’re just back from an entertaining performance, at the Hale Center Theater in Orem, of the musical Tarzan.  I was somewhat into live theater long before I met my wife, but marrying a theater major has certainly made that interest a significant factor in my life.  For which I’m grateful.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it here again, and I’ll almost certainly say it again in the future:  The Hale theaters are a real Utah treasure.

***

Why is Donald Trump the President of the United States?  Why is he the Commander-in-Chief of our military?  Why is he the head of the Republican Party?

It’s not the fault of the 3672 opposing Republican primary candidates who couldn’t work out their differences in order to present a common front against him.  It’s not the fault of the broadcast media and the radio and television talk show hosts, who gave him many times the coverage that his competitors received — effectively free campaign advertising — because he drove their ratings up.   (Sean Hannity is, practically speaking, Mr. Trump’s Minister of Propaganda.)  It’s not the fault of the Evangelical pastors who endorsed him — such as the execrable Robert Jeffress, pastor of the 12,000-member First Baptist Church of Dallas, who repeatedly assaulted candidate Mitt Romney as a non-Christian but could scarcely contain his devout veneration for the notably Christian Donald Trump — nor is it the fault of the Evangelicals who backed Mr. Trump in huge numbers.  It’s not the fault of the alt.right.

It’s the Mormons’ fault!

Sure, Mormon Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) was, with Mormon Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), among the few Republican members of the Senate to refuse to endorse Mr. Trump even after his nomination.  And Mormon Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) openly unendorsed Mr. Trump a month before the 2016 presidential election.  And Mormon former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney delivered a stinging speech criticizing Mr. Trump in March 2016 that made him a pariah and a hiss and a byword among Trumpists and on Fox News, and then very visibly declined to participate in the Republican national convention that anointed Trump as the 2016 nominee. And, yes, the most prominent third party challenger to Trump, expressly entering the race in a bid to provide an alternative to the Trump-led Republican ticket, was the Mormon Evan McMullin.  And, I modestly add, the Mormon blogger Daniel Peterson wrote for months about his opposition to Mr. Donald J. Trump, did not vote for Mr. Trump, resigned from the Republican Party on the night that Mr. Trump was nominated, and received a great deal of angry hate mail for his public rejection of Trumpism.

But it’s the Mormons’ fault.

If you don’t believe me, read this little piece from Mr. Jason P. Steed, of Dallas, Texas, an attorney whose undergraduate degree is, rather surprisingly, from Brigham Young University:

“Jeff Flake Could’ve Saved Us. He Didn’t.  Prominent Mormon Republicans like Flake and Mitt Romney could have paved the way for Trump’s defeat. But they didn’t.”

***

Here’s a book that you might find of interest:

D&C 4: A Lifetime of Study in Discipleship – A History, Womanhood and Relief Society, Beatitudes, Eternal Parent, Addiction Recovery, Doctrinal Commentary, Reward of Consecrated Service

If you choose to buy it, consider using AmazonSmile.  It will cost you nothing.

***

And I’ve just learned that this out-of-print 2001 book, which I really like — full disclosure: I have an essay in it — is available online:

Historicity and the Latter-day Saint Scriptures

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“Have you ever questioned your family’s ancestry?”

Perhaps, instead, some folks should question their knowledge of geography.

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Here’s a nice essay by Fiona Givens:

“Eve’s Courageous Choice Brings Us Joy!”

***

But here, I’m afraid, is a genuinely ridiculous expression of feminism:

“‘Dunkirk’ critics mocked for slamming the movie’s cast”