At war among ourselves?

My most recent column for the Deseret News, which appeared this morning, has a vaguely New Year theme:

“More than resolutions: How religious holidays, traditions prompt remembering, reflection: Reflection, coupled with the notion of new beginnings, is at the very core of many religious beliefs and practices, including during Easter, Passover, Christmas, Ramadan, Yom Kippur and the sacrament.”

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The invaluable Jeff Lindsay has posted two new items on his personal blog:

“Janus Parallelism in Alma 32 and 33?”

“More on the Limits of “Endless” and “Eternal” in the Book of Mormon: Awaking from “Endless Sleep” and the “Eternal Band of Death””

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And don’t miss this:

“Neville-Neville Land 2020 year in review”

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The astonishing Robert Boylan brings something really important to bear on a criticism that has frequently been raised, and continues to be raised, by anti-Mormons against the Book of Abraham:

“Examples of Ancients Identifying Females Figures as Male Deities”

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Also for the New Year:

“5 Signs You Should Find A New Church”

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You may have noticed that I haven’t been posting here (or anywhere else, or that matter) on matters of partisan politics.  I swore such posts off a couple of months before the November election, after learning of three people who had, they said, vowed not to contribute any more to the completely apolitical Interpreter Foundation because of my personal political views.  (I happen to be the Foundation’s current president.)

After the election — actually, who am I kidding? the 2020 presidential election will never end — I returned, with one or two blog entries, to occasionally commenting on partisan political matters.  But I soon backed off again.

Why?  Partly because a friend advised me that, given my position, I should, in the manner of a General Authority, entirely refrain from taking public political stands.  Now, I don’t feel like a General Authority.  (For which I’m deeply grateful!)  But I get it.  In this divisive political climate, people unfriend other people over political differences — and not just metaphorically, on Facebook.  And, sometimes, they anathematize everything connected with the newly-declared non-person.  (“A pox upon you and all your works!”) Because of political disagreement in one part of one biennial election, I now have a couple of acquaintances who say they want nothing more to do with either me or the completely non-political Foundation that I currently head.

I can’t express how sad, painful, and unfortunate I find such things.  I was especially disheartened and depressed when a member of my extended family to whom I had made a holiday-greeting phone call told me that s/he was effectively severing ties with me because of the occasional political comments I’ve made on this only occasionally political blog.  My parents and my brother, s/he said, would be very disappointed in me.

Good grief.  It’s not as if I’ve suddenly declared myself a Nazi or a Marxist-Leninist or in favor of mandatory partial-birth abortions.  I’m still the free-market and pro-life conservative, the strong believer in limited constitutional government and federalism, that I’ve been since my early teens.  I really haven’t changed.

I’m horrified at the way our current toxic politics have divided friends and families, separating us into mutually exclusive, seldom-communicating, warring factions.

Which is one of the reasons that, after a lifetime of deep political interest and deep political commitment, I’ve resolved to forego public partisan political comment.  I shall be silent.

The other reason is simply this:  I value the work of the Interpreter Foundation much more than I value personally bloviating on politics — even in today’s peerlessly target-rich and almost irresistibly tempting political environment.

Maintaining silence these days about political matters requires virtually superhuman self-restraint on my part.

So, if you’re still thinking about perhaps maybe possibly making a donation to the Interpreter Foundation on this last day of this wretched year, please do so.  If it will help, please devote a moment or two to contemplating my noble self-sacrifice and be inspired.

P.S. — I reserve to myself the right to speak out on non-electoral political matters in the future, when I so choose.  For example, on topics related to the Middle East and to religious liberty.  And I’m contemplating an occasional series of posts on economics and political thought in general.  If people want to unfriend me over such things, they will be entirely free to do it.