![\"os0i9u8yyftvhicjnkn](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2025\/09\/Franz_Kafka_1923.jpeg\")
<\/a>I\u2019ve indicated here more than once that I try to make my blog practically useful to its readers by offering occasional comments on such things as movies, plays, pieces of music, restaurants, and travel destinations. \u00a0Here, for example, is a short but important video about an airport that should definitely be avoided: \u00a0\u201cKafka International Named World\u2019s Worst Airport\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0The place seems almost Kafkaesque, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n To put it mildly, I\u2019m not a fan of Steve Bannon<\/a>, who was Donald J. Trump\u2019s senior strategist for a time during Mr. Trump\u2019s first White House term. \u00a0So it doesn\u2019t lower my opinion of Mr. Bannon \u2014 it would be extraordinarily difficult<\/em> to lower my opinion of him \u2014 to learn that he has (once again) targeted the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> for attack: \u00a0\u201cBannon: What\u2019s Going On In The Mormon Church? Why Are There More LGBTQ Flags In Salt Lake City Than American Flags?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the first time that Mr. Bannon has made harsh comments about Latter-day Saints. \u00a0I\u2019m aware of at least one other occasion: In 2017, while campaigning on behalf of Alabama\u2019s Judge Roy Moore<\/a> for the United States Senate \u2014 an admirable person and an admirable cause if ever there was one! \u2014 he unloaded on us:<\/p>\n Washington Monthly<\/em> (6 December 2017): \u00a0\u201cSteve Bannon Disparages Mormon Missionary Work:\u00a0He suggested that Mormons<\/a> who do missionary work in wartime are cowards who lack honor and integrity.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 (I\u2019m guessing that, among other things, Mr. Bannon was implicitly contrasting the Romney family\u2019s lack of military history with Donald Trump\u2019s distinguished record of military service.)<\/p>\n In response, Utah\u2019s then-governor, Gary Herbert, a Republican, pronounced Mr. Bannon a \u201cbigot,\u201d<\/a> and the state\u2019s senior senator at the time, also a Republican, replied with displeasure: \u201cSen. Orrin Hatch Slams Steve Bannon Over Remarks on Mormons.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Let me note here, by the way, that, when my wife and I returned to Utah last Saturday from Oregon, we saw scores and scores of vehicles headed southward on I-15 between the Salt Lake Valley and Orem that were festooned with American (and various MAGA) flags. \u00a0They were mostly traveling in the right lane. \u00a0The vehicles were, I assume, going to the campus of Utah Valley University for some sort of memorial service or rally connected with the Charlie Kirk assassination. \u00a0Moreover, there were people on several of the overpasses en route who were waving American flags. \u00a0And, on the University Parkway overpass, which crosses I-15 toward the campuses of both Utah Valley University and Brigham Young University, we saw scores of American flags that were mounted on both sides of the bridge.<\/p>\n And here, by the way, is the article from Gateway Pundit<\/em> to which Mr. Bannon referred: \u00a0\u201cWhat\u2019s Going on in Utah? Another Trans Killer Mia Bailey Slayed Parents Last Year and Was Arrested in St. George \u2014 Just Minutes from Charlie Kirk Assassin Tyler Robinson\u2019s Home with Trans Boyfriend\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Steve Bannon is some sort of Catholic, not an Evangelical Protestant, so he\u2019s not necessarily representative of the MAGA movement, and probably not of what can broadly be called \u201cChristian nationalism.\u201d \u00a0(Although Judge Roy Moore<\/a>, whom he supported for the Senate by bashing the Latter-day Saints, certainly is<\/em>.). But members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who are sympathetic to the ideas of one or both of these cultural and political movements should be clear and without illusion about at least one thing: \u00a0Many \u201cChristian nationalists\u201d and many of those who are connected to MAGA are, like Mr. Bannon, not especially enthusiastic about the Restored Church and not entirely welcoming toward Latter-day Saints themselves. \u00a0We Latter-day Saints might find that a government predicated on \u201cChristian principles,\u201d as such folks understand them, would not be friendly to our temple-building, our chapels, our full participation in public life and electoral politics, or even, simply, to us. \u00a0It\u2019s happened before. \u00a0It\u2019s something to think about.<\/p>\n Today is Thursday, so it\u2019s time for a new \u201creprint\u201d of a chapter from one of the books published by the Interpreter Foundation: \u00a0Seek Ye Words of Wisdom<\/em>: Remembering and Keeping the Sabbath Day in the Late Second Temple Period,\u201d<\/a> written by Gaye Strathearn<\/a>:<\/p>\n Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in Seek Ye Words of Wisdom: Studies of the Book of Mormon, Bible, and Temple in Honor of Stephen D. Ricks<\/em>, edited by Donald W. Parry, Gaye Strathearn, and Shon D. Hopkin. For more information, go to https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/books\/seek-ye-words-of-wisdom\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cOn Mount Sinai, Moses received the command \u201cRemember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work\u201d (Exod. 20:8\u201310). In the ensuing three millennia, Jews and Christians have sought, to varying degrees, to keep this commandment alive in their communal and individual lives. .\u00a0.\u00a0 In this paper, we will examine some of the ways Jews in the late Second Temple period (200 BC\u2013AD 70), who also struggled with applying a command that was \u201cancient\u201d even in their day, strove to find meaning for their time and circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n Here, in closing, is yet another abomination from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122: \u00a0\u201cThe Church of Jesus Christ Continues Partnership to Deliver More Water to Great Salt Lake\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n As it happens, I\u2019m currently reading a new book by Robert A. Rees<\/a> that\u2019s titled Imagining and Reimagining the Restoration<\/a>. \u00a0<\/span><\/em>It includes a chapter (\u201cImagining a Whole and Healthy Planet: Stewardship in Light of Matthew 25\u201d) that I\u2019ve already read and that is, in substantial part, devoted to the question of saving the Great Salt Lake. \u00a0<\/span>So I took special notice of the article by Bob Rees that appeared in the Deseret News<\/em> on 17 September 2025, yesterday, the same day on which the article to which I linked just above also appeared: \u201cOpinion: A citizen symphony for saving the Great Salt Lake.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 It\u2019s worth a look.<\/p>\n Posted from Park City, Utah<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 I\u2019ve indicated here more than once that I try to make my blog practically useful to its readers by offering occasional comments on such things as movies, plays, pieces of music, restaurants, and travel destinations. \u00a0Here, for example, is a short but important video about an airport that should definitely be avoided: \u00a0\u201cKafka International […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":41030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[39161,2905,788,22672,19715,782],"class_list":["post-112904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-charlie-kirk","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-mormon","tag-robert-a-rees","tag-steve-bannon","tag-utah"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a>
Wikimedia Commons public domain image<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/a><\/a>