{"id":44940,"date":"2017-11-18T10:52:46","date_gmt":"2017-11-18T17:52:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=44940"},"modified":"2017-11-18T10:58:54","modified_gmt":"2017-11-18T17:58:54","slug":"joseph-smith-champion-religious-liberty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/11\/joseph-smith-champion-religious-liberty.html","title":{"rendered":"“Joseph Smith was a Champion of Religious Liberty”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Wilmette,<\/a>
The Bah\u00e1\u2019i House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois
(Photo by Purpy Pupple, Wikimedia CC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I know. \u00a0I know. \u00a0It\u2019s not, strictly speaking, a \u201cMuslim ban.\u201d \u00a0I don\u2019t use that term myself; I\u2019m merely quoting the title of the article. \u00a0So please don\u2019t waste electrons informing me that it\u2019s not actually a \u201cMuslim ban.\u201d \u00a0To quote what I myself just said a very short while ago, \u201cI know. \u00a0I know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t agree with everything this fellow says. \u00a0I\u2019m a conservative; he\u2019s a liberal. \u00a0But his accumulation of authentic quotations from Mr. Donald J. Trump \u2014 quotations that have seriously and understandably hurt his attempts at imposing certain restrictions on emigration \u2014 is worthy of review:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump\u2019s Muslim Ban Impoverishes Us All\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I am, it turns out, an ardent advocate of freedom. \u00a0My commitment to liberty for myself and for others is bone-deep. \u00a0I came to it originally for secular reasons. \u00a0But, happily, both my faith and the church that embodies my faith hold to freedom as a fundamental principle. \u00a0Not an odd-on. \u00a0Something basic to our theology and, we believe, foundational (via the decisions of a heavenly council before the world was) to the very purposes of creation and mortality.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In that light, this article, by one of the most interesting of the new crop of Latter-day Saint historians, is very much worth reading:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJoseph Smith was a champion of religious liberty\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Piercy<\/a>
\u201cThe Nauvoo Temple in Ruins\u201d (1853), by Frederick Piercy
(Wikimedia Commons public domain)
The Latter-day Saints had been driven from Nauvoo, Illinois, just six years before, after the murder of Joseph Smith. During the Mormon period, Nauvoo was roughly the same size as Chicago.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The case of Kelvin Cochran, in Atlanta, is \u2014 so far as I can see \u2014 a plain violation of the freedom of religion and, in fact, an example of encroaching wannabe tyranny:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Chief Cochran, His Faith Is More Important than His Dream Career\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This article (from The Atlantic<\/em>) doesn\u2019t mention the use of zoning laws to block the construction of Latter-day Saint temples and meetinghouses, but I would expect that several readers out there can think of cases where precisely that has happened:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Quiet Religious-Freedom Fight That Is Remaking America:\u00a0A federal law was supposed to put an end to the use of local zoning laws as tools of discrimination. It hasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey (whom I always found curiously slimy and repellent) and Judge Roy Moore and Al Franken and . . .<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Age of Sexual Misconduct, How Is Mike Pence a Problem?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a blog entry broadly aimed at political issues, this item may also fit:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

There has been a great deal of much-deserved ridicule aimed at the fact that the proposed Senate tax-reform bills would eliminate mortgage deductions but would allow owners of private jets to deduct their<\/em> expenses. \u00a0So it\u2019s worth knowing that<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Disgraceful Private-Jet Tax Break in the Senate Republicans\u2019 Tax Plan Was Introduced by a Democrat\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It will, I think, not survive. \u00a0And, off hand, I can think of no reason why it should\u00a0<\/em>survive.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Posted from Chicago, Illinois<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 I know. \u00a0I know. \u00a0It\u2019s not, strictly speaking, a \u201cMuslim ban.\u201d \u00a0I don\u2019t use that term myself; I\u2019m merely quoting the title of the article. \u00a0So please don\u2019t waste electrons informing me that it\u2019s not actually a \u201cMuslim ban.\u201d \u00a0To quote what I myself just said a very short while ago, \u201cI know. 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