Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
Some notes from a politically conservative Latter-day Saint Islamicist

Some notes from a politically conservative Latter-day Saint Islamicist

Last updated on: April 1, 2018 at 11:51 am by Dan Peterson

Some notes from a politically conservative Latter-day Saint Islamicist 2018-04-01T11:51:49-06:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

In an early ninth-century manuscript, the Emperor Constantine is shown burning heretical books. (Wikimedia Commons pubic domain)

An interesting article:

“Mormons want to save the planet — it’s part of their theology — but many shy away from being called environmentalists”

I agree that there is scriptural warrant — there has been from the very beginning, from right there in the story of Adam and Eve — for Latter-day Saints to be concerned stewards of nature and our planet. And it’s very likely that we haven’t given that subject enough thought. Perhaps especially of late. A major reason for that neglect is that environmentalism has come to be associated with left-leaning politics and with the expansion of government power. Is there an effective way to be an “environmentalist” without being a statist? This seems to me an important and rather urgent question.

***

I found this a worthwhile piece:

“How do Mormons know what they know?”

***

I’ve been criticized as a moral coward and a craven corporate bootlicker for failing, thus far, to speak out on the allegations of sexual abuse recently leveled against a past president of the Missionary Training Center in Provo.

I’ve had several reasons for remaining quiet on the issue. Notable among them is the fact that I have no special information or insight regarding the matter — I had never even heard of the man until his name showed up in the papers — and, hence, nothing especially important to say about it.

I don’t know whether he’s guilty or not. Candidly, I was inclined, at first, to tentatively credit the charges. The accused seemed, albeit quite vaguely, to concede having done or thought inappropriately. But then this came along, leaving me a bit more unsure:

“Amid quiet life in Chandler, explosive sexual-assault allegations hit Mormon leader”

It seems to me that I have no special standing and no particular calling to declare a public verdict.

But I can’t approve (though I’m not surprised by) attempts to use the case as a weapon against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I’ve never doubted that wickedness and hypocrisy exist in the Church, that unworthy people sometimes enter our temples and represent us as missionaries and even hold leadership positions. This is unsurprising.

Where it threatens others, such evil should be identified and excised. Gross immorality in the Church merits Church discipline. Crimes merit criminal punishment. And, if problems in reporting or in dealing with such offenses become apparent, they should be fixed. But the words of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn should never be forgotten:

Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart, and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. Even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained; and even in the best of all hearts, there remains a small corner of evil. . . .

If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

Moreover, as I’ve thought about the case, I’ve failed to see how, even if the accused is guilty, this would prove that Joseph Smith had no gold plates, or that there were no Nephites, or that there is no God. And those are the questions that interest me most intensely. If there is a God who inspired the Nephites to keep a record on golden plates that was eventually translated as the Book of Mormon, the rest — all the good and, yes, all the evil — is footnotes. Sometimes painful footnotes, to be sure. (Please let nobody interpret me as having minimized the suffering of abused children or victimized women, let alone that perpetrated by the Mountain Meadows Massacre or the Nazi Holocaust or the Gulag or the Ukrainian terror-famine or the Cambodian killing fields.) But, in the end, the most fundamentally important truth for me is partially but well captured in a statement from the Prophet Joseph Smith: “All your losses will be made up to you in the resurrection, provided you continue faithful. By the vision of the Almighty I have seen it.” If the Prophet’s declaration is correct, it puts everything else into a very different perspective.

***

On a somewhat related matter,

“Mormon leaders unveil new rules allowing another adult in room for interviews”

***

You might think that, since I’m a life-long and very serious political conservative — e.g., I supported Barry Goldwater for president as a pre-teen, whereas my parents voted for Lyndon Johnson; my subscription to National Review, which began when I was thirteen, continued through my mission and continues to this day; I helped to host William F. Buckley Jr. when he spoke at BYU while I was an undergraduate; I volunteered in the gubernatorial and presidential campaigns for Ronald Reagan; I’ve spoken several times at the annual libertarian Freedom Fest in Las Vegas, and will do so again this year — I would be at home on a Facebook site called LDS Conservatives.

You would evidently be wrong.

A friend has called my attention to the reaction, on that site, to my article on Islam in the current Ensign. Thus far, I’ve merely skimmed some of the comments, but I’m being mocked there as pretending to an expertise on Islam that I don’t actually possess and have been described as, among other things, a “fool” and a “tool of Satan.”

A Nazi book-burning on 10 May 1933, at Bebelplatz, in Berlin
(Wikimedia Commons public domain)

Some are evidently puzzled at the insidious method by which I managed to smuggle such pro-Islamic propaganda into the pages of the magazine — and particularly, at my fiendish timing, in the issue appearing at Easter. One fellow says that, within an hour of receiving his copy, he announced to his bishop that he would forthwith be “structuring his tithing” — how one does this, I have no idea — so that BYU receives absolutely no support from him in the future. Another person even boasts of having, along with her husband, ripped out and burned my article so that it would not sully the purity of the remainder of the Ensign‘s pages.

Here’s one fact worth noting: I didn’t propose the article, nor did I volunteer to write it. It was requested. By whom? By the same priesthood quorum that will preside at and conduct the meetings of General Conference this weekend.

***

You may have missed this delightful article, of which Matthew Wheeler kindly reminded me:

“LDS Stake Takes in Muslim Worshipers After Mosque Destroyed by Arson”

***

Tonight:

Previous Post

March 29, 2018

"Occidentosis"

Next Post

March 29, 2018 Life and our galactic location (Part 1)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What principle about debt is found in Proverbs?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Ignore money The borrower is slave to the lender Debt is always good Never lend