Quoted in a Foxnews.com article

Here.

And if you haven't yet, join the grass-roots movement to boycott Broadway and let them know that they shouldn't support anti-Mormonism.

A couple scriptures to think about:

Luke 18:18-23:

18 And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
19 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.
20 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother.
21 And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.
22 Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Whatever you do, do not distribute unto the poor, cuz that will seriously screw them over, and it's totally socialist: and come, follow me.
23 And when he heard this, he was very happy: for he was very rich.
24 And when Jesus saw that he was very happy, he said, How happy shall they that have riches be when they enter into the kingdom of God!
25 For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a poor man to accept welfare and enter into the kingdom of God.


Mosiah 4:16-25

16 And also, ye yourselves will succor not those that stand in need of your succor; ye will not administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.
17 Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just—
18 But I say unto you, O man, you are totally right. You earned your money fair and square, and that beggar deserves what is coming to him. In fact that beggar hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that laziness that he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God. Cuz if you want interest you need to save and invest, but those beggars are just spending what little money they have on food and other things that we just get so easily.
19 For behold, are we not all free? Did we not all work for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?
20 And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit and wealth upon you, and has caused that your banks should be filled with money, and has caused that your mouths and bellies should be fed that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy, all because you chose freedom over socialism and didn't give in to Satan's desire that you would help the poor and see that all are provided for.
21 And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye deserve of the substance that ye have.
22 And if ye judge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not, and condemn him, how much more will he be willing to get off his lazy butt and get a job instead of wasting the country away by choosing to remain poor and uneducated.
23 I say unto you, wo be unto that poor man, for his lack substance is clearly his own fault. And if he can't afford health insurance because he is in school, then he should just set aside his education and work a menial minimum wage job that provides the very basic benefits for his survival; and now, I say these things unto those who are poor as pertaining to the things of this world.
24 And again, I say unto the rich, ye who have and yet have even more than is sufficient; I mean all you who deny the beggar, because ye are against socialism; I would that ye say in your hearts that: I give not because I have not, but because that is socialism.
25 And now, if ye say this in your hearts ye remain guiltless, otherwise, well, you are still guiltless, cuz the only guilty ones are the poor who are clearly in their situation because of their own doings, or lack thereof.

"001100010" - Mormonism in Jon Stewart's Earth (The Book)

During my bubble baths, I usually lay back and read from Jon Stewart's Earth (The Book): A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race.

This book is as funny as it gets and perhaps one of the best social critiques offered in print. While the book's information on Mormonism could have used a little help from Wikipedia (ex. it has Joseph Smith taking the Mormons to Salt Lake), the humor it uses has been spot on. Page 167 however, had me totally confused. On it's section on religious dietary taboos it uses Da Vinci's "Last Supper" with the faces of famous persons from religious groups photoshopped over the faces of Jesus and the apostles. With each face is a list of a religion, their dietary rules, and a silly made-up quote. For example:

Hilarious. I know.

But the quote for Mormonism has me completely confused:

---READ MORE---

How I spent my Christmas vacation

On Angela & Loyd.

Dan Peterson and the FARMS Review reviews ... me.

Yesterday I was skimming through Daniel Peterson's introduction to the most recent issue of the FARMS Review, "An Unapologetic Apology for Apologetics," and something caught my eye. He writes (quoting a couple anonymous writers):

Some Latter-day Saints who object in principle to the apologetic enterprise may hold to a slightly different faith—or, at least, affirm the faith a little differently—than do most members of the church. A hypothetical situation was proposed to one such objector, and his response was revealing. "Suppose," a questioner wrote,

that a friend or family member approaches you and says "I am beginning to have doubts about my testimony. There are things from the history of the Church which I never knew about, but which concern me. For example, my friend said that Joseph Smith stole the temple endowment from Freemasonry. I was told the endowment was revealed by God, and now I am really having some confusing doubts."

What would you do? Would you say, "Well, your problem is that you are using 'reason' to assess the claims of the gospel. I think what you need is more faith. If you just have faith and pray about it, it will be okay." Would you say something else? What would you do? 18

In response, the objector said that he would answer that,

yes, Joseph Smith used Masonic rites to develop his endowment ceremony. If they want to ask more questions, I'd give them more answers: No, I don't think they are based on actually ancient rituals. Yes, I find them beautiful and meaningful nonetheless. No, I don't think they are magically efficacious. Yes, I believe that God uses them to bind us into communities to build the Kingdom of God, etc.19

The appropriate way to respond to our critics, he continued, "depends on the criticism."

Sometimes the proper response is: Yes, you are right. Sometimes the proper response is to point out poor argumentation (which could be equally done by a non-believer). Sometimes the response is "I don't know." Other times the only response is: Perhaps, but it doesn't matter.

When I read this the last couple quotations reminded me of something I had read elsewhere. After doing a quick google search I realized that it seemed familiar because it was something that I had written on a message board several months ago. Upon further skimming of the article I noticed that nearly each section of Peterson's article was quoting and responding to other comments I had made on that thread, as well as to a paper I had written on Mormon apologetics for a class I had with Richard Bushman last spring.

Needless to say, I am a bit honored that Peterson took the time to publish a response to quick comments that I had made in an informal (and awful) message board and a 12-page paper for one of my classes. And because Peterson and I had once been friends I appreciate that he avoided the traditional snide remarks and personal jabs that are often a trademark of the FARMS Review--even throwing in a couple compliments in my direction.