My Place to Reflect

So the theory of the republican form of constitutional government is that the people select individuals that they respect and believe will be able to work out solutions for society's problems according to the restrictions of government established by the constitution.  Yet, if you are like me, I see the national government at least as being in a terrible state of dysfunction.  Democrats complain that the Republicans are obstructionist.  Republicans complain that the Democrats are out of control.  To the public, government seems bent mainly on electability and retention or gaining of control and power. As an independent voter, I find myself frustrated with both sides.  More importantly, I find myself frustrated at the inability of America to be able to carry on any honest conversation over the challenging issues of the day.  It is more important in the political climate to turn disagreement into opportunities to attack.  I want a platform where I can ...

EFY stands for Especially For Youth, and is an intensive religious retreat experience sponsored by the Church Educational System of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Several years ago, I heard the EFY theme song, which takes the LDS hymns "As Sisters in Zion" and "The Army of Helaman" and puts them together in a medley. As I sat listening, I felt inspired to try to write complementary verses that reverse the roles of the songs. Here is my most current version of the lyrics. I continue to fiddle with the words, but feel close to being finished. At such a time, I hope to see them published in a church magazine. These lyrics are my own creative work and I reserve the copyright for them for the time being. We'll Bring the World His Truth (The Army of Helaman ) Children's Songbook #172 (original music and lyrics by Janice Kapp Perry) (verse for women) We have been raised as Esther of old In loving families, prepared to go forth. Wit...

After the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Shintaro Ishihara, the governor of Tokyo mused, "I think it is tembatsu (divine punishment)" presumably for the Japanese being tainted with egoism and populism . Meanwhile, a Russian Orthodox priest, Alexandr Shumsky, wrote (use Google Translate to read an English translation) that the catastrophe must be a judgment of God, significant as occurring during Lent, for the technological progress toward a new world order and for an offense some in Japan caused against the motherland of Russia. A recent poll showed that while 56% of Americans believe God is in control of everything, 38% of Americans responded that natural disasters are a sign from God with 29% believing that such disasters could be divine punishment. Among white evangelicals, 53% believed that God punishes nations for the sins of its citizens. I've recently been reading some sections in the Book of Mormon that have some relevance to this issue. This post p...