My Place to Reflect

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...

One of the central themes of the BSA's Venturing program is to empower youth and young adults in reasoned, ethical thinking. One tool for this is the Ethical Controversy. An ethical controversy considers an issue where there are two fundamentally different ways of viewing a situation. Each individual attempts to explore as fully as possible one side of the issue, much like one would in preparing for a debate. However, unlike a debate, the goal is not to argue against the opposing side and "win" the argument. Rather, it is to ensure that both sides are as fully explored as possible. This fall, our Venturing crew has chosen to explore the Ethical Controversy of the Park51, the Islamic community center proposed to be constructed a few blocks away from the site of the World Trade Center and Ground Zero of September 11. This controversy, at the very least, pits the ideas of religious tolerance and freedom of religion with the realities of painful feelings of victims of a...

Setting aside whether Article 1 grants Congress the right to support health insurance for all under the "promote the general welfare" clause (I can see why people take both sides), I want to think about the financial issues related to reform of health insurance itself. What I write is not academic, but reflects my best current understanding of how things work. I have not found the debate to actually address these core issues. I accept the following premises: That the total costs of providing health care are growing at an unacceptably high rate. That the current rate of increase of health insurance premiums, if not controlled, will lead to higher rates of individuals not carrying health insurance. Individuals with insurance are more likely to obtain less expensive services before expensive critical care services must be provided. Uninsured individuals are more likely to wait until health needs are critical, then get emergency care. These costs have a high likelihood of bein...