let’s roll

I agree tithing is very different than tax dollars. I’d suggest that as citizens with a representative government, those representatives should spend tax dollars in accordance with the will of the citizens they represent. Our covenant with the Lord regarding tithes is that we give willingly with the understanding that we a returning to him a portion of what He has given us, it was never really ours, and is given to His representatives to be utilized in the way He desires and those representatives should look only to Him as to how to use the funds. Personally, I would never deem it appropriate for me to counsel the Lord or His representatives on how to spend tithes (which is why my other post in this thread should be understood as a comment on unhelpful attitudes about getting into the Y not a serious suggestion about denying admission based on place of residence).

Far too many to list them all. But to illustrate the point, at a youth conference testimony meeting one youth said he was stressed about school because his parents had told him they would feel they failed him if they didn’t help him get into BYU. Three other youth referred to his testimony while sharing their own and said they knew what he was feeling. As I recall one said he felt like the whole purpose of his life up to now was to get into BYU. Another said she was scared to talk to her parents about school because they were so invested in her getting into the Y. The last talked about being grateful for the change in missionary age because his parents had backed off their “obsession” about him going to the Y and were focused on getting him into the mission field.

Utah parents define successful parenting as having their child attend BYU and tell their children that their success in school is measured by whether they are admitted to BYU-P. BYU-I is a cringe-inducing fallback. Not universal, of course, but far too prevalent and blatantly obvious and openly discussed.

Never feed trolls, even if they’re members of Congress.

I’d be in favor of limiting enrollment to students outside of Utah. That would send the message that there’s value in becoming acquainted with your brothers and sisters outside the bubble and would also remove the unhealthy obsession of Utah parents to have their children attend BYU.

Ouch is all I can say after having spent a little time in this thread. I’m leaving it now and invite others to do the same. I can’t imagine anyone feels edified or uplifted by the disdain voiced by commenters towards other commenters and then often returned in kind.

Not bad, two out of three. The third branch is, of course, the Spanish-speaking Branch. 😇

So many good ones, hard to pick a favorite...but I really had a chuckle when I saw Oui out.

Much of the MSM here portrays it as driven by nationalism, which is their shorthand for jingoism.

I’m a realist when it comes to the sophistication of Americans when it comes to foreign politics. When only 1 in 4 Americans can name the three branches of the U.S. government, it’s clear the general populace knows very little about its own government, let alone foreign politics, so you have to be wary of any polling data of Americans on Brexit. IMHO, like most populist initiatives, Brexit seems to be an example of ready, fire, aim (or try to). In order to get sufficient consensus to gain approval for Brexit, the tent had to include all who were pro-Brexit for any reason. That loose coalition accomplished getting Brexit approved but isn’t likely to realize all the changes its supporters hoped would be realized via Brexit.

Repost from a few weeks ago when the Dow was in the red YTD. I’m contrite and will begin a joyful celebration of the 1% YTD gain. 😀👍

I’m not on Twitter. Has the President apologized for the market being in the red for the year? I hear he wanted us to give him the credit for the uptick in the market, so I trust he’s taking responsibility for the current correction as well.

Believe that Divine promises are always kept so... If we ask of God in faith, without waivering, we will receive wisdom from Him If we earnestly seek we will find Him If we are heavy ladened, and come to Him, He will give us rest. All the asking, seeking and coming has to be done with humility, not with an attitude of entitlement and not with a preconceived notion of what the answer should be. I’ve tried it both ways, each humble effort has been rewarded, each selfish desire has gone unanswered...and there have been more of the latter than the former...the natural man has not been easy to vanquish and if held at bay for a season, anxiously returns at the first opportunity. Easiest example for me of His miracles is that I look at my adult son, non-verbal, cognitive ability of a 3 year old and see an angel, a blessing not a burden and know that no one sinned for him to be born and live his entire life as he is, but rather he was sent to mortality as he is that the glory of God might be made manifest. It certainly has been.

I don’t respondi well to traditional forms of teaching (e.g. classroom lectures), I prefer to read and ponder. So I admit to a bias against the approach often used for teaching the Gospel. There wasn’t much pedagogical teaching of the Gospel in our home. Instead we focused on sharing with our children why we believe...experiences involving the Spirit; how our understanding of the Gospel shapes and deepens our love for them; how Gospel knowledge underpins how we understand our relationship with them and defines how we view all of God’s children. We encouraged questions and many Gospel discussions sprang from those questions...I always tried to listen and ask questions more than talk...I’m prone to engage the Socratic method. Our adult children still enjoy raising questions and our back and forth.

I think most of my students in college came from families where the expectation was they’d all get straight A’s. When you grade on a curve 80 percent of those students don’t live up to those expectations. I can’t tell you how many times I had to listen to students complain about how their grade would dissapoint their parents.

Thanks for the invitation. Very thought provoking. After reading and reflecting my thought is that just as support for traditional families has comes under increasing scrutiny, with many now believing that such support is not just wrong but also hostile and bigoted, a belief in, and desire to follow Christ will also be subject to increased ridicule and scorn. There are many who already believe that it will never be enough to love the sinner but reject the sin, because to truly love someone means to embrace everything about them and that those who follow divine teachings are using those teachings to justify their bigotry. The importance of the witnesses given by apostles almost 20 years and their invitation to us to come to know the Savior will become increasingly evident as we see many professed Christians, including some within the Church, set aside their efforts to come to Christ, either because they become convinced that His teachings are outdated or because they fear the scorn of the world. That scorn will increase to the level that it will make discipleship untenable for anyone without a genuine love of the Savior and the companionship of the Holy Ghost. Thus the recent emphasis on the need to be led by the Spirit. My two cents. Thanks again for the invitation.

Party of One.

We are a strange lot when it comes to elections. An actor/bodybuilder was governor of California for part of the time I lived there. Minnesota elected a professional wrestler as governor. We tend to embrace political family dynasties (e.g. Kennedy, Bush). Entertainment/drama/scandal (real or contrived) get far more attention than policy...and whoever wins, a year later 30 percent of the electorate won’t be able to name the VP and more than half won’t know the speaker of the House and Senate Majorty Leader. As to your question about third parties, conventional wisdom is that the most a third party candidate would ever be is a spoiler and could never be elected President. That said, in the context of my description of the US electorate, I admit that it would be fascinating if Ms. Winfrey organized the O party and ran for President.

I hope you didn’t stay up last night waiting for the Florida governor and senator results. 😀. Two real nail-biters. Is the recount for the Senate seat mandated by law because the results were so close or does it need to be requested? We might have some hanging/clinging chad de ja vu.

If the last two years have taught us anything it’s that there aren’t too many fence sitters when it comes to the President. Whatever his tax returns might show to an objective observer, they will be considered evidence of his acumen by his supporters, and considered evidence of his corruption by his opponents. I trust the few who still have mixed feelings about him will find ample reason to have mixed feelings about his tax returns as well. IMHO, his prospects for reelection have far more to do with who the Democrats run against him than anything that will happen over the next two years.

You have a fascinating background. I was a Justice Administration undergrad (thought I might go into criminal law, ended up a litigator and corporate lawyer) and did an internship with Adult Probation and Parole. The parole officer I worked with took me on lots of what he jokingly referred to as home teaching visits— warrantless, no-knock searches of parolee places of residence, looking for guns, drugs, porn (for sex offenders). He had the same gift you seem to have to be able to de-escalate with words...although most parolees were astute enough to know if they acted out their parole could be revoked, so they were generally very deferential.

I hope I’m wrong because I prefer to be an optimist, but my gut tells me the Democrats will use their majority in the House to investigate all things Tump and spend the next two years demonizing him in hopes of winning the WH in 2020 and that the President will spend the next two years blaming all bad news on the fact that the Democrats are wasting their time in a witch hunt against him and not tending to the needs of the country. Best case scenario is that the new young blood in the Democratic Party dumps their bitter leadership, sees the need to move toward the center in order to get legislation through the Senate and passes some bills on immigration et al that have enough common sense in them that the Senate passes them as well. At the same time the Senate Judiciary committee has a clear path to approve non activist judges.

Powerful and poignant.

Fascinating. Thanks for these insights. I don’t claim any special divine protection but have been told I’m unsually calm in dangerous and chaotic situations. That bolsters my belief that my vertigo is a physical and not a psychological condition. 😀

Smile. Take comfort in the fact that I’m convinced that all of your gun toting brothers and sisters at their core love and respect you, even if you might be unable to find common ground on this issue. I can’t relate to the desire to want to own a gun but have no problem respecting that desire. Corlino’s post of a moment ago reflects a noble admiration for folks with differing opinions on this topic and I echo that admiration.