The Latter-day Liberator

Author: William H. Douglas

What Does Mormonism Teach About The Meaning of Life and Life on Other Worlds?

Posted on by William H. Douglas

What is the meaning of life? What is the purpose behind Creation? Why am I here? Am I alone here? Are humans alone in the Universe? Is their life, intelligent life, on other worlds? If there is, what do they look like? What do they believe? How do they live? Is everything just one big cosmic accident, one great big empyrean joke?

These are some of the most meaningful and important questions that we ask ourselves. The Universe seems dark, chaotic, and full of impassable distances, and looming terrors. And it doesn’t give up its answers easily. But there are answers to our questions, a balm for our troubles, answers to our prayers.

There is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And it answers all those questions and more. That is what this article is about.

What Christians Should Think of Memorial Day

Posted on by William H. Douglas

Today I want to share a talk that a friend of mine delivered the Sunday before Memorial Day in 2017. He used Apostle Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s General Conference address, “Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear,” to counter the endless bombardment of propaganda that takes place at this time. My friend told the truth about the pro-state, pro-military lies that inundate us, preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and focused on the Gospel’s demand that we renounce violence and fear as means to achieving our social, political, or economic ends. In turn he also talks about the War on Drugs, the War on Terror, the US military, the idolatry of worship weapons as if they can keep you safe, missionary work, serving our enemies, loving those who hate us, and the way to build Zion.

Stephen King’s Roadwork: A Parable of Life in a Fallen World and the Light of Hope

Posted on by William H. Douglas

Using the lesser known but well written Stephen King novel, “Roadwork,” as a jumping off point, this article explores the vicissitudes of life and how it seems like mortality just piles suffering and pain on top of suffering and pain until we either are crushed under the weight, seek escape in mind-numbing hedonism, or snap and engage in retaliatory violence at the world that has so hurt us. I explore how this happens and why it happens, augmenting the fictional story with a real life example of Marvin Heemeyer, a man driven to the breaking point who struck back at his persecutors, and why we don’t need to similarly give in to such despair. There is a source of hope in the despair, a blinding light in the darkness that can rescue us from the suffering and depression in life. That Light is Jesus Christ which I explain as the solution and salvation to the problems of the world. There is a better way than either suffering or vengeance and the is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the power it gives us to tame the monster within us and create a world of light and joy.

What Mormon Women Had To Say About Polygamy- Part 3

Posted on by William H. Douglas

This is the final part in this series where I have been comparing the actual words from women who lived in plural marriages with the claims that anti-Mormons make about what is was like for Latter-day Saint women. Unsurprisingly they do not match up. Latter-day Saint women found polygamy to be a liberating experience and say government efforts to eliminate polygamy as tyrannical and oppressive. They called the government out on the hypocrisy of claiming polygamy was oppressive whilst using state power to actually engage in oppressing women who wanted to engage in polygamy.

In the addresses reprinted herein they also discuss how polygamy helps to limit and eliminate serious social ills such as adultery, prostitution, elective abortion, and sexual immorality.

We also get an interpretation of the Twelfth Article of Faith that contradicts how most members today understand it but which the speaker learned directly from the Prophet Joseph Smith.

Finally these women saw that as the government increasingly legislated morality it wouldn’t only cause a massive loss of liberty but it would lead to social chaos, predicting the situation we find ourselves in now. They even endorse what today we would recognize as nullification.

These women were incredible and they deserve your time. You will be enlightened.

Why The Minimum Wage Has Never Worked, Will Never Work, And Only Devastates Poor People

Posted on by William H. Douglas

The minimum wage is a hot topic right now with a lot of ill-informed people having very loud opinions about what it should or shouldn’t be and what the government should or shouldn’t do. As Latter-day Saints we are of course drawn into the discussion because we, as a matter of commandment, have been directed by the Lord to care for the poor and needy, to uplift the sick and afflicted, to lift up the heads that hang low, and to strengthen the feeble knees of those ready to collapse under life’s burdens. But, caught up in the tumult of political opinion, many of us have no idea what we should or shouldn’t do regarding a great many things, including the minimum wage.

This article is meant to address that by looking at the effects of the minimum wage on poverty, jobs, prices, monetary value, income inequality, and its roots as a racist practice designed to cripple the ability of minorities and women to care for themselves and their communities. After looking at all the evidence of history the conclusion becomes inescapable – the minimum wage is a racist policy designed to destroy the ability of poor people, especially minorities, to be able to care for themselves or improve their lives and that if we want to actually help everyone in society, including helping those in need, we must take drastic action to rein in government actions, including abolishing the minimum wage.

What Mormon Women Had To Say About Polygamy- Part 2

Posted on by William H. Douglas

I pick up here right where I left off in Part 1 – in the middle of the Great Indignation Meeting. Threatened by new anti-Mormon legislation aimed at destroying polygamy and annihilating the church, the women of the church have come together in a mass meeting. In it they defend polygamy as one of the greatest revelations God had given, demand that the United States government honor and recognize their rights to believe and live how they choose, declare that polygamy and the doctrines of the church have helped them to have greater rights than any other place in the United States, proclaim their status as mutual helpmeets and workers with men, and denounce efforts to attack the church and end plural marriage as being inspired by Satan himself. When you listen to them it becomes clear that they were not oppressed or abused, rather these were powerful, intelligent, and empowered women who were acting to protect one of the most important factors in their independence, the Latter-day Saint practice of plural marriage. Their experiences, their voices, their truths counter anti-Mormon lies and show us why we shouldn’t be ashamed of our past practice of plural marriage. Instead of listening to the ignorant and liars, read the words of the women themselves who lived it. You might be surprised.

Ancient Biblical Anarchy In The Law Of Moses

Posted on by William H. Douglas

One of the most common mistakes that people make when reading the scriptures has to do with what they think it says about government. For example, most people read the stories of Saul, David, Solomon, and the succeeding kings of Judah and Ephraim as some divine endorsement of monarchy or, more generally, statism. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. All the kings of the Israelites were absolute disasters and everything after 1 Samuel 8 is the fulfillment of a warning God gives the Israelites that choosing the rule of men over His rule would be nothing but a disaster. The Old Testament is deeply anti-monarchist and anti-statist. This brings up an important question though: If God didn’t endorse kings (or the state more generally) then what kind of government does He support? What does it look like when you have God as your King? Here I answer this question while laying out what modern forms of government most closely match or best allow for God’s government to be established among His people.

What Mormon Women Had To Say About Polygamy- Part 1

Posted on by William H. Douglas

We all know how we are supposed to think and feel about the practice of polygamy by early Latter-day Saints. We have been told that it was sexist, oppressive, abusive, and harmful to women, something we should be ashamed of, so much that even many Latter-day Saints assume the assertions are axiomatic. But, are they? Are these statements in fact true or are they, like so many other things today, merely modern anti-Mormon drivel projected onto the past?

In order to figure this out I have decided to go back to listen the voices of the women who had firsthand experience with plural marriage, the polygamous women of Utah, to see what they had to say about the practice. Needless to say what I found is quite the opposite of the malignancies spread about plural marriage today. These powerful, intelligent, educated women saw plural marriage as an essential right of theirs that brought numerous blessings and protections to their lives which they would rather die fighting to protect than give up at the demand of the law. In this series I want to make their voices heard to counter the lies falsely spread in their name in by anti-Mormons. When it comes to plural marriage, thee truth about, like everything else, will set us free of the falsehoods we believe and reaffirm the truth of the Restored Gospel.

LDS Reviews: The Falcon and The Winter Soldier

Posted on by William H. Douglas

Here I review “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier,” Disney’s newest MCU show, not only for entertainment value but for the messages and ideals it promotes as a piece of mass media. It doesn’t shy away from issues of military violence, state propaganda aimed at civilians, poverty, political oppression, blowback, racism, hope, and friendship. After giving a basic synopsis of the show I then address each of these themes and how they are explored within the context of the show, comparing them to the ideals and ethics of Christianity and human liberty.

What About The Ages Differences Between Joseph Smith And His Wives?

Posted on by William H. Douglas

It is common and unsurprising for anti-Mormons to attack the character of the Prophet Joseph Smith. By doing so they can elicit fury from among their co-believers and engender confusion and hatred among the ignorant. A common tactic I have encountered recently is the argument that even if Joseph Smith wasn’t a pedophile (an accusation I have disproven elsewhere and a link to which will be in this article) they nevertheless argue that because some of his plural marriages were to people significantly younger than him those marriages were necessarily abusive by default because of the differing levels of maturity and therefore power and equality present in the relationship. In this article I dismantle this argument and evaluate its accusations and assumptions in the light of what we know of the culture and history of the era that the Prophet Joseph Smith lived in. Ultimately, I demonstrate that for multiple reasons this argument is incorrect and nothing but a fallacious act of presentism that has little to do with Joseph Smith or the times he lived in.