Mary Dyer is one of the greatest examples of true Christianity in American history. A member of the Society of Friends, a Quaker, she stood up against one of the most authoritarian and autocratic societies to ever exist in North America, the Puritan ran Massachusetts Bay Colony. While plenty of people talk about liberty and religious freedom, Mary did more than talk – she lived and died asserting her basic human rights in the face of a brutalist and oppressive society that would deny her basic rights because of her faith. She is a shining example of what it means to love liberty more than life and what it means to truly live pure Christianity. Her example is a righteous example to us all.
Tag: human liberty
President Biden’s Vaccine Mandates Have Been Smashed In The Courts
On Sept. 9, 2021, US President Joe Biden imperiously declared that his “patience is wearing thin” with those Americans who were not yet vaccinated. That same day he issued his first vaccine mandate with two others following in November of 2021. By December 2021 they would all be struck down by the courts, with judges ruling they were inept, nonsensical, unworkable, and – most importantly – deeply unconstitutional as they violated the separation of power and allowed the President sweeping illegal powers if allowed to continue. Here I explain these rulings and how they help us to truly understand exactly what the law is and how it functions, something too many are sadly ignorant about. These mandates are an attack on the basic ideals of individualism and democracy and a threat to the rule of law. Disobedience to them is not disobedience to the law, but preservation of it in the face of illegal power grabs by the US President.
What Mormon Women Had To Say About Polygamy- Part 3
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.
LDS Reviews: The Falcon and The Winter Soldier
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.