With local congregations slowing trickling back to church for abbreviated, socially distanced, masked sacrament services, I find the decision on whether to return with them a simple one. With roughly half the ward being COVID-deniers (and they will be first to sign up), I cannot have confidence that they conduct their daily lives in a socially responsible manner. They represent, then, a danger to my physical being. So, thanks, but no thanks. I’ll not be back until there’s a vaccine.
 
With the availability of a vaccine, I will face a much more difficult decision. Do I go back to church and risk a different kind of infection?
 
Half the ward members are COVID-deniers. As such, they have shown themselves incapable of discerning even the most rudimentary truth from the clearest and grossest of errors—errors stemming, as they do, from the lying and murderous occupant of America’s White Outhouse and the false prophets that propagate his sputum.
 
Jesus complained, “O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?”[1] Today, I live among a people who cannot even discern the “face of the sky.” If they cannot discern a truth so clearly obvious, how can I sit and listen to them speak of much less obvious truths and errors? How do I avoid the possible infection they represent?
 
Do they not represent a clear and present danger to my spiritual being?
 
In the end, I will likely go back. Jesus, God Himself, after all, climbed into a human body and walked on this rat-infested planet without fear of spiritual contagion. He did so in hopes of rescuing individuals from the prince of darkness while, at the same time, laying the ground for the undermining and ultimate destruction of that dark prince’s principalities, powers, might, dominions, and spiritual wickedness in high places.[2]
 
I cannot do less than try to follow his example. But, unlike, Jesus, I am a mere man, vulnerable to infection. So, my attendance will be cautious. I will mingle with those who have shown themselves trustworthy lovers of truth. As for the others, I will practice proper spiritual distancing. And I’ll wear a damned mask; one that will filter out the killing droplets of falsehood that flow from the undiscerning lips of TRUTH-deniers.


[1] Matthew 16.3
[2] See Ephesians 6.12

Today’s Mad Sate of Our Rebellion is, likely, politically incorrect. I blame it on the Bible
 
Here, is a picture of current U.S. Attorney General, Bill Barr.

​Maybe you like this one better?

I don’t know what you see, but I’ll tell you what I see.
 
“His eyes bug out on account of his beefiness;
  his physique boggles the mind.”[1]
 
Or, if you prefer, as the KJV has it,
 
“Their eyes stand out with fatness:
  They have more than heart could wish.”
 
I’m not joking, here. Not trying to be funny or clever—O.K., maybe I have a tongue in cheek.
 
Neither am I poking fun.
 
No, I am deadly serious.
 
I wrote recently that, these days, I cant see the ugly image of the twisted Tucker Carlson without thinking of the spoiled, privileged, and arrogant young men who surrounded Judah’s King Rehobaom and counseled the king to increase oppression in Israel rather than alleviate it. Peas in a pod, are they, Tucker and these whining, sniveling, entitled whelps.
 
“And the young men that were grown up with him spake unto him, saying, ‘Thus shalt thou speak unto this people that spake unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, but make thou it lighter unto us;’ thus shalt thou say unto them, ‘My little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins. And now whereas my father did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke: my father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.’”[2]
 
Real patriots, this bunch.
 
Well, in a similar vein, as I recently considered a news piece about the corrupt and despicable Mr. Barr, with its accompanying picture of the arrogant SOB, the verse quoted above from the 73rd Psalm popped into my head.
 
In the end, however, it isn’t so much Barr’s physique that is repulsive as it is his heart. For the Psalm isn’t about the physical girth of the ungodly. Rather, it is about the narrowness of soul that the ungodly possess with such hubris.
 
“Even in death, they experience no suffering,
  but die with stomachs full.
They do not experience the hardships of common people,
  nor are they struck as others are struck.
This is why they wear their self-conceit as a neckless;
  envelope themselves in a garment of cruelty.
Their eyes bug out on account of their beefiness;
  their physique boggles the mind.
They are disdainful and promote wanton oppression.
  Their rhetoric is ever so soaring.
They claim divine license;
  their assertions are found the world over.
This is why peoples keep turning to them;
  why, as overflowing water, they flow to them.
They say, ‘How could God know?
  How could ʿElyôn possess any awareness?’
In summary: these are the impious;
  ever secure, always increasing in wealth.”[3]
 
There may be better descriptions of the ungodly somewhere—in scripture or otherwise—but this is a pretty good one. It is as good a description as I have found of Barr and of his fellow conspirator, tRUMP, and of all those who hold appointed offices within this most defiled and defiling of administrations.
 
The Psalmist lamented the comforts and succusses of such scoundrels. Lamented, that is, until God educated him about the very real and final dispositions of such ungodly scoundrels.
 
“Contrary to what I had thought, you subject them to delusions.
  You let them fall prey to lies.
How suddenly they become accursed;
  come to a complete end through multiple catastrophes!
They are as a dream from which one awakens.
  My Lord, upon waking up, their illusionary form is deemed hateful.”[4]
 
And so, tRUMP, and Barr, and all the rest of the accursed lot often find their way into my prayers. They and the evangelical false prophets who encircle America’s Caligula and, without a shred of divine authority, place their hands upon his head to bless… all of these had better hope that God pays no heed to this lone man’s heartfelt prayers. For I pray against them with every fiber of faith and hope that I possess. Consistent with the mind and will of God, I pray,
 
“May they, indeed, O Lord, ‘come to a complete end through multiple catastrophes!’”
 
“Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
 
 
[1] Psalm 73.7 author’s translation
[2] 1 Kings 12.10-11
[3] 73.4-12, author’s translation
[4] Psalm 73.18-20; author’s translation

READ THE ENTIRE HOMILY ON THE HOMILY OR JUST SOCIETY PAGE.

Today’s homily is an admittedly longer and somewhat awkward homily. Some might rather call it a study or essay. But, as my skills, such as they are, are more inclined to homily than to dense scholarly examination, we will stick to homily. In addition, there is always a ministerial aspect to what I do. I aim to touch the human heart as well as inform the human mind; influence attitudes and behaviors more than thoughts and opinions.
 
There is much discussion from time to time about the “distribution,” or “redistribution” of wealth. Many Americans—perhaps most, I do not know—consider the notion despicable, often painting it in the darkest hues of black wickedness or the deepest reds of communism. This is, of course, impure bull-pucky. Christians, in particular, ought to know better, what with their Bible shouting the praises of just redistribution of wealth from their bedside nightstands. Unfortunately, this gospel too often gets drowned out by their pulpit thumping pastors, who often teach another idolatrous and whorish gospel by the name “prosperity.”
 
So, let’s just be clear. All governments, I repeat, ALL governments from ancient Sumer to the classical Han dynasty to Democratic Greece; from the Roman republic and then empire, to Medieval France; from Colonial America to modern America; all have redistributed financial resources. When it comes to economic affairs, this redistribution of wealth is one of the primary and most common activities in which governments engage. The question is not, then, does or will a government, any government, our government redistribute wealth? They do and will! Our government has and does and will. This is a certainty. The only question is, HOW will it redistribute wealth?
 
In looking at our own U.S. history, we can observe that redistribution of wealth policies and practices have swung wildly back and forth. Whether we were always true to our convictions and wise in our practices, from the 1930’s through 1970’s there was a “progressive” attempt—halfhearted sometimes, but present nonetheless—to maintain a level of economic equity through the modest redistribution of wealth. This was a modest redistribution of wealth from the top (wealthiest) down (to the poor).
 
I would argue that this American experiment created one of the greatest and most equitable economies in world history—falling far short, it is true, of the more perfect redistributive economic systems established by an Enoch or that found in 4th Nephi. I would argue, in addition, that such redistribution was in complete harmony with the word and desires of God. A large part of what made the U.S. progressive economy great was its focus, at least theoretical if not always practiced as strenuously as one would wish, on individuals, and raising everyone—except, alas, African Americans, who can count on nothing if not being left out in the cold. “Economy,” after all, is not about how well Wall Street’s gamblers are doing in the Stock Market/Casino. “Economy” is about people, and should be about securing every citizen in the basic human necessities of food, shelter, healthcare, education, etc.
 
Anyway, America’s great progressive experiment came to a screeching halt with the 1980 election. Since the election of the venerable Ronald Reagan there has been a concerted and highly, if shamefully successful effort to redistribute wealth in the opposite direction: from the bottom up. This was and has been attempted and accomplished, in large part, through the impressive sounding theories of “Neoliberalism,” which, with all its pseudo-science, was and is nothing more than a conservative reaction to the progressive economic attitudes and activities of the previous generation.
 
This anything-but-liberal movement, as all conservative movements do, has worked tirelessly to see that wealth is sent gushing upward like a geyser to the wealthiest Americans—in this case about the top 1-10%. While doing so, the conservative proponents of Neoliberalism have assured us—with a straight face and as if we should be grateful—that a few precious drops would trickle back down to the rest of us. Why no one has focused on and rebelled against that word, that concept, “trickle,” is one of the great mysteries of our time. One cannot live on a trickle of economic benefits any more than one can live on a trickle of water. This is not “economy,” it is highway robbery and oppression. We see it every day in the suffering and want of America’s class of serfs.
 
We can look all over the globe and back into the past and see the same battles waged over the direction that the distribution of wealth will take. One example of this struggle can be found in the Hebrew Bible’s narrative reporting on the reign of Israel’s third king, Solomon. Another can be found in the pages of the Book of Mormon and its chronicling of wicked King Noah.
 
Both kings sought to transform society. The struggles depicted in these two narratives are dramatic and informative. The kings themselves and the economic evils that they perpetrated against their own nations have much in common. The inspired texts that report the battles that raged over who and what kind of people the two nations, Judah and Nephite, would be have implications for our own day and what kind of nation we are or can be. We can hear and learn from the inspired writers, and thus avoid much suffering,  or we can close our ears, our minds, and our hearts, learn nothing from the nations’ experiences, and suffer the same fate that those corrupt and corrupted nations suffered—civil war and finally complete annihilation.
 
Now, to be clear, as I have said repeatedly in the past, I do not expect America to observe Biblical law. I do not maintain, as many do, that America is or should be a fundamentally Christian nation. I do maintain, however, that in the Bible’s ideals and customs, we find principles that are applicable to every people and every nation, Christian or not. The application and observance of these basic principles can make for a more peaceful and secure nation. The rejection of them leads to conflict, chaos and collapse.

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