Have you ever wondered why there are so many payday loan businesses lining the streets of Utah? Me too, and the answer might surprise you.  

When I originally wrote the piece “Confronting the Myth of LGBT and LDS Dems” for the LDS Dems blog, I quoted a comment that I felt summed up the two core reasons many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints feel there is an impasse between being an active, faithful member of the Church, and in supporting the Democratic party or, more broadly, progressive ideals. Again, here is the quote:

A couple of months ago I listened to the audiobook for A Fighting Chance by Senator Elizabeth Warren. I highly recommend it.

Going to ‘heck’ in a hand basket

The world is getting worse. It is the platitude we hear several times a month in Sacrament, Sunday School, and Priesthood/RS meetings. Conversations I have with conservative Latter-day Saints are sprinkled with a world view that pits ward members, me, and my family against “the world”. Some Mormons casually claim that they would be drug addicts and/or in jail without the church; as if that is the only path for the non-religious. The growth in unrighteousness is typically evidenced by a sensational piece by the Wall Street Journal or an inflammatory Fox News story.

 I think prisons should be abolished. If you think that’s radical, remember (or learn) that Joseph Smith essentially thought the same.

Fairness in the public square is equal protection under the law.

If not Hillary, then who? Claire McCaskill!

Taking Korihor as our model, the anti-Christ’s tenets are threefold:

We are a responsible people. The best example of responsibility towards our fellow man is exemplified in the Willie and Martin Handcart Rescue.

March 4, 2015 is a night I’ll always remember as one of the worst of my life. It started well: a large crowd of Utahns gathered together to support bringing healthcare access to tens of thousands of their fellow human beings.