The Week's Recommended Reading on Substack: The growing influence of the prophetic movement, and how Christian Nationalists are 'intentional warping' the history of the United States.
There can be a fine line between stereotyping and observing trends using objective markers. Be careful. The "Prophets of America" piece sites Joseph Smith, the founding leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as someone laying the groundwork for religious extremism. But the church he founded has actually been setting a template lately for political moderation in the religious sphere. They've been actively preaching to their members not to judge others according to what party they belong to. And although they're religious doctrines prohibit gay unions, they've been working actively with the LGBTQ+ communities in Arizona and elsewhere to craft policies that protect both LGBTQ+ human rights, as well as religious freedom as a package, by seeking common ground. The balances they've been striking have been impressive. The moral of that story is, be careful about making blanket statements about religious groups--even prophetic ones. They are not all the same.
There can be a fine line between stereotyping and observing trends using objective markers. Be careful. The "Prophets of America" piece sites Joseph Smith, the founding leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as someone laying the groundwork for religious extremism. But the church he founded has actually been setting a template lately for political moderation in the religious sphere. They've been actively preaching to their members not to judge others according to what party they belong to. And although they're religious doctrines prohibit gay unions, they've been working actively with the LGBTQ+ communities in Arizona and elsewhere to craft policies that protect both LGBTQ+ human rights, as well as religious freedom as a package, by seeking common ground. The balances they've been striking have been impressive. The moral of that story is, be careful about making blanket statements about religious groups--even prophetic ones. They are not all the same.