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It’s Not Always Discrimination

Posted by Mormon Heretic on July 28, 2013 in Gender, Mormon, Movie/Book Reviews, Women
23-year-old Ciera Pekarcik, Miss Utah

23-year-old Marissa Powell, Miss Utah USA

There has been much made of the apparent pay discrepancies between men and women.  At the recent Miss America Pageant, Nene Leakes posed the question,

A recent report shows that in 40% of American families with children women are the primary earners, yet they continue to earn less than men.  What does this say about society?”

Miss Utah took a lot of flak for her poor response to the question.  But sometimes we need to look a bit deeper at these questions, and the answers aren’t always so straightforward as to quote a simple statistic.  I’ve been reading Superfreakonomics by Stephen Dubner and Steve Levitt, and as usual they make some interesting points that are often against conventional wisdom.  In analyzing the pay gap among men and women, they find some reasons that aren’t necessarily sexist.  Among women with an MBA, the pay gap can be explained by the following reasons. Continue Reading »

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How Racism, Sexism, and other Stereotypes Hurt Our Performance

Posted by Mormon Heretic on July 21, 2013 in Culture, Gender, Mormon, Movie/Book Reviews, Race, Science, Women

We all know that racism exists.  Jeff (The Race is On) and I (The Black 14 of Wyoming) wrote about racism last week at Wheat and Tares.  But one commenter in particular said that race is not a problem.  (I don’t know what planet he lives on–apparently he lives in an area with few minorities, but he thinks that the white, black, and asian racists cancel each other out, and therefore racism is not a problem.)

It’s nice to talk about, but how can one truly measure the negative impact of racism, sexism, or other stereotypes?  Claude M. Steel wrote a fascinating book discussing how stereotypes unconsciously hamper our performance.  His book is titled Whistling Vivaldi:  How Stereotypes affect us and what we can do.  Claude discusses some statistical experiments to find out if there there is even a measurable impact that racism or sexism (or other stereotypes) can have on us. Continue Reading »

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The Black 14 of Wyoming

Posted by Mormon Heretic on July 15, 2013 in Catholic, History, Mormon, Mormon Culture, Priesthood Ban, Race
Mel Hamilton, Margaret Young, Darius Gray

Mel Hamilton, Margaret Young, Darius Gray

Margaret Young organized a special meeting at BYU on Saturday night.  She invited Mel Hamilton to discuss his experiences as part of the Black 14 protest against BYU in 1969.  Mel grew up Catholic in North and South Carolina.  In 1965, he was recruited to be part of the University of Wyoming football team.  Arriving in Laramie, he said there were only 6 blacks on the entire campus of the University of Wyoming, and it was a bit of a culture shock for him. Continue Reading »

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Are Conspiring Men….Making us Fat?

Posted by Mormon Heretic on July 7, 2013 in Health Care, Mormon, Movie/Book Reviews, Science, Word of Wisdom

Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you: In consequence of aevils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of bconspiring men in the last days, I have cwarned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation—

That’s D&C 89:4 (emphasis mine).  While most of us think of tobacco and alcohol companies as the “conspiring men”, I wonder if there is another interpretation that we should look at.  Often left out of the discussion of the Word of Wisdom are the parts about healthy eating. From verse 11

Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof; all these to be used with aprudence and bthanksgiving.

With modern farm techniques and global transportation, much of the fruits we eat can be eaten out of season.  We often get fruits from South America–so is this advice really necessary about being “in season”? Continue Reading »

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Hobby Lobby Fights Obamacare

Posted by Mormon Heretic on July 1, 2013 in Catholic, Christian, Economics, Ethics, Health Care, Mormon, Politics, Women

Back in 2008 when President Obama was elected, I asked my sister how she felt about it.  She said she didn’t vote for him, but it wasn’t the end of the world as some predicted.  She lives in Colorado, a “purple” state as she calls it.  It is one of the few states that seems to be pretty evenly divided among Republicans and Democrats, and so presidential contenders often pay attention to this swing state.

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Where was the LDS Church organized: in Fayette or Manchester, NY?

Posted by Mormon Heretic on June 23, 2013 in Canon, Early Mormon History, History, Mormon, Movie/Book Reviews
Michael Marquardt

Michael Marquardt

Orson and I have had a conversation over at StayLDS discussing where the Church was organized, as well as who the original 6 members were.  I didn’t know there was a controversy on the location, but Orson has done quite a bit of research that it may have been Manchester, NY instead of the official church version that it occurred in the Peter Whitmer home in Fayette, some 25 miles away.  Well, I received my copy of the John Whitmer Historical Journal this past week, and there is an insteresting article on the subject by Michael Marquardt, “”Manchester as the Site of the Organization of the Church.”  Marquardt is a historian on the boards of both the JWHA and the Journal of Mormon History as well.  He makes the case that official church records are wrong, and the real location was Manchester.  Marquardt summarizes Continue Reading »

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The Book of Mormon: An Imperfect Book?

Posted by Mormon Heretic on June 16, 2013 in Book of Mormon, Canon, Intellectualism, Mormon, Movie/Book Reviews, Race, Scripture, Theology

ImperfectBookSignature Books sent me an advance copy of An Imperfect Book by Earl M. Wunderli, and it is due to be released tomorrow, June 17.  (Perhaps it’s a great gift for that non-believing dad for Father’s Day.)  The subtitle to the book is “What the Book of Mormon tells us about itself.”  Wunderli takes the text of the Book of Mormon, much as John Sorenson does, but seems to come to a different conclusion.  Rather than discuss Book of Mormon geography, Wunderli approaches the book as having 19th century origins, and he believes that Joseph Smith wrote the book.  He takes on many of the apologetic arguments, trying to refute them.   Continue Reading »

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MHA 2013: Ethnicity, Martin Harris, and Banyan Trees

Posted by Mormon Heretic on June 9, 2013 in Christian, Culture, Early Mormon History, History, Mormon, Mormon Culture, Movie/Book Reviews, Race

I was pleased to attend the 2013 MHA Convention in Layton, Utah this week.  It was good to catch up with friends.  I was only able to attend on Friday, because I had to work on Saturday, but wanted to share my notes from the conference.  By Common Consent has some additional reports from Ben Park and Jacob.

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Would you let your kids watch “The Bible”?

Posted by Mormon Heretic on June 1, 2013 in Canon, Christian, History, Judaism, Mormon, Movie/Book Reviews, Movies, Old Testament, polygamy, Scripture, Theology

BibleThe History Channel just produced one of the most successful series dealing with the Bible in a few decades.  I heard so much good about it that I decided to purchase the entire series on iTunes, having never seen the series at all.  I’ve had occasion to watch the first 2 episodes and wanted to share my thoughts, as well as gather your thoughts. Continue Reading »

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Jefferson’s Paradoxical Views on Race

Posted by Mormon Heretic on May 26, 2013 in DNA, History, Mormon, Movie/Book Reviews, Priesthood Ban, Race

ThomasJeffersonCoinI came across an interesting documentary called Thomas Jefferson: A View from the Mountain on Netflix.  I watched it because I could see it was no longer going to be streamed, and I’m glad I did.  (I hope it will be available again.)  While the LDS Church often gets a bad rap about the ban on blacks from priesthood and temple ordinances, it was interesting to view Thomas Jefferson’s paradoxical views on race.  On the one hand, Jefferson penned “all men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence.  On the other hand, he held 400 slaves.  He spoke harshly about miscegenation, yet fathered children with his black slave, Sally Hemmings.  He was for states rights, but wrote a piece of legislation that would have banned slavery by 1800 and prevented the Civil War.  (The legislation failed by a single vote.)  Jefferson was also considered by many an atheist, but he was the man who proposed religious freedom in our Constitution.  The documentary was a truly fascinating insight into Jefferson.

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