Tonight on KVNU’s For the People…

One local Utah government has created controversy by banning sports activites on Monday nights to facilitate the LDS practice of Family Home Evening

Some state employees have found an inventive way to retire and return to the same job in order to double dip into retirement benefits

The movement to change UVSC to a University is gaining key supporters and momentum… we’ll tell you who and why anyone living in Cache County should be concerned

All of that, your phone calls and more, tonight on KVNU’s For the People.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

• 10/7/2002 BYU Newsnet: Priesthood to raise bar on morality
  
• LDS.org 2002 General Conference: To the Men of the Priesthood by President Gordon B. Hinckley
• 12/26 Tribune: Editorial: State, not church: Kaysville policy should ignore religious practices
• 12/27 Deseret News: Group backs UVSC’s bid
• 12/27 Tribune: Double-dip is just fine, agency says of audit

From Rob Gunn’s letter in the 12/23 Herald Journal:

Then, Logan officials throw Jesus and his family into the local landfill. Your columnist Eldon Peterson said it well two weeks ago: We are keeping Christmas and getting rid of Jesus. As Mayor Watts said, “we … got rid of things that we don’t need any more.” Would it have been that hard to let some churches in the area know the Nativity scene was available? Or did our city leaders join in the current cultural expulsion of all things Christian? Mr. Archer is quoted “It’s kind of funny that people get so revved up about this sort of stuff.” Funny? Not if you believe in the story of the birth of Christ. It is insulting.

It is obvious to all but the hyper-sensitive that the city divested itself of the nativity scene simply because it was old, worn out and broken.    To replace it would have been extremely expensive- and it should be noted that the original nativity was a gift to the city- not something it purchased itself.

To construe Mayor Watts’ statement into some kind of secular indictment of Christmas is both unfair and ludicrous.   Mayor Watts was not commenting on the Divinity of Christ or the merits of Christmas, but rather that the scene was worn out and the city wouldn’t purchase a new one.   No one is attacking Jesus.    Rob, with all due respect, you have created a battle and a fight where there is none and in the process unfairly impuned the character of the Mayor (to the degree that anyone takes your letter seriously) by taking his words out of context.

Furthermore, the presence of Jesus is a personal question.  Whether or not there is a resin nativity scene at the Tabernacle bears absolutely no influence upon to what degree you and I decide to follow Jesus’ example.  Rob, even without the nativity, we are free to choose how much Jesus, if at all, we all want in our lives- and that’s the beauty of liberty!  If Jesus were here right now, I am almost certain this is what he would be most concerned with, not whether or not lifeless statues are kept in front of the Tabernacle.

Tonight on KVNU’s For the People…

A broadcasting festivus miracle with the opportunity for you to win a major award!

We’ll discuss the greatest Christmas movies of all time, and we have an interview with

Brian Jones, who bought the house from A Christmas Story on impulse on ebay and has turned it into a museum.

We’ll also talk about family Christmas traditions.

All of that, and especially your phone calls on this special Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa/Rammadan/Festivus edition of For the People…..

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

• AChristmasStoryHouse.com
• RedRiderLegLamps.com
• Mr. Kruegers Christmas in it’s entirety on YouTube

From Jacob Weisberg at Slate.com:

By the same token, I wouldn’t vote for someone who truly believed in the founding whoppers of Mormonism. The LDS church holds that Joseph Smith, directed by the angel Moroni, unearthed a book of golden plates buried in a hillside in Western New York in 1827. The plates were inscribed in “reformed” Egyptian hieroglyphics—a nonexistent version of the ancient language that had yet to be decoded. If you don’t know the story, it’s worth spending some time with Fawn Brodie’s wonderful biography No Man Knows My History. Smith was able to dictate his “translation” of the Book of Mormon first by looking through diamond-encrusted decoder glasses and then by burying his face in a hat with a brown rock at the bottom of it. He was an obvious con man. Romney has every right to believe in con men, but I want to know if he does, and if so, I don’t want him running the country.

For the sake of argument let’s assume that Joseph Smith was the biggest con man and charlatan in the history of mankind.    I don’t really believe he was, and I would suppose most who read this blog don’t think he was either- but let’s assume for the sake for argument that Joseph Smith was.

The implication in the statement is that if one believes the supernatural claims of Joseph Smith, then s/he cannot have the sound jugdement needed to hold the highest office in the land.   Weisberg doesn’t have the guts to come out and say this explicitly, and infact, spends several paragraphs qualifying his implicit statement because it is such an unfair and blatantly anti-religious, not just anti-Mormon, line of thinking.
It’s a ridiculous claim by Weisberg.   I would pose a few questions to Weisberg and anyone who accepts his line of logic.   If believing in such a charlatan is such a red flag as to a lack of sound judgement and intellectual capacity, why then have Mormons held hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands, of high elected and bureaucratic offfices over the past century with overwhelming levels of success and without this belief in this charlatan emerging as a major impediment?   Even the theologically and politically ultra-ultra-ultra-conservative (and let’s be honest, that’s probably an understatement) Ezra Taft Benson was highly effective in government.   And how is believing in the “charlatan” Joseph Smith any different than believing in such rouses as Jesus, Moses or Muhammed?   Aren’t all of these  beyond the reach of substantiated facts and empirical proof just like Joseph Smith’s claim?  (I suppose the main difference is that there is no dispute that Joseph Smith actually lived).  Furthermore, given the century of fully assimilated Mormon American political activity, what is it about the Presidency of the United States that is so vastly different than other elected offices that would prevent a Mormon from being effective in it?  Why can Harry Reid be the Senate Minority leader without any snippy and intolerant political commentary from the self-righteously secular, but Mitt Romney is cast as a pariah without even declaring his intent to run for the Presidency.

KVNU’s For the People…

We’ll talk with Adrie Roberts, a USU extension Family and Consumer Sciences agent about stress, finances and depression during the Holidays.

A new report shows that 95% of Americans engage in premarital sex- a trend that goes all the way back to the 1950’s.   What are the implications for teaching sex ed in public schools?   Should abstinence be the approach or should safe sex be advocated?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

• 12/19 AP: Most Americans have had premarital sex 

From the AP via 610kvnu.com:

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Monday it removed the name of a Nazi war crimes hunter from its vast genealogical database.

Simon Wiesenthal’s name was removed at the request of the Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights organization.

Posthumous baptism is a sacred rite practiced in Mormon temples to offer membership in the church to the deceased. Church members often conduct family genealogy research and forward their ancestors’ names for baptism.

But Jews are offended by the practice and in 1995 signed an agreement with Mormon leaders that should have prevented the names of Holocaust victims from being added to the genealogical index. The agreement would also have limited entries of other Jewish names to those persons who are direct ancestors of current Mormons.

Church spokesman Bruce Olsen issued a statement Monday evening saying Wiesenthal’s name was immediately removed from the genealogical index and that no proxy-baptism had been performed for the Jewish civil rights leader. Wiesenthal survived a dozen Nazi camps, then dedicated himself to tracking down Nazi war criminals.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, the Wiesenthal Center’s founder, said he was pleased the Mormon church acted quickly.

Long ago, the LDS Church agreed to not do proxy work for victims of the Holocoust.  However, every so often a story appears about someone who slipped through the cracks and was initiated Mormon temple rites posthumously.   The reality is that enforcement of such a rule is very, very difficult.  The Church cannot feasibly screen every name, and can only ask compliance of its members.   But such a request will inevitably fail at some point either by ignorance on the part of those doing temple work, or unfortunately those who defy the rule and proceed with work anyway.    The Jewish community should understand that the Church has done all that it can to prevent the violation of the holocoust rule, and when violated, has always immediately fixed the problem.

C.R. Batten submitted the following:

On Immigration

It appears obvious that the economic incentive to immigrate illegally into the United States is so great that it surpasses the disincentives of risk of capture and even death. The result is a seemingly overwhelming flood if illegal immigrants seeking greener pastures.
To solve the illegal immigration problem, we must cause the risks outweigh the incentives.
The only solution being discussed is to “reform” our immigration policy—in other words, change our immigration laws. That can be done in two ways:
1) We can tighten up the law and make our borders impenetrable.

This approach will almost certainly fail. Batten’s Second Law of Political Economy states that “The ingenuity of the American legislators at passing laws is surpassed only by the ingenuity of the people at evading them.”

The long-term and unintended effect of closing the borders would be to equalize the economies of the United States and Mexico (and other Latin-American countries). We would have a centrally controlled economy, and it would have stagnated, as have other centrally controlled economies throughout history. There would be little incentive to immigrate into the United States. Objective accomplished, but at what cost?
2) Open the borders and allow free access of goods and people.

Almost immediately, the economy of Mexico would begin to improve. Much sooner than anyone would predict, the two economies would be equalized. The major incentive to immigrate into the United States would be eliminated. The economy of the United States would also benefit.

It would not be necessary to steal someone’s identity and Social Security number in order to get a job. Those who provide those stolen numbers, and the coyotes who bring the immigrants in would have to find other work. People would be able to go home to Mexico between jobs and be assured that they would be able to come back to those jobs. As the Mexican economy improves, they would find more jobs opening in Mexico, so they would not need to leave home in order to earn a satisfactory living.
I know, most readers of this piece will react with horror to this idea, and immediately think of all kinds of problems—reasons this idea won’t work. But let’s think about it before we dismiss it offhand. Let’s think of all the reasons this idea can work, and how we can solve those problems that will come up.
The expectation of profit is bringing the immigrants here. Batten’s Fourth Law of Political Economy says “There is no end to the human good and satisfaction that the profit motive can provide, when allowed to work in a climate of free choice. But there is no end to the degradation and human misery that can result from the profit motive at work in a climate of coercive central planning.”
Let’s give it a chance to work in a climate of free choice.

C. R. Batten

Stephen Kroes of the Utah Foundation discusses a report on health care challenges in Utah and possible policy solutions.

A Logan woman is arrested for selling identities to illegal workers.

A new report shows that raising the minimum wage in Utah would cause 170,000 people to see an increase in pay.

Another cow alleged to belong to the Kunzlers got out onto Valley View Highway and was struck by a vehicle causing injuries

And of course we will play the News Quiz, your chance to win a $25 gift certificate to the Bel Monte Restaurant at Sherwood Hillls

All of that, your phone calls and more, tonight on For the People.

BONUS AUDIO

• Full 25 minutes of interview with Stephen Kroes of the Utah Foundation

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

• Utah Foundation Health Care Report Part 1
• Utah Foundation Health Care Report Part 2
• 12/13 KUTV: Another Cache County Crash Caused By Wandering Cow
• 12/14 Tribune: Logan woman charged with selling fake ID’s
• 12/14 Tribune: Minimum wage made by male in early 20′s