Kim, Gavin, and Martin: Breaking the Law to Save It

Where did August go? Lately my goal has been to blog once a month, but August was a total fail on that score. Here's to recommitting for fall!

The news these days has been abuzz with stories about Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who has refused to issue marriage licenses and been unwilling to comply with the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision authorizing gay marriage everywhere in the United States. To some she has become a hero of the right to religious freedom, to others she is a pariah of backwardness.

As Mrs. Davis has been in the news, I couldn't help but think of Gavin Newsom. In case you've forgotten, Mr. Newsom was mayor of San Francisco several years ago, and in 2004 he directed his city clerks to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, in violation of California state law at that time. In a sense, he is the anti-Kim Davis.

It's interesting to me that your position on gay marriage likely colors how you view both Mr. Newsom and Mrs. Davis, even though they are both doing the same thing - breaking the law because it violates their moral principles. It's also interesting that both individuals have expressed a strong sense of faith (Mr. Newsom is Catholic, Mrs. Davis is a self-described Apostolic Christian). These individuals have reminded me of one of our country's most famous law breakers in the name of religion and conscience: Martin Luther King.

Dr. King's "Letter From Birmingham Jail" remains one of the best explications of breaking the law to save it that I've ever read (and it's probably a better use of your time to read it than this blog post). Here's an excerpt that I thought applied to the current situation:

One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

How then do we determine which laws to follow and which to break? Dr. King writes:

An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal. Let me give another explanation. A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law.

Thus, if the presidential candidate I support loses the election, and I had a right to vote and participate in the democratic process behind that, I still have to obey the laws signed by that president. This gets trickier, though, in light of a Supreme Court decision that was not made by democratically elected leaders. One of the main arguments of the anti-gay marriage groups seems to be that the Supreme Court cannot make laws, as they were not democratically elected. I've been disturbed by some of this rhetoric, as it could lead to a lack of respect for U.S. Supreme Court decisions that we disagree with. But I think this goes back to what Dr. King said about the law binding everybody - the majority and the minority.

For example, the marriage licenses issued by Gavin Newsom's clerks were ultimately invalidated by the California courts. In other words, the law should apply equally to everyone - if you believe the law is unjust, work hard to change the law, and be willing to accept the penalties of breaking the law. Current polls suggest that most Americans support gay marriage (55% according to the Pew Research Center's data). How do we square that with peoples' religious beliefs on gay marriage? I think we are all still working that out.

In typical me fashion, I hope we can have respect for both the Gavin Newsoms and Kim Davises of the world. They are doing right as they see the right. Further, they are my brothers and my sisters. My duty is to love them and seek to understand them rather than demonizing them or belittling their sincerely held beliefs. I close with some more of the words of another brother, Dr. King, who asks us some important questions.

But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." And Abraham Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." And Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal . . ." So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?

(Un) American Heroes

I read an article many years ago (either in the Bloggernacle or maybe BYU's Political Review) which talked about the futility of comparing the society in the Book of Mormon to our modern day politics because of the vast differences in our society. While I didn't agree with all of it, it's certainly a valid point that the largely agrarian and tribal society in the Book of Mormon is vastly different than our industrialized democratic republic here in the U.S.

One example of this is Captain Moroni, who is a hero in the Book of Mormon's war chapters. Mormon, the editor of the Book of Mormon, shows Captain Moroni some serious love when he writes: "Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men" (Alma 48:17). Mormon obviously thought Moroni was a hero, and portrayed him as such. With all that, it's no surprise that Mormon named his son Moroni, and generations of church members have looked to Captain Moroni as the paragon of virtue and righteousness.

But if we look closely at the record, Captain Moroni is in some ways a dangerous example to promote when we talk about current political affairs. He executed people who didn't agree with him (Alma 46:34-35, 51:14-20). He also had a vast impatience with anyone who didn't do exactly what he wanted when he wanted it (see Alma 60). In many ways, Captain Moroni saw the world in very black and white terms, which is useful if you're fighting an enemy that wants to kill you and drink your blood, but isn't very useful if you're trying to take part in a democracy where people will disagree with you.

Looking at modern day politics through Captain Moroni's lenses will cause us to see people as traitors if they disagree with us about political affairs. Captain Moroni threatened to lead an insurrection if the government didn't do what he wanted (Alma 60:27), even if the majority will disagreed with his policies, all the while claiming ironically "... I seek not for power, but to pull it down." (Alma 60:36). By seeking to "pull down" those leaders who didn't agree with his worldview, Captain Moroni was like an ancient version of Douglas MacArthur during the Korean war - critical of government policy and seeking to impose his military views on the political leaders of his time.

In America we believe in a secular society where military power is controlled by the civilian branches of government. We also separate government and religious action in order to allow all mankind to "...worship how, where, or what they may" (11th Article of Faith). These concepts would be foreign to Moroni and many in the Book of Mormon, who viewed government and religion as necessarily intertwined, and would likely not appreciated the checks and balances of the American political system. As I've stated before here, and for the reasons laid out much more eloquently here, I believe it's a good thing that America has religious freedom while also strictly separating church and state.

Ultimately, I believe the Book of Mormon teaches us very valuable principles. These principles can be applied differently by different people, and it's only right that in a society based on freedom we argue and debate the priority of various principles and how they apply to various situations. But to use a military leader from thousands of years ago as a political paragon ignores some of the more troubling aspects of his leadership. Hero worship is never a good thing, because humans are fallible and imperfect beings. And what I love about American government is that it recognizes this, and builds in checks and balances to guard against the imperfections in our temperaments.

We're still building America, as this one supremely idealistic scene from the TV show The West Wing reminds us:

Jeff Breckenridge: You got a dollar?
Josh Lyman: Yeah.
Jeff Breckenridge: Take it out. Look at the back. The seal, the pyramid, it's unfinished, with the eye of God looking over it, and the words annuit coeptis - he, god, favors our undertaking. The seal is meant to be unfinished, because this country's meant to be unfinished. We're meant to keep doing better. We're meant to keep discussing and debating. And, we're meant to read books by great historical scholars and then talk about them...
So, study Captain Moroni - be bold and valiant like he was, that's a good thing. But realize that some of his values were un-American, even if he is a hero, and keep building the America you want to see, with empathy for those who disagree and a respect for our constitutional system which guards your liberties, my liberties, and the liberties of all who live here.

Happy Independence Day!

Grinding the Faces of the Poor, and Other American Political Bloodsports

What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the 

faces of the poor? saith the Lord God of Hosts. (Isaiah 3:15)

Nothing makes me angrier than politicians who disparage poor people. It's an easy target, because poor people don't often vote, protest, or communicate with their elected officials. It's a simple way to show you are using government funds sparingly - making sure "undeserving" poor aren't using welfare funds to buy lobster or go a cruise.

The latest example is Kansas, which has recently enacted a law limiting the amount of cash which welfare recipients can withdraw from ATMs and forbidding welfare recipients from spending money on "exotic" entertainment, swimming pools, tattoos, or movies. Even more states are moving to drug test welfare recipients, even though the evidence shows these groups are not more likely to abuse drugs than the population at large. Similarly, government assistance with housing costs disproportionately goes to the mortgage interest deduction for the upper/middle class instead of housing vouchers for those in a lower socioeconomic status.

So, here are my reasons why we need to stop abusing the poor for using government benefits:
1) People using government benefits don't actually spend a large portion of their money on extravagances. Their spending habits aren't actually all that different from the rich or the middle class.
2) There's a myth that the poor are sponging off the rest of us taxpayers, but the truth is that poor people pay taxes too - in some cases more taxes than the rich. Further, government benefits do not allow you to live the high life, as reading this article will show you, people receiving welfare are hardly rich, and often only need temporary assistance to get through the lean times. They're you and me, not some "second class" of citizens who we can mock and disparage.
3) We all receive government benefits, and that doesn't give the government the right to tell us how to live our lives. Should the hedge fund manager be required to stop visiting a strip joint because he claims the mortgage interest deduction on his tax return? (In some cases for both his primary residence and vacation home?) What about the student who receives a low interest loan yet gets a tattoo? These are government benefits, just like food stamps, yet apparently it's okay for Kansas to tell welfare recipients how to spend their money, or for states to invade these people's privacy through requiring drug testing, but the government makes no similar provisions for the other benefactors of government largess.

Isaiah uses strong imagery to condemn those who trample the poor - they "grind their faces" - can you imagine if someone literally did that?  That's assault! Yet it's okay for politicians to condemn these people and figuratively grind their faces into the dust. This is political bloodsport, and IT IS WRONG. It makes me so very sad to think that this is acceptable behavior by politicians, who should be seeking to help these people lift themselves out of poverty, instead of stereotyping them and making life more difficult for them.

10 Tax Laughs for Tax Day

I've been saving up all the amusing things I read or hear about taxes, and, in honor of Tax Day today, will share them with you.

#10 - This comic.


#9 - A Ron Swanson Quote.



#8 - This Tweet on extensions.

#7 - David Letterman Tax Tips.


#6 - This Comic.


#5 - This e-card.



#4 - NPR's Marketplace investigative journalism on little known tax deductions.

#3 - The Onion's investigative journalism on the most overlooked tax credits.

#2 - John Oliver's (and Michael Bolton's) Defense of The IRS - it's a much maligned agency that's just trying to do its job.


#1 - The poem below, which captures the frustrations of tax season for tax preparers like me.

Memo Home Re: Tax Season
By Keith Mattson

I’m working late, I won’t be home;
Don’t try to reach me on the phone.
Don’t expect me home for dinner.
Don’t expect me home this winter.
Don’t even try to use your pull.
Don’t talk to me or shoot the bull.
I don’t want you to think me cruel,
But until May, my slate is full.
Just tell me what you spend and earn;
I’ll put it in a tax return.
(I hope that you will never learn
You’re just another file to churn.)
I’ve got files on my floor,
And on my chairs and desk are more.
I’ve got them coming in the door.
That’s all I do — I keep the score.
So far this year, the feds are winning,
With clients behind before beginning.
Their tax returns show “Balance due;”
Their checkbooks show a scarlet hue.
Their life is on a downward trend,
And then they ask, “Can we extend?”
I pause a bit … I say, “Absurd!
Where did you learn that awful word?”
But it’s too late for rhyme or reason;
They’ve just extended busy season!
And so, my dear, I’m warning you,
Just when we thought the season through:
I’m working late, I won’t be home;
Don’t try to reach me on the phone.
I’ll try to write or maybe call.
I hope to be home late this fall.

Suffragists Unite!

Let's start with what you already know about me: I'm a political nerd, feminist, and Mormon. All of these things motivated me to host a party in March with a theme of Women's History. Because I'm a political nerd, it focused on the struggle for women's suffrage. Because I'm a feminist, it focused on the women who fought for this right. Because I'm a Mormon, it had a food theme and cheesy decorations. Not wanting you, my online friends, to be left out of the fun, I decided to blog about it, so that you could host your very own suffrage party, should you desire to!

Any good party should have good food, and we had that in abundance. Our food theme was green, purple, and white.  Why, you ask?  Good question! These colors were some of the colors associated with women's suffrage. Green symbolized hope, purple represented dignity, and white stood for purity. So, we had cabbage salad (with purple and green/white cabbage), spinach and artichoke dip, smashed avocado, cucumber rolls with white cheese, peanut butter pie (dyed green and purple, of course), green jello with a white something and blackberries (it tasted much better than my description), and blackberry smoothies. My contribution was a cake which recreated a pennant on Wikipedia:

Next, decorations. These were not as pretty as I would have liked, but I ran out of time to make them beautiful so they were merely printouts and some black and white decorations done on butcher paper with a sharpie marker. We had an opportunity to take a "Suffrage Selfie" as you came in the front door:

Also at the front door were short booklets I made which celebrated the life of women suffragists of all different stripes, so that everyone could learn about an amazing American woman.

Our table centerpiece featured doll suffragettes, holding actual signs from the movement. 

We also had a wall showing "pro" and "con" documents/pictures from the early 1900's. Naturally, my favorite argument against women's suffrage was that it would lead to higher taxes.

There was also a large banner, recreating one of the banners that the Silent Sentinels held while picketing the White House during World War I.

The main event, however, was watching the movie "Iron Jawed Angels," which follows the stories of Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, two of the radicals who founded the National Women's Party, picketed the White House, and were eventually thrown in jail, where they staged a hunger strike. It's an intense and fascinating movie, and if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend viewing and/or purchasing it. While it's not rated, there's probably a few moments which are PG-13 in content, FYI.

For the week before the party, I spent time reading about women's suffrage and the women's rights movement of the late 1800's and early 1900's. I learned so much about courageous women who stood up and spoke for what they thought was right. These women are heroines and examples to me. One of the books I read noted that all too often, history books say that "women were granted the right to vote" - a passive sentence that diminishes the decades of struggle and thousands of women who devoted countless hours to the cause. I encourage you to learn more about them and their struggle for ALL OF US. Too often, women's history is forgotten or dismissed, but these women made our country and world a better place. It's up to us to remember them!

Some more resources for planning your Suffrage Party (let's get #SuffrageSelfie trending on twitter, eh?):

Smithsonian Folkways Album Songs of the Suffragettes (Recorded by Elizabeth Knight)

Monica Grabin's Album HerStory - American Women in Song

Wikipedia page about Women's Suffrage in the United States

I've posted the handouts I used here, along with the decorations here (note: copyright violations and factual inaccuracies are possible)

Your Local Library! (if it isn't chock full of books about Suffragettes, stage a protest)

Someone has helpfully uploaded the entire PBS Documentary One Woman One Vote to YouTube:

If you do host a suffrage party, post about your experience in the comments!  Or, feel free to link to stories about women who inspire you.

(Also, if you like this post, you may also enjoy this one and this one).

Women's History Month

March is a great month, and not just because it moves us closer to my release from busy-ness on April 15th. March is chock full of women-y things that make my feminist heart rejoice.  In the U.S., March is Women's History Month, where we remember the contributions of women in shaping America. March 8 is International Women's Day, which I first celebrated on my mission, and I love because it reminds me of all the strong, capable, spiritual women I met in Russia. March 17th brings the anniversary of the founding of the Relief Society, an organization I love and believe has so much potential to influence lives for good. And this year, the LDS church is holding its annual Women's meeting on March 28th.

The first Relief Society President, Emma Hale Smith, stated that "The object of the Society … is to seek out and relieve the distressed—that each member should be ambitious to do good." I really like that - I think that all of us can be "ambitious to do good." In celebration of all that is wonderful about women, I wanted to get the voices of more LDS women on Pinterest. Pinterest is full of inspiring quotes by male LDS leaders, but when I search for quotes by LDS women I often come up empty. So, to rectify that, I've created "pinnable" images for quotes from every general president of the Relief Society over the last 173 years - there have been 16 presidents so far.

Pin away, I say! Also, feel free to add your own favorite quotes from our Relief Society leaders in the comments below, or use Recitethis.com to create your own pinnable images.

From President Burton's 2014 address, "Wanted: Hands and Hearts to Hasten the Work"

From President Beck's "And Upon the Handmaids in those Days Will I Pour Out My Spirit"

From one of my all time favorites, "Personal Ministry: Sacred and Precious"

President Mary Ellen Wood Smoot, "Steadfast and Immovable"

President Elaine Low Jack, "Seek and Ye Shall Find"

President Barbara Winder, quoted in the book Faith, Hope, and Charity:
Inspiration from the Lives of the General Relief Society Presidents

From "A Conversation with Sister Barbara B. Smith" (I stole this one from Pinterest)

President Belle Smith Spafford, quoted in Chapter 6 of Daughters in My Kingdom

President Amy Brown Lyman, quoted in her official Bio on the church's website

President Louise Yates Robison, quoted in her official bio on the Church's website

President Clarissa Smith Williams, quoted in Chapter 5 of Daughters in My Kingdom

President Emmeline Blanche Woodward Harris Whitney Wells 

President Bathsheba Wilson Smith, quoted by Sheri Dew in "Something Extraordinary"

President Zina Diantha Huntington Young, quoted in "Great Grandmother Zina: A More Personal Portrait"

President Eliza Roxcy Snow's Poem "O My Father," currently in the LDS Hymnal as Hymn #292

President Emma Hale Smith, quoted in her official bio on the Church's website

Shoulda Woulda Coulda (Or, Unrighteous Indignation)

Approximately 76.8% of my blog posts are inspired by things I should have said. You know the conversations - where everyone around you is of one mind on a given topic, but you think differently.  (For the record, this applies to both political conversations with my conservative friends and religious conversations with my friends of other faiths or no faith). Driving home from those conversations, I usually think up great retorts and zinging one liners to prove how wrong those people were/are. Later, after calming down and being less angry, I think of probing questions to ask that may have provoked people to think about their position and see things from the other side. Usually I simply regret that none of this occurred to me at the time of the conversation, because it's far too late now to come back and re-discuss the topic.

"Happiness is...a witty reply that totally wins the argument"

So blogging is basically my coward's way out. I get all the satisfaction of responding in just the way I like, without any of the dissatisfaction of actually having to be the voice of an unpopular minority in the conversation.  Yet sometimes I wonder, am I shortchanging both myself and my friends by doing this? An anonymous rant on the internet may be emotionally satisfying in the moment, but it's not really helping in the long term. Would it be better to speak up, however in-artfully and incoherently, and risk that we might both learn something? Maybe there are others who are silently thinking the same thing? Perhaps if I spoke, they might also be able to speak.

How do I get over my cowardice? There's a verse in the Book of Mormon, which states "Use boldness, but not overbearance; and also see that you bridle all your passions, that ye may be filled with love..." (Alma 38:12). I think this is applicable here - a balance between "boldness" or courage in your beliefs, but also without being overbearing, which the dictionary describes as "unpleasantly or arrogantly domineering." Too often, I am "righteously indignant" (especially in the zinger phase) that my friends are so wrong or narrow minded, without remembering that it's just as likely that I am wrong or narrow minded in my thinking and without remembering to love my friends. By blogging about it, I preclude responses to my thoughts that might benefit both me and my friends.

It's helpful context to know that the Book of Mormon verse above is Alma's advice to his son. Alma states further "Do not say: O God, I thank thee that we are better than our brethren; but rather say: O Lord, forgive my unworthiness, and remember my brethren in mercy--yea, acknowledge your unworthiness before God at all times" (Alma 38:14). Too often, I'm silently patting myself on my back with righteous indignation which is anything but righteous. I need to work on remembering my friends in mercy, instead of the shoulda, woulda, coulda approach of trying to zing them with my take-downs. Even if they're wrong - and let's face it, sometimes they are. But sometimes I need to be filled with love instead of anger.