I want to recommend this excellent article from Public Square Magazine regarding James Huntsman’s strange lawsuit against the Church regarding tithing.

Here are the key paragraphs:

Huntsman sets the tone for his lawsuit in the very first paragraph by including a bizarre quote about honesty from early Church leader Brigham Young. Throughout the complaint, Huntsman put his personal outrage and the most salacious details in a bold-italicized font so that anyone perusing the suit could quickly get a sense of the purported “fraud” and “greed.”

For 13 pages, Huntsman rambles on without specificity, without evidence, and without explaining how he personally was harmed—the cornerstone of any civil action. In legal terms, Huntsman failed to plead sufficient facts to state a claim for fraud and thus his complaint is deficient. The Court will have no choice but to dismiss the lawsuit. Huntsman’s clumsy and bumbling complaint signifies to me that he filed this suit merely as a publicity stunt without any sincere intent to recover his monies.

The writer is a former outside counsel to the Church who knows her stuff. More from the piece:

James Huntsman knows his tithing donations were voluntary and fall under the legal definition of a gift. He knows the Church has no legal obligation to return his tithing. He knows that the return of his tithing has tax implications, and he would most likely have to file years of amended tax returns to remove any deduction claimed.

But most importantly, I believe Huntsman knows that if he had sincerely sent his tithing refund request to Church leadership, they would have absolutely worked with him toward a positive resolution. There is no plausible reason Huntsman needed to file a baseless, improperly pleaded claim in federal court other than in an attempt to embarrass the Church. The only person who should be embarrassed is James Huntsman.

Huntsman’s lawsuit will certainly go down in history as another weird chapter in the “people lose their minds when they get angry at the Church” story. That story started in the days of Joseph Smith and continues, sadly, today.

My blog post on Come Follow Me: D&C 29

Excerpt:The 2nd Coming and Unity

In this revelation, the Lord shows important concepts regarding the 2nd Coming. More would follow in other revelations (including D&C 45, 87, 133).

“And, as it is written—Whatsoever ye shall ask in faith, being united in prayer according to my command, ye shall receive..
“And ye are called to bring to pass the gathering of mine elect; for mine elect hear my voice and harden not their hearts;
“Wherefore the decree hath gone forth from the Father that they shall be gathered in unto one place upon the face of this land, to prepare their hearts and be prepared in all things against the day when tribulation and desolation are sent forth upon the wicked.” (D&C 29:6-8)

Again, we are to be united. United in prayer, united in desire, united in effort, united in Christ. If we are not united, then Satan’s doctrine of contention can overtake the Saints and destroy them.

Here, though the Church isn’t quite 6 months old, it is given a very huge responsibility: to find the elect in the world and bring them to build Zion. This is the same work Enoch was called to do in his day, though he had more time to accomplish it. He was to gather the elect out from among the wicked and perfect them prior to the end of the world (in Enoch’s case, the Flood of Noah).

https://joelsmonastery.blogspot.com/2021/03/come-follow-me-d-29.html

I walked by a school in St. Augustine, Florida this week, and I saw dozens of elementary age children playing outside with no masks and no scolding teacher telling them not to get near each other. In fact, the teacher watched calmly from the shade without a mask as the children hugged each other, touched each other and played like normal children are wont to do. I felt a huge surge of hope.

There are indeed people in the United States who have not fallen for all of the false information, fake science and mass hysteria regarding COVID-19. If there is a school where children are able to avoid medieval, senseless rules, this means there is one sensible school administration, one group of intelligent teachers and one group of enlightened parents — at least one. And where there is one such school, there are likely to be others. And that is hopeful.

In fact, Florida has not closed its schools this year, unlike the backward, science-ignoring schools in many other states. In Colorado, where I live, we have had a byzantine set of rules — one week the kids can go three days a week, the next week not at all, a few weeks later they can go again. Finally, the schools my kids go to in Colorado is going back to full-time attendance next week, but they have — bizarrely — canceled band and orchestra practice because….people can’t play some instruments without masks on, and you wouldn’t want that! Never mind that the kids all interact freely with each other without masks before and after school — some bureaucrat decided to cancel the music program because he or she had the power to do so.

I am in Florida in part because it is one of the few sensible places left in our increasingly tyrannical United States of Panic. As I pointed out in this post, Florida and California have had about the same results during the pandemic, despite the fact that Florida is mostly free and California is mostly locked down. The Florida economy, meanwhile, is booming while California continues its economic free-fall. The results are clear: lockdowns don’t work. As I wrote in this post, the lockdowns have caused millions of unnecessary deaths, destroyed economies worldwide and caused an increase in depression, anxiety and suicide. We will be suffering from the effects of these lockdowns for years if not decades to come.

Meanwhile, billions of mostly free people worldwide have allowed tyrannical governments to take away their freedom in the name of “safety.” This is what dictatorial governments always promise — safety without freedom. And the traditional media, the social media platforms and elite politicians and public figures have colluded to suppress the truth about the lockdowns and the useless mask mandates. So, yes, there are many reasons to be concerned about this time in our history.

But if one school can buck all of these forces, and allow kids to be kids, maybe there is hope after all?

Continue reading →

My blog post on Come Follow Me: D&C 27-28

Excerpt:Joseph went to find wine for a Sacrament service. Along the way, he was stopped and told that wine was not necessary, but water could be used instead. The little church had a growing list of enemies, to obtain wine for the service from a trustworthy source was becoming more and more difficult.. Here we see that the Lord is a pragmatic God. If something isn’t available, the Lord will often make allowances.

In the early days of Nauvoo, the saints were allowed to do baptisms for the dead in the Mississippi River. The Word of Wisdom was initially given as guidance, and not a commandment. When Joseph lost the 116 pages of the Book of Mormon, the Lord had him translate Nephi’s record instead.

What we find in all of these instances is that God will work with us, according to our need and diligence.

https://joelsmonastery.blogspot.com/2021/03/come-follow-me-d-27-28.html

In a couple of months, those of us in the Western world will be able to get vaccinated for COVID any time we want. But for now, it’s been a matter of hope and waiting, scheming and plotting.

I live in a relatively high-tech county. Vaccination sign-ups started in January. Over time they started sending e-mails to those who had registered, letting them know they were on the list. If I could go back in time, I wish they would have done something even better, so I had a nuanced sense of where my loved one(s) stood in line and how rapidly the queue was being worked down.

Today was the appointment for one of my people, someone who had worn us out with random questions about whether or not they would inject a microchip into their head, and other such nonsense.

Fifteen minutes before the appointment, their phone pinged, giving them a chance to let the “system” know they were in the enormous parking lot of the county building. Then two minutes before the appointment, the phone pinged again, letting them know it was time to walk into the building.

There were about 10 stations where people could go and check in with helpful humans. Once checked in, they were directed to a queue where numerous rooms were manned with 20-30 nurses apiece and a helpful person who let folks know when nurses were available. If you’ve ever gone through passport control, it was a bit like that, except not nearly as crowded.

Once sitting with the nurse, information was verified. My person got the Pfizer vaccine, and was assured that the week of April 3rd they’d get a follow-up text letting them sign up for the second dose at any of the locations available at that time (e.g., no longer limited to the cavernous government building).

The shot was no big deal. My person was heartily relieved that it was just in the arm and didn’t even hurt much.

Then, as is typical for a flu vaccine, for example, my person was asked to wait. Their phone texted them 15 minutes after the nurse had administered the shot. Then there were arrows directing them out of the county building, like exiting an airport, able to see those coming in across the lobby. Happy people were staged throughout the process to ensure everyone had the help they needed. They congratulated my person as they exited.

May you and yours who qualify to receive vaccination be able to get inoculated soon! May your experience be as good (or better) than the experience my person reported.