Blue Light, Mormon President? and Napolen Dynamite

Blue Light Special

My dad purchased a home wireless internet portal the other day. The product is by Netgear and the base is a flattish white box with a blinking blue light under the logo. It is really futuristic looking. Liz’s computer, which she brought home from college, now has internet access thanks to a smaller receiver which has a little blinking blue light. Our home is now a hotspot. That will be nice for when I get the basement suite (if it ever does happen).

A Mormon For President?

The other day I wrote a little about prospective candidates for president in 2008. I failed to mention Mitt Romney, the current governor of Massachusetts who previously helped save and turn around the Salt Lake Olympics in 2002. It appears he is not going to run for a second term in Massachusetts which means he can concentrate full time on running for President, as well as move to the right, especially on social issues, without having to worry about offending the liberal voters of Massachusetts. I’ve watched the guy on C-Span a few times; he has what it takes. His record is also somewhat impressive. According to Robert Novak, Romney is already gearing up.

But is the country “ready” for a Mormon President?

Here is my take. I think it is nice to have a President who is a committed Christian, in a vein somewhat similar to our own. However, this isn’t always possible, and it probably shouldn’t be either. While I might have large and profound doctrinal differences with the Mormon faith it doesn’t mean that a Mormon can’t be a solid leader, commander in chief, and conservative. Likewise I would be more than happy with a person of Jewish faith (hence my promotion of Senator Norm Coleman) being president, assuming I share a compatible political philosophy.

As far as I can tell America is the most religiously diverse country in the world. Where else can you find large vibrant communities of Amish, Buddhists, Catholics, Deists, and Episcopalian? Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Hasidic Jews? Muslims, Mennonites, Methodists, Church of God, Church of Christ, Church of God in Christ? Jehovah’s Witness, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints? Non Denominational, Baptists, Charismatic, Assemblies of God, Apostolic Oneness Pentecostal? The answer: not in many other places.

My point is that the freedom of religion is in part protected by the diversity of communities represented in the United States. You actually advance the causes of conservatism and family values when someone who isn’t from the group traditionally associated with such causes, advancing the cause. So if its Romney-Coleman vs. Hillary-Richardson in 2008 I will vote for Romney and be perfectly happy.

A few weeks ago Terry Eastland of the Weekly Standard wrote a really good piece on Romney and the idea of a Mormon running for President. A definite must-read (for those of you into this sorta thing).

What do you think? Do I have a point or am I off the deep end somewhere?

Napoleon Dynamite

P.S. For all of you out there who have caught the Napoleon Dynamite wave…did you know the reason why the movie was so relatively clean? I’ll give you a hint, the filmmakers are from Idaho which after Utah (75% Mormon) is the second most Mormon state in the US (25%). Questions, opnions, comments, concerns? Please E-mail me!

UPC in DC?

A UPC Church in DC?

One of America’s most important cities does not have a UPC church. Our nation’s seat of government, Washington, DC, is without representation in our (mine) denomination. Sure there are churches in the suburbs. I attended one in Silver Spring, an immediate suburb to the north east of the city. There is a fairly prominent church to the north west suburbs as well. And there are churches in Northern Virginia. Nonetheless Washington, DC has no church.

This is significant for a few reasons. First, it makes the UPC look unimportant. I think it is great that there is an outreach for Koreans, Ethiopians, and even the Amish and Mennonites. But to be a serious denomination, we need a church in Washington. As the Focus DC website states, “The most powerful apostolic organization on earth is NOT presently attempting to evangelize the most powerful city in the world.”

There have been attempts over the years to establish a church in DC. But to my knowledge there has never been a movement-wide, targeted drive that focuses on raising a church within the city of Washington DC…until now.

If you read the Herald than you may have noticed that last months as well as the current issue have a full-page, back-cover advertisement for Focus DC. Focus DC involves apostolics coming together after the Richmond, VA general conference and praying in Washington, DC at the Capitol. It also features Holy Ghost crusades on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, October 4-5. They are actually renting out the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitutional Hall near the White House for services with Greg Godwin, Anthony Mangun, and others.

A mid-week crusade is a great step, but Focus DC is an actual effort to raises churches. A commission is being set up, run under the MD-DC district to oversea, support, and assist churches being planted in Washington. My understanding is that there is a video/dvd being made to promote the effort as well. The website is somewhat basic, but if you go to the “mission" statement you find a 14 page pdf file that has more than enough content.

Riding around DC a few months ago after my graduation I noticed houses of worship of all shapes and sizes: Buddist temples, Protestant churches, Catholic churches, the National Cathedral. Right outside DC the Latter-Day saints have a humongous temple. There are many synagogues (my favorite has inscripted “a house of prayer for all people”) and not to far from AU there is an Arab Baptist church. It is time that we had one of our own in the city

I encourage everyone to visit the site. www.focus-dc.com Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

Dog, Steele, Schavio

The Dog

My only sibling, a sister two and a half years younger, loves animals. Yesterday on her way home from work she spotted a dog in the road that was clearly a runaway and in danger. Liz stopped her car, got out and rescued the dog. It spent the night barking in our garage. This is at least the third animal Liz has rescued over the years including a turtle and a cat. Today Liz and my dad took the dog to try and find its rightful owner, although I’m not exactly sure what they did with it.

Political Update

This seems to be a fairly slow time for political news. Much of the President’s agenda is stalled to some degree or another, and the campaign seasons are too far away. However, there are still occasional tidbits of interesting news. Today I have been following the story of Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele announcing that he is “exploring” a run for US Senate. I met Steele a few years ago during a College Republicans event at Howard University. The guy does have a compelling life story and is very personable. He should keep the race very competitive (Maryland heavily leans Democratic despite having a Republican Governor and Lt. Governor). He gave a really good speech at last year’s Republican National Convention (he said “you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they should do for themselves”). Anyway, I wish him the best.


The report on Terry Schavio came out today and it seems to suggest that she indeed was in a permanent vegetative state. The whole Schavio case was very troubling, but I thought it became crazy the way everyone wanted the government to move in and “do something.” The court determined that the husband was carrying out the wish’s of his wife in seeking to end her life sustaining treatment.

If I already had my law license I would have taken out huge newspaper ads telling people to get living wills. I would have charged six times the normal amount, and made a lot of money. But seriously, a living will is something all of us should consider composing.

Next time

I have been meaning to blog about the effort to put a church in Washington, DC. I will try to get to it next time. Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

Not Guilty, Election 2008, and games

Michael Jackson

Like many of you I was surprised Jackson received a “not guilty” on all counts brought against him. My sense was that since the deliberations ran several days that they were going to convict. My thinking was that if many of the jurors felt he was innocent then it would be a quick deliberation. However, if say 10 thought he was guilty then they would take a long time to convince the holdouts. Hopefully justice was served. Jackson’s lawyer did a really good job shredding the credibility of the accusers, which created the reasonable doubt.


McCain and Bush in 2008?

E.J. Dionne has an article in today’s Washington Post on the possibility of a McCain and Jeb Bush ticket in 2008. The article is interesting, although speculation about the political realities of 2008 in 2005 is simply just that; speculation. Of the names being floated for President in 2008 (on the Republican side) I don’t think Senator Frist has a real shot. McCain, Guiliani are the two big names right now. If Jeb Bush isn’t a possibility for VP I would like to see either Norm Coleman or Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota as the Republican VP candidate. The upper Midwest is a major battleground now in presidential elections (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan) and the Republicans need to build on the inroads they have made there.


Conquering the World

This weekend I played a new board game with some friends called Axis and Allies. The game is essentially a map of the world in 1942 and the allied powers (US, Great Britain and USSR) face off against the axis (Germany, Japan). The game is somewhat complicated, a mixture of Risk and Civilization II. Speaking of Risk, it is probably my favorite game, although I do enjoy a good round of Monopoly. What are your favorite board games?

More next time…..Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!