Under the Skin

I am going to share with you all a quick thought from a phrase that I have found to be indispensable when talking with others about our approach to sin:  "God Burned Sodom and Gomorrah."  I love this phrase because it can mean opposites that are both important to remember, depending on how you say it. 1) God burned Sodom and Gomorrah.  Sin is real. Sin is not okay.  Sin has consequences. God forgives unsuccessful attempts, but in the end, Yoda was right.  Do or do not, there is no try.  God didn't say, "Well, Sodom and Gomorrah, you're in luck.  Because I'm kind of a permissive kind of God."  No, he burned it. 2) GOD burned Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot didn't burn Sodom and Gomorrah.  God did.  Lot prayed for those in his city.  He did his best to love them. And then when he was told it was time to peace out, he did, and then God burned Sodom and Gomorrah.  It's not your job to dole out judgment and punishments.  God will take care of it. And that&

About a week ago, I was having a discussion with a friend. One thing that you have to know about some of my friends.  Being a Mormon, I have many Mormon friends. And as much as I love Mormonism, there is an unfortunately large swath of Granola people in Mormonism. The Church officially embraces science, and there are a lot of Mormon scientists (in fact the Quorum of the Twelve apostles includes retired medical researchers, physicists and nuclear engineers). And The Pew Forum has found that Mormonism is a rare religion in that as its members become more educated, they become more religiously active.  The Church has repeatedly endorsed modern medicine and vaccines, and funds a fair bit of science research through Brigham Young University.  All of this aside, there is a disturbingly large group of Mormons who love their essential oils, gluten-free or paleo diets, and shun vaccines. This is actually a fascinating historical question having to do with Thomsonian Medicine, Joseph Smith and A