My whole life I’ve been a Warriors fan first. Curry would’ve been my favorite regardless, but I’m always a Warriors fan.
With everything that’s happened in the last couple years and especially the last week or so, I don’t know if I can stay that way.
Steph has been what I watch the Warriors for for a couple of years now so I don’t care for anyone else on the team. If they aren’t gonna actively help him, and a billionaire asshole egomaniac is the one controlling how my team performs, I will not support that. I want them to trade Steph if they seriously don’t care about winning (which has been clear post-KD)
“Mormons turned a swamp into a metropolis. Then they turned a desert into an empire. It’s the most American story.”
Their religious beliefs take them to Missouri. Neighbors learn they are anti-slavery and violently drive them out.
They go to Illinois and turn a swamp into a city that rivals Chicago. Only to have violent mobs run them out.
They walk toward Utah. Hoping to find a safe place to gather.
Jim Bridger mocks them. He bets $1,000 they can’t grow crops in Utah. They continue anyway.
The Utah soil is so hard it breaks their plows. So they engineer a way to water a desert.
Their crops grow. Salt Lake City sprawls. They expand. Latter-day Saints settle 500 towns across the West. A network of farms, commerce, and faith.
Their women become the first women to vote. They elect America’s first female state senator.
Their women organize themselves. With very little training, they create a system that lowers infant mortality to among the lowest rates in the country.
When the Depression hits, Latter-day Saints implement the most effective welfare program in the country. Decades later, Ronald Reagan studies it and calls it a model for the country. Its impact is seen today as Utah has the lowest usage of federal food assistance in the country.
The pursuit of knowledge and science becomes a hallmark. They start universities. They send their smartest men and women back east to learn the latest ideas and bring them back.
They are innovative. Technology that changes the world emerges from their culture. The television. The artificial heart. The weapons that won WWII. The beginnings of the internet.
The work ethic and cooperation that propelled them to develop the American West continues today. Their outsized influence on the world is famous.
They know religious persecution better than most. So they champion religious freedom for all, even those they disagree with.
Sociologists are obsessed with their outcomes. A Princeton researcher studied teens in America. She concluded that “Mormon teens are faring best.” Harvard data recently found that kids who grow up in Latter-day Saint homes are the most likely to say they feel loved by both parents. Other national studies consistently find them to be the happiest people in the country.
Gallup finds they are the most observant Christians in the country, a dedication to their faith that is unrivaled. Pew Research finds they know many Bible stories better than any other Christians.
A swamp became a metropolis. A desert became an empire. A persecuted people became the happiest in America. That’s the most American story ever told.
Michael Knowles today on Mormon controversy:
"But I have to come out here in defense of the Mormons, because if trinitarian theology is the criterion [to be Christian], why are the Jehovah's Witnesses listed as Christian? Why are the Christian Scientists who deny the Trinity?
I'm not changing my views about the Trinity or the essential aspects of the Creed, but it does seem to me that the Mormons are being unfairly singled out here.
Everybody beats up on the Mormons all the time. Mormons are very reliable Republican voters. They live very, very good family lives. They're model citizens in many, many ways. And I do think this would be an example of them being unfairly singled out."
@michaeljknowles@BasedMikeLee
Anti-Mormonism did this.
Saying “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints isn’t Christian” did this.
Saying “Mormons aren’t Christian” did this.
Saying “Joseph Smith was a pedophile conman” did this.
Saying “the Book of Mormon is demonic” did this.👇
It does seem that the LDS are being unfairly singled out here. If the essential criterion for Christianity is Trinitarian theology, why do the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Scientists, Oneness Pentecostals, and even Quakers (in some instances) get a pass here?
The same god who created everyone out of nothing, with foreknowledge of who would choose heaven or hell, still created those who would choose hell. Why create people whom you know will end up in endless torment and suffering in the first place? All powerful? Sure. All loving? Nah
I had no idea LDS members would balk at this very basic, central belief about hell, heaven, and who goes where.
Yes, all Christians believe in hell and that we deserve to go there. That’s the bad news. The good news is, through Christ, we can be saved from hell and instead spend eternity with him. This is not accomplished through ordinances, church membership, or claims of apostolic succession, but through Jesus’s sacrifice alone. The good news is that there is nothing you can or must do to earn your way into God’s Presence. Rather, Jesus’s blood is sufficient in making us clean and acceptable before God.
You are free to believe that access to eternity with Jesus can only be accomplished through following LDS ordinances, and that non-LDS members will only have a degree of glory (but not God’s presence) in the afterlife. It’s just not a Christian belief.
For a believer in Christ, there is nothing good about the news that we non-Mormons will live forever in a “better place” but without the presence of Jesus. That is not heaven. Jesus is the prize! And our place with Him is secured by grace through faith in Him. Hallelujah!
“For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”” Romans 10:13
Enduring to the end is not merely a relentless determination to grit our teeth, hold on to the limits of our physical strength and mental capacity, and push through the challenges and adversities of mortal life; it is so much more than that.
Enduring to the end is linked inextricably to the spiritual gift of charity, or the pure love of Christ. As we are blessed to receive this supernal gift, a transformation occurs in our spiritual nature and character. Charity encompasses both what we do and what we can become as this spiritual gift ultimately possesses us.
As we follow, love, and serve the Savior, we gradually focus less on our own desires and interests, and more on understanding and addressing the needs of others. We do not merely perform benevolent deeds; rather, our state of being is changed and becomes increasingly Christlike. Charity, then, ultimately possesses us.
The scriptural phrase “endure to the end” is a repeated reminder of the mighty spiritual change in our hearts that should be ongoing throughout our lives; it also is His promise of what we may become if we truly are possessed of the pure love of Christ. #GeneralConference