Dr Paul Allen

Image via Wikipedia Mormonism is back in the news. And with two Mormon presidential candidates, including Mitt Romney (the front runner for the Republican nomination), there’s a good chance we will be hearing much more about Mormonism for the next twelve months. Denny Burk has a very helpful piece on whether Mormonism is a cult , and Albert Mohler has written a thoughtful article on “Mormonism, Democracy, and the Urgent Need for Evangelical Thinking.” I won’t repeat their arguments, except to reiterate Mohler’s reminder that voting for a president should include examining the candidate’s religious beliefs, but should include other considerations as well. Presidential elections are important. But believing the truth is even more important. With that in mind, I thought it might be helpful to provide a brief overview of Mormon history and theology. I won’t try to debunk Mormonism or prove Christianity. But I hope this quick survey will show that the two are not the same. Cover v

Image via Wikipedia The new Ken Burns series  “Prohibition”  aired recently on PBS . (If you missed it, it’s streaming on a number of services and PBS’  website .) I was excited to watch it, especially because I had done some reading on the history of the 1920s as part of my dissertation research. I annoyed my husband by offering factoids before the documentary got to them, but the series also made me think, in both a historical and contemporary context, about the complexity of sin. The most surprising thing to me was this statement from historian  Barry Hankin s: “If the goal was to significantly reduce drinking and reduce the influence of the saloon in American culture, then Prohibition was a success.” Before my research, I had been working with received knowle Image via Wikipedia dge that the prohibition law was a total failure. It didn’t prevent people from drinking and it fed organized crime. While both of those claims are true – and the crime problem might be enough to still