Dave's Mormon Inquiry

Religious Degeneration

So I read Niall Ferguson's small book The Great Degeneration: How Institutions Decay and Economies Die (Penguin Press, 2013). It's a theme I am familiar with from Mancur Olsen's The Rise and Decline of Nations (1984), with Ferguson adding three decades of new data and events to the argument. Two quick reactions to this rather depressing book.

Salt Lake City, We Have a Problem

Artist's rendering of a serious problem.

It has always been the case that some missionaries "come home early," as the gentle phrasing goes. It turns out that more missionaries are coming home early than ever before. The percentage is now into the double-digits, and it turns out the folks in Salt Lake City are already well aware that we have a problem. This is based on information quietly passed down the priesthood chain, coupled with an urgent request to extend support and guidance to our young men and women as they prepare for and depart on LDS missions. So the leadership recognizes there is a problem and, surprisingly, the young returning missionaries are not being blamed. But acknowledging a problem is only the first step. What is going on and what can be done to improve things? How can we fix the problem?

Floating Through a Billion Years of Mormon History

Well, a billion years of geological history and a couple hundred years of Mormon history. That's what I saw last month on a rafting trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. But not everyone sees the same thing.