I recently spent a week or so immersed in constitutional law, looking at — among other things — the place of the Declaration of Independence in constitutional interpretation. It has gotten me thinking about the virtues of hypocrisy.
Author: Nate Oman
I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah (autobiographical blogging here), and attended Brigham Young University from 1993 to 1999. Between 1994 and 1996, I served in the Korea Pusan Mission. While at BYU, I mainly studied political science and philosophy. (I was lucky enough to take several classes from T&S's Jim Faulconer.) I also took just enough economics to get myself in trouble. After graduation, I married the fabulous and incredible Heather Bennett (now Oman) and worked on Capitol Hill for Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) while Heather finished graduate school at George Washington University. Beginning in 2000, I attended Harvard Law School, escaping with my JD in June, 2003. After practicing law for awhile, I became a law professor at William & Mary Law School. Somewhere along the line, Heather and I managed to have a son and a daughter.
Very Important News
A frequent morning ritual for me involves taking a bag of compost to our garden, which is several blocks from our house, on my drive to work. I enjoy this little task.
Dubitante
In the common law world, judges are required to write opinions that justify their decisions. The holdings and reasoning in these opinions then become the law. Generally speaking, there are two sorts of opinions. First, there are opinions offered by the court that state its decision and the reasons for it. Second, there are dissents, which explain why the dissenting judge cannot join the majority’s opinion. There is also, however, an almost completely forgotten, third kind of opinion that is worth thinking about: a dubitante or dubitans.
Game Theory and Mormon History
So let’s think about Zion as a prisoner’s dilemma (PD).
The Seduction of Heather Oman
At first she was basically opposed to the idea.
Book Review: Being Bugged by Armstrong
I just finished Karen Armstrong’s Islam: A Short History and I was bugged.
John Adams and the Problem of Joseph Smith’s Legal Papers
A few days ago, I had the rare experience of actually having enough time to sit in my study and read.
And now the news you have all been waiting for…
It is time for another garden update.
From the Archives: How Joseph Smith Restored Greek Religion
I’ve been thinking of late about immortality and Mormonism. My question is whether or not you can be a Good Mormon and a Good Homeric Hero. I am unclear on the answer, but Moroni and John Taylor seem to suggest that for at least one Good Mormon being a Homeric Hero was just fine. (more…)
Political versus Theological Friendships
Are theological friendships possible between different religions? At times I am skeptical. Consider the always fascinating question of which Christian denomination likes Mormons the least?
Mormons and Markets, III: Strangers and Neighbors
In my last post on this subject, I argued that one of things that markets do well is coordinate dispersed information. Another thing that markets do fairly well is facilitate cooperation among strangers. This is worth thinking about.
Against Fundamental Questions
We tend to think that fundamental questions are important and therefore that they ought to take up much of our intellectual effort. This view may be mistaken. Consider, for example, Islamic law.
An Ethical Question from the Laws of War
Are executions in the town square less moral than air bombing? Consider the following hypotheticals from the international law of war.
Spinach
An update on the Oman garden is in order.
Flags, Idols and Envy of the SPQR
Of late, I have been reading about the Romans, a group of exceptionally creative — if frequently cruel — lawyers with a really good army. What is not to like? It has got me thinking a bit about patriotism.
Mormons and Markets, II: Information and the Failure of the United Order
Throughout the 19th century, Mormons tried various different communal economic arrangements that basically didn’t work.
12(ish) Questions with Senator Robert F. Bennett
A while ago, we announced that Senator Robert F. Bennet (R-Ut) had agreed to do 12 Questions with T&S. Senator Bennett has read all of the posted questions and offers his answers to the questions below.
Mormons and Markets, I: Property
Embedded in the ten commandments are at least two injunctions having to do with property, which makes it one of the main subjects of the Decalogue and presumeably of central concern for the Gospel.
Radishes
This weekend marked a victory of sorts.
A Theorist Amongst the Stories
I studied philosophy in college. I enjoyed law school. I work when I can as an appellate lawyer. I read few novels but a lot of philosophy and legal theory. I enjoy the clean, crisp flow of well-honed arguments and get a kind of goofy joy at watching the interplay of concepts and abstraction. By temperament, I am a theorist, but I, alas, live in world where as often as not stories hold sway.
A Happy Ending
In most of the ways that matter, I grew up in a fairly typical Salt Lake City Mormon home. What this means is that I went through most of the various Mormon rites of passage right on schedule in an environment that looked very much like an photograph from the Ensign: baptism in the basement of the Salt Lake Tabernacle, priesthood ordinations by a faithful father surrounded by family, and all the rest. Coming home from my mission, however, was slightly different.
Against King Benjamin
I am sorry to say that I think that King Benjamin’s great sermon has badly distorted the way that Latter-day Saints think about charity, the treatment of the poor, and the redistribution of wealth.
The Unfortunate Decline of Preaching
Mathew Cowley, Hugh B. Brown, J. Golden Kimball. What these men had in common (other than the fact that I think they were all Democrats) is that they were great preachers. Preaching, however, seems to be a lost art of sorts in the Church. Indeed, there is so little real preaching that I suspect that most of the time we don’t even recognize its absence.
Blake Ostler: Guest-blogger
Our latest guest blogger is Blake Ostler. Blake is a practicing attorney, having graduated from BYU and the U of U with a JD and a Master’s degree in philosophy. Blake, alas, has demonstrated almost no interest in writing about law and Mormonism. He has, however, been a prolific author on the philosophical basis of LDS theology. In addition to numerous articles in Dialogue, BYU Studies, Sunstone, the FARMS Review of Books and other fora, he has published the first volume of a proposed three volume philosophical study of Mormon theology, entitled Exploring Mormon Thought: The Attributes of God
A Tale of Two Revelations
Those who imagine change in the Church are fond of hanging their hat on the principle of continuing revelation, arguing that it allows us a tremendous amount of flexibility to reformulate our doctrines and practices. This is, I think, far too simplistic, a fact that is illustrated by two of the most dramatic shifts in Church policy: the end of polygamy and the end of the priesthood ban.
Condescension and Exaltation
For all of our insistence that we are Christians too, Mormons think about Jesus differently. I think that the two words that best capture this difference are condescension and exaltation.
God on Times & Seasons
As I was reading the Doctrine & Covenants on my way into work the other day, I learned (not to my complete surprise, I will confess) that God has already condemned this blog.
The Blogging Advantages of Murmuring
By and large, the bloggernacle is can be a pretty whiney, carping
Toxic Fumes and Memories of Mormon Art
The summer after my mission I got a job restoring Mormon pine furniture. Over the course of its life, the furniture had been painted many, many times. My job was to painstakingly remove layers of later paint with an exacto knife and Q-tip swabs soaked in paint thinner while leaving the original layer of paint unharmed. It was very slow work — generally no more than a few square inches a day — and it involved breathing in a lot of toxic fumes.
Is God an Ethicist?
The Mormon Spinozist has an interesting post lamenting (sort of) the lack of a clear doctrinal answer on the question of when life does or does not begin. What are we to make of the fact that we seem to have important questions about which the scriptures provide cryptic guidance at best? Here is my stab at a conclusion: Neither God nor his prophets seem to be ethicists.