- RLD on Are Latter-day Saint Women Happy, Healthy, and Thriving?: “I cordially dislike treating categorical outcomes as numeric–there are some implicit but strong assumptions made in doing so–but I doubt a more complicated model would add any insight in this case. Especially since, to preempt some possible criticisms, Stephen isn’t making any causal claims here. The analysis is purely descriptive. The difference between LDS and non-LDS could plausibly be due to socioeconomic status differences, for example. What’s less plausible is that the gospel is actually making women miserable and something else is exactly offsetting it. It’s fair to be skeptical of self-reported happiness, but other measures have problems too. For example, higher rates of anti-depressant use could be due to higher rates of depression, but they could also be due to improved access to mental health care or lower levels of stigma about seeking treatment. There are no easy answers here and self-reports are generally considered legitimate, if imperfect, measures of happiness. Nerd notes; the stargazer package sure is nice when it just works! A leitmotif of my summer was digging into the Stata equivalents for tables that aren’t so well-behaved. I’d still suggest replacing the tidyverse %>% pipe with the (newish) base R |> pipe, but for what you’re doing the performance difference almost certainly won’t be noticeable.” Sep 3, 23:04
- on Are Latter-day Saint Women Happy, Healthy, and Thriving?: “Interesting. I’m always a tad skeptical of self-reported happiness surveys. Within an LDS context, it’s because happiness is tied to righteousness. So if you are righteous you are *supposed* to be happy. Admitting unhappiness is then admitting unrighteousness. I remember as a teen learning this lesson in a backwards kind of way in YW and for years afterwards randomly wondered if the inner-circle ward families were really as happy as they seem or if it was more performance based. (Years later, I now know some were, some were not.) To really understand happiness, I’d rather look at things like use of anti-depressants and/or the percentage of people with medical conditions related to stress and anxiety. It be interesting to know what kind of research methodologies that are more hard-science have been tried in demonstrating happiness. I hope that the gospel does make people happy. I think it absolutely has the potential to do so. At the very least if we follow basic precepts about caring for our bodies, avoiding some of the more destructive behaviors of modern society, living within our means, and seeking kindness and Deity, it should remove some of the worst factors of unhappiness. Of course things like toxic-positivity and the LDS obsession with appearances do get in the way anyway.” Sep 3, 21:05
- on Are Latter-day Saint Women Happy, Healthy, and Thriving?: “I’m an active, never married, childless LDS woman. 58 years old. I feel my life is going great right now and I am happy. The only time I feel bad is when I go to Church or listen to Conference and they tell me that my life is meaningless because I didn’t marry and have no children.” Sep 3, 15:26
- on Book Review: Imagining and Reimagining the Restoration, by Robert A. Rees: ““The times when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.” “I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it.” “Since we are told to love our neighbors as ourselves, that tells us that it is important to love ourselves, so let’s talk about that.” Lots of midrash out there already. Be careful what you wish for.” Sep 3, 13:39
- on Book Review: Imagining and Reimagining the Restoration, by Robert A. Rees: “I agree with you on that, rogerdhansen.” Sep 2, 21:15
- on Book Review: Imagining and Reimagining the Restoration, by Robert A. Rees: “The Church does need to be more Christ centric, but I consider emphasizing Easter to be more of a superficial effort. I think it’s important, but only scratches the surface of making us more Christlike. The deeper and more important activity is emulating His example of assisting those in need: poor, widows, refugees, etc. The Church has the resources to do more, a lot more. It has tithing monies, other donations, a large cash reserve, vast ag holding, and a large supply of volunteers. LDS Humanitarian Services should be prepared to assist with stepping up the Church’s efforts. This is all very non controversial, and well backed up by scriptures. All that’s missing is the vision.” Sep 2, 18:36
- on Monogamy is the Rule, Part 6: Clarifications and Recap: “Chad, That is certainly a valid concern, but it is a different concern that does not arise from the earthly practice of polygamy. Widowers are going to remarry in any case. Assuming nothing but happy marriages, one wife or the other is going to be disappointed in the afterlife if they reject celestial polygamy. But getting rid of celestial polygamy doesn’t fix that–one or the other is still going to be disappointed. And allowing women to be sealed to multiple men doesn’t fix it either, it just spreads the disappointment more equitably. I can’t think of any earthly marriage system that translates painlessly to the afterlife.” Sep 2, 18:27
- on Monogamy is the Rule, Part 6: Clarifications and Recap: “Carey F., I have had commentors bring that up before. I think it’s an interpretation that has some merit. I’ll have to give it more thought. As far as the multiple spouses, I actually think I would be more okay with the idea of polygamy sealings if there were equal opportunities for both sexes.” Sep 2, 17:02
- on Monogamy is the Rule, Part 6: Clarifications and Recap: “Chad, Have you ever encountered alternative interpretations of Jacob 2:30 that challenge the conventional idea—that monogamy is the norm unless God commands otherwise? For example, this interpretation suggests the verse isn’t about an exceptional allowance for polygamy, but rather a stern warning: unless God explicitly commands otherwise, the people must obey monogamy, or they’ll fall into error. https://oneclimbs.com/2017/01/05/a-proposed-reinterpretation-of-jacob-230/” Sep 2, 14:17
- on Monogamy is the Rule, Part 6: Clarifications and Recap: “To some extent, the idea of eternal marriage suggests the possibility of plural marriage in order to address situations like ReTx’s sister. However, it does not logically require that only men be allowed multiple spouses—that limitation seems to stem more from the influence of patriarchy than from the principle itself.” Sep 2, 14:10
