LDS Cooperative "one heart and one mind...with no poor among us"

Below is a blog post from Badger, in which he translates from arabic comments made by Harith Al-Dhari on the long term security agreement the US is attempting to sign with the puppet Iraqi government, which would authorize the the continued presence of US troops in Iraq after the UN occupation mandate ends later this year.

Sunni resistance spokesman: Let us all stand against this, each in his own way

Below is a letter I wrote to BYU's Daily Universe, it was published in the opinion section, responding to an earlier opinion piece that a BYU student that served in Iraq for the US military wrote.

Dear Daily Universe,

The 2008 US presidential campaign has brought a renewed interest nationally about Latter-day Saint attitudes and doctrines about politics. In recent decades Latter-day Saints have distinguished themselves as avid believers in democracy, while also going to great lengths to show their patriotism and allegiance to the US government. While a commitment to democracy is consistent with Latter-day Saint scripture, unquestioning obedience to political authority is not. Below is a brief attempt to develop a Mormon political theology, which is supportive of democracy, yet also critical of government abuses of power.

On Thursday I caught a few minutes of the graduation ceremony at BYU, and one of the students who got to speak had a few nice comments. He talked about John Huntsman, and his various charitable activities, which, because he's a billionaire, are quite extensive. It was good to express the idea that wealthy people have the obligation to use the money which exceeds what is sufficient for their needs to help other people. As the D&C reminds us, those people who don't use their excess resources to help those less fortunate, will, "with the wicked, lift up their eyes in hell." The student made another great point, however, that we don't have to be billionaires to use our excess resources to help others.