That the same people who said that Bill Clinton lacked the moral character to be president, now so enthusiasticly embrace Donald Trump is something I don't think I'll ever get over. I grew up surrounded and nurtured by good, conservative Mormon folk who taught me the importance of character and the danger of associationing with those of low morals. It was made clear to me that 1990's Democrats had betrayed their own principles by embracing someone of William Jefferson Clinton's deep flaws. They had failed the test of their moral standards by embracing a liar and a womanizer,  a fundamentaly dishonest man who dishonored his country and his own supposed faith. They had  traded precious principles for the sake of a mess of postage made up of policy priorities and a good economy. I must learn the lession of this and take it to heart. I did. They did not.

I'm not upset that they aren't meeting my standards, I'm upset that they aren't meeting their own.

 As it seems increasingly likely that President Biden will drop his relection bid in the near future, hopefully this coming week, precious little time is left until the August convention in which a new candidate would need to be nominated. Being an event unprecedented in my life time it's hard to see exactly how this process would go, Democrats haven't had anything approaching an open convention since 1972. Weither picked at such a convention or before hand by some other means, it seems unlikely the next Democratic nominee will be anyone other then Kamala Harris, so I wanted to take a little time to lay out what I see as her pluses and minus and likely chances of landing the office of President. Many of these thoughts have been inspired by other sources but some of them are my own.

First let's start with the negatives.

While there are some people who really like her, for the most part Kamala seems to be genrally seen as not very likable. She is not a particularly good speaker nor has she shown much in the way of charisma. As vice president she has been mostly sidelined to that point that it appears The White House has considered her a liability and limited her public role. She has no legislative or policy accomplishments to speak of either in her current role or in the senate. It's hard for me to even tell what she believes. Her time as a prosecutor and attorney general in California may even be a net negative, I've heard some very critical things about her in those roles  Her placement on the ticket to begin with seems principly to check some demographic boxes rather then any inherent talents on her part. Being from California she dosen't put any swing state into play, the Golden State hasn't voted for a Republican since George H.W.Bush. She dosen't tend to generate much enthusiasm.

Now on to the pros, which are more numerous then they might at first appear.

At the top of the ticket Harris could energize black and women voters, as well as the youth vote given she would be a historic pick. As Biden's presumptive VP nominee already, there would be fewer legal complications to her accessing the campaigns considerable war chest. She would benefit, if mildly, from a kind of quasi incumbentcy and should Biden resign she would in fact be the incumbent.

Voters have been complaining for some time about the prospect of another election between these two old men. There has been a demand for new faces and while Kamala isn't exactly new, she's at least not one of those two old guys. Kamala is 18 years younger then Donald Trump. With Biden off the ticket Democrats would be able to plausibly go after Trumps age and his own mental and physical decline hard; this is something they have not been able to do before because of Biden's greater age (roughly four years), his looking a good deal older then Trump, that dismel debate performance, public gaffs and growing (and not illigmate) concerns about his capacity to do the job. Replacing Joe with Kamala removes all of that from the equation.

It is hard not to imagine racist and misogynistic attacks against Harris from Trump and his suraragtes, this would likely repell moderate and independent voters and push more of them towards Harris. Harris of course would get to name her own running mate, I would suggest finding the most charismatic and popular white male Democrats have in elected office, if that person happens to be a swing state governor so much the better, I'm looking at you Tim Walz of Minnesota and Roy Cooper of North Carolina.

Least we forget, and how could we not, the many, many liabilities of Donald Trump. A polarizing figure who has already twice lost the popular vote and never broke even a 50% approval rating as President. There are many Republican voters looking for an alternative, witness Nikky Haley's remarkably strong 2nd place finishes in Republicans primaries. Donald Trump has multiple pending legal cases against him, is known to foment hate, violence and chaos. Not to mention his being broadly associated with the unpopular supreme court decision overturning Roe v Wade. He sorounds himself with repellent and often criminal  fringe figures like Steve Bannon and Roger Stone. The scary possibilities of a second Trump term as outlined in Project 2025 and elsewhere, promise an increasing authoritarian bent among Republicans, policy overreach, revenge on his political opponents, the potenal shattering of NATO and an American complicaty in a Russian victory in Ukraine, and surely loads of chaos we can't even anticipate at this juncture.

In short, despite all her short comings and liabilities I think Kamala Harris would have a really good chance of defeating Trump in November. I hope she has that chance as the odds of Biden somehow pulling off a victory seem increasingly remote with every passing day.

Thoughts?

Church Hopping

 In December of 2022 I started my current cycle of Church hopping, here I will attempt to list the names of as many of those Churches as I can remember, only the first two will be in order.

.Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Berean Bible Church

New Creation Church

The Mountain Church

South Valley Community Church

Bridge Church

Mid-Valley Church of Christ

Murray Park Church of Christ

United Church of Christ Salt Lake City

Church of the Valley

St. Therese of the Child Jesus Catholic Church

St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church

The Cathedral of the Madeline 

Christ Lutheran Church

Cottonwood Presbyterian Church

Adventure Church Draper

St. Marks Cathedral - Episcopalian 

Firsr United Methodist Church - Salt Lake City

First Presbyterian Church of Salt Lake City

Landmark Apostolic Church

Awaken Church

Anchor Baptist Church 

Discovery Christian Center

First Baptist Church of Salt Lake City

St. John's Lutheran Church

Central Church of the Nazeren

The Fellowship 

Second Church of Christ Scientist

Salt Lake Society of Friends

K2 Church

Wasatch Hills Seventh-day Adventist Church

Saint Anna Greek Orthodox Church

Canyons Church

Unity Church

The Rock Church

Various LDS wards

Covenant Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho

 M. Russell Ballard, a senior leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has passed away at the age of 95. Ballard was a direct descendent of Hyrum Smith, brother of Church founder Joseph Smith. It occurred to me that Ballard's death inaugurates what I think only the second period in Church history, during which no Smith relation sat in the upper councils of the Church. The other period was between the release of Church Presiding Patriarch Eldred G. Smith in 1979 and Ballard's call to the Quoram of the Twelve Apostles in 1985. Incidently during that interm Apostle Bruce R. McConkie was married to a Smith. A testament to the influence of the Smith on the Church.

Second Church of Christ, Scientist

 Second Church of Christ, Scientist. Foothill Drive, Salt Lake City. 10:30 am service, Sunday September 10th, 2023.

This is my second visit to a Christian Science church, previously I had attended a wednesday testimony meeting at the downtown Boise location in 2007.

This building is extremely mid century modern, it may be the most intensely mid 1960's building I have ever been inside. The decore has not changed.

Organ prelude, pleasant.

I counted a total of 13 in the service, including me. All white and over 40 save two, a man and a woman, who appeared to be of Pacific Islander decent. The Pacific Islander woman was the conducter and soloist. It occurs to me going to all these churches, that they are a useful outlet for the frustrated musician, she was rather good, as was the organist. 

Seated on the same row as me was an elderly woman on some kind of breathing machine, I could hear it's low pumping sound all through the service.

Pre service, multiple people came up to me, provided me with materials, two different guides to the service, one more detailed then the other. There were hymn books in little slots on the back of the pews, but they provided me a second supplementary hymnal, as one of the hymns this week would be from that.

The service is very structured, very standardized, I've never seen one more so.

There is an organist, a conducter/soloist and two, I think they are called 'readers'. The pulpit has two microphones for the two readers, other then hymns the serive is almost all recitation. Female reader conducted, her accent was either Bristish or a kind of 'high Boston', ironically the female reader at the service I attended in 07, also spoke with such an accent, I suppose it could be the same person. There is a painting of the Boston Mother Church in the foyer.

Lord's Prayer recitation with congratulation, pretty standard, save the female reader inserting "correlative passages" from Mary Baker Eddy between each line. There was also the reading of a poem by Mary Baker Eddy, then we sang a hymn based on that poem. Mary Baker Eddy (1821 - 1910) is referred to as "the discoverer and founder of Christian Science". She seams a bigger deal to Christian Scientists then Jospeh Smith is to Mormons, 

There is a brief catechism, then the "sermon/lesson". This is also a kind of catechism, reader one reads some Bible quotes, then reader two reads commentary from Mary Baker Eddy, this is read word for word, I could follow along in the more detailed version of the sermon guide.

Ends with hymn, tithes and offerings, reading of a sort of Christian Science creed which seems to double as a prayer.

After the service I talked to a woman who said they have a total of 26 topics they go through twice a year. New correlated readings come out each year from the "Mother Church" in Boston. The Bible and Eddy quotes may change, but always the same 26 topics. This week's topic was "Substance", which the CS define as spirit because they don't believe that matter really exists, everything is a degree of spirit. This is an interesting inverse on Joseph Smith's ideas on everything, including spirit, being a form of matter, but "refined" to varying degrees. 

The lady I talked to said the testimony meetings are around half recitation, then attendees (they don't have to be members) can speak as they feel prompted. So kind of like a Quaker meeting.

There is a First Christian Science Church downtown, but it has been sold and is no longer used for services. I commented on the current  building to the lady I talked to after the service. She said it had been designed by a member of the congratulation who was an architect, and built by a construction company owned by another member of the congregation. This was circa 1963.

Attending this odd service, in a sparsely attended and very dated building, I had the thought, though I generally don't like this word, that it was a cult that had fallen on hard times. It was not hard to imagine the place full 60 years ago.

I had a harder then usual time, in trying to see what it was about the serive which people would find spiritually fulfilling. It had a nice calm vibe, but other then that really did nothing for me. 

K2 Church

 K2 Church, 5 pm service on a Saturday. 8/26/23

They are meeting in the building of Southeast Christian Church in Murry. They are in the process of securing a "new Church home." They have a bid in for a place, one of the things prayed for is that it go through.

Casual Church, I attended in shorts. 😀

100ish in the sanctuary, seemed good mix of ages, all white save two of apparent Indian sub continent decent.

Announcements, young children dismissed, a prayer that didn't feel prefinctionary, as they often do. Then the sermon.

Pastor Nelson. Presumably no relation.

This is the first of a three part series on sexuality. Part of a larger 'Get Jesus into Your Life' series. So get Jesus into your sex life? Advocating for a sort of three way? 😁

Preacher confesses to having been sexualy active in high school. Accepted Christ at 19. Then celebit until marrying his wife at 34. Multiple kids, at least one of whom is mentioned as being in college. So late 50's? Looks younger.

He knows this is a sensitive subject, really did seem to want to be as empathetic as possible while still holding the line on doctrine. Week 3 will be LGBTQ stuff, I may watch this whole series on YouTube. I was generally impressed with his way of delivery.

Sex is good, but keep it in bounds. Sex is like nuclear energy, it can power or destroy a city. Emphasis on oneness, joining of man and woman. Come for the dopamine (pleasure chemical), stay for the oxytocin (bonding chemical).

This is eternal life. Metaphor for Christ and the Church. STD's were down for awhile but going up since 2014 says CDC. All other sins are outside the body save sexual sin. Pre/extra marital sex implants sexual memories, this is unfair to spouse, be that future or current. It's robbery.

Gathered everyone up at front at the end to confess sexual sins/needs/addictions/wrongs inflicted by others upon you. This was done silently, I think a wise choice. 

Twasint till the very end that we got some praise and worship music, to be sung in spirit of repentance. First songs first words, I kid you not, "Lord, I come, I confess." My inner adolescent laughed, then I left as they were still singing.

I did grab a free large print (and cheaply printed) NIV on the way out. Toying with idea of reading the Old Testament in a year, only Standard Work I never made it through. If I read 18.462 pages a week I can complete in 52 of the same. Will see.

I actually mostly liked this service, impressed with the pastor.

 https://youtube.com/@52churchesin52weeks

https://youtube.com/@thoughtfulfaith2020

https://youtube.com/@GospelTangents

https://youtube.com/@benchmarkbooks

https://youtube.com/@NoahLugeons

https://youtube.com/@latterdayskeptic

https://youtube.com/@faithmattersfoundation

https://youtube.com/@MythVisionPodcast

https://youtube.com/@Come.Back.Podcast

https://youtube.com/@mormonismwiththemurph

https://youtube.com/@HarmonicAtheist

https://youtube.com/@TheThinkingAtheist