February 23, 2016 J. Max Wilson

LDS Conference October 1971- Shame, the Potemkin ’50s, and Generational Wonders

This is my latest contribution to the ongoing General Conference Odyssey project. My previous posts in this series can be found here. Posts by other bloggers writing about the October 1971 General Conference today are linked at the end of this post.  You can also visit the project group on Facebook.

Today we are writing about the Sunday Morning Session of the October 1971 Conference.

There were a number of excellent talks given in the Sunday Morning Session of October 1971 that I wish I had time to talk about, but I am going to focus today on a talk titled “Where Art Thou?” in which President N. Eldon Tanner spoke extensively about the scriptural account of Adam and Eve.

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He noted that after Adam and Eve had eaten of the fruit that God had forbidden and hidden themselves, God’s called to Adam asking, “Where art thou?” President Tanner observes:

“When God said ‘Where art thou?’ he knew where Adam was. With his omniscience he knew what had taken place, but he was calling Adam to consider the seriousness of his actions and to report to him. But Adam had hidden himself because he was ashamed.

We are all like Adam in that when we partake of ‘forbidden fruits’ or do the things we are commanded not to do, we are ashamed, and we draw away from the Church and from God and hide ourselves, and if we continue in sin, the Spirit of God withdraws from us.”

Interestingly, the words “shame” and “ashamed” derive from Indo-European roots related to “covering” or “shroud.” So when Adam and Eve attempt to cover their nakedness, you might say that they are “ashamed” in a very literal way.

It is difficult to draw a bright line between the concepts of shame, guilt, regret, and embarrassment. Some people have tried to impose more strict definitions in which shame is specifically a feeling caused by others, while guilt is a feeling arising from self evaluation. Others suggest that shame arises from violating socially imposed norms, but that guilt comes from violating one’s own norms. Others suggest that shame involves an evaluation of a person (I am bad), but that guilt is an evaluation of a actions (I did something bad). Continue reading →

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February 17, 2016 J. Max Wilson

Why Companies Like Apple Should Not Give Government Backdoor Access to Encrypted Customer Data

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If you haven’t heard already, Apple has published an open letter explaining that the technology company will not be giving the U.S. Government access to their customer’s encrypted data. The government wants that data to use in law enforcement and anti-terrorism.

“When the FBI has requested data that’s in our possession, we have provided it. Apple complies with valid subpoenas and search warrants, as we have in the San Bernardino case. We have also made Apple engineers available to advise the FBI, and we’ve offered our best ideas on a number of investigative options at their disposal.

We have great respect for the professionals at the FBI, and we believe their intentions are good. Up to this point, we have done everything that is both within our power and within the law to help them. But now the U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create. They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone.

Specifically, the FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation. In the wrong hands, this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession.

The FBI may use different words to describe this tool, but make no mistake: Building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a backdoor. And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control.”

To good people who are concerned about making sure that the government has the tools it needs to convict criminals and stop terrorists, this looks like a reasonable request, and that Apple is making us less safe.

Let me explain why I think Apple is right and that the government is wrong. Continue reading →

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February 16, 2016 J. Max Wilson

LDS Conference October 1971- Spiritual and Secular Education in the Service of God

This is today’s post for the ongoing General Conference Odyssey project. My previous posts in this series can be found here. Posts by other bloggers writing about the October 1971 General Conference today are linked at the end of this post.  You can also visit the project group on Facebook.

Today we are writing about the Priesthood Session of the October 1971 Conference.

This session of conference included a number of interesting sermons.

It is the first session of conference to include a talk by Dallin H. Oaks, who was at the time the newly called president of Brigham Young University, and would later become a Justice of the Utah Supreme Court, and eventually one of the apostles of the church.

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It is not surprising that Elder Oaks spoke about education and the intersection of secular knowledge and spiritual knowledge. He contrasted the famous aphorism suggested by philosopher Thomas Hobbes, that “the life of man [is] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” with the teachings of the restored gospel that “Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.”

Elder Oaks emphasized that he was grateful to have been exposed to philosophies of men, like that of Hobbes, but he is also thankful that he was simultaneously being taught the truths of the gospel.

As the new President of BYU, he emphasized that he believed that it is wise to join spiritual and secular instruction: Continue reading →

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February 9, 2016 J. Max Wilson

LDS Conference October 1971- Sometimes You Have to Redo What You Thought Was Done

This is my latest installment to the ongoing General Conference Odyssey project. My previous posts in this series can be found here. Posts by other bloggers writing about the October 1971 General Conference today are linked at the end of this post.  You can also check out the project group on Facebook.

Today we are writing about the Saturday Afternoon Session of the October 1971 Conference.

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Today I want to highlight a few quotes that stood out to me from the speakers in the Saturday Afternoon Conference Session of October 1971.

In “Laying a Foundation for the Millennium,”Apostle LeGrand Richards shared a story about Brigham Young and the construction of the Salt Lake City Temple:

“When the foundation was being laid, we are told that it was sixteen feet wide, and at one time President Brigham Young came and saw the workmen throwing in chipped granite. He made them take it out and put in those great granite blocks with this explanation: ‘We are building this temple to stand through the millennium.’ Isn’t that a good thought? Each one of us ought to want to build our lives and help our families to build their lives so that we can stand through the millennium.”

Have you ever been working on a project and, when you are part way through, been told that you are doing it wrong and you have to undo what you have done and do it over? I certainly have, and it can be infuriating. I imagine that the men working on the temple might have felt a bit put out when President Young told them they were building the temple wrong and made them undo what they had done and redo it.

But if the temple was to stand until the 2nd coming of Christ and then a thousand years beyond, even what might have been considered “standard” practice or “up to code” would not be sufficient. Continue reading →

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February 1, 2016 J. Max Wilson

LDS Conference October 1971 – Cultural, Intellectual, and Spiritual Fads

This is this week’s contribution to the ongoing General Conference Odyssey project. My previous posts in this series can be found here.  You can also check out the project group on Facebook.

Posts by other bloggers writing about the October 1971 General Conference today are linked at the end of this post.

Today we are writing about the Saturday Morning Session of the October 1971 Conference.

There were only four speakers in the Saturday morning session of conference in October 1971, three of whom were Apostles. One interesting theme raised by both President Harold B. Lee and Elder Theodore M. Burton, as assistant to the Twelve, was the secularization of organized religion.

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In his talk, “Watch, That Ye May Be Ready,” President Lee quoted from the nationally syndicated newspaper column by Max Rafferty, who was an educator, politician, and commentator:

“Never, it seems, has there ever been more unmistakable evidence of a need for spiritual guidance, as we met throughout our visits in these countries those who are seeking for answers to problems that confront them on every side. We have sensed that everywhere there is much dissatisfaction with the churches to which they have belonged. The real reason for this decline seems to stem from the fact, as one columnist has summarized it, ‘organized religion isn’t being attacked. It’s busily committing suicide trying to keep up with [the] Jane Fonda and Timothy Leary’ type of relevance which would ‘tune out that corny old Bible, split out of that moldy church and turn on with relevance!’ ”

Today, if they think of her at all, many people think of Jane Fonda primarily as an Academy Award winning actress. In October 1971, she was already a movie star, but she was also known for her counterculture political activism. She would win her first Oscar and make her infamous (some would say treasonous) visit to North Vietnam within a year of being mentioned in conference. Continue reading →

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