Paul Mero

Disgruntled with the only world he knew, the unhappy young man hiked to the crest of a nearby mountain, turned one last time to gaze upon the lives he was determined to abandon, and resolved, then and there, to never look back.

Frustrated and tired, he’d had enough. The unknown wilderness surely had much more hope and change to offer him than the stifling, stagnant, backward community he was leaving behind.

Hours became miles and the unhappy young man grew weary.  He paused by a large tree just long enough to relax and fall asleep. read more

June 26^th, 2025 marks the 10^th anniversary of the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling of the United States Supreme Court recognizing same-sex marriage as constitutional under the 14^th Amendment. Perhaps many Utahns remember that the headwaters of the Obergefell decision first bubbled in Utah as Kitchen v. Herbert when, on December 20, 2013, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Shelby struck down the state’s one-man-one-woman marriage law.

But very few people understand the leading role that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints played in the Obergefell ruling – making U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion a very easy task. Most Utahns might be led to believe that the LDS church is a dark enemy of same-sex marriage. That narrative is partial and now strains credulity. read more

Never. Ever. If asked to defend a Trump presidency no less than 100 days ago, that would have been my answer. My answer is different today. Not because my opinion of the man has changed. I unaffiliated with the Utah GOP in 2016 over its support of then-candidate Trump. I have been a Never-Trumper since then. I have not voted for Donald Trump. And, yet, today I will defend democratic processes, differences of opinions, and the Trump administration. If that means I am defending the man, so be it, though I don’t think it does. read more

A vainglorious faction inside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is urgently pushing for a new “civic theology.” More idolatry than theology, this push would have church members move beyond a historic reverence for the inspired U.S. Constitution, more than a governmental framework for a free society, to a new enlightened view of the Constitution as a playbook of virtues focused on the meaning of citizenship.

Make no mistake, this peculiar view of the Constitution as a blueprint for citizen-peacemaker begins and ends with an irrational and partisan worship of political compromise. This elite faction of LDS insiders is upselling the Constitution as a compromise to cover a series of political sins. read more

Am I a part of the new “pro-Putin right”? Evidently, opposing U.S. involvement and intervention over the Russian invasion of Ukraine and being a social conservative supportive of the “natural family” and long an opponent of civil rights based upon the terms “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” places me in the category of the pro-Putin right in America.

Such is the conclusion of journalist Eric Levitz writing for Vox online in a recent article titled, “The twisted appeal of Trump’s humiliation of Zelenskyy,” subtitled “Why some conservatives took pride in a national disgrace.” read more