Author Archives: ptmadmin

What Judge Scott Got Completely Wrong

Posted on April 28, 2025 by ptmadmin

The current lawsuit over the Utah Fits All Scholarship program is simply more of the protracted debate between parental rights and public education. Third District Court Judge Laura Scott chose the side of public education. Of course, she would. As she cites, the state legislature is in the public education business by edict of the state constitution. But she chose poorly.

Here is what she got wrong: Appropriations for private schooling and homeschooling are not investments in the public school system. There is a fundamental difference between the Utah legislature’s investment in “education” and its constitutional imperative on behalf of “public education.” The Utah legislature funds many things not involving the public school system. Giving a kid this scholarship to get an education has nothing to do with public education. read more

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The Problem is You, not Trump

Posted on April 22, 2025 by ptmadmin

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

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The Misguided Notion of the Constitution as Peacemaker

Posted on April 13, 2025 by ptmadmin

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

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No, Putin and I are not friends

Posted on March 28, 2025 by ptmadmin

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

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The LDS Church and Immigration (podcast)

Posted on February 14, 2025 by ptmadmin

Greg Matsen and Paul Mero discuss immigration policy from an LDS perspective.

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You Cannot Make Up This Stuff

Posted on February 6, 2025 by ptmadmin

You cannot make up this stuff. While competing factions inside any organization can create confusion, a master class in confusion is playing out inside my church and my faith — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — over the strange bedfellows of homosexuality, peacemaking, and the U.S. Constitution.

At the center of this current confusion is the Wheatley Institute at Brigham Young University. Taking its cue from a decade of accommodation policies promoted by a powerful faction inside the church celebrating homosexuality, Wheatley has been handed the mantle to continue the promotion of gay rights under the guise of family, religion, and constitutional government… read more

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FLASHBACK 2007: The relentless fight for laissez-faire education in Utah.

Posted on January 27, 2025 by ptmadmin

In commemoration of City Weekly’s 40th anniversary, we are digging into our archives to celebrate. Each week, we FLASHBACK to a story or column from our past in honor of four decades of local alt-journalism. Whether the names and issues are familiar or new, we are grateful to have this unique newspaper to contain them all.

Title: Children as Cookies?
Author: Louis Godfrey
Date: Nov. 1, 2007

When Utah House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, recognized Rep. Brad Last during one tense moment in the 2007 Legislature, the typically bustling chamber fell dead silent. All eyes were fixed squarely on the St. George Republican. “I have great affection for public schools,” Last began, “and I have been struggling with this issue for years … but I have come to the conclusion that this is the right way to implement school choice.” read more

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Cox’s support for Trump’s immigration policies is imprudent

Posted on December 28, 2024 by ptmadmin

Earlier this month, Gov. Spencer Cox stated that he “remained committed” to the Utah Compact on Immigration, a document first released in 2010 and reaffirmed by state leaders in 2019. Cox said, “The principles of the Compact, I think, are still very important.” That is good news for Utah. The bad news is Cox’s support for President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for mass deportation.

Cox was not elected to the Utah House of Representatives until 2012, two legislative sessions after the Utah Compact was released followed by unprecedented support by former Gov. Gary Herbert and the conservative state Legislature for comprehensive state-based immigration reform. And despite his welcome support recently for the Utah Compact, I cannot seem to locate a moment when Cox actually signed the document — though I will happily stand corrected if wrong… read more

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Why this former ‘professional culture warrior’ believes the LDS Church should give up the fight

Posted on October 4, 2024 by ptmadmin

For decades, Latter-day Saint Paul Mero fought the good fight, as he sees it, as a “professional culture warrior,” first in Washington as a congressional aide in the 1980s and 1990s and later in Utah as the president of the conservative Sutherland Institute think tank from 2000 to 2014.

Immigration, education, liquor laws — Mero waged war in all these arenas but none for as long and as hard as the issue of LGBTQ rights and acceptance.