Author Archives: ptmadmin

For approximately 14 years, I was president and CEO of Sutherland Institute, a state-based think tank located in Salt Lake City. I was fired from my position on August 15, 2014. Within a month of my firing, my presence on the Institute’s website was “bleached,” scrubbed from existence. The same thing happened to my presence on the website of the World Congress of Families with which I was associated during that time and which Sutherland was planning to host in 2015.

Why?

Petty colleagues. Perhaps a dog whistle from Temple Square looking to flip-flop on gay rights and, subsequently, same-sex marriage – Sutherland leftovers wanting to bend the knee and follow the 180-degree change on those issues. read more

Where the Bodies are Buried.

The Ugly Underbelly of “Peacemaking” is a narrative about how prominent Latter-day Saints have used their authority and stature to compromise, or accommodate, on gay rights and same-sex marriage. This narrative is true.

Part 1 dived into the evolution of Dallin H. Oaks (i.e., President Oaks) from a contender for religious freedom to accepting trade-offs through compromise and accommodation for gay rights and same-sex marriage – specifically through his rigorous defense of the 2015 “Utah Compromise” and the 2022 federal legislation, the Respect of Marriage Act. This new view of these rights has grown to a full-throated campaign from President Oaks. He has named this campaign to compromise on and accommodate gay rights and same-sex marriage, “Fairness for All.” The concept of his campaign is simple: Rights of religious freedom should not be a zero-sum game – they must be shared with gay rights and same-sex marriage. read more

The Constitution has nothing to do with compromise. It has everything to do with order.

The United States Constitution created endless opportunities for interpretations and legal opinions. But what is not open for debate is the history of America immediately preceding the Constitution and culminating first in the Declaration of Independence. That history is clear.

The establishment of the United States and the crafting of its founding documents was about creating a familiar order and nothing else. A new America required a familiar order of government – built upon many of the ideas of the old order the colonists left behind. read more

Something happened to Dallin H. Oaks between October 8, 2013 and April 16, 2014. On October 8, 2013, then-Elder Oaks attended a Sutherland Institute dinner and presentation at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. In attendance was another apostle and dozens of Utah A-listers all gathered to hear a presentation about how Utah could avoid gay rights and same-sex marriage.

The gist of the presentation was that, in Utah, religious freedom beats gay rights every time and that gay rights diminish religious freedom every time. Elder Oaks was exuberant over the presentation and stayed after the event for another 45 minutes sharing his excitement. read more

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