The mantra of most investigative methods is: follow the money. Economics purports to be the science of human decision-making, and sheds powerful explanatory light on many individual and group motivations. A passing mention of communal living in the early days of the Restoration of the Church is given in the PBS special, but the opposition of the Church's neighbors to the Church is more commonly couched in terms of irreconcilable theological differences. To my way of thinking, relegating the socio-economic to the background and foregrounding religious motivations for opposition to the church is entirely cart-before-the-horse. I grew up in an area of Canada where Hutterite colonies were fairly common. The Hutterites are a branch of Mennonite Protestants similar in religious and social philosophy and practice to the Amish of Eastern Pennsylvania. They dress in plain clothing they sew themselves in 19th Century styles and patterns. They limit their contact with non-believers, and consu...
Candid evaluation of assumptions as well as musings on consequences of political, religious, moral, scientific, linguistic and literary truths and pretensions thereto. Dissecting representations, critiquing arguments, discussing liberty, equality, justice, faith, values, facts, and the principles and institutions that make them all possible.