Standard of Truth

This is a rereleased episode from season 1 of Condemned to Repeat It. In this episode, we work through the grievances section of the Declaration of Independence, unpacking how Jefferson methodically built his case against King George III. Gerrit shows how each charge, dissolving colonial legislatures, making judges beholden to the Crown, quartering standing armies, employing Hessian mercenaries, cutting off colonial trade, and asserting the power "to legislate in all cases whatsoever" directly echoes earlier acts of Parliament and the king, with Jefferson cleverly turning the Crown's own language back against it. 

The episode closes with a thoughtful reflection on the Declaration's enduring legacy: while Jefferson and many signers were themselves slaveholders, the document's assertion that all are created equal and endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights became the very foundation later generations would invoke to dismantle slavery, expand suffrage, and pursue civil rights, proof that, as Lincoln understood at Gettysburg, the arc of history bends slowly but inevitably toward the truths the founders dared to declare.

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This is a rereleased episode from season 1 of Condemned to Repeat It. In this episode, we set the stage for the Declaration of Independence by exploring the deep English political and intellectual history Jefferson drew upon when he sat down to write it. Far from being a spontaneous act of rebellion, the Declaration was the latest entry in a long English tradition of publicly justifying political action, with clear roots in the 1689 Declaration of Right that deposed King James II and the Virginia Declaration of Rights drafted just weeks earlier in June 1776. 

Gerrit walks through the political climate of the Continental Congress, where moderates, realists, and outright loyalists still outnumbered firebrands like John and Samuel Adams, and explains how Richard Henry Lee's June resolution for independence prompted a committee, led by Jefferson, to draft an explanation rather than the act of independence itself. 

The episode traces how Jefferson's opening lines about self-evident truths, equality, and unalienable rights radically inverted centuries of monarchical assumption: rights no longer flowed downward from kings as gracious gifts, but upward from a Creator to the people, who in turn loaned legitimate power to government. The hosts close on a cliffhanger as Jefferson pivots from preamble to grievances, leaving Richard, ever the loyalist sympathizer, still firmly on the side of the Crown.

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In this episode, we finally depart into the King Follett Sermon. Most podcast would start with a part one but here soon the truth podcast we would like to start with a Part 2 and then play a part one three weeks from now it was recorded 4 1/2 years ago. Gerrit discusses some of the problems that Christians see with the implications of this sermon and Gerrit reads from one of the accounts.

We also read an email where a litner shared their feelings about helping people get to the temple. If you would like to follow what Sweetwater rescue is doing, specifically our most recent trip to Nairobi Kenya please follow us on Instagram or Facebook.

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Mark sits down with renowned church historian Gerrit Dirkmaat to discuss powerful experiences they have had visiting church history sites, and that others have had in the groups they have lead through these places. Mark and Gerrit explain why visiting these sites can have such a deep effect on our faith, testimonies, and sense of belonging to the church.

 

Perserving Families Podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/preserving-families-podcast/id1654226536

 

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In this episode, we tackle the question of why early Utah Saints embraced cooperative economics like the United Order. Gerrit digs into a 1866–67 Inspector General's report submitted to Congress by Generals Ruesling and Hazen. The document characterizes Latter-day Saints as "open and avowed foes" of the United States, recommends banning Mormons from government contracts, and bizarrely treats the fact that Mormon contractors underbid Gentile competitors as evidence of disloyalty rather than fiscal responsibility.

 

They close with the Articles of Agreement from the St. George United Order, a digression on the gold standard, and a ranking of the worst Google-reviewed presidential homes (with John Tyler's Sherwood Forest taking the crown thanks largely to ill-tempered family dogs).

 

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