We’re finishing The God Who Weeps by Terryl Givens and Fiona Givens. This is the first book in a trilogy of Mormon theology and we want to leave room in the year to get through it all. What does today hold for us? We start with a long discussion on the pre-mortal existence, transitioning into existence, then ascending to perfection thanks to Mormon beliefs. We didn’t realize until pretty late in the project that the 5 chapters of the book are structured around the different stages of the Mormon Plan of Salvation (PoS), but it become clear pretty early on in our discussion. All told, the book is a marker of modern orthodox Mormon belief: pray, pay, and obey. They even have an ultra-conservative take on abortion that makes the official stance of the church seem like bleeding-heart liberals in comparison. Then we talk about The Meaning of Life, a Monty Python movie from 1983 that has a much more healthy way of looking at the random cosmic soup that led to human existence. We wrap with some happy news about the success of a slightly higher tax in Massachusetts that raised a bunch of money for all the things for which taxes are used. We round out by going through some delightful listener mail from the April Fools episode!

 

MOGP: 

Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life

 

Happy News: 

https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/04/28/massachusetts-millionaires-tax-institute-policy-studies-newsletter

 

Other appearances: Chris Shelton interviewed us in the beginning of a series on Mormonism. Here’s the most recent episode on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDxjD7ucajI

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