By Clarke D. Forsythe

The most controversial decision in recent Supreme Court history was not inevitable. New research from the personal papers and case files of the justices involved in Roe v. Wade reveal that the outcome, decided by Nixon appointee Harry Blackmun, was in some ways a fluke of history – a rare blend of misinformation, backroom politics, arbitrary logic, and incomplete jurisprudence.

In Abuse of Discretion, veteran attorney Clarke D. Forsythe examines the Justices’ case files, oral arguments, and personal papers to reveal how miscalculations made in 1971-72 yielded 40 years of turmoil in politics and public health. The 7-2 decision led to 50 million abortions, unleashed the horrors such as those found in Kermit Gosnell’s Philadelphia abortion clinic where fetuses were ripped from mothers’ wombs and killed with scissors, and created one of America’s most fiercely debated political issues, as evidenced by Wendy Davis’s recent filibuster of …

People are like an encyclopedia, filled with information but not often opened. Guida Ponte is a wonderful person I met on NBC’s “Today Show” several years ago. She was born in the Azores Islands and came to America to fulfill her dream of becoming a top chef. That she did when she became corporate chef for Legal Sea Foods, a wonderful chain of seafood restaurants in Boston.

For a big show like NBC’s “Today Show,” there is a rehearsal the night before for segments that have props in them. I had just finished my rehearsal and was heading for the elevator when a group, who had also been at the show rehearsals for their seafood segment, met up with me. Legal Sea Foods was to be featured on the show the next morning.

As we rode down in the elevator, the group asked me if I would like to …

All these choices.…

For years I’ve enjoyed dispensing advice on the radio. Just like leaning over the back fence to talk with a friendly neighbor, callers have asked me for help with just about every relationship question imaginable, and a few that I thought were unimaginable.

And I’ve noticed something. While there are many tough situations and desperate crises out there which definitely require assistance, there are a lot of questions that don’t. Sometimes we ask because we’re hoping for a different answer than the one we already know in our gut. And, often, we do the same thing when we pray.

One time a man called with the following predicament. Let’s call him Jason. Jason’s son had lost his job and Jason was thinking of bringing this grown son into the family business. Jason’s wife was really insistent, and Jason just wondered what I thought about the idea.

I told him not …

Read the complete story at the LDS Newsroom.

On a Thursday afternoon in Mexico City in July, emotions are close to the surface as Victor Manuel Guijarro Torrez and his wife drop off their son at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Mexico Missionary Training Center (MTC). Although they won’t see him for two years, the MTC is just where they want their son to be – a place where he will prepare to teach others about Jesus Christ and to help the needy. “We helped raise him with the hope that he would go on and fulfill his purpose as a missionary [to invite others to Christ],” Victor says.

Each week, hundreds of families across the globe repeat this farewell scene as their sons and daughters embark on an 18- to 24-month journey as Mormon missionaries – a global force now numbering a record-high of more …

David and BonnieI guess we must have still been feeling an empty spot in our hearts from the death of our newborn son when a woman came to our door one morning asking if we would be willing to take two little children into our home who had just witnessed their father shooting and killing their mother (her sister). We didn’t hesitate; who would? We asked if this would be a temporary or a permanent arrangement and she felt sure it would be permanent. Bonnie (3) and David (7) were beautiful children who were obviously traumatized. Our parental instincts instantly kicked in and they were soon part of our family. We and our four young children did all we could during the next year to help them heal and be happy again and they made great strides. We made inquiries that year about officially adopting them and were devastated …

Read the entire article here.

The central incident of rebaptism in the history of the Church is the rebaptism of Brigham Young and his fellow apostles in the Salt Lake Valley on 6 August 1847. Chronicles of that event left the impression that this was the first occasion in Mormonism where rebaptism for renewal of covenants was practiced. The one author who initially acknowledged that the practice of rebaptism exited during the lifetime of Joseph Smith, also limited that practice to two functions: (1) those who were baptized for remission of sins prior to 1830 and who were rebaptized as members of the Church once it was organized on 6 April 1830, and (2) “some members of the Church who were in transgression were again baptized, without first having lost their membership by excommunication.”

Other scholars though have noted that:

“For many years [in the nineteenth century] it had …

Dennis Weaver is the president of The Prepared Pantry.

Sometimes my great ideas aren’t so great.                                            

I love baking in a skillet.  It gives me another pan to go to.  When I bake cornbread, the heavy skillet keeps the cornbread warm.  I bake apple pies, coffeecakes, and crumb cakes in skillets.  They’re cute in a skillet.

I had never baked peach pies in skillets.  Why not?                                      

I gave Kelli Tracy in our test kitchen a recipe and instructions to bake peach pies in our eight, nine, and eleven-inch skillets.  Nice plan.

We couldn’t find our dark nine-inch skillet.  So I asked Kelli to bake it in a nine-inch silver clad skillet.  I knew that a silver pan was going to be a problem; silver pans make for soggy bottom pies.  I tried to ignore that, “Just put aluminum foil over the top and bake it for an extra ten …

I had been visiting Buster and helping him on his computer. When I finished, he asked me if I would be interested in some old hamburger he had in his freezer. “It wouldn’t be any good to eat. You’d have to feed it to your dog.”

I figured our dog would like a change from dry dog food, so we made our way out to Buster’s garage where his freezer was. When he opened it, I was shocked to see a bird there that, at that time, was on the endangered species list.

I gasped. “Buster, what in the world are you doing with that in your freezer?!”

“I found it. It was underneath a power line. Apparently it died of electrocution.”

“What is it doing in your freezer? You can’t have that!”

“But I didn’t kill it. I just found it. It was already dead.”

I explained to him …

Ashby D. Boyle II is the president of George Wythe University.

I. Mormon Ethics: Suddenly, Now a Topic of Interest within the Academy’s Sacred Groves

Non-Mormon scholars in, for example, Ivy League Departments of Religious Studies such as Yale University’s have turned to both accepting Mormonism as an object of study and asking the questions of genuine investigators, in their own native tongue. A paternalistic scholarly indifference has changed to respectful curiosity with a demand for answers.

What accounts for this change of heart?

I can only attempt a brief explanation. As a Jewish scholar at Columbia explained to me, as the Church is seen by religious intellectuals as a social power — a trend that relates to last year’s U.S. Presidential election– the Church and our scriptures are taken seriously as scripture. Within these sectors of the Academy, the Mormon Moment’ is enduring.

Why this matters is because our …