Religion – Page 4 – The Righteous Cause

The Celestial Divide: LDS Theology, LGBTQ Identity, and the Search for Belonging

Posted on April 12, 2026 by Dennis Robbins

Image: An AI-generated image captures the visible sign and the invisible wall: A young man in worn-out sneakers and casual clothes sits in somber isolation on a bench under a “VISITORS WELCOME” sign, a stark contrast to the impeccably dressed and happy congregation walking past him. He feels the heavy burden of loneliness and the…

He Is Risen: The Resurrection That Changes Everything

Posted on April 6, 2026April 8, 2026 by Dennis Robbins

Delivered by Pastor David Jerome | East Valley International Church | Gilbert, Arizona Easter Sunday, April 5, 2026 He Is Not Here: The Resurrection That Changes Everything The stone was rolled away. The tomb was empty. And nothing — not death, not doubt, not the weight of human sin — would ever be the same…

God on the Clock: How the Mormon Church Manages Worship Down to the Minute.

Posted on March 31, 2026 by Dennis Robbins

Image: An AI-generated image imagines a large heavenly hand emerging from the clouds holding a stopwatch, and below a group of people gathered outside a local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, looking up expectantly. The Unparalleled Organizational Architecture of LDS Sunday Worship — A Comparative Theological Inquiry Introduction: A Revelation Arrives with a…

Holy Fire to Social Justice: How Methodism Traded Its Gospel for a Cause

Posted on March 30, 2026March 30, 2026 by Dennis Robbins

Image: An AI-generated, photo-realistic reimagined image depicting John Wesley preaching at an open-air meeting, the Anglican reformer who helped launch a network of small groups known as the Connexion in the early to mid-18th century. These groups emphasized disciplined study, mutual accountability, and an orderly pattern of Christian life. Because of their highly methodical habits,…

Restoration or Appropriation? How Mormonism Borrows Its Bible, Its Art, and Its Credibility from “Apostate” Churches

Posted on March 28, 2026June 14, 2026 by Dennis Robbins

The LDS Church claims to be the only true restoration of Christianity, Yet it can’t stop borrowing from the very traditions it condemns. Image: Side‑by‑side, it’s hard to miss! If this is a uniquely “restored” church, why does its official emblem look like a line‑drawing photocopy of a 19th‑century Lutheran statue? When your restored church…

The Faith That Built the West: Refuting the War on Religious Conviction

Posted on March 23, 2026 by Dennis Robbins

When Doubt Becomes Dogma: A Response to Matthew Syed’s “We Should Put Less Faith in Religion and More in the Power of Doubt” Introduction: When Doubt Becomes Its Own Certainty Columnists who write about religion and politics rarely lack confidence. British sports columnist Matthew Syed is no exception. In a recent Sunday Times essay, he…

Joey Sampaga Sermon: A Certain Cure for Hypocrisy, Luke 12:1-12

Posted on March 22, 2026April 13, 2026 by Dennis Robbins

Delivered by Pastor Joey | East Valley International Church | Gilbert, Arizona Text: Luke 12:1–12 (ESV) In this sermon delivered at East Valley International Church in Gilbert, Arizona, Pastor Joey draws from Luke 12:1–12 to expose hypocrisy as the most dangerous spiritual pathology facing the contemporary church — more threatening, Jesus warns his disciples, than…

LDS Facebook Ad: Poor design, Typographic Dissonance, Inappropriate Styling Effects, and a Lack of Contextual Harmony

Posted on March 20, 2026March 20, 2026 by Dennis Robbins

Google Gemini responds to my prompt: “From a modern ‘best use’ perspective, explain why the fonts for this church ad on Facebook are dated and represent a contextually inappropriate typeface choice, making this design feel amateurish, unprofessional, and reminiscent of the 90s/early 2000s.” You have a great eye for design, and your assessment is spot-on….

Of Spires and Spreadsheets: The LDS Church’s Corporate Empire and the Gospel of Accumulation

Posted on March 20, 2026March 27, 2026 by Dennis Robbins

The Mormon Church’s $293 Billion Empire and The Question Nobody at Temple Square Wants to Answer An Investigative Exposé from a Traditional Christian Perspective Section One: Earthly Arms Hotel The majesty. The spectacle. The real estate footprint. Everything is over the top. Introducing the Mormon Church — formally known as The Church of Jesus Christ…

It’s All in the Family: Nepotism and the Mormon Hierarchy

Posted on March 13, 2026 by Dennis Robbins

Nepotism, Family Networks, and the Question of Divine Calling in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints A Theological and Historical Analysis Introduction: The Family at the Top of the Kingdom Imagine attending a large corporate shareholder meeting, only to discover that nearly every seat at the executive table is occupied by a member…

2 Corinthians 11:13-15: For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

Romans 3:20-24: For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

Email: dennis@novus2.com

The LDS Word of Wisdom: A Revelation Examined from a Traditional Christian Perspective
The Revelation That Wasn’t a Commandment: How a Cup of Coffee Came to Guard the Gates of Mormon Heaven “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” — 1 Peter 3:15 ❦ ❦ […]
Render Unto Whom? Tithing, Trust, and the $300-Billion Question in Latter-day Saint Stewardship
LDS Vs Traditional Christianity – A study in comparative theology ❦ ❧ ❦ Introduction: A Tenth, a Temple, and a Trillion Dollars Few subjects reveal the distance between traditional Christianity and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as sharply as the doctrine of tithing. On the […]
The Silence of Infinite Spaces: The Vast Universe, the Infinite God, and the Limits of Human Knowing
A Philosophical and Theological Essay ❦ ❖ ❦ I. The Terror and the Question More than three centuries ago, the mathematician and Christian apologist Blaise Pascal set down a confession that has haunted every thoughtful reader since: the eternal silence of the infinite spaces frightened him. He was […]
Reading the Rocks, Reading the Heavens: The Case for a Young Earth and the Logic of a Creator
The Argument for God That Even Skeptics Take Seriously ❧ ————— ❧ ————— ❧ Introduction: A Question Written in Stone Stand at the rim of the Grand Canyon at first light, and you are looking at a question rather than merely a landscape. A mile of stratified rock falls away beneath your feet — […]
The Graveyard of Third Parties—and Why Tucker Carlson Is Walking Into It
This Third-Party Gambit Runs Aground on American Political Arithmetic ❧ ✦ ❧ On the first day of July 2026, from a taxidermy-cluttered barn in the Maine woods, Tucker Carlson announced that he intended to break the American political system in two. Speaking to the Columbia Journalism Review, the […]
Born of the Soil, or Born of Consent? Why Birthright Citizenship for the Children of Illegal Aliens Departs from the Constitution’s Origins
Why Birthright Citizenship Rests on a Feudal Mistake ❖ ❖ ❖ Introduction: A Question the Founders Never Answered — Because We Never Asked It Rightly On June 30, 2026 — in the two hundred and fiftieth year of American independence — the Supreme Court of the United States handed down its decision in […]
How the Justice Department Turned to “Birth Tourism” After Losing at the Supreme Court
26,000 Babies and a Booming Industry: The Real Scale of Birth Tourism A Standalone Companion to “Born of the Soil, or Born of Consent?” ❖ ❖ ❖ The Morning After: A Loss at the Court, a New Front at the Department The ink on the Supreme Court’s decision was scarcely dry. On the morning of June […]
No Master but Duty: The Improbable Life of Bass Reeves, the Man Who Rode the Indian Territory
Image: Enhanced and colorized photo from the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Photograph by E.L.Goff. (Public Domain). He Could Not Read His Warrants — and He Never Got the Wrong Man ❦ ❖ ❦ Prologue: A Tramp on the Red River Road On a worn road […]
Masters of the Arizona Desert: The Hohokam and the Thousand-Year Garden They Carved from the Sonoran Sand
A storytelling history of the desert farmers who built the largest irrigation network in ancient North America — and of the descendants who never truly left. circa 200 – 1450 A.D. ❖ ◆ ❖ The City That Rose From Ashes In the winter of 1867, a Confederate veteran and sometime prospector named Jack […]
Custer’s ‘Lone Survivor’ and Other Tall Tales: Who Was Arizona Bill?
The Tangled Life and Tall Tales of Raymond Hatfield Gardner — “Arizona Bill” (1845–1940) ❖ ————❖———— ❖ On a gray winter morning in 1940, an old man lay dying in the charity ward of a San Antonio hospital. He had no money, no verifiable family, and, the Army insisted, no record of ever having […]
Where the Desert Comes to Life: Inside Life Time Ocotillo — Gilbert, Arizona’s New Athletic Country Club
More Than a Gym: How Life Time Ocotillo Is Redefining Wellness in the Southeast Valley ❖ ❖ ❖ There is a particular hour in the Sonoran Desert when the heat finally breaks. The sun slides west behind the San Tan Mountains, the saguaros throw long shadows across the gravel, and the whole valley […]
The Woman Who Wore the Star: America’s First Female Marshal
The Improbable Life of Phoebe Couzins — Lawyer, Lawwoman, and the West’s Unlikeliest Pioneer 1842 – 1913 ❦ ❖ ❦ A Star Pinned to a Silent Blouse On a raw December morning in 1913, six mourners gathered at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis to bury a woman the nation had once strained to hear. […]
Death in Tunnel 13: The DeAutremont Brothers and the Birth of American Forensic Science
Image: Wanted poster, distributed June 1, 1924. Courtesy Southern Oregon Historical Society 1988.11-8.5, MS 672 (via Smithsonian) A Narrative History of the West’s Last Great Train Robbery ❖ ❖ ❖ On the morning of October 11, 1923, engineer Sidney Bates had exactly one day of work left in him. […]
FROM A PUSHCART BY THE TRACKS: The Improbable Rise of Dutch Bros Coffee
A Narrative History of Brotherhood, Loss, and a Coffee Empire Built on Kindness The railroad tracks ran through downtown Grants Pass like a seam stitched into the floor of southern Oregon, and on a gray morning in 1992, two brothers wheeled a pushcart up beside them and waited to see whether anyone […]
THE LAW WEST OF THE PECOS: Judge Roy Bean and the Strange Equity of the Frontier
The True Story of the Hanging Judge Who Never Hanged Anyone A Saloon on the Edge of the Map Picture the place first, because the place explains the man. Three hundred miles of the Chihuahuan Desert lie between San Antonio and El Paso, and somewhere out in the middle of that emptiness, the Pecos […]
The Long Roll Call of Liberty: A 250-Year Narrative of American Freedom
An American Journey Through Liberty ❖ ❖ ❖ Introduction: A Republic Still Being Written On the reverse of the parchment Declaration of Independence, in a plain clerk’s hand, someone wrote a single docket line so the document could be identified when it was rolled up for storage: “Original […]
The Gospel of the Gun: John Wesley Hardin and the Myth of the Frontier Shootist
The True Story of John Wesley Hardin: A Narrative History (1853 ~ 1895) ✦ ✦ ✦ A Preacher’s Son in a Burning Land He was named for a man who spent his life trying to save souls, and he spent his own taking lives. The irony was not lost on the people of Texas, and it would not be lost on the […]
Born to Save the World: Tom Cruise, Scientology, and the Smile That Sells
Stardom, Faith, and the Price of the Hero Myth ❖ ❖ ❖ Introduction: The Man Who Refused to Fall On a warm August evening in 2024, a sixty-two-year-old man leapt from the roof of the Stade de France, abseiled into a packed Olympic stadium, took an American flag from a gymnast and a mayor, and rode […]
Chick Corea, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Long Argument Between Belief and Art
Between the Keys and the Cosmos Prelude: A Child at the Piano When Armando Anthony Corea first sat down at the piano, he was four years old, and the instrument had been set before him by his father, a Boston trumpeter who led a Dixieland band in the 1930s and 1940s. That domestic scene—an […]
Joey Sampaga: The Courageous Compassion of Christ, Luke 13:31-35
Delivered by Pastor Joey | East Valley International Church | Gilbert, Arizona Text: Luke 13:31-35 (ESV) Abstract and summary of the pastor’s sermon: The Courageous Compassion of Christ — Luke 13:31-35 This sermon on Luke 13:31–35 casts Jesus as utterly ungovernable by human threats and […]
Letters To A Mormon Elder: Chapter 8
Letter 8 — The Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham Vision Letters To A Mormon Elder by James R. White Thursday, July 5 Dear Elder Hahn, I received your note yesterday morning. I have considered just how to respond, and feel that I should indeed continue on and address the topic of the Book […]
EVIC Sunday School – Lesson 4: How the Bible Was Made and Preserved
Lesson 4 The Incredible Cost of Preservation of the Bible Introduction and Purpose of the Study Our study is a six-week informational series intended to strengthen the class’s confidence in the Bible as God’s Word before transitioning to a longer “real-life discipleship” […]
EVIC Sunday School – Lesson 5: How the Bible Was Made and Preserved
Lesson 5 The Dramatic Journey of the Bible to Modern Believers Introduction and Purpose of the Study Our study series has been to strengthen the class’s confidence in the Bible as God’s Word before transitioning to a longer “real-life discipleship” study. The aim is not deep […]
“Ye Shall Be as Gods”: The Serpent’s Promise as the Blueprint of LDS Cosmology
The Garden’s Oldest Whisper: How LDS Cosmology Repackages Genesis 3:5 ❦ ❦ ❦ I. The Architecture of an Older Whisper Of all the doctrines a religion must defend, the doctrine of God is the one upon which everything else turns. As Latter-day Saint Apostle Dallin H. Oaks once told an audience at […]
Restoration or Appropriation? How Mormonism Borrows Its Bible, Its Art, and Its Credibility from “Apostate” Churches
The LDS Church claims to be the only true restoration of Christianity, Yet it can’t stop borrowing from the very traditions it condemns. Image: Side‑by‑side, it’s hard to miss! If this is a uniquely “restored” church, why does its official emblem look like a line‑drawing photocopy of a […]