syreus

New York and Florida both have more international tourism. California is third followed by Nevada and Texas.

No. And his books are good.

He tithes and hopes those funds go toward the good things the church accomplishes.

He has a lot of explanation on his relationship with the church and his stance on not allowing his religion to negatively affect his writing.

He has consistently advocated for lesser know authors and fought against Amazon to improve conditions for them.

His books are full of LGBTQIA+, neurodiverse people, women passing the bechdel test, and irl cultural inspiration from around the world.

He actually hires people to consult on things like schizophrenia so he doesn't promote misinformation.

The thing you are asking him to do is abandon his community. Instead he works to better it from the inside. He is a lecturer at BYU and is directly exposed to the future leaders of that church. Let him cook.

So yeah I don't like his religion's track record but anyone who has investigated the guy can see he's a fair author and the criticism is hyperbole.

The Walton family lost the 50% line in 2018.

They still likely control the company in a more abstract sense.

To be fair. I don't hate China and it's clear you failed to back up your previous claim.

Religious intolerance by the state directly contributed to the staged and incremental reduction in that groups QOL.

For Americans, 1A protects religious speech even if it is a bit frustrating when you hear someone preaching in the street. I wouldn't hazard undermining 1A even though we are all tired of bad actors abusing it.(Westboro Baptist Church, Proud Boys, etc)

The only example you call out doesn't even ban religion. It's restricted in China and I think the Uyghur population there can explain that it's not sunshine and rainbows.

'China’s constitution says ordinary citizens enjoy “freedom of religious beliefs” and the government officially recognizes five religions: Buddhism, Catholicism, Islam, Protestantism and Daoism (also called Taoism). '

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/10/23/10-things-to-know-about-chinas-policies-on-religion/

This comment is a breath of fresh air in this doomer echo chamber. Somewhere along the line people stopped wanting to fix things and now the people we need to save this country are leaving in droves. We need to remain positive and organized.

Ok. I'll bite. What countries aside from North Korea ban organized religion?

I can appreciate its being monitored more closely. American churches have a significant untraceable cash trail.

That would be shortsighted. Religious though has been on the decline for centuries. Driving it underground and radicalizing it just empowers the bad actors.

Germany handles religion in a fine way. Kirchensteuer is a tax you pay directly out of your paycheck to your registered church. You can opt out of paying this tax by dropping your church registration. If this system was adopted in the US you would see far less people who identify as "religious".

I encourage you to get to work on the systemic issues outside your control so that in 50 years you won't feel guilty. By the numbers, Gen Z men are supporting right ring autocrats so I ponder if ignorance is a better excuse than apathy.

The crossover with Pro-choice is fairly significant.