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Standard of Truth

Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat

The purpose of this podcast is to help Latter-Day Saints better understand their history and increase their faith. The podcast hosted by Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat, associate professor of Church History and Doctrine at BYU.

  1. S3E11 Enumerated Rights for an Energetic Government

    3d ago • Subscribers Only

    S3E11 Enumerated Rights for an Energetic Government

    We begin with a discussion of why populous, divided states like Pennsylvania endured weeks of acrimonious debate (including suppressed newspapers and a delegates' boarding house surrounded by angry Philadelphia dock workers) while small neighbors like Delaware, New Jersey, and Georgia ratified unanimously, each for self-interested reasons, from Senate equality to protection against trade-taxing giants and frontier threats. The conversation digs into the core anti-Federalist objection (the missing Bill of Rights) and John Wilson's argument that enumerating rights actually endangers them, then turns to a lengthy reading of Thomas Jefferson's December 1787 letter to James Madison, where Jefferson praises the great-state/small-state compromise yet insists "a bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth" and warns that "I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive." Gerrit offered a nuanced LDS framing that the Constitution can be divinely inspired without being perfect, Joseph Smith himself lamented that it enumerated rights without compelling officials to protect them, and faithful members can honor an exceptional, hope-giving experiment in self-government while still acknowledging its flaws. 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.  Sweetwater Rescue Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sweetwaterrescue?utm_source=qr Sweetwater Rescue Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/18n8KBA9bz/?mibextid=wwXIfr Sign up for our free monthly email: ⁠ ⁠https://standardoftruthpodcast.substack.com⁠ If you have any questions or possible topics of discussion for upcoming podcasts, please email us at: ⁠⁠questions@standardoftruthpodcast.com

    1h 16m

  2. 6d ago

    S6E21 Declaration of Independence Part 2 (rerelease of premium CTRI)

    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. 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.    Sweetwater Rescue Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sweetwaterrescue?igsh=MTd6eHRteG9idzB6bA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr   Sweetwater Rescue Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/18n8KBA9bz/?mibextid=wwXIfr Sign up for our free monthly email: ⁠ ⁠https://standardoftruthpodcast.substack.com⁠ If you have any questions or possible topics of discussion for upcoming podcasts, please email us at: ⁠⁠questions@standardoftruthpodcast.com

    58 min
  3. S3E10 Conceived in Liberty Federalist Number 1

    May 24 • Subscribers Only

    S3E10 Conceived in Liberty Federalist Number 1

    After opening banter about Richard's son Parker's graduation and a French-Canadian plumber sharing Richard's name, Gerrit returns to a sore spot with Hamilton proposal for an elected monarch for life commanding a large standing army, a fact that lent real weight to Anti-Federalist fears. Gerrit maps the opposition geographically and personally, from Governor Clinton in New York to Elbridge Gerry in Massachusetts to the Virginia trio of Richard Henry Lee, George Mason, and Patrick Henry, and lands on the episode's central insight: the Federalists' tactics, rushing ratification, bypassing the existing Congress, firing newspaper editors who published opposition letters confirmed the very fears their critics already held, a dynamic that has not exactly disappeared from modern politics. The second half finally turns to the Federalist Papers, unpacking why Hamilton, Madison, and Jay wrote as "Publius", the Roman hero who destroyed the monarchy, surrendered power, and was still falsely accused of wanting to be king, and reading from Federalist No. 1, where Hamilton frames the American experiment as a test of whether humanity can establish good government "from reflection and choice," the same question Lincoln would echo at Gettysburg. 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.  Sweetwater Rescue Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sweetwaterrescue?igsh=MTd6eHRteG9idzB6bA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr Sweetwater Rescue Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/18n8KBA9bz/?mibextid=wwXIfr Sign up for our free monthly email: ⁠ ⁠https://standardoftruthpodcast.substack.com⁠ If you have any questions or possible topics of discussion for upcoming podcasts, please email us at: ⁠⁠questions@standardoftruthpodcast.com

    1h 6m

  4. May 21

    S6E20 Declaration of Independence Part 1 (rerelease of premium CTRI)

    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. 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.    Sweetwater Rescue Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sweetwaterrescue?igsh=MTd6eHRteG9idzB6bA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr   Sweetwater Rescue Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/18n8KBA9bz/?mibextid=wwXIfr Sign up for our free monthly email: ⁠ ⁠https://standardoftruthpodcast.substack.com⁠ If you have any questions or possible topics of discussion for upcoming podcasts, please email us at: ⁠⁠questions@standardoftruthpodcast.com

    59 min
  5. S3E9 Brutus, Montesquieu, and the Trouble with Big Republics

    May 17 • Subscribers Only

    S3E9 Brutus, Montesquieu, and the Trouble with Big Republics

    The episode centers on George Mason's 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights as the philosophical backbone of the eventual Bill of Rights, walking through its sixteen sections and tying each one to the British abuses the colonists had just lived through. From there, the conversation turns to the Anti-Federalist camp, examining how figures like Edmund Randolph, Luther Martin, and the pseudonymous "Brutus" drew on Montesquieu to argue that a republic spread across so vast a territory could only collapse into despotism, citing Athens and Rome as cautionary tales. 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. Sweetwater Rescue Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sweetwaterrescue?igsh=MTd6eHRteG9idzB6bA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr Sweetwater Rescue Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/18n8KBA9bz/?mibextid=wwXIfr Sign up for our free monthly email: ⁠ ⁠https://standardoftruthpodcast.substack.com⁠ If you have any questions or possible topics of discussion for upcoming podcasts, please email us at: ⁠⁠questions@standardoftruthpodcast.com

    1h 9m

  6. May 14

    S6E19 King Follett Sermon Part 2

    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. Sweetwater Rescue Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sweetwaterrescue?igsh=MTd6eHRteG9idzB6bA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr Sweetwater Rescue Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/18n8KBA9bz/?mibextid=wwXIfr Sign up for our free monthly email: ⁠ ⁠https://standardoftruthpodcast.substack.com⁠ If you have any questions or possible topics of discussion for upcoming podcasts, please email us at: ⁠⁠questions@standardoftruthpodcast.com

    1h 6m

  7. May 11 ·  Bonus

    S6B3 How Visiting LDS Historical Sites Can Strengthen Our Faith - Dr. Mark Ogletree

    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   Sign up for our free monthly email: ⁠ ⁠https://standardoftruthpodcast.substack.com⁠   If you have any questions or possible topics of discussion for upcoming podcasts, please email us at: ⁠⁠questions@standardoftruthpodcast.com

    47 min
  8. S3E8 Ben Franklin's Final Plea

    May 10 • Subscribers Only

    S3E8 Ben Franklin's Final Plea

    The centerpiece is Benjamin Franklin's closing speech at the Convention, read aloud by James Wilson, urging delegates to doubt their own infallibility and sacrifice personal objections for the public good, a plea echoed by Gouverneur Morris and Alexander Hamilton, who signed despite serious reservations because the alternative was anarchy. Gerrit maps the geography of opposition: New York as an Anti-Federalist hotbed, Rhode Island refusing even to send delegates, and rural Americans across every state distrusting a stronger central government. The intellectual heart of the episode is James Wilson's argument against a Bill of Rights, that enumerating rights wrongly implies government grants them rather than recognizing they come from God, which the hosts unpack as philosophically right but practically wrong, with a pointed discussion of why Latter-day Saints should fiercely guard First Amendment protections from threats on every side. The episode closes by introducing the pseudonymous Anti-Federalist writers Brutus and Cato, whose Roman pen names warned that ratification would turn the American republic into an empire. Sign up for our free monthly email: ⁠ ⁠https://standardoftruthpodcast.substack.com⁠ If you have any questions or possible topics of discussion for upcoming podcasts, please email us at: ⁠⁠questions@standardoftruthpodcast.com

    1h 11m
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Hosts & Guests

4.9
out of 5
990 Ratings

About

The purpose of this podcast is to help Latter-Day Saints better understand their history and increase their faith. The podcast hosted by Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat, associate professor of Church History and Doctrine at BYU.

Information

  • Creator
    Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    489
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2022 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Standard of Truth
  • Provider
    Standard of Truth Podcast

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