Michael Austin is a former English Professor who is now an academic administrator in Evansville, Indiana. He served a two-year, Spanish-speaking mission to the California Fresno mission from 1985-1987 before receiving degrees from BYU and the University of California at Santa Barbara. He is the author, most recently, of We Must Not Be Enemies: Restoring America’s Civic Tradition, Vardis Fisher: A Mormon Novelist, and the forthcoming book A Testimony of two Nations: How the Book of Mormon Reads, and Rereads the Bible. Michael and his wife Karen Austin are the parents of two children. They live in Newburgh, Indiana.
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By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog 
Elder Uchtdorf brought up the “It mattereth not” principle in his January talk to the single adults. It’s one of my favorite concepts and I’ve brought it up from time to time where it may matter. He extended it far further than I ever have (e.g., which major brand of beans to buy), extending it out to marriage and what jobs we choose. I decided to discuss this in my high priest group tomorrow. In researching for it I noticed your great post on it. If you haven’t seen the talk here’s a link to it. Keep up the great thinking and writing. https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/worldwide-devotionals/2018/01/the-adventure-of-mortality?lang=eng
Hi Michael. I spent a considerable amount of time delving into 2 NE 5:21 before I ran across your article “Seperation IS the Curse”. I must say, the scripture had me feeling some type of way. After asking for guidance from a local Bishop, he pointed me to: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/race-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng.
This explains the the scripture and the Church’s stance on it. I would love to have included this in the comments section on that article itself but I couldn’t figure out how to do that. Anyway, i hope this helps! (It did for me!)
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/dc-testament/od/2?lang=eng