“Don’t allow your tongue to utter the fault of another person, because you are covered in faults and everyone else has tongues, too. Don’t allow your eyes to fall on the faults of others. Turn your eyes away and say to your eyes, ‘Oh eyes, other people have eyes too.’” Imam al-Shafi‘i       Read more

    It’s time to get back on track with my little commentary on the Book of Mormon.   In earlier entries on Alma 54 and Alma 60, I’ve commented on the Nephite military commander Moroni’s “spirited nature,” which makes him a wonderful warrior but perhaps a less than optimal diplomat.   We see a quite different personality in the Nephite chief governor Pahoran, a politician rather than a military man, as he appears in Alma 61.   Notice, for... Read more

    In the region of the ex-Mormon web that I watch, I’m seeing fierce disapproval of the humanitarian efforts of the Church.  The occasion for what seems to be a recent spike in such denunciations is the massive clean-up effort mounted by the Church in the wake of flooding in Louisiana.   The Church doesn’t do enough, say the critics.   Its volunteers typically wear yellow vests or tee shirts saying “Mormon Helping Hands,” which, the critics say, shows that... Read more

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obama-muslim-federal-judge_us_57cf2cfbe4b03d2d45970d3a   I know nothing about Abid Riaz Qureshi.  In terms of sheer legal credentials, though, he seems quite well qualified:   https://www.lw.com/people/abid-qureshi     Read more

    “We were born to die and we die to live.  As seedlings of God, we barely blossom on earth; we fully flower in heaven.” President Russell M. Nelson   I attended a wonderful funeral yesterday, honoring a friend whom, I now realize, I’ve known for very nearly half of my life.  She was one of the finest people I’ve ever met, and her unexpected and premature departure leaves a vast hole in our neighborhood.  The quotation from President Nelson above was... Read more

    The Economist reports on a new kind of “space race” that I would not have expected even a few years ago:   http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2016/09/faith-space   Famously, it’s often been claimed that Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968), the first man in space, said after his historic flight of April 1961,  “I looked and looked and looked, but I didn’t see God.”   However, he very likely didn’t say those words.  They probably originated with Nikita Khrushchev, who was, at the time, the ruler of... Read more

    I didn’t really finish my entries from Norway, because I ran into both time constraints and, out in the countryside, limited internet access.     But I did want to record what always thrills me most about my trips to Norway, when I can get to it.  (I’ve now been there five times, I think.)   This was my fourth visit to the area of Jølster (or Jølstravatnet), where my grandmother grew up.  She left at the age of eighteen... Read more

    Inevitably, critics of everything Mormon are attacking the Church’s Mormon Helping Hands projects.   “Too self-promoting,” they say.  “All those icky yellow shirts,” they cry.   Well, here’s an interesting website on some of the Church’s humanitarian undertakings:   https://www.ldscharities.org   “I’ll have nothing to do with such things,” vows one critic.   And, since he’s inactive and hostile to the Church, he presumably won’t.   Now perhaps he’s doing even better things on his own, or through... Read more

    An amusing spoof regarding an issue on which I’ve previously posted, here and here.     Read more

    In the 178th scripture roundtable posted by the Interpreter Foundation, Martin Tanner and Bruce Webster discuss Helaman 6-12.   These chapters are the focus of 2016 Gospel Doctrine lesson 34.   Scripture Roundtable 178: Book of Mormon Gospel Doctrine Lesson 34, How Could You Have Forgotten Your God?       Read more