I recall my father expressing mild regret on one or two occasions for having failed to accept an invitation to attend officer candidate school in the Army. He hadn’t intended a military career, and he didn’t want to commit to officer training because he didn’t plan to be in the service for very long. He spent time in the horse cavalry — such a thing still existed in those days — and he was stationed near the border of... Read more
A new article has appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “Why was the Liahona a Sphere? A New Perspective on Its Form and Function,” written by Wanless Southwick and Kyle Kinghorn Abstract: A new, simpler design for the Liahona is proposed, which, if correct, makes the reason for two spindles and a hollow-ball shape perfectly obvious. Previous proposed models of the Liahona usually show horizontal, compass-like pointers inside an open-top ball, but our model... Read more
Things are obviously becoming desperate at the nearly fossilized Interpreter Foundation. They’ve been obliged to resort, in their series of chapter reprints, to a reprint — and, in fact, to a reprint that comes from a distinctly sketchy author: Seek Ye Words of Wisdom: “A Great Leap Backwards: Where Matters Stand Now Regarding the Book of Mormon’s “Secret Combinations,” written by one Daniel C. Peterson: Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in Seek Ye... Read more
We did more interviewing today up at the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City. The interviews are for the Interpreter Foundation’s forthcoming series of short Becoming Brigham documentary videos. I was intending to be there, even though I wasn’t slated to do the actual interviewing today. In the end, though, I thought that I had better stay home and work on several projects that have fallen a bit behind with all of my recent travel. Today’s interviews were... Read more
I spent the morning in the boardroom of the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City, interviewing W. Paul Reeve for our Becoming Brigham series of short documentary features. Paul just stepped down as the chair of the Department of History at the University of Utah, where he holds the Simmons Chair of Mormon Studies. He is the author of, among other things, Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness (Oxford University Press, 2015),... Read more
My latest column for Meridian Magazine has appeared: “What Is FAIR? Inside the 2025 Conference on Latter-day Saint Apologetics” I hope that you can make it for all or part of the meetings, whether virtually or in person. Invite friends! Bring relatives! A fun time will be had by all. (Up until the final speaker, anyway.) I posted a passing comment here a few days ago in which, as I’ve done before, I wrote of the benefit of planting,... Read more
It seems appropriate to jot down some lines on my life history on a Sabbath day, so here’s a note toward my eventual autobiography (which — don’t worry! — I have no anticipation of ever publishing): Many years ago, I went down to Guatemala with a couple of others to look in on an archaeological dig that was being conducted by an expedition sponsored by Brigham Young University at a place called Piedras Negras. The site is located in... Read more
One of my recurring disappointments about our visits to Richmond is that, occupied as we always are with family matters (which, of course, is a very good thing), we’ve usually been unable to pay much attention to the astonishingly rich history here and about — both from the colonial and revolutionary era and from the Civil War, and also beyond those momentous times. Every time that we’ve driven down to Richmond from Washington DC, we’ve passed signs along the... Read more
This new article appeared just after noon today (Utah time) in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “Adam Clarke and Isaiah in the Book of Mormon,” written by Kent P. Jackson Abstract: A recent article alleges that in creating the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith copied Isaiah passages out of the Bible commentary of Scottish theologian Adam Clarke. The author of the article alleges that while doing so, the Prophet edited those passages based on suggestions... Read more
First of all, happy Pioneer Day! Or, if nothing else, happy Twenty-Fourth of July! It being Thursday, the Interpreter Foundation has just published another item in its reprint series, which — please recall — is distinct from its series of new journal articles, which always appear on Friday: Seek Ye Words of Wisdom: “The Lord Works from the Inside Out: “Cleanse the Inner Vessel,” written by Camille Fronk Olson: Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally... Read more
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