Here in Kirtland, there is a major presence of what was long called the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints but is now known as Community of Christ.   In my experience with members of this church, I’ve found them to be kind and friendly.   Today, from the visitor’s center that they maintain adjacent to the Kirtland Temple (which they own), I acquired several small brochures explaining their beliefs.  (I acquired the same brochures... Read more

    This happened before last night’s “debate”:   http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/25/media/newspapers-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-lies/index.html   Posted from Mentor, Ohio     Read more

    http://religionnews.com/2016/09/20/man-who-led-police-to-bombing-suspect-is-an-immigrant-too/   Some may recall the case of Balbir Singh Sodhi, the Sikh-American gas station owner who was murdered by an anti-immigration “patriot” in Mesa, Arizona, on 15 September 2001 as retaliation for the 9-11 terrorist attacks.  Sikhs, of course, aren’t Muslims at all.  And they’re Indians, not Arabs.  These distinctions, though, were lost on the man who shot him.   Posted from Mentor, Ohio     Read more

    “Oh,” Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) famously wrote, “East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.”   He may have been wrong:   http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/chinese-skeleton-discovery-roman-history-society-southwark-cemetery-asian-remains-a7330666.html   Posted from Mentor, Ohio     Read more

    I’m simply not interested.  I see little reason to choose between the wooden and corrupt woman and the thoughtless, ignorant, but authoritarian buffoon, given the fact that neither one cares a bit about limited government or the Constitution and that neither of them has much if anything to say about freedom.   So I enjoyed Jason Bourne last night.   In between bouts of filming here, though, I’ve looked at a bit of commentary.   I’m not a... Read more

    Some of you may be wondering what on earth I’m doing here in Ohio.  (My more unhinged critics will be eager to find in my presence here redundant further evidence of my corruption, viciousness, and dishonesty.  Or something of that sort.)   Permit me to explain what I’m up to.   I’m here in the Kirtland area for a new Interpreter Foundation movie project.  (Our previous effort, on the late Mormon composer and former Tabernacle organist Robert Cundick,... Read more

    I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least. Dorothy Day (1897-1980)   Posted from Mentor, Ohio     Read more

    A quite short but also quite interesting little piece:   http://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/how-old-is-the-bible   Please, as you read it, keep the fact in mind that Joseph Smith’s claim of a sacred book written on metal plates has seemed absurd to many.  Now note the material on which the oldest known biblical text was written.   Posted from Mentor, Ohio     Read more

    Timothy Keller is an interesting thinker, and he’s been extraordinarily successful in building up a congregation of people in New York City who had previously been living ostensibly secular lives.  I think there’s much to be learned from him:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865663048/Prominent-theologian-says-secularism-not-religion-is-set-to-decline.html   Posted from Mentor, Ohio     Read more

    In 2013, my friend and former Maxwell Institute colleague Dr. John Gee — who is currently enjoying a sabbatical research leave at the University of Heidelberg in Germany — published a fascinating article comparing the patriarch Abraham, as he’s depicted in the Book of Abraham, with Idrimi, an ancient ruler of Alalakh, in Syria, who was a near contemporary of the patriarch:   http://publications.mi.byu.edu/publications/jbms/22/3Gee.pdf   Robert Boylan reminded me of it today with a post on his excellent... Read more