March 20, 2016

“…Devine seems untroubled by Siedentop’s argument for identifying secular individualism with the essence of Christianity. The culture war between secular humanists and those who appeal to a divine standard of morality is a mere illusion. To avoid the distractions of the culture war, we have only to embrace the synthesis of Divine creative will and the pure and equal rights of humanity.” Well, Leo Strauss and I beg to differ… To read more of what I have to say, click... Read more

March 15, 2016

[This is another addition to our ongoing General Conference Odyssey — which project you can also check out via our facebook page. To learn a little about the reasons which motivated this project, you can visit this  article at Meridian Magazine.] Anyone looking for a paradigmatic example of what might be called the “Whig-LDS view of history” need look no further. It is here in Brother Alvin R. Dyer’s “The Last Dispensation.” The Whig view of history is a kind... Read more

March 8, 2016

[This is another addition to our ongoing General Conference Odyssey — which project you can also check out via our facebook page. To learn a little about the reasons which motivated this project, you can visit this  article at Meridian Magazine.] Pres. Joseph Fielding Smith very nicely summarizes the purpose of these General Conferences we are studying together: These conference sessions are solemn and sacred occasions on which we come together to wait upon the Lord, to seek his Spirit,... Read more

March 1, 2016

[This is another addition to our ongoing General Conference Odyssey — which project you can also check out via our facebook page. To learn a little about the reasons which motivated this project, you can visit this  article at Meridian Magazine.] Bruce R. McConkie raises the question, “How to Worship,” and answers it in a very practical vein: In other words, true and perfect worship consists in following in the steps of the Son of God; it consists in keeping... Read more

February 23, 2016

[This is another addition to our ongoing General Conference Odyssey — which project you can also check out via our facebook page. To learn a little about the reasons which motivated this project, you can visit this  article at Meridian Magazine.] John H. Vandenberg  (“Turn Heavenward Our Eyes”) gives me an irresistible excuse to tell one of my favorite family stories. Bishop Vandenberg recalls this experience: Some years ago I accepted an invitation to a fathers and sons outing, where... Read more

February 16, 2016

[This is another addition to our ongoing General Conference Odyssey — which project you can also check out via our facebook page. To learn a little about the reasons which motivated this project, you can visit this  article at Meridian Magazine.] Dallin H. Oaks was a brand new President of Brigham Young University when he addressed the Priesthood session of the October 1971 General Conference on the theme “Strive for Excellence.” This topic is red meat for me as a... Read more

February 9, 2016

[This is another addition to our ongoing General Conference Odyssey — which project you can also check out via our facebook page. To learn a little about the reasons which motivated this project, you can visit this  article at Meridian Magazine.] Among “Mormon apologist” friends we were recently discussing how best to avert or to respond to the famous “faith crises” that now seem to surround us — more than ever, or so we are told. (Our day surpasses the... Read more

February 2, 2016

J. Max Wilson tells it like it is, again: Among some vocal members of the church, there is a growing tendency to employ the phrase “mourn with those that mourn” as a rhetorical weapon.  This is especially evident among those dissident members who publicly oppose the church and want it to change its policies and doctrines. As a rhetorical trump card it is a remarkably effective way to shut down disagreement and opposition from those who venture to defend the church or its... Read more

February 2, 2016

[This is another addition to our ongoing General Conference Odyssey — which project you can also check out via our facebook page. To learn a little about the reasons which motivated this project, you can visit this recent article at Meridian Magazine.] Three talks in this session of conference (October 1971, Saturday Morning) emphasize the need for a Restoration of the fullness of the gospel. The need for such a Restoration is set against the evidence of a civilization that... Read more

January 30, 2016

Here  I comment on a new review by Daniel Mahoney of Pierre Manent’s latest book.  Mahoney provides a very valuable presentation of this work against the background of an admirably deft distillation of his career – a very nice statement in particular of what he owes (and doesn’t owe) to Raymond Aron and to Leo Strauss.  (This book will appear later this year from Saint Augustine Press as Beyond Radical Secularism: How France and the Christian West Should Respond to... Read more

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