“Without any of those contracted feelings”

The latest installment of my now bi-weekly column in the Deseret News has appeared.  I’m actually a bit late in calling attention to it — which I regret, because it’s slightly time-sensitive.  But life interferes, sometimes.  Anyway, here’s a link:

“A feast to learn about the Restoration”

I hope that you can make it.

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This has, perhaps, not been an especially good day for partisans of the Heartland model of Book of Mormon geography:

“How Are Oliver Cowdery’s Messenger and Advocate Letters to Be Understood and Used?”

“Seven Reasons Why Letter VII Is Not A Heartlander Silver Bullet”

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A nice article:

“When Lehi Left Jerusalem: 605 B.C.? A Plausible Hypothesis from Jeff Chadwick”

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You might enjoy this interview, which is available via the website of the Interpreter Foundation:

“Wisdom Literature,” with Dan Belnap

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Some might enjoy this item, too.  It’s from CBS News:

“The Killers’ Brandon Flowers: Swagger and faith”

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And some might benefit from this recorded interview:

“Tough Questions about Mormon Polygamy – Brian and Laura Hales”

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The back story behind an important new development:

“Inside the collaboration between the LDS Church and NAACP”

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And one historian’s take on Mormonism and immigration:

“How the Mormon church’s past shapes its position on immigration today”

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I close with one of my all-time favorite quotations from the Prophet Joseph Smith, followed by another one from him in a similar vein:

“While one portion of the human race is judging and condemning the other without mercy, the Great Parent of the universe looks upon the whole of the human family with a fatherly care and paternal regard; He views them as His offspring, and without any of those contracted feelings that influence the children of men, causes ‘His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.’ [Matthew 5:45.]”  (History of the Church, 4:595; from “Baptism for the Dead,” an editorial published in Times and Seasons [15 April 1842], p. 759)

“The purposes of our God are great, His love unfathomable, His wisdom infinite, and His power unlimited; therefore, the Saints have cause to rejoice and be glad, knowing that ‘this God is our God forever and ever, and He will be our Guide until death.’ [Psalm 48:14.]”  (History of the Church, 4:185; from a letter from Joseph Smith and his counselors in the First Presidency to the Saints, dated September 1840, Nauvoo, Illinois, and published in Times and Seasons [October 1840], p. 178)

Posted from Ucluelet, British Columbia