Hagia Sophia, Tenochtitlan, the Incas’ Golden Temple, and Jerusalem’s Temple Mount

The latest installment of my bi-weekly column has appeared in the Deseret News, and this one is accompanied by some especially nice illustrations:

“When a religious building has been repurposed by another faith: From the ancient Aztec in Tenochtitlan, modern Mexico City, to the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, to the Hagia Sophia in Turkey, there are many religious sites that have been repurposed by another faith with a conquering army”

For a little more background on one of the buildings that I discuss in today’s article — namely, the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul –see this Deseret News column that I originally published on 16 July 2020:

“The dramatic story behind one of the world’s greatest churches: The Hagia Sophia was rebuilt after riots, fires destroyed much of Constantinople”

Both articles overflow, of course, with the hateful venom, the narrow-minded religious bigotry, and the continual rage that, as certain of my critics quite correctly point out, is characteristic of all my writing.

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Interpreter Radio Show — October 25, 2020

The 25 October 2020 broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show has been freed from commercial and other interruptions and archived for your listening pleasure, at no charge to you. The discussants for this installment were Steve Densley, Matthew Bowen, and Mark Johnson. In this episode, they review recent Interpreter articles and publications relating to the Book of Moses. In the second portion of the show, they participate in a roundtable that focuses on the upcoming Come Follow Me lesson #47 (Moroni 1-6).

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All sentient beings should, as a matter of habitual practice, look in frequently on the excellent website of Book of Mormon Central.  Here are two recent items there that caught my own eye:

“What Do We Know About Nephite Language?”

“How Do the Events of Mormon’s Life Shape the Entire Book of Mormon?”

“Resources from Egyptologists for Studying the Book of Abraham: Authenticity, Translation, Facsimiles, and More”

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From the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File:

“New Research Shows Religious Liberty Drives Human Flourishing – And Why This Matters Now More Than Ever”

“Religion in the Home: Do Individuals and Couples Benefit from Home-Based Religious Practices?”

“‘Handmaid’ reality: Deeply religious marriages have more spousal equality”

[Please note the academic affiliation of one of the authors of this article, which appeared in the New York Post.]