Just back with my wife from attending an enjoyable concert at BYU, with friends, featuring Jason Robert Brown and Kelli O’Hara.
Things like this are among the principal reasons that I love living near a major university.
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A thought that’s exceptionally appropriate for the Christmas season:
“A man filled with the love of God, is not content with blessing his family alone, but ranges through the whole world, anxious to bless the whole human race.”
Joseph Smith Jr.
I’m advocating three places to give this year — places that can benefit the whole world — in addition to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints itself:
Operation Underground Railroad
And, of course, the Interpreter Foundation:
http://www.mormoninterpreter.com
Here’s how to donate to Interpreter.
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Some of you might find this of interest:
“Nephite History in Context 2b: Letters of ʿAbdu-Ḫeba of Jerusalem (EA 285–290)”
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Not a show that I commonly watch, but . . .
“LDS mom shares faith, competes on ‘Great American Baking Show'”
My personal cooking skills extend to melting pre-shredded cheese onto store-bought tortillas.
Curiously, though, I have a son who is a real “foodie,” and who loves cooking shows. I’ve questioned my wife about this, but he really does seem to be genetically connected with me.
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“Pressure Mounts for BYU to End Beard Ban”
I don’t know how strong the pressure really is.
In any event, I would, personally, be fine if BYU were to revisit its anti-beard policy. (I had a beard throughout graduate school, when I interviewed for a position at BYU, and, for a while, after I was hired.) On the other hand, I really don’t care all that much.
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Writing with his usual calm and reasoned lucidity and in view of recent scandals about sexual harassment (what somebody, somewhere, has aptly termed Pervnado), my colleague and friend Ralph Hancock addresses
“The limits of today’s emerging sexuality”
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This is a very moving piece. At least, I found it so:
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“The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.”
Joseph Smith Jr.
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And another iteration of my weekly Deseret News column has appeared:
“Are the gospels late and legendary?”
As always, it’s crammed to bursting with my trademark mean-spirited, irrational, and incendiary rhetoric.
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