http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/149th-temple-in-the-world-is-dedicated-in-tijuana-mexico   Such news always makes me happy.     Read more

    Some of the more extreme critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints like to portray the state of “Utard” as a kind of Hell on Earth because of the large number of hateful, smug, brain-dead “Morgbots” and “sheeple” who populate it.   But, apparently, not everything about my adopted home state is absolutely horrible:   http://www.npr.org/2015/12/10/459100751/utah-reduced-chronic-homelessness-by-91-percent-heres-how?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=2037     Read more

    http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2015/dec/11/double-quantum-teleportation-milestone-is-physics-world-2015-breakthrough-of-the-year     Read more

    http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/10/living/mosques-attack-study-2015/index.html   This is very unfortunate.   I hope, though, that the apparent absence of such attacks from the Mormon Kulturgebiet will continue.   One other observation:  Some will say that American Muslims ought to be focusing more on the denunciation of acts of violence done in the name of their faith than on complaining about vandalism and slights done to them.   I’m not unsympathetic to that point.  More Muslims have been denouncing jihadi violence than many... Read more

    The Interpreter Foundation has published at least one article per week for nigh unto three and a half years now.  But that’s far and away not the only activity at the Foundation.   Here’s a helpful piece for students and teachers of the current Church Gospel Doctrine curriculum:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/revelation-5-6-and-19-22-views-and-perspectives/     Read more

    http://kutv.com/news/local/muslim-mans-photo-of-prayer-in-lds-church-is-going-viral   I’ve been involved in many interfaith meetings held in LDS meetinghouses — in the United States and abroad — where, when the time came for Islamic salat prayers, a room was made available for the Muslims involved to pray.   This has always seemed to me (and, plainly, also to the local Mormon leaders) simply the appropriate and friendly thing to do.   For that matter, there’s been room set aside on the BYU campus for the... Read more

    A thought for the season from the most prominent English-speaking atheist of the twentieth century:   That Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labours... Read more

    The prolific non-LDS British biblical scholar Margaret Barker spoke to the annual FairMormon conference last August.  Her remarks are available here:   http://www.fairmormon.org/perspectives/fair-conferences/2015-fairmormon-conference/the-mother-in-heaven-and-her-children   Along with the Catholic philosopher Stephen Webb, she also spoke as part of a panel to a small gathering of Interpreter Foundation volunteers and supporters, and a video tape of that panel discussion is available here:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/an-evening-with-margaret-barker-stephen-webb/     Read more

    This is fun, and very much in the Christmas spirit:   https://www.youtube.com/embed/-cKE8pyfcZc   In fact, how does a federally-sponsored operation like this get away with performing such an overtly Christian piece?  Shouldn’t they be restricted to “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” and “Frosty the Snowman”?     Read more

    Does anybody else find certain elements of this story . . . well, um, strange and somewhat suspicious?   http://fusion.net/story/225505/leaving-the-mormon-church-converting-to-judaism/     Read more