Matthew 26:36-46 Mark 14:32-42 Luke 22:39-46 John 18:1 Compare Matthew 26:30; Mark 14:26; John 12:27; 14:31   1.   The Garden of Gethsemane isn’t and wasn’t a garden in the sense familiar to most Europeans and North Americans.  That is, it featured neither carrots, cherry tomatoes, and lettuce,  nor different varieties of roses.  It probably wasn’t very green.  It was (and is) an olive orchard.  And it was probably a favorite place of the Savior’s because the most... Read more

    In my judgment, one of the most unearthly and beautiful pieces of modern classical Christmas music is Morten Lauridsen’s setting of O magnum mysterium:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7ch7uottHU   Latin text O magnum mysterium, et admirabile sacramentum, ut animalia viderent Dominum natum, jacentem in praesepio! Beata Virgo, cujus viscera meruerunt portare Dominum Christum. Alleluia. English translation O great mystery, and wonderful sacrament, that animals should see the new-born Lord, lying in a manger! Blessed is the Virgin whose womb was worthy... Read more

    John 17:1-26   For all the historical Christian talk about the oneness of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the Trinity (or the Godhead), there is, to my knowledge, only a single passage in the New Testament that actually suggests the nature of that oneness:   In John 17:11, Jesus prays to the Father on behalf of his disciples “that they may be one, as we are.”   It seems fairly obvious that, if the oneness of the Father and the... Read more

      Charles C. W. Cooke, an Oxford-educated Briton who has lived in the United States since 2011, sees the problem (and the threat) clearly:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/428208/trump-anti-constitutional-authoritarian     Read more

      http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-08/dinosaurs-emerged-later-but-evolved-quickly/7007960     Read more

    I judge it highly unlikely that this statement was issued at this particular time by sheer chance, without any connection to recent proposals that would monitor, register, round up, ban, and/or expel Muslims for the simple fact of their religious faith:   http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/church-statement-religious-freedom-pluralism   I’m very pleased.     Read more

    I always try to thank people who bring interesting items to my attention (often for use on my blog).   It’s plainly the right thing to do, and — self-interestedly — I hope that they’ll continue to alert me to good stuff.   But I forgot to thank Phillip Carthew yesterday for the really moving short-video “letter” that he brought to my notice, and which I very much recommend:   http://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2015/12/putting-human-faces-on-the-violence-unleashed-by-isis.html     Read more

    Linda Stasi, writing in the New York Daily News, has taken American opinion journalism to a remarkable new low:   http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/san-bernardino-bloodbath-born-bigots-article-1.2456491   Fourteen people were killed by two radical Islamist murderers in San Bernardino last week.   But she recognizes only thirteen innocent victims.   The fourteenth, Nicholas Thalasinos, essentially deserved what he got, she suggests.  If he had only been able to gather the guns and explosives that the two actual murderers had accumulated, she insinuates, he... Read more

    I’ve just received the following note from Valerie Hudson Cassler:   Welcome to the Fall 2015 issue of SquareTwo! The full table of contents can be found on our archives page here.   We’d like to announce two new editorial board members: Neylan McBaine, founder of the Mormon Women’s Project and author of Women at Church, has joined our board, and B. Kent Harrison, emeritus professor of Physics and Astronomy at BYU, is our new book review editor. Welcome to... Read more

    And please watch this extraordinarily moving 2.5-minute “letter” from the husband of one of the victims in Paris to the people who sponsored the attacks:   http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34862437       Read more