Today’s weekly column for the Deseret News:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865642498/Reasons-for-gratitude-on-this-Thanksgiving-Day.html   Happy Thanksgiving to all!   Posted from Madrid, Spain     Read more

    Here’s column that Bill Hamblin and I published jointly in the Deseret News back in 2013:   American traditions of Thanksgiving are generally associated with Puritan harvest feasts in early colonial times, and particularly with the one in October 1621, when Chief Massasoit and about 90 other Native American men joined slightly more than 50 European immigrants at Plymouth Colony, in today’s Massachusetts, for a communal meal.  Abraham Lincoln’s formal proclamation of a late-November “Day of Thanksgiving and... Read more

    Nicol Sorenson-Legakis brought this seasonally-appropriate little article to my attention:   http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/11/23/456656055/gratitude-is-good-for-the-soul-and-it-helps-the-heart-too?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=2049   Posted from Marbella, Spain     Read more

    This is a book that I look forward to seeing:   https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-missing-martyrs-9780199766871?cc=us&lang=en#   What a wonderfully intriguing, counterintuitive, man-bites-dog title!   I thank Jabra Ghneim for calling the book to my notice.   Posted from Marbella, Spain     Read more

    The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is deeply involved in humanitarian service around the globe.  Here’s a recent bit of news in that connection:   http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/refugees-aid-europe-church-governments-humanitarian-partners   Posted from Marbella, Spain     Read more

    Nathaniel Givens has written a very important and well-thought-out essay here:   http://difficultrun.nathanielgivens.com/2015/11/25/when-social-justice-isnt-about-justice/   Posted from Marbella, Spain Read more

    http://www.breitbart.com/california/2015/11/23/muslim-group-hosts-interfaith-panel-xenophobia/   Posted from Marbella, Spain     Read more

    If a fellow isn’t thankful for what he’s got, he isn’t likely to be thankful for what he’s going to get.  (Frank A. Clark)   The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.  (William Blake)   Posted from Marbella, Spain     Read more

    http://www.today.com/news/no-less-american-you-muslim-woman-fires-back-donald-trump-t57796   http://magazine.good.is/articles/muslim-marine-has-the-perfect-response-to-donald-trump   First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—  Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—  Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me. (Pastor Martin Niemöller)  ... Read more

    Here’s a Deseret News column that I published on Thanksgiving Day last year, 2014:   Many years ago, a friend (now deceased) told me about a very high-ranking Church leader (also now deceased) who had been asked to address a group of local senior service missionaries and their wives at their annual Christmas dinner.   As the program proceeded, various stories were related to illustrate the great things that this group of devoted volunteers had accomplished during the... Read more