The Church issues a statement on the issue:   http://www.ldsliving.com/Church-Responds-to-Speculation-About-Shorter-Sunday-Block/s/80640?utm_source=ldsliving&utm_medium=email   Posted from Marbella, Spain     Read more

    This is a chance for members of the Church to join in proclaiming the message of Christ’s birth for Christmas:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865642256/LDS-Church-to-release-A-Savior-is-Born-Christmas-initiative-on-Nov-29.html?pg=all   I’m intending to participate in the effort, and I encourage you to do so, too.   Posted from Marbella, Spain     Read more

    Here’s a column that I published in the Deseret News on Thanksgiving 2013:   It’s the season of Thanksgiving, and, so, minds like mine turn naturally to etymology, to word origins. Please be patient. There is method in my madness.   The origin of the word “religion” is obscure, and has been much debated. But all suggestions for it seem to agree that remembrance, an awareness of dependence and obligation, is at the core of what it means... Read more

    A sharp tongue is the only edge tool that grows keener with constant use.  (Washington Irving)   Posted from Marbella, Spain   Read more

    It was Jabra Ghneim, I believe, who called this item to my attention:   http://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2015/11/20/study-quran-commentary-combat-extremism-daniel-burke-orig.cnn/video/playlists/digital-studios-topicals/   I’ve been a reader of Seyyid Hossein Nasr for decades, and have had some slight contact with him over the years.  I hold him in enormous respect, and I look eagerly forward to seeing this new book.   Posted from Marbella, Spain     Read more

    Thanks to Cody Quirk for calling my attention to this item:   http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/melissa-mullins/2015/11/23/new-york-times-overplays-mass-resignations-harmful-mormon-church   It reminds me of a conversation that Bill Hamblin and I had with the American feminist Gloria Steinem many years ago in Cairo, when we were both graduate students there.  She had come to Egypt to deliver a major public lecture addressing the topic of sexism in religion.  We attended, and we were deeply impressed by the courage demonstrated in her remarks, which concentrated... Read more

      You may think the answer obvious.   And understandably so.   But the book that I discussed in this 2014 column for the Deseret News might cause you to see things quite differently:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865610336/Is-Islam-a-primary-cause-of-international-violence.html?pg=all   I myself was prepared to resist Graham Fuller’s thesis, but he’s surprisingly persuasive.   And it occurs to me that it’s time, once again, to call attention to my column, and — much more importantly — to his book.   Posted... Read more

    The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to be divorced.  Every other wound we seek to heal — every other affliction to forget: but this wound we consider it a duty to keep open — this affliction we cherish and brood over in solitude. Washington Irving (1783-1859) Posted from Marbella, Spain Read more

        Here’s the text of a column that I published in the Deseret News on Thanksgiving 2012:   William Ernest Henley’s famous Victorian-era poem “Invictus” provided the title and the theme for Clint Eastwood’s inspiring 2009 film about Nelson Mandela. It also provided the memorable claim “I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.” It’s a stirring assertion, and, in a very real sense, true. A great proportion of what we... Read more

    Important reflections from one of the premier social, legal, and political thinkers in the United States:   http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2015/11/16037/   Posted from Marbella, Spain     Read more