This is mere grandstanding silliness:   http://kutv.com/news/offbeat/do-not-publish-marcie-read-group-creates-opt-out-web-site-for-lds-baptism-for-the-dead   From the Latter-day Saint point of view, the ultimate “opt out” power remains with each individual even beyond death:  Nobody will be compelled to accept vicarious baptism performed on his or her behalf.  The dead, in LDS belief, remain conscious individuals with volition and agency.   From the atheistic point of view represented by the so-called “Satanic Temple,” individuals can’t be compelled to accept vicarious baptisms done on their behalf... Read more

    The outpouring of grief in Paris has been moving.  Among the memorials has been the playing of piano music near the nightclub where so many innocent people were massacred.   I wasn’t so thrilled, though, about the selection of John Lennon’s “Imagine” for one of the memorial performances.   I wrote this column about “Imagine” back in August 2012:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765597245/John-Lennon-was-wrong-but-right-at-the-same-time.html?pg=all   I haven’t changed my opinion of the song since then.   Posted from Marbella, Spain   Read more

    We’re past Halloween, of course, but this piece (“The Pumpkin”) by the American Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) is directly relevant to Thanksgiving and to the time of harvest.  Please enjoy it:   Oh, greenly and fair in the lands of the sun, The vines of the gourd and the rich melon run, And the rock and the tree and the cottage enfold, With broad leaves all greenness and blossoms all gold, Like that which o’er Nineveh’s prophet... Read more

    Here’s the text of a column that I published in the Deseret News on Thanksgiving Day 2011:   Autumn harvest festivals were and are common across Europe, and, as every American schoolchild once learned, our modern Thanksgiving celebrations descend from a meal shared between Massachusetts Pilgrims and Native Americans in 1621.   It was not until 3 October 1863, however, that a uniform national holiday was established by presidential proclamation. Writing well into the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln declared that... Read more

    An eminent Austrian-American sociologist of religion responds to the question:   http://www.the-american-interest.com/2015/11/18/who-lost-the-american-culture-war/   Posted from Marbella, Spain     Read more

    Joel J. Miller is mounting an interesting theological challenge to Islam.  I’ve already posted a link to his article “Islam is a religion of violence: Or, why abstract theology actually matters,” indicating that I disagreed with him at some crucial points.   Now he’s published “The existential crisis behind today’s Islamic violence”:   http://blogs.ancientfaith.com/joeljmiller/islamic-violence/   As I say, I find his challenge interesting and important.  And I mean that.  But I don’t think he’s right.   I think... Read more

    For some reason, I immediately thought of him when I first heard the news.  And now it turns out that he was almost caught in the attack:   http://www.ldsliving.com/LDS-Presidential-Candidate-of-Mali-Narrowly-Escapes-Raid-by-Islamic-Extremists/s/80620?utm_source=ldsliving&utm_medium=email   Posted from Marbella, Spain     Read more

    Most of the universe is dark matter, which we know only indirectly, by inference.  A small nearby galaxy may rank among the highest of extraterrestrial bodies in its proportion of dark matter:   http://www.caltech.edu/news/dark-matter-dominates-nearby-dwarf-galaxy-48790   Posted from Marbella, Spain     Read more

    If, as I do, you spend a lot of time reading comments from apostates, cynics, and bitter enemies of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you might be inclined to believe their enthusiastic and hopeful declarations that the Church is in steep decline — indeed, virtually on its death bed.   But it’s not:   http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2015/november/evangelicals-mormons-jehovahs-witnesses-church-involvement.html   Posted from Marbella, Spain     Read more

    Accosted by sister missionaries at Temple Square, he was inclined at first to be irritated by the interruption.  But his irritation passed quickly:   http://www.realclearreligion.org/articles/2015/11/21/what_mormon_missionaries_taught_me_about_faith.html   Posted from Marbella, Spain     Read more