“And We have sent the Book down to you in truth, confirming what you already have of the Book and as a criterion for it. So judge between them by what God has sent down and do not follow their inclinations away from what has come to you of the truth. To each of you We prescribed a law and a method. Had God willed, He would have made you one faith-community, but [He intended] to test you in what He has given… Read more

    “Kindness, I’ve discovered, is everything in life.”  (Isaac Bashevis Singer, Nobel laureate in literature for 1978)     Read more

    The disease, or disorder, or complex of disorders and/or diseases commonly known as “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome” is a battlefield.   Is the origin of CFS physical?  Or is it psychological?  Or psychiatric?  Or some combination of mental and physiological?   An article in the 17 January 2015 issue of the Economist reports on a controversial recent publication regarding the topic.   I won’t get into the details of the disputes, but I want to note that, according to the article,… Read more

    A review in the 20 December 2014 issue of the Economist calls attention to an interesting book by Austen Ivereigh entitled The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope.  I don’t know that I’ll ever get around to reading it — it weighs in at 445 pages — but I wish I could.   Ivereigh lived in Pope Francis’s native Argentina as a doctoral student in the 1990s, focusing on religion and politics, and he… Read more

    Chris Henrichsen has reposted an interesting earlier piece — “interesting” here meaning not only that I essentially agree with it, though there is that — in which he questions some of the public narrative about John Dehlin:   http://approachingjustice.net/2015/01/18/dehlins-case-is-not-about-gay-rights/   It’s a narrative that he thinks (and, once again, I concur) that Mr. Dehlin has himself crafted, at least to a considerable degree.   One of the reasons that this article is so interesting is that Chris Henrichsen agrees… Read more

    Matthew 8:1-4 Mark 1:40-45 Luke 5:12-16   We can only speculate as to why the Savior asked the cleansed leper not to tell others of his miraculous healing.  Maybe Jesus hoped — in vain, as it turned out, since the formerly afflicted man couldn’t contain his excitement at his new life — to have some quiet (Luke 5:15-16) and to be able to move about freely in the furtherance of his mission (Mark 1:45).   It’s interesting to me,… Read more

    Lindsey Stirling has been named to Forbes Magazine’s “30 Under 30” music list:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865619525/LDS-artist-Lindsey-Stirling-named-to-Forbes-30-under-30-in-music.html   Here’s an enjoyable example — brought to my notice by Tanya Spackman via my wife — of why:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtQb2axKpuw         Read more

    I have absolutely no interest in becoming bogged down in the inevitable controversy that will swirl — that is already swirling — about John Dehlin and his impending disciplinary council.   But I’m sadly aware of the distortions that will surely appear in the media and across the Web about his case, and I think it worthwhile to call attention to some relevantly valuable things that have recently been and are still being posted — things that will, if… Read more

    Craig Foster, John Gee, Cassandra Hedelius, and Bruce Webster gathered for The Interpreter Foundation’s Scripture Roundtable 106, which focuses on Matthew 5:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/scripture-roundtable-106-new-testament-gospel-doctrine-lesson-8-the-sermon-on-the-mount-a-more-excellent-way/     Read more

    “Scientific materialism is neither an implication nor a presupposition of doing science. Rather it is a metaphysical and sometimes religious stance that some people have toward science.”  Angus Menuge, Agents under Fire: Materialism and the Rationality of Science Read more