I want to call your attention to the “Celebration of Christ” that will be held at the end of this month in Salt Lake City’s Capitol Theatre:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHxJ2ZmonI8&feature=share   Tickets are required, so, if you’re interested, don’t delay.     Read more

    “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary.  To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)     Read more

    I was really busy on Friday with a host of different things, and I’m far behind in drawing attention to the latest weekly publication of Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture.   Surprise!  There was one:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/he-is-a-good-man-the-fulfillment-of-helaman-56-7-in-helaman-87-and-1118-19/   This is the 172nd consecutive Friday on which the Interpreter Foundation has published at least one review or article in its journal.  I’m beginning to sense a pattern . . .     Read more

      Elder D. Todd Christofferson, of the Council of the Twelve Apostles, answers questions in this roughly 10:30-minute video:   http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/handbook-changes-same-sex-marriages-elder-christofferson   Christopher Cunningham identifies “The 9 Facebook Myths about the Church’s New LGBT Policy”:   http://lds.net/blog/buzz/lds-news/myths-on-new-mormons-and-gays-policy/   Danny Rasmussen argues that the recently-announced policy is actually favorable to gay families:   http://www.dannyras.com/blog/why-the-recent-lds-policy-change-is-actually-pro-gay-family     Read more

    “Men cannot improve a society by setting fire to it: they must seek out its old virtues, and bring them back into the light.” “If you want to have order in the commonwealth, you first have to have order in the individual soul.”       Read more

    I’ve already posted two brief notes in response to the new Church policy regarding children of homosexual couples, here and here.   Since then, I’ve seen some very angry comments from people who, they say, are resigning their membership in the Church over this.  Most if not all of them, thus far, have been folks who were already pretty much out of the Church, but I’m still saddened by their decision to abandon their ties altogether.  There’s a finality there... Read more

    In addition to the items mentioned in my previous post on the subject, and to my own five brief comments there, here’s another calm comment to weigh when considering the current brouhaha:   http://blog.fairmormon.org/2015/11/06/a-look-at-the-churchs-new-policy-on-children-of-gay-couples/   By the way, I’ve recently encountered two claims about the new policy that baffle me:   1)  Children of a parent who comes out as gay will, it is said, be excommunicated.   2)  In order to be baptized, it’s being asserted, children of... Read more

    I’m being asked — and, by a few, pestered or badgered — to comment on the Church’s newly announced policy regarding the naming, blessing, baptism, and so forth, of children of same-sex couples.   I may have something substantial to say on the subject at some point, but not before I’ve read more and thought more about the topic than I currently have.  (I find that reading and thinking are good things to do before opining, and I... Read more

    I don’t appreciate the seemingly obligatory denigration of Fox News — I guess it’s designed to establish one’s orthodoxy with the Politically Correct, the bien pensants, to demonstrate that the speaker isn’t one of Them (the unwashed masses) — but, otherwise, I like this piece and wish the pastor well:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865640801/Evangelical-pastor-to-peers-6Don7t-kill-a-Muslim7.html     Read more

      Matthew 25:14-30 Compare Mark 13:34; Luke 19:11-27   The word talent (Latin talentum, from the ancient Greek τάλαντον [talanton], meaning “scale,” “balance,” or “sum”) originally referred to a denomination of money or, more precisely, to a weight of metal.  Homer, for instance, knew the concept, and tells how Achilles gave a half-talent of gold to Antilochus, son of Nestor, as a prize for a chariot race (Iliad 23.784).   Thereupon, it comes to refer to the value of that weight of metal.  It’s... Read more