http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/more-than-1000-indian-muslim-clerics-sign-fatwa-against-isis_55f06f6ae4b002d5c0779b9e   Thanks to Jabra Ghneim for alerting me to this story.     Read more

    This week’s Thursday column in the Deseret News is up.  It’s effectively (and designedly) Part Two of last week’s column:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865636401/Another-look-at-human-divinization.html     Read more

    Matthew 20:20-28  Mark 10:35-45 Compare Matthew 23:11; Mark 9:35; Luke 12:50; 22:24-27; 9:48; John 13:4-5, 12-17   These are powerful verses.  They condemn the almost omnipresent and well nigh irresistible human anxiety about status, the perpetual quest for prestige.   They offer grounds for continual self-examination:   Are we doing good for its own sake, or to seem good to others?  Do we care about the truth, or about academic prestige?  Do we want the new car or... Read more

    I found these two items on John Gee’s always-interesting blog:   “10 Private Schools with Highest, Lowest Sticker Prices”   “10 Law Schools that Leave Grads with the Least Debt”   Hint:  BYU fares well on these lists.     Read more

    You can’t read the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one.     Read more

    Kim Davis has been released from jail, but the case of the Rowan County, Kentucky, clerk remains a controversial and interesting one.   Here’s a careful, calm, and lucid analysis of the legal issues involved in it by Eugene Volokh, a prominent professor of constitutional law at UCLA.  He is, himself, a libertarian and a supporter of gay marriage, but he actually believes that Ms. Davis has a potentially reasonable legal defense.   https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/09/04/when-does-your-religion-legally-excuse-you-from-doing-part-of-your-job/   Thanks to Jann... Read more

    Matthew 20:17-19 Mark 10:32-34 Luke 18:31-34   These predictions are about as clear as they could possibly be, so Luke’s comment that the apostles didn’t understand them at all seems rather strange.   But perhaps it’s understandable when we realize that the apostles were totally caught up in the mesmerizing, charismatic leadership of Jesus.   They probably found the idea of his absence unthinkable, the possibility of his “defeat” at the hands of his enemies inconceivable.   The Messiah... Read more

    An intriguing set of predictions:   http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150908-archaeology-future-discoveries-technology-ancient-mysteries/     Read more

    Royal Skousen’s lecture tonight was well attended.  And, I think, well received.   Among other things, he presented some of his findings with regard to what the Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon tells us regarding the scribes and the process of translation.   He also announced that the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project that he’s led with meticulous and dedicated scholarship for roughly three decades will no longer be affiliated with the Maxwell Institute, but is... Read more

    John Gee, Martin Tanner, and Bruce Webster gather for this, the 138th scripture roundtable published by the Interpreter Foundation.  Their discussion centers on 2015 Gospel Doctrine lesson 40, which is based, in its turn, on the New Testament epistles of Philippians, Colossians 1-4, and Philemon:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/scripture-roundtable-138-new-testament-gospel-doctrine-lesson-40-i-can-do-all-things-through-christ/     Read more