The Washington Post!   https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obamas-syria-achievement/2015/09/06/961b416a-50de-11e5-8c19-0b6825aa4a3a_story.html   As the Wall Street Journal pointed out in an excellent editorial published on Tuesday (“The West’s Refugee Crisis”), “This is what the world looks like when the West abandons its responsibility to maintain world order. . .  the worst humanitarian catastrophe of the 21st century. . . .  The conceit has been that while all of this is tragic, the Middle East has to work out its own pathologies and what happens... Read more

    “Now, brothers and sisters, prophets have lived and died to reestablish in the world in our generation that glorious truth–that what the Eternal Father wants for you and with you is the fullness of your possibilities. And those possibilities are infinite. And he did not simply make you from nothing into a worm; he adopted and begat you into his likeness in order to share his nature. And he sent his Firstborn Son to exemplify just how glorious... Read more

    http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865636273/Donald-Trump-is-immune-to-intellectual-authority-and-the-borders-of-liberalism.html     Read more

    John 11:54-57   Jesus knows what’s coming, but he intends to keep control of his timing.     Read more

    My longtime friend and colleague Dr. William Hamblin — who recently took relatively early retirement from BYU, in part over his frustration with the University’s apparent recent course — has just posted two provocative pieces on his blog:   “How BYU destroyed ancient Book of Mormon studies”   “Goodbye to all that”   I don’t agree with everything he says.  (I think, for example, that it would likely be a disservice to BYU students to offer a graduate program in... Read more

    We’re learning more about the formation of our solar system:   http://www.realclearscience.com/journal_club/2015/08/19/did_jupiter_form_from_pebbles_109357.html   Interesting stuff.   I can’t help but think of the statement in Doctrine and Covenants 64:33 that “out of small things proceedeth that which is great.”     Read more

    Kim Davis is, you may recall, an Evangelical government official for Rowan County, Kentucky, who’s sitting in jail right now for her refusal to grant same-sex marriage licenses.   There’s been a deafening public outcry — I believe somebody may once have asked, anyway — demanding to hear what I think about this matter, so here are a few quick thoughts:   1.   As some very careful readers of this blog may have noticed, I’m opposed to... Read more

    Do strongly-held religious beliefs necessarily narrow minds, encourage intolerance, restrict human contacts, and rule out diversity?   An interesting article suggesting that the answer might well be No:   http://www.realclearreligion.org/articles/2015/09/08/the_mormon_option.html     Read more

    One doesn’t expect a lot of tales about explosive Christian growth out of Berlin these days, nor, really, out of Germany as a whole.  But this is interesting:   http://bigstory.ap.org/article/0550c14ba3024c06820218f79bc6cf07/berlin-church-muslim-refugees-converting-droves       Read more

    My wife and I had dinner tonight at the India Palace in downtown Provo with our good friends Royal and Sirkku Skousen.  He’s in fine form for his remarks tomorrow night, and I’m looking forward to them.   Public welcome!  (But try not to be late.  There’s no telling how many people will show up.)     Read more