“Hard work pays off.  I am so annoyed with my father for being right about that.”  (Lena Dunham)     Read more

    I’ve heard leftists argue passionately that presentation of an ID shouldn’t be required to vote, and that parental consent absolutely shouldn’t be required before giving birth control pills to teenagers.   But now a state legislator in New York is proposing that children under eighteen shouldn’t be permitted to purchase Big Gulps without parental approval:   http://watchdog.org/236211/nanny-state-soda-ban-new-york/   It’s a matter of priorities, I guess.     Read more

    Matthew 19:13-15 Mark 10:13-16 Luke 18:15-17 Compare Matthew 18:3; John 3:3, 5   It’s extremely difficult for me to imagine that the Person depicted in these verses, holding the attitudes toward little children that are revealed in this episode, could also (as some Christian denominations have held) have ordained that infants and children, if they die without baptism, are forever denied entrance into heaven.     Read more

    Thanks to Amelia Reynolds Kynaston for calling my attention to this entertaining exchange:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bwdhib-bZ-s   I don’t know that I agree quite entirely with Reza Aslan — I think it pretty obvious that, while there are violent Buddhists as well as Muslims, Islamic texts can be read to offer much more plain support, aid, and comfort for those inclined to violence than Buddhist texts can — but I think that he makes very, very important points here.     Read more

    This week’s Thursday column for the Deseret News is now up:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865635930/He-became-man-that-we-might-be-made-divine.html   And the usual suspects have already begun to post their rather predictable reactions.   Situation normal.     Read more

    I really like this story, which Bianca Lisonbee has brought to my attention:   http://www.ocregister.com/articles/congregation-679848-temple-cohen.html     Read more

    Matthew 19:3-12 Mark 10:2-12 Compare Matthew 5:31-32; Luke 16:18   These are tough passages.  It’s absolutely clear, though, that God’s design is for marriages to endure.   Moses permitted divorce, but as a concession to human weakness, not as something with divine approval.   Compare this statement (a hadith, as they’re known) from the Prophet Muhammad:   “With Allah, the most detestable of all permitted things is divorce.”     Read more

    “The origin of life, whether human or inferior, must be lodged in some character whom I have not seen! Follow it back, no matter whether it be for six thousand years, six millions, six million millions, or billions of years, the figures and numbers are immaterial, I must have come from some source; my natural philosophy teaches me this. But, leaving the natural philosophy of the child free from false tradition, let us inquire. What does the philosophy... Read more

    “Faith is a necessity to a man. Woe to him who believes in nothing.”  (Victor Hugo)     Read more

    We Americans tend to be a shockingly ahistorical lot, but this anniversary really does deserve at least a minute of remembrance:   http://www.nationalreview.com/slideshows/today-history-3     Read more