Luke 16:13 Compare Matthew 6:24   James 1:8 says that “a double minded man is unstable in all his ways,” and that seems to be the same message as given in the passages above.   Also Matthew 12:25:  “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.”   The great Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard wrote a little book entitled Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing.  ... Read more

    The image above, published by NASA on 5 February 2013, shows cosmic clouds and stellar winds interacting with the flow of the Orion Nebula and specifically with a young variable star in the nebula called LL Orionis.  Still in its formative phase and adrift in Orion’s stellar nursery, LL Orionis produces a much more energetic wind than does our middle-aged Sun. As the fast stellar wind runs into slower moving gas, a shock front forms, rather like the bow wave... Read more

    The Book of Mormon musical is in Salt Lake City at the moment.   It’s not sold out, I think, but it’s doing very well — as it’s done nationally and even internationally.  And, of course, the usual suspects (among others) are extravagantly praising it, and ridiculing those who might be less enthused about it.   In a few cases, by the way, I’m confident that they’re the same people who, misunderstanding the values of prudence and thrift that... Read more

    My daughter-in-law — who just moved into her first house on Friday! — brought this video to my attention.  The thieving beagle tries to atone for his sin:   https://www.facebook.com/ilike9news/videos/10152459472181077/?pnref=story   Posted from Victoria, British Columbia Read more

    Well, it could be worse.   You could be living in, say, southwestern Iran, at the head of the Persian Gulf:   http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2015/07/30/iran-city-hits-suffocating-heat-index-of-154-degrees-near-world-record/   http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2015/07/31/heat-index-iran-163-degrees/30933451/   On the whole, I’m quite content to be sitting right now at the southern tip of unusually warm but still relatively cool Vancouver Island, on Canada’s Pacific coast.   Posted from Victoria, British Columbia     Read more

    “A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.”  (G. K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man [1925])   Posted from Victoria, British Columbia     Read more

      Pay attention.  You’re being ripped off:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/421790/social-security-bankruptcy-statement-baby-boomers?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_content=55ba0b7004d3011d40000001&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter   You probably don’t send your financial information to Nigeria even when the dying widows of former African dictators, moved by your Christian walk with the Lord, want to send you millions of dollars.  You most likely haven’t collected your prize from a single one of the several Asian lotteries that you’ve won, or claimed your inheritance from the Caribbean bank where the Rt. Honourable Jeremiah Jackson Esq., previously unknown to... Read more

    There’s some very worthwhile live theater in Utah.   Last week, my wife and I enjoyed a healthy portion of it, but I’ve neglected to report on what we saw — and I know that millions out there must be panting with irresistible curiosity about this matter.   Herewith, then, a brief summary:   On Monday night, my wife went with a friend for a performance, at Orem’s Hale Center Theater, of James Lapine’s and Stephen Sondheim’s very... Read more

    Walker Wright has posted an interesting and relatively short piece on the background to the Church’s “Proclamation on the Family” that is well worth reading:   http://www.withoutend.org/family-proclamation-alternative-history/   Posted from Victoria, British Columbia     Read more

    There’s no question that the American professoriate leans considerably to the left of the American populace that supports it — and sometimes wildly so.   Here’s an example of the kind of unfettered lunacy that goes largely unchallenged in some academic subcultures:   http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/07/31/nutty-professor-rutgers-teacher-who-said-us-worse-than-isis-has-history-bizarre/?intcmp=hpbt3   William F. Buckley’s celebrated career was launched when he published God and Man at Yale, a critique of the politically liberal secularism that reigned at his alma matter.  By today’s standards, though, post-War... Read more