The other day, I linked to a Huffington Post blog item about women in Mormonism, by Mette Ivie Harrison.  I said that I had reservations about it, but that it was thought provoking.   Here, I offer a link to another piece by Dr. Harrison:   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mette-ivie-harrison/is-white-supremacy-inhere_b_7614052.html   I have considerably more reservations about this one.   For example:   1.  I don’t think it’s fair, just, or appropriate to invoke the specter of generalized “white racism” in... Read more

    It reads like a detective story from the television screen.   The very human side of one once-prominent scientist:   http://mentalfloss.com/article/65139/harvard-chemistry-professor-who-was-also-murderer     Read more

    Yesterday, a prominent South Carolina legislator by the name of J. Todd Rutherford — a Democrat — insinuated a causal link between Fox News and the massacre at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston:   http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2015/06/18/south-carolina-legislator-cites-fox-news-in-explaining-charleston-massacre/   His description of Fox News is wildly inaccurate and slanderous.  I doubt that he’s ever actually watched the channel.  Most likely, he’s simply reflecting what, in his political/ideological circles, “everybody knows.”  In any case, I’m unaware of even the slightest evidence suggesting that the murderer... Read more

    A recently-retired seventeen-term congressman raised that possibility a few days ago in a speech at Harvard:   http://www.christianpost.com/news/is-prison-the-fate-for-christians-deemed-intolerant-religious-freedom-champion-frank-wolf-asks-harvard-audience-139084/     Read more

    http://dailysignal.com/2015/06/16/new-york-times-ignores-children-of-gay-parents-who-want-a-mom-and-dad/?utm_source=heritagefoundation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=morningbell&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRoguKrAZKXonjHpfsX56e4sXaGwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4ITcBrI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFQrLBMa1ozrgOWxU%3D     Read more

    http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/churchs-lds-charities-focuses-on-humanitarian-efforts-for-30-years     Read more

    “Freedom is never given; it is won.”  (A. Philip Randolph)     Read more

    I’m told that the depraved racist who killed nine people at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church actually spared one person for the explicit reason that he wanted him or her to spread the word about the great thing that he had done.   In that light, I’m especially pleased that Megyn Kelly, on Fox News, refused — apparently, it’s a matter of long-standing policy with her — to mention his name.   I’m not sure that such a policy is... Read more

    A couple of nights ago, my wife and I saw a performance of the musical Big Fish at the Hale Center Theater in Orem.   I can’t say that it’s my favorite play, but we enjoyed it.  And it provides some food for thought.  If you still want to see it, you’d better hurry.   I don’t know that there are still tickets available for the Orem theater, but the play will also be staged 14 October-28 November at... Read more

    I just now finished recording a scripture roundtable for the Interpreter Foundation with Cassandra Hedelius (who was in Maryland), Jeff Bradshaw (who is based in Florida, but, this time, was in California), and McKay White (who was in Alberta).  Today, I’m in Utah.   We were discussing the New Testament resurrection narratives.   I expect that the discussion will be available online within, at most, a few days.   I enjoy doing these.  And, although they’re quite “low-tech”... Read more