If you’re an American and you’re not worried about the prospects for liberty in the United States, I envy you.   But I also suggest that you read this:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/419359/Laura-Kipnis%27s-title-ix-show-trials?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=referral   I find Laura Kipnis’s experience here deeply troubling.     Read more

    Luke 10:1-12 Compare Matthew 9:37-38; 10:7-16; John 4:35   1.   Since my mission in Switzerland, the Lord’s comment in Luke 10:2 has hit me powerfully:   The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.   That’s one of the reasons I keep exhorting people to share the Gospel online.   2.   Back in the dark days of FARMS, before real scholarship... Read more

    My reading and my experience are congruent with those reported in this article:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/419871/there-are-two-americas-and-only-one-truly-free-david-french     Read more

    I’m not a gun aficionado.  I suppose, in a way, that my father and my brother were.  But I’m definitely not.  I haven’t fired a weapon in more than a decade; I haven’t been hunting since I was a teenager.  I have no objection to guns and hunting; I just do different things.   The other day, though — was it in Texas? perhaps even (oddly) at the entrance to the Alamo? — I saw a sign indicating... Read more

    An interesting piece by John Stossel — who, by the way, is a libertarian rather than a conservative, as well as a vocal religious skeptic:   http://reason.com/archives/2015/06/17/the-lefts-bad-ideas-about-science-are-mo     Read more

    It was recently announced that M. Gerald Bradford is stepping down as director of BYU’s Maxwell Institute.   I was struck by a Facebook comment that John Dehlin made on the matter two days ago:   “Tons of respect to Gerald Bradford as he leaves the Maxwell Institute.  Mormonism is significantly better off because of his courage and integrity.  I can’t wait to see who gets this job!!!!!!”   And what is it that’s so much better?   Phillip... Read more

    Today’s installment of my weekly Deseret News column is up:   http://www.deseretnews.com/user/comments/865630923/Why-some-are-convinced-and-others-arent.html   As they often do, some of the comments following the article make me almost want to despair.  It’s not the mere fact that some disagree, nor that the usual atheistic and/or anti-Mormon dogmatists arrive early and stay late, it’s that some of the commenters once again read things into the article that it doesn’t say and ignore things that it quite deliberately does say.  ... Read more

    I agree with some parts of this article on the place of women in Mormon belief and practice, and disagree with others:   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mette-ivie-harrison/mormons-think-eve-was-right_b_7586820.html   But I thought that some might find it interesting.  Provocative, even.     Read more

    The Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a month characterized by fasting and prayer and the reading of scripture, began this evening.  It will continue through 17 July.   Latter-day Saints who read about it may find it not as foreign as they might have expected:   http://www.faithstreet.com/onfaith/2015/06/16/10-things-i-wish-everyone-knew-about-ramadan/37172   And, to all of my Muslim friends —   May you have a blessed and joyous Ramadan!     Read more

    Luke 9:57-62 Compare Matthew 8:18-22   Read through what Jesus has to say here.  It’s pretty tough.  No Protestant-style “easy-believism” is on offer.   And people who complain about missionary rules — only two calls home per year, no dating, etc. — typically don’t get rough answers on the order of “let the dead bury their dead.”   The ministry involved in following Jesus was an itinerant one, and very demanding.  We have it easy today.     Read more