I’m trying not to overdo it with the links to articles about Elder Perry, but I found this one — drawing on an interview with his son, Lee — very charming:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865629792/Elder-Perrys-wildfire-cancer-shocked-family-but-son-recalls-dear-memories.html?pg=1   I learned about Elder Perry’s illness quite early, and, like his family, was stunned at the speed with which things moved.  Elder Perry was extremely sharp and very energetic, and then, almost instantly, was fatally ill.   But I especially loved the article’s insights... Read more

    An interesting piece by the thoughtful Mark Kellner, a (non-LDS) writer for the Deseret News:   http://national.deseretnews.com/article/4661/how-churches-can-attract-the-nones.html   Posted from Nürnberg (Nuremberg), Germany   Read more

    An interesting column in the Deseret News from Taylor Halverson:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865629888/New-Testament-insights-The-gospels-as-ancient-biographies.html   Posted from Nuremberg (Nürnberg), Germany     Read more

    An interesting and thought-provoking voice from Ireland, brought to my notice by the indispensable Cassandra Hedelius:   http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/the-trouble-with-gay-marriage/17016#.VW4GCet5dUT   Posted from Nürnberg (Nuremberg), Germany     Read more

    Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good action; try to use ordinary situations.  (“Jean Paul”)   Posted from Nürnberg (Nuremberg), Germany     Read more

    We spent the morning strolling around Richard Wagner’s Festspielhaus in Bayreuth, the place that he designed and built as a permanent venue for the performance of his works and for which he wrote Parzifal as a pseudo-religious consecratory offering.   The Festspielhaus — Mecca for true-believing Wagnerians worldwide, of whom I’ve met a curious handful — sits in a beautiful park, but it’s entirely closed for renovation at the moment.   On the grounds, though, perhaps by way of... Read more

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/06/01/supreme-court-abercrombie-religion/27391343/   As a worried advocate of religious rights, I’m happy.  As a friend of Muslims, in particular, I’m happy.  As a libertarian, I have mixed feelings.   However, given the current (very non-libertarian) tenor of American law on discrimination, why not?   Posted from Bayreuth, Germany     Read more

    Strikingly, this column (and apparently the speaker from which it draws) put the genesis of their alleged “war on Christians” at the very time when the notably tolerant through expressly Islamic Ottoman Empire fell and was replaced by secular nationalists:   http://www.realclearreligion.org/articles/2015/06/01/turkeys_war_on_christians.html   If true, is that significant?  I think it is.   One error:  The column seems to suggest that Turkey’s capital is still Istanbul, as it was under the Ottomans.  But that hasn’t been so for a... Read more

    I told you so.   http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/31/opinion/sunday/ross-douthat-the-prospects-for-polygamy.html?_r=0   And I wasn’t the only one.   Posted from Bayreuth, Germany   Read more

    There will be a conference of FairMormon this coming Thursday and Friday in the city of Darmstadt.  Details about location and speakers are available, auf Deutsch, here:   http://de.fairlds.org/?page_id=5219   As you can readily see, I’ll be speaking early on Thursday afternoon.  Which means that you could still come on Thursday morning or all day on Friday and enjoy the conference.   Posted from Bayreuth, Germany     Read more