This has been a sorrowful day for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While my stake conference was beginning here in Orem, we learned of a deadly attack — apparently using first a vehicle, then an assault rifle and incendiary devices — on a Latter-day Saint sacrament service in Grand Blanc, Michigan, near Flint. That story is still unfolding. And, of course, those who hadn’t already heard the news when it was released late last... Read more
I recently read the 2024 book Lucid Dying: The New Science Revolutionizing How We Understand Life and Death (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2024), written by Sam Parnia, M.D., Ph.D. I found it both enjoyable and fascinating. I may even re-read it, and I heartily commend it to the notice of anybody who is interested in the problem of consciousness and/or in near-death experiences (or in what Dr. Parnia himself prefers to label “recalled experiences of death”). As I’ve... Read more
This new article appeared earlier today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “A Textual Comparison of Masonic Rites and the LDS Temple Endowment,” written by David Eddington: Abstract: Numerous discussions of the similarities between the LDS temple endowment and Masonic rites exist, which give the impression that the two overlap considerably. Rather than focus on the similarities themselves, this paper seeks to quantify how much the two rites overlap by performing a textual analysis. In the... Read more
Although the website of the Interpreter Foundation is supposed to have died many years ago, new materials mysteriously continue to be posted there. Today offered yet another example: Seek Ye Words of Wisdom: “The Symbolism of Two Sons in the Parable of the Prodigal Son,” written by John W. Welch: Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in Seek Ye Words of Wisdom: Studies of the Book of Mormon, Bible, and Temple in Honor of... Read more
A piece that I wrote for Meridian Magazine went up this morning; “DNA and the Book of Mormon: Putting the Science in Perspective.” It might perhaps be worth a look. In other news: We filmed today at three locations outside and around the North Visitors Center in Nauvoo — the red brick one — and in front of the former home of Sidney Rigdon and Phebe Rigdon and then, again, inside the North Visitors Center. It was a fairly long... Read more
At one point, the city of Nauvoo, Illinois, was well on its way to someday having its own international airport. But the events of late June 1844 and those of the two years that followed blocked that pathway, and Nauvoo is now a small and very remote town, and quite hard to reach. I flew into St. Louis, where it was raining fairly heavily, and then drove three solo hours through Hannibal, Missouri, up to exotic Keokuk, Iowa, “the... Read more
My Monday was exceptionally long and very busy, and I had no time whatever, none at all, to do any writing today. Not even on my blog. But I’ve made it a practice to post a daily entry on this blog, and I’m going to be traveling almost all of Tuesday. Which means that I’m likely to fall even further behind. So I’ve elected to re-post something that I wrote several years ago. I think that it’s still worthy... Read more
This column in the Deseret News is worth a look: “Perspective: Online influencers aren’t accurately representing Latter-day Saint reality: Disaffected influencers might be leaving a religious movement, but they’re not leading one” So is this piece, from the Deseret News Editorial Board: “Opinion: Regaining trust in vaccinations” And this, too: “Ready to join the new counterculture? Braver Angels’ leader says it will take courage: In a culture of widening contempt, we have the power to choose something better, says Maury Giles” ... Read more
It’s late tonight, so I think that I’ll share three passages that I marked during my reading, some time ago, of Richard Lyman Bushman’s book Joseph Smith’s Gold Plates: A Cultural History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2023): John’s mother, Mary Whitmer, another plain-spoken witness, said she saw the plates when she went to do the milking. In 1878, years after the event, her son said that his mother had grown weary with the work of housing and feeding... Read more
This timely new book review was published today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation, where nothing new is ever published: “Learning Political Civility from Pahoran to Lincoln,” written by Brian Warby: Review of Rodney Dieser, Cease to Contend: Healing a Nation Through Christlike Civility in Politics (Springville, UT: Cedar Fort, 2025). 136 pp., $16.99 (paperback). Abstract: In Cease to Contend: Healing a Nation Through Christlike Civility in Politics, Rodney Dieser offers a timely and faith-centered response to the growing... Read more
Select your answer to see how you score.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In