I marked a number of passages during my recent reading of Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious, by the New York Times writer Ross Douthat. (See my 19 June 2025 Meridian Magazine article ““Believe”: A Thoughtful Defense of Religion in a Secular Age.”) Here is one in which Douthat describes the intuitive sense of the divine that many people, if not most people, have experienced at one point or another in their lives — even though more than a... Read more
This is an interesting piece — and, given that it comes from CNN, it’s a somewhat surprising one: “An atheist began caring for the dying. What he saw changed his view of faith — and the afterlife” While in that vein: I recently read several comments lionizing the late “James Randi” (1928-2020) — or, to use his more common stage name, “the Amazing Randi” — and I also came across this relatively short essay, which offers some background on... Read more
The closing talk in our sacrament meeting today was devoted to the subject of “repentance.” As I looked around at the congregation while the sister was speaking, I was happy that the bishopric had assigned her that subject. Plainly, they were inspired in doing so: It was instantly obvious to me at a glance that everybody sitting around me badly needed to hear it. I couldn’t help but think of an entry in Ambrose Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary: Christian, n.:... Read more
The information that I’ve reproduced immediately below — drawn from an official release from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — is easily accessible online at “Preventing and Responding to Abuse.” (“This document summarizes current Church policies and guidelines on abuse. All priesthood and Church organization leaders should be familiar with and follow them to help protect God’s children.”). It’s well worth a look, for those who hold opinions on the subject or hope to do so:... Read more
As today is Friday, a new article was published today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. It is “Nameless to New Name: Namelessness in the Narrative of the Anti-Nephi-Lehies, or the People of Ammon,” and it was written by Nathan J. Arp Abstract: A narrator may choose to provide or withhold the name of a character for many reasons. This article hypothesizes that Mormon intentionally omitted the name of two key characters, a Lamanite king and... Read more
I want to call the attention of those who might be in the area on that night that I will be giving a fireside in Beaverton, Oregon (i.e., in the greater Portland area), on the evening of Friday, 12 September 2025. The tentative title is “A Cloud of Witnesses.” (I’ve been asked to speak about the Witnesses to the Book of Mormon.) The event will take place in a Latter-day Saint meetinghouse — I believe but am not certain... Read more
I just came across the claim online, from an obviously very angry former Latter-day Saint, that people like me obey the leaders of the Church blindly, out of fear, and that we strive to obey God, likewise, out of fear. Now, I know nothing about this guy’s psychology or his personal history. But I can speak with considerable authority about my own mental state and my own autobiography, and I can say quite confidently that I don’t follow my... Read more
The following three items went up today on the never-changing website of the Interpreter Foundation: Nibley Lectures: Come, Follow Me Doctrine and Covenants Lesson 34 “A Principle with Promise”: Doctrine and Covenants 89–92 “During 1978, 1979, and 1980, Hugh Nibley taught a Doctrine and Covenants Sunday School class. Cassette recordings were made of these classes and some have survived and were digitized by Steve Whitlock and recently enhanced by Nick Galieti. Most of the tapes were in pretty bad... Read more
Last night, my wife and I watched an anime film version of Swan Lake with a very young third-generation unit. (The name and gender of the third-generation unit have been redacted so as to obscure a potential target, at least partially, from attacks by some of my anonymous detractors.) I’m not a real fan of anime, and the pacing and the dubbed voice-acting in this film were, I thought, unusually poor. But the story is a good one... Read more
The Interpreter Foundation held its annual birthday party last night, for the invited volunteers, authors, and donors who were able to attend. My best estimate is that about 105 people were in attendance. This is our very modest yearly thank-you, to the extent that we can thank those who make Interpreter work. We began with a dinner centered on beef brisket and pulled pork that had been generously donated and expertly smoked by Bruce Webster, one of our long-time... Read more
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