I liked this piece on the CNN website, and I suspect that its analysis might be correct : “Iran’s strikes seem intended to avoid US deaths. Here’s why that might be the case” Iran had to respond in some way or other to the killing of one of its most prominent generals, and I hope that the overnight missile strike was enough and that it was deliberately symbolic rather than effective. I’ve mentioned here the... Read more
Cody Quirk has kindly drawn my notice to an item by LaVar Webb, whose name will be recognized by many who have paid attention to Utah politics and public policy matters: “A story about LDS Church finances” Brother Webb’s experience parallels my own, although I didn’t have any single large expense of the kind that he describes. I served for several years as the bishop of a ward that met near the south Orem campus... Read more
It has come up yet again, and so I’ll attempt to swat it down yet again, as clearly and decisively as I am able: Does Qur’an 9:11 actually prophesy that “the wrath of the eagle” will cleanse the lands of the Arabs? No! No, it doesn’t! No! No! It does not! Several years ago, a member of the Church whom I had known for quite some time (but who has since passed... Read more
A very short but fascinating discussion, using pivotal photographs, of some of the most important developments in the history of astronomy: http://nautil.us/issue/32/space/these-astronomical-glass-plates-made-history Growing up in San Gabriel, California, I saw Mount Wilson — a peak in the San Gabriel Mountains — virtually every day of my life until I went away for college. It was the dominant feature of the local horizon, as well as my reliable indicator of north. Its most obvious and striking... Read more
On 12 October 2020, nearly a full century ago, Elder John A. Widtsoe delivered a justly famous talk on “Temple Worship” at a meeting of the Genealogical Society of Utah in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah. At the beginning of his lecture last night, Dr. Van Evans cited this passage from Elder Widtsoe’s remarks, with which I completely agree: All people of all ages have had temples in one form or another.... Read more
My wife and I had a very pleasant evening. First, we had dinner with Royal Skousen and his wife, Sirkku, at La Jolla Groves. Royal presented us with a copy of The History of the Text of the Book of Mormon: Part Five, The King James Quotations in the Book of Mormon, which is still relatively hot off the press. He will be speaking on the subject on 15 January, next week, under the sponsorship of BYU... Read more
Another newly accessible item has gone up — no charge! — on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Science & Mormonism Series 1: Cosmos, Earth, and Man “From All Eternity to All Eternity: Deep Time and the Gospel” Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article by Bart J. Kowallis originally appeared in Science & Mormonism Series 1: Cosmos, Earth, and Man (2016). Abstract: Geology professor Bart J. Kowallis takes readers to the realm of “deep time,” referring to... Read more
In the wake of the recent Washington Post “exposé” on the finances of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, some critics have brought up a speech given by President Russell M. Nelson in Nairobi, Kenya, in April 2018 as an illustration of a despicable, deceitful, greedy “Mormon gangster” seeking to hustle, exploit, and prey upon poor Africans. (It was in response to assumptions that Church leaders are “greedy” and feathering their own nests that I’ve shared photographs... Read more
Notes taken from, and/or inspired by, a reading of Gordon Darnell Newby, A History of the Jews of Arabia: From Ancient Times to Their Eclipse under Islam (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1988), 10-11: The Arabian Peninsula was and remains a stark and forbidding place. But it was also, and continues to be, wealthy. Today, its wealth is petrochemical. In ancient times, its wealth came in the form of incense — and specifically the two types... Read more
The 29 December 2019 broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show is now available online, accessible at no charge and shorn of all commercial and other interruptions. The host for the show was Martin Tanner. In this episode, Martin discussed the Second Coming of the Savior and the Millennium for the first half of the two-hour program. The second hour was devoted to the upcoming Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon lesson #4, on 1 Nephi 11-15: Interpreter Radio Show —... Read more
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