I published this article at Christmastime back in 2016. As it happens, had I still been in Utah I would have been participating in a funeral again this year, on Saturday. So the thoughts expressed in this little piece have a renewed relevance for me: As I write, I’ve just returned from a funeral. Snow covers the ground; the trees are barren, seemingly dead. It’s the season described by Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73, “When yellow leaves, or... Read more
Continued from “LDS Inc. (Part 12)”: Well, Church finances are really in the news in the wake of the Washington Post‘s “exposé.” And it seems that my little informal and chatty series on “LDS Inc.” was remarkably well-timed if not altogether prescient. So much so that some of my more unhinged critics are smelling a conspiracy behind it. Here are links to the earlier installments: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeters … t-one.html https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeters … t-two.html https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeters … three.html https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeters …... Read more
The Church exaggerates its growth. Most converts drop out. It is in sharp decline: The Mormon rulers take great pains to have it believed that their community is continually and rapidly increasing. This, however, is a very great mistake. There has always been a curious state of accumulation and loss going on with them, and the loss is at present probably the largest part of the account. There is no society in the world in which there... Read more
You may be aware of “Moore’s law,” which holds that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. I would like to point out another seeming fact of development or evolution: Christmas classics are arriving on the scene at an ever accelerating pace. Consider the facts: The great novella A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, was published in 1843. Frank Capra’s immortal film It’s a Wonderful Life, starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed, appeared 103 years... Read more
By now, many of you will be aware of the Washington Post exposé entitled “Mormon Church misled members on $100 billion fund, whistleblower alleges.” There has already been an official response from the First Presidency: “First Presidency Statement on Church Finances: Statement provided in response to media stories” There will probably be other responses, and I look forward to reading them. Here is an excellent reply that has appeared in the Deseret News: “The Washington Post says... Read more
I hope that his family won’t mind my posting Bill Hamblin’s obituary here. Quite a number of people have asked me about it, and about funeral plans. I’m deeply saddened to say that it seems that I myself will likely be unable to attend; my wife and I have long planned to be in the east on that date, spending Christmastime with my son and his family. William James (Bill) Hamblin passed away suddenly from a cardiac... Read more
From a comment made earlier today on my blog by an advocate of socialism: “There is no profit in helping other people, therefore the private, capitalist industry will not lift one finger to do so.” But free markets — capitalism — have done incomparably far more to help people, to reduce poverty, and to alleviate human suffering, than any other economic system in human history. And there are clear reasons why this is so. From the... Read more
Bill Hamblin and I published this column in the Deseret News several years ago at Christmas time: The search for wise men and women is a perpetual quest in every age—alas, often with dubious results. The search for the wise men in the Christmas narratives in the New Testament is, unfortunately, equally difficult. All Christians are familiar with the story of the three magi from the east bringing gifts to the infant Jesus, a tale that provided... Read more
The Qur’an on the Annunciation of Christ Behold! The angels said: “O Mary! Truly God has chosen you and purified you, and chosen you above the women of all the worlds. O Mary! Worship your Lord devoutly: Prostrate yourself, and bow down [in prayer] with those who bow down.” This is some of the news of the unseen that We reveal unto you [O Muhammad]: You were not with them when they cast lots with arrows as to... Read more
In an earlier post, “The supposed war between science and religion,” I cited Sir John Polkinghorne as among other things, declaring that, to the extent that there’s a scientistic hostility to religion among scientists today, he perceives it to be more pronounced among writers on biology — he expressly mentions Richard Dawkins — than among those who write about the physical sciences. Polkinghorne, who is both a Knight of the British Empire (KBE) and a Fellow of the prestigious Royal... Read more
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