Yesterday, I pronounced December to be “Giving Month.”  Well, 3 December 2019 is officially “Giving Tuesday.”  The idea evidently originated in 2012 as a response to the commercialism of “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday”:   “Giving Tuesday”   GivingTuesday: A Global Generosity Movement | December 03, 2019   ***   With that in mind, I have an important and somewhat urgent announcement:   I have just created a year-end fundraiser for the Interpreter Foundation on Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/daniel.peterson.3701  ... Read more

    I’m told that the two spots that unexpectedly opened up a few weeks ago on the Cruise Lady tour that I’ll be leading next June to the Oberammergau Passion Play and to several beautiful and historic spots in Germany and Austria remain open.  (See “Four centuries of Christian devotion in a small Bavarian town.”)  I’m looking forward to this tour very, very much — my mission as a young man was in the nearby Swiss Alps — and... Read more

    We’re rapidly approaching Christmas 2019.  As I write, there are only 23 shopping days remaining until The Big Day.   Shopping!  I couldn’t possibly be more thrilled.   If you’re like me and you really don’t need a whole lot more stuff — and if, when you do need something, you’re generally able to just go get it, which is what you typically do — the magic of finding toys under the tree is largely gone.  It’s still... Read more

    This blog entry continues the discussion commenced in LDS Inc. (Part One):   Noisy children are a real headache. Two aspirin will make a headache go away. Therefore, two aspirin will make noisy children go away.   Surely you can see the error in the passage above:  The term headache shifts its meaning between the first two sentences.  This is an example of what is called a fallacy of equivocation.   My favorite example of equivocation runs as follows:  ... Read more

    Tabernacle Choir — “In the Bleak Midwinter”   One of my very favorite Christmas carols is a setting by Gustav Holst of “In the bleak midwinter.”  The poem that became the basis of the carol’s lyrics was written by the prominent English poet Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), sister of the poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882):   In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow... Read more

    An attack on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that is very popular among a certain segment of critics runs along these lines:   The so-called “Church,” which, in this context, many of them like to call “LDS Inc” or “the Corporation,” isn’t really about religious faith, isn’t really a church, at all.  Rather, it is a business.  It’s much more concerned about money than it is about souls.   As a prime piece of evidence... Read more

    Several people on the paternal side — the non-Latter-day Saint side — of my extended family had fairly serious problems with alcohol throughout their lives.  In one or two cases, unfortunately, their problems seriously impacted others beside themselves.   There is evidence that heredity can incline a person to chronic alcohol abuse.  So, not knowing whether I myself might have been born with a genetic proclivity in that direction, I’ve always been quietly grateful that, when the time... Read more

    “And We have sent the Book down to you in truth, confirming what you already have of the Book and as a criterion for it. So judge between them by what God has sent down and do not follow their inclinations away from what has come to you of the truth. To each of you We prescribed a law and a method. Had God willed, He would have made you one faith-community, but [He intended] to test you in what He has given you;... Read more

    Here are a small handful of stimulating links that you might profit from and enjoy:   “Climate tipping points — too risky to bet against: The growing threat of abrupt and irreversible climate changes must compel political and economic action on emissions.”   “Is Net Zero Emissions an Impossible Goal?  What it would take to suck more carbon dioxide out of the air than we put in.”   “How climate change could kill the red apple: Humans have favoured red... Read more

    Today, in addition to Don Bradley’s “A Passover Setting for Lehi’s Exodus,” the Interpreter Foundation also published   Brant A. Gardner, “Labor Diligently to Write: The Ancient Making of a Modern Scripture Chapters 6 – 8” [Editor’s Note: We are pleased to present the third installment from a book entitled Labor Diligently to Write: The Ancient Making of a Modern Scripture. It is being presented in serialized form as an aid to help readers prepare for the 2020 Come Follow Me course of study. This... Read more