Some of you are aware that we have launched an effort under the auspices of the Interpreter Foundation to produce an array of films, online recourses, and other related materials regarding the Witnesses to the Book of Mormon. I’m pleased to report that, thus far, things are proceeding quite nicely. We’ve raised approximately half of the funds needed for filming and editing, and we have pledges of further donations. A number of important interviews have already been recorded. We... Read more
“Elder Renlund Dedicates Kinshasa Temple in a Historic Occasion for Latter-day Saints: A key milestone, a blessing for Central Africa” “Temple dedication ‘a dream’ for Latter-day Saints in DR Congo — here are highlights from the event” “Special Youth Devotional in Kinshasa: Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles Presides over a Special Youth Devotional the Day Before the Temple Dedication in Kinshasa” *** Back in late 2015, when the Kinshasa Democratic... Read more
On the website of the Intepreter Foundation: “The Kinshasa DR Congo Temple: A Personal Perspective: Part 3: Happy Easter from the DR Congo!” *** I’m very fond of the excellent second-tier English poet A. E. Housman (d. 1936), who, along with writing such works as “To an athlete dying young,” from A Shropshire Lad, was a prominent classicist at the University of Cambridge. The melancholy mood of many of his poems speaks to me. I’ve even made... Read more
Like scores of millions of people around the world, including many well beyond the borders of France, I’m shocked, sickened, and saddened by the fire that has severely damaged the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris. It is said that more tourists visit Notre Dame than visit the Eiffel Tower. Dating, essentially, to the century between AD 1160 and AD 1260, the Cathedral is not only one of the finest specimens of French Gothic architectural style and an... Read more
Luke 13:22-30 Compare Matthew 7:13-14, 8:10-12; 19:30; 22-23; 25:10-12, 41 I lean toward universalism. Not quite all the way, but close. And not in doctrine — I don’t teach it — but in hope. I don’t know how things will ultimately end up. I hope that damnation for almost all will be temporary. A learning experience. I’ve always been fond of a comment by Pope St. John Paul II. When asked once whether a Christian... Read more
“From 1953 onward, Willy Fowler and I have always been intrigued by the remarkable relation of the 7.65 Mev energy level in the nucleus of Carbon 12 to the 7.12 Mev level in Oxygen 16. if you wanted to produce carbon and oxygen in roughly equal quantities by stellar nucleosynthesis, these are the two levels you have to fix, and your fixing would have to be just where these levels are actually found to be. Another put-up job?... Read more
It’s that time again. It’s time to post one of my favorite poems, which is especially well-suited to this season of the year. It’s the late poet and novelist John Updike’s “Seven Stanzas at Easter.” Updike (1932-2009) was a two-time winner of the National Book Award and a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. In order to understand the poem completely, you need to know the noun remonstrance (re-MON-strance), which denotes “a forcefully reproachful protest”: ... Read more
William Hamblin and I published the following column in Salt Lake City’s Deseret News back on 19 April 2014: Historically, Easter has been the most important Christian holy day, as well as the oldest. Since the Reformation, many Protestant groups have simplified their Easter celebrations, focusing only on brief services on Easter Sunday itself. For Roman Catholics and eastern Christians, however, the celebration of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ is part of a complex of... Read more
Luke 12:54-56 Compare Matthew 16:2-3 Many of our problems in life come from our failure to pay attention and to reflect. The signs are out there. The warnings have been given. Luke 12:57-59 Compare Matthew 5:25-26 Where they can be avoided, strife and law suits should be avoided. Did you know that, in the United States, there is one attorney for every 200 adults? Not to fault lawyers, of course. I... Read more
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New Testament Notes 214-217
Luke 14:1-6 The question that Jesus poses to the Pharisees isn’t, strictly speaking, a trick one. But they decline to answer it because they realize that any answer they’re likely to give will be problematic. If they say that it’s illegal to heal or save people on the Sabbath, that will seem to suggest a prohibition on doing good on the Sabbath day, and they don’t want to do that. After all, as Jesus implicitly... Read more