Here are some notes from an unpublished and as yet incomplete manuscript of mine:   The nineteenth century Chamber’s Encyclopedia said of Joseph Smith that From his early years he was regarded as a visionary and a fanatic; a fact which is of the utmost importance as affording a clue to his real character, and an explanation of that otherwise unaccountable tenacity of purpose and moral heroism displayed in the midst of fiercest persecution.  A mere impostor .... Read more

    We’re just back from a movie theater screening of a performance of Shakespeare’s King Lear from National Theatre Live.  The play was filmed on the stage of the Duke of York’s Theatre, in the West End on St Martin’s Lane, in the City of Westminster, London.  Sir Ian McKellen was superb in the title role.  The other performance that really struck me was Kirsty Bushell’s increasingly mad and sociopathic Regan.   Unfortunately, there was a syncing problem, with the sound following a... Read more

    Several people have told me that they’ve enjoyed my blog entries on near-death experiences, so, for that reason and also because doing so encourages me to extract the notes that I’ve made in various books, I think I’ll continue to post them here from time to time.   Here are a couple of accounts from P.M.H. Atwater, The Big Book of Near-Death Experiences: The Ultimate Guide to What Happens When We Die (Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads Publishing Company,... Read more

    From an unpublished manuscript:   An 1838 letter from Sally Parker, a former neighbor of Lucy Mack Smith, sheds interesting light on Mother Smith’s experiences.  Lucy, the writer says, “was one of the finest of women—always helping them that stood in need.” She told me the whole story.  The plates was in the house and sometimes in the woods for eight months on account of people trying to get them.  They had to hide them.  Once they hid... Read more

    I really didn’t want to post another item about Judge Kavanaugh and his accusers for at least a day or two — if, indeed, I ever posted anything on the subject again at all.  But this is, potentially, a hugely important development in the Kavanaugh case, so I’m calling it to your notice in case you’ve missed it:   “Ahead of pivotal Senate hearing, witnesses surface to say Christine Ford may have mistaken them for Kavanaugh”   ***... Read more

    I wonder how many people out there are aware of the two Journey of Faith films and of the book, bearing the same title, that was published to accompany the first of them.  Not many, I would guess.   The first film, which appeared in 2006, featured a number of scholars and focused on Lehi’s journey from Jerusalem down through Arabia to the coast of the Arabian Sea.  The second covered the Book of Mormon in the New World... Read more

    Despite the continual claims by a certain anonymous internet critic of mine who’s been publicly attacking me for years and years and years, I don’t have much of a temper.  I’m rarely angry.  I’m pretty much what was once, at least, called a “Type B” personality.  (In that regard, I take after my father considerably more than I resemble my mother, who wasn’t always exactly what one would call “sedate.”)  In this respect as in many others, this... Read more

    I received the following news release that will interest some of you:   Spend a Friday Afternoon with Margaret Barker in Provo   On October 12, Margret Barker will be here for a brief visit in Provo. She will speak at 2:00 pm, Friday afternoon here on BYU campus, in the J. Reuben Clark Law School, room 303 JRCB. Her topic will be “Creation Theology, Temple, and the Environment.”   Others responding or participating will include George Handley,... Read more

    When Neil Gorsuch was selected for the United States Supreme Court, I predicted on several occasions that the opposition to him would be nothing compared to the opposition to Trump’s next nominee.  Why?  Because the conservative Judge Gorsuch, in replacing the great conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, would merely be continuing the status quo on the Court.  However, I said, if Trump were to nominate a conservative to replace a liberal (say, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg)  or, as has... Read more

    In response to the absolutely deafening clamor of entreaties and demands for me to post the text of my introduction at last night’s presentation by Drs. Royal Skousen and Stanford Carmack — I know that the clamor has been deafening because I haven’t heard it at all — I hereby offer what I said at the event.   By the way, we had an very good audience last night.  So far as I could see, the auditorium of... Read more