The last play that we saw at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City was the rarely performed Henry VI Part One. It is, I think, typically written off as one of the lesser of Shakespeare’s plays, and I’m told that some even doubt its Shakespearean authorship. To the best of my recollection, I’ve never seen Henry VI Part One before, although I may have. In any event, I wasn’t expecting too terribly much. But I was... Read more
As a person who, I’m reliably informed, believes in young-Earth creationism and who teaches at a school that, I’ve also been told, is committed to the belief that Earth was created only a few thousand years ago, I confess that I’m utterly mystified by the following items, and that, as always and as on every other subject, I’m seething with virtually uncontrollable rage concerning them. Here’s the new story: “Rare triassic pterosaur discovered by BYU paleontologists”... Read more
Here’s yet another part of the response that I gave to a paper by Dr. Margaret Barker, which she presented in the Varsity Theater on the campus of Brigham Young University on 9 November 2016: I like Dr. Barker’s emphasis on John 17, on the oneness there in the high priestly prayer. Let me just say something very briefly about that, because it is a powerful, powerful passage. There is a trend now, in certain areas of... Read more
I had a good time on Sunday night, chatting on-air with John Gee and Allen Wyatt for the 12 August 2018 episode of the Interpreter Radio Show. We hope that our listeners enjoyed it, too. On 29 July 2018, on the Interpreter Radio Show, Bruce Webster and Kris Frederickson discussed the (then) upcoming FairMormon Conference, as well as the promises and pitfalls of social media, Old Testament prophets and how we deal with revelation, and taking responsibility... Read more
Here’s another portion of my response to Dr. Margaret Barker, given in the Varsity Theater on the campus of Brigham Young University on 9 November 2016: In the case of the founder of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad ascends into the physical presence of God and receives his commission as a prophet or, at least, is given instructions for his behavior as a prophet or told things that he’s commanded to then teach the people. In the mystical... Read more
I received the sad news this morning that Richard Lloyd Anderson, a quiet and modest giant among Latter-day Saint scholars and one of the great defenders of Joseph Smith and the claims of the Restored Gospel in this dispensation, passed away late Sunday night. Richard was well into his nineties, and, even amidst my recent travels, I had heard suggestions that his health had taken a turn for the worse, so I knew that he could not stay... Read more
Scientists are slowly waking up to an inconvenient truth – the universe looks suspiciously like a fix. The issue concerns the very laws of nature themselves. For 40 years, physicists and cosmologists have been quietly collecting examples of all too convenient “coincidences” and special features in the underlying laws of the universe that seem to be necessary in order for life, and hence conscious beings, to exist. Change any one of them and the consequences would be lethal. Fred... Read more
From a BYU panel on which I appeared with the British biblical scholar Margaret Barker some time ago: It’s a privilege to be here, and I want to thank Dr. Barker for a really, really interesting, dense, and rich paper. What I’m going to do is not so much add to it or comment on it as do an improvisation based upon it. The thought that came to my mind as I was reading it, and as... Read more
“How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! Here will we sit and let the sounds of music Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night Become the touches of sweet harmony. Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold: There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins; Such harmony is in immortal souls; But... Read more
On Saturday afternoon, we attended a solid performance of Shakespeare’s Othello. It’s a very great play that I never miss when I get a chance to see it, and I hate it. I find watching it excruciating. Iago is one of the most remarkable characters in all of literature — a consummate villain, a monster of remorseless and pitiless evil. He is cunning and malignant, and I hate to watch him scheme and plot throughout the play, knowing... Read more
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