The departure of Justice Anthony Kennedy from the Supreme Court of the United States is big, big, big news.   Whereas Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court promised, at best, to replace the great conservative justice Antonin Scalia with another conservative, thus maintaining the status quo, the replacement of the frequent swing-voter Anthony Kennedy with a solid conservative would decisively shift the balance of power on the Court, perhaps for a generation — with untold ramifications even... Read more

    The quotations below are drawn from Hyrum L. Andrus and Helen Mae Andrus, Personal Glimpses of the Prophet Joseph Smith (American Fork, Utah: Covenant Communications, 2009):   Joseph F. Smith (1838-1918), sixth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — whose father, the Patriarch Hyrum Smith, and uncle, the Prophet Joseph Smith, were both murdered by an anti-Mormon mob on 27 June 1844 — made this excellent observation: The world says that Joseph Smith was... Read more

    Nearing the end of the first draft of my book on Islam and the Middle East for a Latter-day Saint audience:   Construction of the temple raises a very serious question, though. Charles W. Penrose, speaking before his call to the Council of the Twelve and, later, to the First Presidency, remarked that “the gathering of the Jews to their own land” was in process in order “that they may build it up as it was in former... Read more

    From yet another manuscript of mine:   Some of those who have undergone near-death experiences report having heard majestic, beautiful music.[1]  One experiencer says that the music was strangely familiar.[2]  A nurse in Osis and Haraldsson’s database related her experience with a seventy-six-year-old woman who had been hospitalized following a severe heart attack: Her consciousness was very, very clear—no sedation, no hallucinogenic history.  She was cheerful and confident that she would recover and return to her daughter who... Read more

    From Hyrum L. Andrus and Helen Mae Andrus, Personal Glimpses of the Prophet Joseph Smith (American Fork, Utah: Covenant Communications, 2009):   Marie J. Woodward, a teenage convert, later recalled her interactions with the Prophet: It was in 1841 when I was about seventeen years old, that I first saw the Prophet Joseph Smith.  I had walked from Middle, Tennessee, my birthplace, to Nauvoo, which place I intended to make my home. . . . I afterwards heard... Read more

    The book must go on:   Another development that needs to be achieved, as most Latter- day Saints know, is the construction of a temple in Jerusalem. The prophet Ezekiel saw a vision of a great latter-day temple and its ritu­als and recorded that vision in chapters 40-47. Joseph Smith taught that, although the entire law of Moses would not be restored, the rituals of sacrifice would be restored and carried out in that temple at Jerusalem.[1] Little... Read more

            The images above speak eloquently, in my opinion.  One or two of them may be satirical.  (I devoutly hope so.)  If they aren’t, then they’re indicative of a level of political idolatry to which I would object if it were devoted to George Washington or Abraham Lincoln, let alone to Mr. Donald J. Trump.   Now, before anybody demands of me whether I’m unwilling to see anything good in the presidency of Mr. Trump,... Read more

    My attention was called, recently, to a 2014 blog article titled “So just what do Mormons think about evolution?”  According to this article, Mormons are among the least evolution-friendly religious groups in the United States.   I have no reason to reject the article, but I think that I would like to unpack things just a bit.   The question from the Religious Landscape Survey on which it is based is formulated as follows:  “Evolution is the best explanation... Read more

    We’ve just returned from a showing of the documentary film Won’t You Be My Neighbor? about the legendary children’s television personality Fred Rogers, of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.   I was, I have to admit, never a Mr. Rogers fan.  I doubt that I ever watched an entire episode.  I really couldn’t stand the show.  So I was a bit surprised at the news that we were going to see Won’t You Be My Neighbor? tonight.  It was interesting, though.  And... Read more

    From Hyrum L. Andrus and Helen Mae Andrus, Personal Glimpses of the Prophet Joseph Smith (American Fork, Utah: Covenant Communications, 2009):   Marilla Plumb Bellows, who was born in Delaware, Ohio, in 1832 and who was twelve years old when the Prophet was murdered, recalled that He was one of the kindest men I ever knew.  As a small girl a group of us would hurry to a meeting and go right to the front and sit down... Read more