I love California. I grew up there. I earned my doctorate there. I typically go back to California several times annually. I’ve missed only one year, I think, of going to California. That was during my mission to Switzerland. Once, several years ago, I realized that I hadn’t gone back at all — with my parents and my brother gone, I don’t have quite the same pressing need to return that I once did — so I began thinking,... Read more
I was delighted to learn this morning that The Hat has expanded beyond its cradle in the San Gabriel Valley. The Hat was founded in 1951, with its first location at the corner of Garfield Avenue and Valley Boulevard in Alhambra. That was the very place that I grew up going to — it’s still there and its appearance hasn’t changed much — and old photos of the original location are, as far as I can tell, displayed in... Read more
Even among those who love his writing — and I am definitely among them — C. S. Lewis is little known as a poet. Here, though, I share a poem of his (“The Turn of the Tide”) that was written for Christmas. It’s worth a slow and thoughtful reading, I think: Breathless was the air over Bethlehem; black and bare The fields; hard as granite were the clods; Hedges stiff with ice; the sedge, in the vice Of the... Read more
For the better part of the past week, several places in social media have been enflamed with controversy regarding a photograph showing a group of Muslims praying in what is obviously a Latter-day Saint meetinghouse. On the wall in the background, what appears to be a painting (perhaps a painting of Jesus, but perhaps not) has been covered over (perhaps by the Muslims or perhaps by their Latter-day Saint hosts). Frankly, I’ve been discouraged and disheartened by some of... Read more
Last night, at the Islamic Center of Southern California, I participated in a dinner that was followed by a discussion and a Q&A that involved me and Salam al-Marayati, the president and co-founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. Our conversation and our responses to questions went well, I think, and they were recorded for eventual future posting. (I noticed three cameras.) The audience was made up of both Muslim and Latter-day Saint young people, in what seemed to... Read more
Vital Signs 43/4 (2024), the current issue of the newsletter of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS), includes the text of a letter (dated 30 October 2024) that was sent by Dr. Janice Miner Holden, who currently serves as the president of IANDS, to the actor Al Pacino. Mr. Pacino recently experienced an acute health crisis, and Dr. Holden is responding to a public comment that he made about it. She expresses gratitude that he is still around,... Read more
Between sixteen and thirty-five percent of all annual charitable gifts in the United States are given in December. Nearly 30% of annual online donations occur in December, with spikes on Giving Tuesday and the last days of the month. Ten percent of all giving occurs on 29-31 December, as donors make final contributions before the tax year closes. December’s giving surge can make or break a nonprofit’s annual fundraising goals. I wrote the letter below with such facts in... Read more
I don’t know the source of the photograph above, so I can neither give credit to the photographer nor ask his or her permission to share it. I apologize for that. But the photograph has apparently generated considerable conversation, not to say controversy, and I feel that I ought to say something about it. This seems to be an opportune teaching moment. The photograph appears to show a group of Muslim men performing one of Islam’s five daily salat... Read more
Some notes about the astonishing turn of events in Syria: Russia is a big loser in this story. Vladimir Putin invested a great deal in supporting Bashar al-Assad’s regime. For one thing, he was interested (as Soviet leaders and czars have been since Peter the Great) in acquiring a warm-water naval port. Latakia, on the Mediterranean, was an important step in that direction. The Assad family apparently fled to Russia via the Russian base there. Not exactly what Putin... Read more
The news out of Syria is stunning. The fall of Damascus and the collapse of the Baathist government there came swiftly, and what it will all mean very much remains to be seen. I will certainly shed no tears over the departure of the Assad regime, and what I’ve heard from the head of the rebels thus far is encouraging. But I remain suspicious. I hope that his seeming moderation isn’t too good to be true. I may well have... Read more
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