Another passage from one of The Manuscripts.  This one deals with the changes that occurred in Judaism in the wake of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the cessation of prophecy among the Jews:   An example will serve to make the new situation clear: At roughly the time of Christ, a great Jewish thinker by the name of Philo Judaeus lived in Egyptian Alexandria. Philo was thoroughly at home in Greek literature and wrote excellent... Read more

  From my notes:   Joseph Smith knew that he would die at the hands of his enemies. “He well knew that he must sacrifice his life for the principles God had revealed through him,” said Lucy Walker Kimball.  Yet “Death had no terrors for him although life was dear. I have often heard him say he expected to seal his testimony with his blood.”[1] “He was cheerful and comforting,” remembered Edward Stevenson. He said, “I shall not be sacrificed... Read more

    I published this column in the Deseret News on Thanksgiving Day 2014:   Many years ago, a friend (now deceased) told me about a very high-ranking Church leader (also now deceased) who had been asked to address a group of local senior service missionaries and their wives at their annual Christmas dinner. As the program proceeded, various stories were related to illustrate the great things that this group of devoted volunteers had accomplished during the year then nearing... Read more

    Rather a Germanish day today (Saturday).  Also a good day to be inside — dark and windy and rainy.   My wife and I went out to lunch with a long-time friend — I knew him at BYU before my mission; he was called to the same mission as I was (though he spent most of his time in Lebanon rather than in Switzerland), and he was the best man at our wedding — at The Berghoff.  That’s... Read more

    In his 1994 book The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul, Sir Francis Crick (1916-2004; co-discoverer with James Watson of the double helix structure of DNA) declares his thorough-going naturalism and reductionism very clearly:   “A person’s mental activities are entirely due to the behavior of nerve cells, glial cells, and the atoms, ions, and molecules that make them up and influence them.”   “The Astonishing Hypothesis is that ‘You,’ your joys and your sorrows, your memories... Read more

    I know.  I know.  It’s not, strictly speaking, a “Muslim ban.”  I don’t use that term myself; I’m merely quoting the title of the article.  So please don’t waste electrons informing me that it’s not actually a “Muslim ban.”  To quote what I myself just said a very short while ago, “I know.  I know.”   I don’t agree with everything this fellow says.  I’m a conservative; he’s a liberal.  But his accumulation of authentic quotations from Mr.... Read more

    As more than a few of its critics will assure you, my adopted state of Utah — or, as some of them know it, Mor(m)onistan or Utard — is the armpit of the United States of America, unconstitutionally dominated and oppressed by the “Utaliban.”  Here’s yet another example of the horrors of this repressive American theocracy:   “Utah is poised to be a shining example of lifting children out of poverty”   ***   The Interpreter Foundation very... Read more

    I published this column in the Deseret News on Thanksgiving Day 2013:   It’s the season of Thanksgiving, and, so, minds like mine turn naturally to etymology, to word origins.  Please be patient.  There is method in my madness.   The origin of the word religion is obscure, and has been much debated.  But all suggestions for it seem to agree that remembrance, an awareness of dependence and obligation, is at the core of what it means to... Read more

    As we made our approach to the runway at O’Hare, I found myself thinking of Carl Sandburg’s famous 1914 poem:   Chicago Hog Butcher for the World,    Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,    Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler;    Stormy, husky, brawling,    City of the Big Shoulders: They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys. And they tell me you... Read more

    John Adams: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”   Patrick Henry: “Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom. No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice,... Read more