We drove southward this morning for our annual pilgrimage to the Utah Shakespeare Festival, our long-time end-of-summer ritual. This afternoon, we saw Treasure Island.  This evening, we attended a performance of Shakespeare in Love.  For a change, though, we’re staying in St. George — a town of which I’m really fond.   ***   I’m pleased at the speed with which the LDS Newsroom has posted something about the “Chiasmus Jubilee” at BYU on Wednesday night that closed a two-day... Read more

    Some here may find this press release of interest:   MORMON SCHOLARS FILE BRIEF ATTACKING TRUMP’S MUSLIM BAN   August 18, 2017 – Earlier today, a group of 21 scholars of Mormon history filed a brief in the United States Supreme Court attacking President Trump’s ban on refugees and immigrants from six Muslim countries. The brief tells the story of government attacks on Mormon immigration in the 19th century. This history, it urges, shows the need for exacting... Read more

    We had a remarkable evening at the “Chiasmus Jubilee” on Wednesday night.  Interesting video presentations, wonderful music, and important remarks by Elder Kim B. Clark of the Seventy, who also serves as Church Commissioner of Education, and by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve, as well as by visiting scholars (including an Indian Jesuit).  Fortunately, the event was recorded, and it will eventually — and I think reasonably soon — be up on line.  ... Read more

    Helmut Koester writes that the appearances of Jesus “cannot very well be questioned.”[1]  “We can say with complete certainty,” writes the agnostic New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman, “that some of his disciples at some later time insisted that he soon appeared to them. . . .  Historians, of course, have no difficulty whatsoever speaking about the belief in Jesus’ resurrection, since it is a matter of public record.”[2]  [“At some later time”?  Early.]  Traugott Holtz declares that the... Read more

    I’m writing from the floor of the ongoing conference on chiasmus here at Brigham Young University.  Thus far, we’ve heard from Gary Rendsburg, Steven Scott, and BYU’s own Jack Welch.  It’s all been Middle Eastern, whether the Epic of Gilgamesh or biblical.  But now for something completely different:  We’re currently listening to Professor Kerry Hull of Brigham Young University, who is speaking about “Chiastic Messaging in Mesoamerican Texts.”   ***   Looming over me, however, is the approaching... Read more

    I posted last night about the updated statement from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints regarding the recent violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, and attendant issues:   “Church Issues Statement on Situation in Charlottesville, Virginia”   Although almost everybody is happy about this statement, there are at least one or two exceptions.   Here’s some follow-up material:   “Black Mormons applaud as LDS Church condemns white supremacy as ‘morally wrong and sinful’”   “LDS Church rebukes Mormon... Read more

    In response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a statement expressing concern about hatred, bigotry, violence, and intolerance.  On Tuesday, it enlarged that statement, calling “white supremacist attitudes” “morally wrong and sinful” and specifically denying the claims of some advocates of “white culture”  — whatever that is — that the Church is neutral toward their positions or even supports them:   “Church Issues Statement on Situation in... Read more

How should the controversial general be remembered? What was he really fighting for? Read more

    Here are two recent posts from Book of Mormon Central that are connected with the Chiasmus Jubilee that begins tomorrow (Tuesday) morning on the campus of Brigham Young University:   “What Can We Learn from 10 of the Best Chiasms in the Book of Mormon? Part 1”   “What Can We Learn from 10 of the Best Chiasms in the Book of Mormon? Part 2”   I’m chairing the opening session tomorrow morning, which, with a break and... Read more

    Well, the pseudonymous and anonymous reviews of my 2017 FairMormon remarks are in:   I offer a selection of them from a couple of hostile message boards that I watch fairly regularly.  I find these two boards curiously fascinating.   Their focus has been on my first few sentences, because those are the sentences that begin the Church News account of what I said and that the Church News article highlights.  In those first few sentences, I recall... Read more