What am I grateful for today? I’m grateful that I have grandchildren, and that my wife and I have the wherewithal to visit them where they live (e.g., in Virginia and in Mexico), and that three generations of our family will be together in our house throughout December and the Christmas season. And that a member of our family’s fourth generation, still living on his own and in his own home, is slated to celebrate his ninety-seventh birthday later... Read more
I’ve been busy enough with the Unbearable Cuteness of Being and other distractions here that I’ve neglected mentioning an article of mine that appeared in Meridian Magazine roughly a week ago: “The Challenges and Triumphs of Biblical Archaeology.” I think that it may possibly rank as not quite the worst thing ever published. I’ve been very occasionally reading Richard Lyman Bushman’s newest book, Joseph Smith’s Gold Plates: A Cultural History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2023), and here’s a passage... Read more
I encourage you to watch and to share the eighteen-minute video that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints prepared a few years ago for the Christmas season. It is called The Christ Child, and it is, in my opinion, very, very well done: The Christ Child: A Nativity Story. Hard-hearted Scandinavian that I am, there is even a point in the video at which I almost always tear up. (You’ll probably never guess where it is.)... Read more
I share some takeaways here from an article that I’ve just read in BYU Studies Quarterly: John Hilton III, Jesse Vincent, and Rachel Harper, ““Last at the Cross”: Teachings about Christ’s Crucifixion in the Woman’s Exponent, the Relief Society Magazine, and the Young Woman’s Journal,” BYU Studies Quarterly 61/3 (2022): 31-58. The Woman’s Exponent, which was published from 1872 to 1914, was evidently one of the earliest periodicals for women published in the United States (32), which seems... Read more
The other day, I set up an online Facebook fundraiser for the Interpreter Foundation. It’s at https://www.facebook.com/donate/1022507169072678/. I have to confess that, at least so far, it’s not doing as well this year as in previous years, probably (at least in part) because, for the first time, they’re taking a slice out of the donation for processing. That new charge makes me less enthusiastic about it than I have been in the past. Still, Interpreter needs donations to... Read more
Two new articles appeared today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: “Asymmetry in Chiasms, With a Note About Deuteronomy 8 and Alma 36,” written by Stephen Kent Ehat Abstract: Some students of the Book of Mormon have claimed that chapter 36 of the book of Alma is structured as a chiasm. Some of the proposals depart from perfect symmetry, presenting elements of the suggested chiasm seemingly out of sequence. This has often been pointed to as a... Read more
Today, the most concentrated amount of sheer cuteness in this region spent substantial time in a swimming pool alongside the beach. We were privileged to be there, as well. Newly posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: “The Temple: Ancient and Restored: Psalm 24 and the Two YHWHs at the Gate of the Temple,” written by David J. Larsen Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in The Temple: Ancient and... Read more
For a while this afternoon, one of the world’s densest concentrations of sheer cuteness was out on the Sea of Cortez (also known as the Gulf of California), bobbing on a small boat that was completely made of transparent plexiglass. We were also privileged to be on that boat. We saw lots and lots of fish through its floor. They were clearly Mexican fish, because the folks on the boat would occasionally toss a flour tortilla over the... Read more
Last night, my wife and I attended the open house for the new Orem Utah Temple. When it is dedicated, it will be our temple. So I was pleased to see how pretty it is on the interior. Particularly its carpets and its stained glass windows. I’ve been disappointed at being unable to volunteer for the open house, but our travel schedule of late has made it completely impossible. And, speaking of travel, we’re off again in order... Read more
As Christmas approaches, and as your indecisive tension mounts about what you ought to give to your spouse, your children, your parents, your cousins, your neighbors, your pickle ball partners, the mailman, your ministering brother and sister, those to whom you minister, your congressperson, and random passersby, the Interpreter Foundation can help. Choose one or more of our books for gifting and feel the serenity descend once more upon your troubled soul. Have a look at a list... Read more
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