A new thirty-seven-minute podcast that’s available via the Interpreter Foundation website:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/lds-perspectives-podcast-scott-hales-mormon-stories-in-shorts/     Read more

This is a good way to insert anti-terrorism messages into popular culture and to make the human cost of extremist violence palpable to those who’ve been inflicting it or, more realistically, to those who’re thinking about becoming terrorists.   It’s slightly more than three minutes long:     Thanks to Dallin Redd for calling it to my notice.     Read more

    Some of you may be aware that I’m (peripherally) involved with a major effort called The World Table.  (In itself, that’s an exciting topic for another day.)   One of the signature elements at The World Table is a set of ten principles, called “The Way of Openness,” that would, if followed, vastly improve conversations and debates between people of different viewpoints — including on Facebook and in the comments made on this blog:   https://www.worldtable.co/way-of-openness/     Read more

    Are faith and the scientific method incompatible?  Are they mutually contradictory?  Is the one completely irrelevant to the other?  At war with it?   Here’s a thoughtful response to such questions from Terry Ball, who was, at the time these remarks were published, dean of Religious Education at Brigham Young University.   It’s probably worth mentioning, too, that Professor Ball holds a doctorate in archaeobotany.   https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/converging-paths-truth/faith-and-scientific-method     Read more

    http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/elder-andersen-horasis-global-meeting?cid=HP_TU_30-5-2017_dCN_fCNWS_xLIDyC_     Read more

    Two quotations from the man often described as the Father of the Constitution:   The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.   What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.     Read more

    Last night, in honor of Memorial Day, my wife and I watched George C. Scott in Patton.  It’s been decades since I’ve seen the movie, and I enjoyed it.   I also finished reading O’Reilly and Dugald’s book Killing Patton, which I likewise very much enjoyed.   Here’s an arresting item from the end of that book:   General Patton had two daughters, Beatrice (named after her mother) and Ruth Ellen, as well as a son, George Patton IV.   In... Read more

    I appreciate this article, which is, effectively, a call for charity in judging others.  Charity even in cases that involve celebrities:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/448087/tiger-woods-dui-everyman     Read more

    A very interesting article, claiming the rise of a new trend:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865680963/Grant-Shreve-The-Book-of-Mormon-converts-academia.html   We shall see.   It will be fun to watch.   Anything that calls positive attention to the Book of Mormon is good, I think.  And some readers will find themselves less able to “bracket” the question of its origins.  It rather demands attention.     Read more

    Thanks to my friend Kevin Barney for calling my attention to this article, which comports nicely with news out of Edmonton, Alberta, that I’ve now had confirmed for me:   http://www.sltrib.com/news/5322852-155/lds-wards-to-host-ramadan-meals     Read more