Despite its title, this short essay, by the late D. Keith Mano, is entirely appropriate for the days prior to Easter, or for Easter itself:   “A Meditation after Easter”   And, anyway, aren’t we living and thinking and reading after the original Easter?   And this also-short essay, by Bryce Haymond, is thought-provoking:   “As Jesus, Our ‘Natural Man’ Must Die Too”     Read more

    Although I’m not particularly enthused about Mr. Trump’s border wall, and although I never thought that the notion that Mexico would pay for it was anything more than demagogic silliness — rhetorical red meat designed to excite his base — I’ve long believed that it’s urgently important for the United States of America to gain control of our borders.   I also believe in obeying and sustaining the law.   But, really, there needs to be some common sense... Read more

    Yet another message for Easter Week from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:   https://www.mormon.org/easter/principles-of-peace/forgiveness   By the way:   We’ve been in “Holy Week” since last Sunday — Palm Sunday — and, traditionally, today is Good Friday.  I’ve expressed the wish before that Latter-day Saints paid at least a little bit more attention to Holy Week or Easter Week.  (I’m not alone in that.)  So I’m pleased that there’s now a simple entry regarding Easter Week on... Read more

    Concerned as I am at the popularity of embarrassing pseudo-science among some Latter-day Saints — see, for example, here and here — this article demonstrates that there’s still room for things to get worse:   http://gulfnews.com/opinion/thinkers/phd-thesis-the-earth-is-flat-1.2009202     Read more

    Another message for Holy Week from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:   https://www.mormon.org/easter/principles-of-peace/prayer     Read more

    http://blog.acton.org/archives/93103-what-christians-can-learn-from-utahs-economic-success.html   We can and probably should overlook the slight hint — reflected in the title and, just a bit, in the article itself — that, in contemplating Utah, Christians are observing a laboratory full of heathens.  (It reminds me of a pamphlet that I saw many years ago that was designed to raise money to buy a radio station in Utah Valley.  The plan was to beam Christian messages into an area that, the authors of the pamphlet informed... Read more

    Deep seasonal ponderings from the BBC:   https://www.facebook.com/BBCScotland/videos/1674177669278658/?autoplay_reason=all_page_organic_allowed&video_container_type=0&video_creator_product_type=2&app_id=2392950137&live_video_guests=0     Read more

    I’ve seen dramatic changes in the Dead Sea myself during the years I’ve been visiting Israel and Jordan.  This article gives some background information:   https://www.insidescience.org/news/cataclysmic-drought-part-history-dead-sea   And this article is very helpful (and even hopeful):   Bringing Life to the Dead Sea     Read more

    This poem, by Margery Stockseth Beaudin, appeared in the April 1985 issue of the New Era.  Thanks to Jean Marshall for calling my attention to it (via my wife):   HE THOUGHT OF ME I am worth the coming down, the silence in return for mockery. I am worth the thorns, the bleeding back, the wincing, weakening steps to Calvary. He suffered these and thought of me. He could have halted soldiers  with a fiery eye, And pronounced death... Read more

    Another thought for Easter week — la Semana Santa — from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:   https://www.mormon.org/easter/principles-of-peace/gratitude     Read more