My Deseret News Easter column for 2017 has appeared:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865677735/Thomas-Jefferson-Benjamin-Franklin-and-CS-Lewis-on-the-hope-of-Easter.html   Incidentally, there was a very kind letter to the editor published about me yesterday in the Deseret News.  I hadn’t seen it, but a friend told me about it last night after Royal Skousen’s (superb) lecture.   And, while I’m at it, I might as well call attention to a similarly very kind comment that was posted to Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture from Mario... Read more

    Over the past year or two, there has been considerable controversy about BYU’s Honor Code and, at the same time, about BYU’s treatment of victims of sexual assault.  The Salt Lake Tribune very recently won a Pulitzer Prize for its reportage on the subject.   Some have seen in all this a glorious and very welcome opportunity to bash the University and its sponsoring church, to denounce Mormonism for its patriarchal and puritanical oppression of women, for its ridiculous obsession... Read more

    Available via the website of the Interpreter Foundation:  An interview (roughly 35 minutes long) with the BYU historian Steven Harper about the “economics” of the Kingdom, in which he clears up a few misunderstandings and common assumptions:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/lds-perspectives-podcast-tithing-and-the-law-of-consecration-with-steven-c-harper/     Read more

    Please.  Get into the spirit of Easter.   Maybe this three-minute video will help:   https://www.mormon.org/easter/principles-of-peace/compassion     Read more

      Very bad news for Jared Kushner’s hopes of retaining the White House in 2020:   http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/putin-angrily-resigns-from-trumps-reelection-campaign?mbid=nl_041217%20Borowitz%20Newsletter%20(1)&CNDID=23287945&spMailingID=10810305&spUserID=MTc5NTcwNjkwMTE4S0&spJobID=1140948655&spReportId=MTE0MDk0ODY1NQS2     Read more

    http://www.nationalreview.com/article/446654/march-for-science-diversity-statement-progressive-identity-politics     Read more

“The stone was rolled away from the door, not to permit Christ to come out, but to enable the disciples to go in.” Peter Marshall (1902-1949, chaplain  of the United States Senate)   Read more

    As something of a lead-in to Royal Skousen’s lecture this evening, I think I’ll share the introduction that I gave to him at a previous lecture, roughly (I think) two years ago:   It’s an honor to be introducing my friend and colleague Royal Skousen tonight.   And I really mean that.  I’m not just being polite, or ceremonial.   It’s an honor because, as interesting and valuable as the previous two lectures in this series have been,... Read more

    Another item for Easter week — a two-minute video — from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:   https://www.mormon.org/easter/principles-of-peace/gods-word     Read more

    Somebody — I’m really embarrassed, but I no longer remember who it was, cannot find the note, and, so, cannot thank my benefactor — called this article to my attention two or three days ago and has asked my opinion on it:   http://voxeu.org/article/religious-decentralisation-and-autocracy-case-islam   I’m very grateful for the alert.  The proposed suggestion is a rich one, and I’ll need to reflect on it for a while.  If there are any historians, political scientists, sociologists, or other such types... Read more