“Viewing the general conference sessions with our family is not sufficient to bring a love for the prophets.  On one occasion some years before my call as a General Authority, I conducted a meeting presided over by one of the Apostles.  After the meeting, I asked him about his stake conference talks.  “Do you prepare something specific for each stake conference?”  I asked.  He replied that he generally did not, but relied upon the promptings received just prior to and during the conference.  But then he added, “But my... Read more

    Los Angeles Times:  “Anti-discrimination measure or blow to religious freedom? California bill sparks debate on employer codes of conduct”   California Family Council:  “New Bill Bans Religious and Pro-Life Organizations from Requiring Employees to Be Pro-Life in Practice”   David French, in National Review:  “California’s Abortion-Obsessed Progressives Contemplate a Grave Assault on Religious Liberty”   Should the Church Educational System have the right to dismiss an adulterous Institute teacher?  To fire him if he impregnates someone and then... Read more

    It being Friday, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture has posted yet another piece:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/looking-back-almost-five-years-on/   Have you noticed, by the way, that each week’s Interpreter article is available in a variety of formats or via a variety of platforms, including both audio — sometimes recorded by the author, sometimes by a volunteer — and print?  (The options are listed along the righthand side.)  I did the audio recording for this one on Wednesday night.     Read more

    I’ve chafed more than a little over the years under correlation and correlated curriculum, and I’ve been unhappy on more than a few occasions about the dominance of Wasatch Front sensibilities, customs, and aesthetics in Church units well beyond Utah.   That said, I’m not a fan of Gina Colvin’s approach to Mormonism.  (Nor, in fairness, is she a fan of mine.  I commented once on her blog, responding to a criticism of me; she deleted the comment.)... Read more

    A nice little piece from Stephen Smoot, whose life I’ve cruelly destroyed:   http://www.plonialmonimormon.com/2017/03/as-far-as-it-is-translated-correctly.html     Read more

    The Jordanian ambassador to the United States of America, Dina Kawar, is in Utah right now.  She lectured yesterday afternoon at BYU, and my wife and I enjoyed a dinner with her last night, hosted by Elder Larry Lawrence of the Seventy and his wife in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building (JSMB) across from Temple Square.  There were twelve of us in total, including a counselor in the Primary general presidency and her spouse, as well as a security... Read more

    A nice piece (and an unexpected one, because of its topic, not its niceness) from Charles C. W. Cooke:   http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/446282/mike-pence-wants-protect-his-marriage-good-him   Of course, now that I think of it, although I’ve never consciously formulated a rule to this effect, I would feel rather awkward dining out alone with a woman other than my wife and, so far as I recall, have never done it.   Moreover, I never consume alcohol without my wife in the room.  Nor,... Read more

    https://phys.org/news/2017-03-ancient-palace-complex-mexican-valley.html   Posted from Bountiful, Utah     Read more

    “A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.”  Italo Calvino, The Uses of Literature Read more

    An interesting implicit response to an item about which I posted a few days ago:   http://middleagedmormonman.com/home/2017/03/the-new-scarlet-letter-j/     Read more