A significant figure for both my wife and me — separately, before we’d met — was the late Arthur Henry King.  (Just after our wedding, we ran into him in, of all places, a grocery store in Cedar City, Utah.  When he learned that we had married, he complimented me on my very wise choice, and I took his compliment quite seriously.)   Here’s an interesting piece about his view of Joseph Smith by Michael De Groote:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705376899/Joseph-Smith-was-a-great-writer—-Arthur-Henry-King.html... Read more

    I finally got around, over the weekend, to reading a book that’s been in my library (and on my reading list) for a number of years now.  Here’s a passage from it with which, for what it’s worth, I wholeheartedly agree:   “Seen in this way, are these jihadists of today the direct heirs of the raiders and ghazis of the ‘Abbasid, Ottoman, and other premodern Islamic empires and states?  For a number of reasons, the answer seems... Read more

    Dramatic events at the White House, as reported by the nation’s foremost investigative news source:   http://www.theonion.com/article/aides-wrestle-drill-trumps-hands-he-tries-remove-o-55576   And then there’s this commentary, from the estimable David French:   “It’s Not Worth Sacrificing Anyone’s Integrity to Defend Trump’s Tweets”   Read more

    This is an interesting study, though I wonder whether its results, drawn from work with French subjects, will be replicable when actual humans are involved:   http://www.realclearscience.com/quick_and_clear_science/2017/03/21/study_religiosity_and_playing_video_games_linked_with_sexism_towards_women.html   Somewhat more fundamentally:  I find the pivotal diagnostic statement of the study (“A woman is made mainly for making and raising children”) rather curious.  I’m not sure that I know anybody who would agree with so crude a declaration, though I expect that I know many who would sympathize with... Read more

    You may recall the recent — disgraceful — “Battle of Middlebury.”   Here’s a response to that episode from Princeton University’s great Robbie George:   https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2017/03/send-your-children-to-middlebury-college     Read more

    Russian proverb:  “If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one.”     Read more

    Professor Royal Skousen will give a presentation on Wednesday evening, 12 April 2017, regarding the latest product of his ongoing Book of Mormon Critical Text Project.  Please make a note on your calendar.  I’ll post precise details as I obtain them, but it seems that the program will be held in the “Education in Zion” exhibit area in the Joseph F. Smith Building on the campus of Brigham Young University.  Here’s the occasion:   New Edition of Royal... Read more

    If the reports are accurate, Mr. Don Peay, who headed the presidential campaign for Mr. Donald J. Trump in Utah last year, exceeded his ecclesiastical authority big time the other day, and blurred the distinction between church and state in a rather offensive and quite inappropriate manner:   “Trump’s Utah point man calls out voters, Mormons who didn’t back the new prez”   Here are a couple of responses to Mr. Peay’s overreach:   “LDS repent for not... Read more

    I certainly plan to do so.   https://www.lds.org/church/news/plan-to-participate-in-churchs-prince-of-peace-easter-initiative?lang=eng   Posted from Newport Beach, California     Read more

    A member of the Council of the Twelve participated recently on a program in New York City with Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the Roman Catholic archbishop of New York, and Rabbi Meir Soloveichik of the Congregation Shearith Israel in New York, who is also director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University:   http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/elder-bednar-defends-traditional-marriage-new-york-symposium   You can read Elder Bednar’s remarks here:   “Elder Bednar Transcript: The Divinely Designed Pattern of Marriage”   Posted from Newport... Read more