Wow.  Is this a major problem in our congregations?   http://www.ldsliving.com/The-Sad-Truth-About-Bullying-at-Church/s/76598   I’ve never heard of it.  So far as I’m aware, my own children were never victims of it nor participants in it.  Of course, I’ve never been a Church youth leader, and my service on high councils, in bishoprics, and as a bishop has been entirely in young single adult wards and stakes, so maybe I would be less aware of it than some.  (Perhaps,... Read more

    This story is actually about eighteen months old.  But it’s still quite interesting.   Once upon a time, BYU’s Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, which became the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, was on the cutting edge of both Dead Sea Scrolls research and the use of technology to recover severely damaged ancient texts.  We actually had a subgroup, which I headed for a while, called the Center for the Preservation of Ancient Religious... Read more

    I was saddened, the other day, to learn of the death of the Catholic theologian and social thinker Michael Novak.  Here are a couple of pieces on the legacy of a very important American thinker:   “Michael Novak: Intellectual Godfather to a Generation of Conservatives”   “Remembering Michael Novak” Posted from Waikoloa, Hawaii     Read more

    A grown-up discussion of a sad little operation that, I suspect, sees itself as following in the footsteps of the at-best dubious Edward Snowden and Julian Assange:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865673746/MormonLeaks-in-the-Age-of-Transparency.html   Posted from Waikoloa, Hawaii     Read more

    “Hawaii is not a state of mind, but a state of grace.” Paul Theroux, American novelist and travel writer (1941- )   Read more

    http://www.nature.com/news/collapse-of-aztec-society-linked-to-catastrophic-salmonella-outbreak-1.21485   I would think that such massive extinctions, whatever their cause, would complicate attempts to recreate representative DNA portraits of Pre-Columbian America from modern Amerindian gene sampling.   Posted from Waikoloa, Hawaii     Read more

    To paraphrase Voltaire in a rather different context:  If Jeff Lindsay did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.   Here’s a significant new entry from his always-worthwhile blog:   http://mormanity.blogspot.com/2017/02/in-defense-of-dr-john-e-clarks.html     Posted from Waikoloa, Hawaii Read more

    The latest installation of the bi-weekly Hamblin/Peterson column in the Deseret News has appeared:   http://www.deseretnews.com/user/comments/865673628/After-a-centuries-long-tradition-only-one-god-king-remains.html   Posted from Waikoloa, Hawai’i     Read more

    It is — or, anyway, it was — Friday.  (I’m a bit late with this.)  So, of course, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture has published a new article.  Not a very good one, it’s true,  But the streak continues:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/it-took-a-village-to-prepare-for-the-restoration/   Posted from Waikoloa, Hawai’i     Read more

    A useful 2003 article from two of my colleagues at Brigham Young University:   https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/volume-4-number-2-2003/what-every-latter-day-saint-should-know-about-islam     Read more