It’s long been hoped that additional Dead Sea Scrolls caves might be found at Qumran.  And now one finally has been:   http://www.livescience.com/57800-new-dead-sea-scrolls-cave-discovered.html   Years ago, when I was teaching at the Jerusalem Center, I spent a day clambering around the various caves at Qumran with Dr. Stephen Pfann, who is an expert on them.  Great fun.     Read more

    Daniel Peterson When Thursday, Feb 9, 2017 Where 9118 S Redwood Rd, West Jordan, UT 84088, USA  Description “What’s Up With the Middle East?” There are so many factions, conflicts, and controversies in the modern Middle East that it’s easy to be confused by them. In this lecture, I’ll try to provide some background for understanding the latest headlines. I’ll also talk about ways in which the new presidential administration of Donald Trump may change American policy toward... Read more

    “The true meaning of love one’s neighbor is not that it is a command from God which we are to fulfill, but that through it and in it we meet God.” Martin Buber       Read more

    http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2017/02/suns-powerful-outburst-in-5480-bc-most-abrupt-ever.html   I’m told by some, of course, that I believe that there can’t have been a 5480 BC, since the world (according to my alleged belief) was created around 6:00 PM on 22 October 4004 BC.   That’s one of the reasons I love the internet so much:  I learn lots of new stuff all the time.     Read more

  “Our use of phrase ‘The Dark Ages’ to cover the period from 699 to 1,000 marks our undue concentration on Western Europe. . . .  From India to Spain, the brilliant civilization of Islam flourished.  What was lost to Christendom at this time was not lost to civilization, but quite the contrary. . . .  To us it seems that West-European civilization is civilization, but this is a narrow view.” Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy (London, 1948), 419... Read more

    It seems that, along with at least one of the authors of this op-ed piece and some of Utah’s Muslim leaders, I’ll be meeting this evening with Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT):   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865672611/My-view-Thomas-Jefferson-and-the-Muslim-ban.html     Read more

    This is a very big deal.  I’m thrilled:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865672755/LDS-Church-First-Presidency-to-hold-rare-news-conference-at-10-am.html     Read more

    “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer (German pastor, theologian, and martyr, 1906-1945)   “We have suffered from the preaching of cheap grace. Grace is free, but it is not cheap. People will take anything that is free, but they are not interested in discipleship. They will take... Read more

    Waiting on the corner of Westwood Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard near the Los Angeles California Temple a few years ago, I was surprised to see that the bus bench by which I was standing bore an advertisement in Persian (aka Farsi) for a local dentist.  But not too surprised.  Because of its very large population of Iranian emigres, the city is sometimes called Tehrangeles.   Quite a number of years ago, I spoke in a ward in... Read more

    A slightly long but excellent essay by a thinker whom I greatly admire:   http://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2017/02/06/confessions-catholic-convert-capitalism   I very much like the way he brings his belief in free markets and his Christian commitment to alleviating poverty.  They are not, as some assume, in irreconcilable conflict with each other.     Read more