Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page. (Henry Ward Beecher)   Posted from Carlsbad, California     Read more

    Notwithstanding several recent and very kind requests from readers of this blog that I keep my mouth shut forever more regarding political matters, I’m now going to share links to two articles on . . . politics.  I know, I know.  I’m an ungrateful wretch.  But here they are:   “Does a Never Trumper Need to Be Forgiven?”   It conveys pretty well my own feelings and attitudes on the subject.  (As, for that matter, does Joan Baez’s El... Read more

    “Local Mormons plan PR blitz to counter savage musical”   “Peter Meurs’ higher calling with Mormons”   You may or may not have a difficult time accessing this second article, which is about Elder Peter Meurs, an extraordinarily successful Australian engineer and businessman who was sustained as a General Authority in April 2016.  I was able to read it myself without any problem once or twice, but, for some reason, cannot now.  But you might give it a... Read more

    Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture has published its final article for 2016.   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/their-anger-did-increase-against-me-nephis-autobiographical-permutation-of-a-biblical-wordplay-on-the-name-joseph/   Today’s article represents the 232nd consecutive Friday on which Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture has published at least one scholarly paper, essay, or review.  The Interpreter Foundation was founded 233.5 weeks ago.   Very nearly four years ago a very confident pseudonymous critic on a small, extraordinarily nasty, and mostly atheist ex-Mormon message board presumed to prophesy:   “By Jan. 1, 2014 Interpreter... Read more

    As many have been remarking over the past few days, it’s been a time of striking transitions.  For one thing, several prominent people have recently died.  And now I’ve been shocked and saddened by the death of my long-time friend Elder Bruce D. Porter, of the First Quorum of the Seventy since 1995.  We’ve known each other since our freshman year at BYU; I hope to post a (necessarily inadequate) tribute to him tomorrow (Friday).   Right now, though, I... Read more

    Mike Parker and Martin Tanner kick off the new Church curriculum year with a conversation about Doctrine and Covenants 1 and the history of the Church, in this, the 193rd scripture roundtable posted by the Interpreter Foundation:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/scripture-roundtable-193-doctrine-and-covenants-and-church-history-lesson-1-introduction-to-the-doctrine-and-covenants-and-church-history/   It’s keyed to Lesson 1 in the 2017 Gospel Doctrine manual.   On 12 December 2012, Ben McGuire, Bill Hamblin, and Brant Gardner engaged in a discussion focused more or less on the same scriptural material:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/scripture-roundtable-6-dc-1/     Read more

    This little article should be of interest to anybody who’s under the impression that science and religious faith are polar opposites or who has run into anybody who holds that demonstrably false view:   http://www.ozy.com/rising-stars/the-vaticans-in-house-astronomer/66779?utm_source=dd&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=12292016&variable=5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c   Incidentally, Brother Guy Consolmagno was the very engaging keynote speaker at The Interpreter Foundation’s conference on science and Mormonism back in March 2016:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/brother-guy-consolmagno-sj-keynote-address-astronomy-god-and-the-search-for-elegance/   Have I, by the way, mentioned the fact that we’re rapidly nearing the end of 2016,... Read more

    “LaVell Edwards, Hall of Fame football coach, dies at age 86”   This one hurts.   Since my very youthful infatuation with the Dodgers, I’ve never been a particularly passionate sports fan.  If a football game is on television and I stumble across it or somebody else turns it on, I might watch a few minutes of it, and I’ve attended a handful of BYU games — when others have invited me.  I can easily be drawn in, but I... Read more

    My final column of 2016:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865670052/The-Book-of-Mormon-at-years-end.html   In a reader’s comment following my column, one of the Usual Suspects “bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old” (compare Matthew 13:52).   His old treasure is the venerable Spalding Manuscript Theory, which was first proposed during the lifetime of Joseph Smith himself but which, for very good reasons, no reputable historian — whether believer or unbeliever — has advocated over the past roughly one hundred years.  (Even... Read more

    This is a statement of a position held by many libertarians as well as some on the political left:   http://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2016/12/28/mideast_self-reliance_isnt_a_problemits_our_ticket_home_110554.html   I find it a stimulating thought, but I do worry about the general perils of isolationism.  These matters require considerable serious  reflection.   I’m not among those, by the way, who think that the Iraq War and (even more) the war in Afghanistan were totally wrong and unjustifiable.  Given what the intelligence agencies of multiple nations... Read more