http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20161215-if-we-made-contact-with-aliens-how-would-religions-react   Does Mormonism have unique resources for dealing with such a possibility?  Would it face unique challenges?  If so, what would they be?   “People on Other Worlds”   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    “Christmas”   The bells of waiting Advent ring, The Tortoise stove is lit again And lamp-oil light across the night Has caught the streaks of winter rain In many a stained-glass window sheen From Crimson Lake to Hookers Green. The holly in the windy hedge And round the Manor House the yew Will soon be stripped to deck the ledge, The altar, font and arch and pew, So that the villagers can say ‘The church looks nice’ on... Read more

    Some thoughts, pretty much paralleling my own, on where we “Never Trump” people find ourselves these days, approaching the Age of Trumpism:   http://www.nationalreview.com/g-file/443133/never-trump-finished-russia-election-hacking-criticism   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    It’s getting late, but . . .   Don’t forget that the Interpreter Foundation publishes books, too:   In God’s Image and Likeness 2: Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel   Textual and Comparative Explorations in 1 & 2 Enoch   Temple Insights   Ancient Temple Worship   The Temple: Ancient and Restored   Science and Mormonism: Cosmos, Earth, and Man   And then there’s this one, to which you can gain access at no charge, immediately:  ... Read more

    An important point — meaning that I agree with it completely — from the Harvard-trained Evangelical lawyer and conservative writer David French, including a brief but flattering reference to the Mormons:   “If You Don’t ‘Get’ Religion, You Can’t ‘Get’ America or the World”   Bill Hamblin and I made a similar or related point in the very first of our joint bi-weekly Saturday columns for the Deseret News, very nearly five years ago:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700215155/Religion-is-fascinatingly-still-alive.html?pg=all   Posted from... Read more

    How can you not love stuff like this?   “Social-Justice Blog: Gender Is ‘More Like a Performance’”   If you’re female but enjoy sports, it seems that (to that extent, at least) you’re actually male.  But there’s really no essential difference between male and female.  Or something to that effect.   In the meantime, for all you guys out there, maybe this should be your theme song:     Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    For the 230th Friday in a row, the Interpreter Foundation has published an article in its flagship journal:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/opportunity-lost/#comments   It’s beginning to look like a pattern.   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    The days of at least one dead white European male’s hegemony at the University of Pennsylvania are over!   http://www.weeklystandard.com/demoting-shakespeare/article/2005912   ¡Viva la Revolución!   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    http://mormanity.blogspot.com/2016/12/more-than-just-faith-promoting-sports.html   Posted from Alexandria, Virginia     Read more

    An interesting and thought-provoking perspective:   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-islamic-christmas-tree-the-other-perspective_us_58322a54e4b0eaa5f14d4730   I don’t agree, by the way, that “Western bombing” is a principal cause of the current Middle Eastern refugee crisis.  ISIS and the Syrian civil war are the main causes there.  (If you want to include Russia in “the West,” I suppose you can blame it for some of the casualties in Syria.  Our new friend, dear Mr. Putin, is quite brutal.)  Instability in Iraq is also a cause, and you... Read more