The headline is a tad sensationalistic, but this is nonetheless an interesting find:   http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/30345/Default.aspx?topic=article_title   Just about everything connected with Jerusalem continues to be politically controversial, of course, as the article’s reference to a recent UNESCO resolution illustrates.     Read more

    “I believe in God, who can respond to prayers, to whom we can give trust and without whom life on this earth would be without meaning (a tale told by an idiot). I believe that God has revealed Himself to us in many ways and through many men and women, and that for us here in the West the clearest revelation is through Jesus and those that have followed him.” Nevill Francis Mott (1905-1996)     Read more

    Another good piece — one of very many — from Book of Mormon Central:   https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/content/why-did-the-lamanites-sacrifice-women-and-children-to-idols     Read more

    “In a world without God, who’s to say whose values are right and whose are wrong? There can be no objective right and wrong, only our culturally and personally relative, subjective judgments. Think of what that means! It means it’s impossible to condemn war, oppression, or crime as evil. Nor can you praise generosity, self-sacrifice, and love as good. To kill someone or to love someone is morally equivalent. For in a universe without God, good and evil... Read more

    If you haven’t encountered the legendary Jack Chick — who died recently — you’ve missed one of life’s great treats.  Here’s an introductory article about him:   http://www.vox.com/culture/2016/11/8/13426962/jack-chick-alt-right-fundamentalism-tracts-catholics-trump   You can read a few representative pages of his classic and informative comic book The Enchanter — it’s about us Mormons! — by clicking on the Read Sample button here:   http://www.chick.com/catalog/comics/0118.asp     Read more

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/mars-water-dry-desert-extraterrestrial-life-a7411156.html     Read more

    This is a very good article:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865666974/What-Mother-Jones-doesn7t-get-about-Mormon-women.html?pg=all     Read more

    The latest book from the Interpreter Foundation is now available for purchase:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/books/the-temple-ancient-and-restored/   May I suggest that, if you buy it through Amazon, you use AmazonSmile?  Buying through AmazonSmile — whether books or whatever else your purchase might include — costs you not a single cent, shekel, peso, centime, or pfennig more, but Amazon will send 0.5% of the purchase price to your designated charity.  (The Interpreter Foundation is one of those charities registered with and accepted... Read more

    I’ve had a number of Trump supporters write to and about me, declaring that Muslims in America are “irrational” to be nervous about the results of the American presidential election and even that they’re just playing the “victim card,” maybe even faking their worries.   Some have even blamed me for stirring up anxieties among Muslims, and have accused me of spreading “leftist propaganda.”  (I’m reminded just a bit, candidly, of people back in the 1950s who claimed that... Read more

    I publish a column every Thursday in Salt Lake City’s daily Deseret News under the series title “Defending the Faith.”  It’s always on subjects directly germane to Mormonism, and particularly to the truth claims of Mormonism.   Every other Saturday, though, my friend and former BYU colleague Bill Hamblin and I publish a bi-weekly column that’s quite different in focus.  It very seldom deals with Mormonism — almost never — but treats religions and religion-related matters worldwide.   The... Read more