Brian Stubbs’s remarkable presentation at the August’s 2016 FairMormon conference is now up:   http://www.fairmormon.org/perspectives/fair-conferences/2016-fairmormon-conference/changes-languages-nephi-now   If he’s right, it won’t prove the Book of Mormon true.  But it will go some distance in the right direction, and ti will require a massive reevaluation of what mainstream scholarship thinks it knows about Pre-Columbian America.   Posted from Mentor, Ohio     Read more

    Sidney Rigdon began his ministerial career as a Baptist preacher.  He was preaching in northeastern Ohio as early as 1821 and rapidly gained a reputation as a learned and spellbinding orator.  Then he came under the influence of Alexander Campbell, who founded the Disciples of Christ.  In 1826, he brought Campbellite theology to the Baptist congregation here in Mentor, and he soon brought them over to his doctrinal views.   Mentor Christian Church was organized in 1828 as a... Read more

    This is a really interesting three-minute video on the story of how decisive evidence was found for the origin of the universe in the Big Bang — a discovery that won the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics for Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson:   http://www.greatbigstory.com/stories/the-accidental-discovery-of-the-big-bang/?iid=ob_homepage_deskrecommended_pool   “Astronomy leads us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of nothing, one with the very delicate balance needed to provide exactly the conditions required to permit life, and... Read more

    If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself alone.  A man should keep his friendships in constant repair. Samuel Johnson   Posted from Mentor, Ohio     Read more

    Here in Kirtland, there is a major presence of what was long called the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints but is now known as Community of Christ.   In my experience with members of this church, I’ve found them to be kind and friendly.   Today, from the visitor’s center that they maintain adjacent to the Kirtland Temple (which they own), I acquired several small brochures explaining their beliefs.  (I acquired the same brochures... Read more

    This happened before last night’s “debate”:   http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/25/media/newspapers-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-lies/index.html   Posted from Mentor, Ohio     Read more

    http://religionnews.com/2016/09/20/man-who-led-police-to-bombing-suspect-is-an-immigrant-too/   Some may recall the case of Balbir Singh Sodhi, the Sikh-American gas station owner who was murdered by an anti-immigration “patriot” in Mesa, Arizona, on 15 September 2001 as retaliation for the 9-11 terrorist attacks.  Sikhs, of course, aren’t Muslims at all.  And they’re Indians, not Arabs.  These distinctions, though, were lost on the man who shot him.   Posted from Mentor, Ohio     Read more

    “Oh,” Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) famously wrote, “East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.”   He may have been wrong:   http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/chinese-skeleton-discovery-roman-history-society-southwark-cemetery-asian-remains-a7330666.html   Posted from Mentor, Ohio     Read more

    I’m simply not interested.  I see little reason to choose between the wooden and corrupt woman and the thoughtless, ignorant, but authoritarian buffoon, given the fact that neither one cares a bit about limited government or the Constitution and that neither of them has much if anything to say about freedom.   So I enjoyed Jason Bourne last night.   In between bouts of filming here, though, I’ve looked at a bit of commentary.   I’m not a... Read more

    Some of you may be wondering what on earth I’m doing here in Ohio.  (My more unhinged critics will be eager to find in my presence here redundant further evidence of my corruption, viciousness, and dishonesty.  Or something of that sort.)   Permit me to explain what I’m up to.   I’m here in the Kirtland area for a new Interpreter Foundation movie project.  (Our previous effort, on the late Mormon composer and former Tabernacle organist Robert Cundick,... Read more