It turns out that Dave Barry isn’t the only journalist filing high-quality reportage from the Republican National Convention:   http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/republicans-accused-of-plagiarizing-entire-convention-scenario-from-book-of-revelation   Thanks to James Smith for calling this to my attention.     Read more

    Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.  Ronald Reagan     Read more

    Now that her obituary has publicly appeared, I’m free to pay tribute to our good friend Linda Hunter Adams, who passed away on Sunday after a battle with cancer that ebbed and flowed over a number of years.   She was a member of a weekly study group to which my wife also belongs, as well as of a monthly reading group with which both my wife and I have been involved for many years.  She had me speak several... Read more

    All sorts of explanations have been proposed.  Many, inevitably, have sought to blame the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the apparent problem.  Some have resorted to (occasionally quite dubious) statistics in order to lay it specifically at the feet of Mormon teachings about homosexuality.   Here’s another suggestion:   https://mic.com/articles/104096/there-s-a-suicide-epidemic-in-utah-and-one-neuroscientist-thinks-he-knows-why#.tq2jDbVdD     Read more

    A further statement from Professor Richard Bushman — following on the heels of this one — for those who continue to be interested in the recent “kerfuffle”:   http://www.mormonstories.org/richard-bushman-reaffirms-his-testimony-of-angels-plates-translations-revelations/   Thanks to Stephen Smoot for bringing it to my notice.     Read more

    I’ve been informed, over and over and over again, that, if I don’t vote for Mr. Donald J. Trump, I’m effectively voting for Mrs. Hillary Clinton.   “Too bad you’re for Hillary!” I’ve been told by more Trumpists than I can count.  “You’ll be responsible if Hillary wins!”   Well, by Trumpist reasoning, since I’m not voting for Hillary Clinton I’m actually voting for Mr. Donald Trump.   So the Trumpists can give it a rest.   Meanwhile, in... Read more

    “Keep true, never be ashamed of doing right, decide on what you think is right and stick to it.” — George Eliot   “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd.” Exodus 23:2 (New International Version) Read more

    For a project that I’m working on, I really want to find some photographs of Robert Cundick, formerly a Tabernacle organist, during the time that he and his wife were working in the BYU Jerusalem Center as a volunteer service couple.  (He was the organist at the Center, as well as at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in the Old City.)   I’m especially interesting in finding photos of him (or of him and his wife, Charlotte)... Read more

    I failed to note this piece back in April when it appeared.  (I was in the throes of grading final papers, creating final exams, and preparing for a month or so out of the country.)   But it raises an issue that merits examination and reflection:   Are Mormons in their 20s and 30s leaving the LDS Church?   Here’s another piece:   “Mormon millennials less likely to be married, have children than previous generations”   I would... Read more

    This piece seems appropriate at this time of conjunction between the Republican National Convention and preparations for Pioneer Day:   http://www.sltrib.com/entertainment/4093151-155/ann-cannon-dear-donald-trump-a   As one nineteenth century General Authority reminisced, thinking of the pioneer trek to the Great Basin, “We came here voluntarily, because we had to.”     Read more