Critics and and will carp, complain, and cynically mock.  That, unfortunately, is what they do.  But this is the kind of thing that really matters:   https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-05-34-the-usns-comfort?lang=eng   And on this day when many of us commemorate the founding of the United States of America, it seems appropriate to me to celebrate the service done by Latter-day Saints in collaboration with the United States Navy.   It’s a great church.  It’s a great country.   Posted from Park City, Utah... Read more

    Just a brief note — a quotation, really, on one little element in today’s reading, Alma 44.  I take it from the July 1991 Insights newsletter that was published by the old Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), back in its heyday:   Symbolic Action as Prophetic Curse At one point in his ministry, Isaiah was instructed by the Lord to remove his garment and shoes and walk “naked [like a slave, without an upper garment]... Read more

    Wow.  Notice the number of galaxies — galaxies — disclosed in a deep-space survey of an area of our earthly sky equivalent to four full moons:   http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/pressreleases/2016/june/astronomers-release-spectacular-survey-of-the-distant-universe.aspx   The visible universe is inconceivably vast.  (And that’s the visible universe.)  At a minimum, that should inspire feelings of profound humility.   3 And God spake unto Moses, saying: Behold, I am the Lord God Almighty, and Endless is my name; for I am without beginning of days or end of years; and is... Read more

    If you’re an American, or if you care about America or the idea of America, you must listen to this, the great anthem of the Union during the American Civil War, at least once today:     I realize that it’s too explicitly Christian for the purpose, but I confess that, if I had my preference, it would be our national anthem.   Posted from Park City, Utah     Read more

    “However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”   “The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural... Read more

    Thanks to Jeff Schrade for bringing this item to my notice:   Presbyterian Church USA offers prayers to Allah, acknowledges Muhammad as prophet   I respect Robert Spencer.  He’s very bright, and quite well informed.  And I, too, am concerned about political correctness.  I, too, want clarity in our understanding of Islam (as of other subjects).  And his worries and criticisms aren’t without basis.  Not by a long shot.   That said, we disagree about many important things... Read more

    Alister McGrath is one of the most interesting Christian theologians in the English-speaking world.  And he holds an Oxford doctorate in molecular biophysics, to boot:   http://www.beliefnet.com/news/science-religion/2005/08/breaking-the-science-atheism-bond.aspx   Posted from Park City, Utah     Read more

    Elder D. Todd Christofferson, of the Quorum of the Twelve, recently spoke on the topic of religious liberty and threats against it:   http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/elder-christofferson-religious-freedom-under-fire   I might note that Elder Christofferson is a lawyer, trained at Duke University.   And he’s not alone in his view.  Here’s a piece from David French (J.D., Harvard)   “The American Church Needs to Get Serious About Religious Liberty, Now”   “‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said... Read more

    I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.    Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.    Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain... Read more

    We’re just back from Deer Valley, where we attended a “patriotic” concert by the Utah Symphony, which performed under the guest direction of Jerry Steichen.  The program included pieces by John Philip Sousa, of course.   My father always remembered seeing and hearing Sousa as a child, when the great band director brought his group on tour through rural North Dakota.   But there was also quite a bit of music by George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and... Read more