http://www.freep.com/story/life/2016/06/21/harvard-professor-jesus-papyrus-wife-fake/86172720/   Posted from Brockwood Hall, Cumbria, England     Read more

    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/06/gaza-christians-muslims-blind-help.html   Posted from Brockwood Hall, Cumbria, England     Read more

    http://www.nationalreview.com/article/436905/donald-trump-fundraising-report-campaign-donors-spending   Make America great again!   Posted from Brockwood Hall, Cumbria, England     Read more

    My wife and I spent the night on Holy Island, as the isle of Lindisfarne has been known for many centuries.  It’s easy to drive over here at broad intervals, but, when the tide is in, this place becomes truly an island, separate from the coast of England.   By fortunate coincidence, we made the acquaintance of a Catholic nun here named Tessa — she wears no “habit” or distinctive clothing, so we only know that she’s a... Read more

    Two quick points about Alma 33:   1.   In this chapter, Alma cites not only Moses but Zenos (well known to readers of the Book of Mormon for Jacob 5) and Zenock as support for the doctrine that God has a son.   I have no solid proof for this, but it simply strikes me as straining credulity that Joseph Smith (or the anonymous modern writers’ collective that supposedly wrote the Book of Mormon, according to some... Read more

    Fascinating research from Ohio State University:   https://news.osu.edu/news/2016/06/20/waterfold/   P.S.:  Notice the names of the researchers.  Are Americans going into science and engineering any more?  (Anecdotal evidence:  My nephew completed a Ph.D. in engineering at a top-three engineering school a number of years ago.  Out of, I believe, fifteen in his entering class, he was the only gringo who finished his doctorate.  The rest were either Chinese or South Asian.)   Posted from Lindisfarne, Northumbria, England     Read more

    I’ve watched it happening.  The Dead Sea is considerably smaller and lower than it was when I first saw it in 1978.  Here’s a fascinating article about the topic:   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-36477284   So you should visit the Dead Sea area with me soon, before the Sea becomes even smaller.   Posted from Lindisfarne, Northumbria, England     Read more

    Did you know that Winston Churchill — prior to becoming the Winston Churchill — once conducted an official inquiry into the behavior of Mormon missionaries?   I didn’t.   But he did:   http://www.sltrib.com/lifestyle/faith/4028652-155/churchill-yes-that-churchill-   I admire the thoroughness and justice of his approach.  I’ve just been reading some comments by a group of vituperative anti-Mormon critics about a recent column of mine.  Their hostile and inaccurate distortions (based on a simple unwillingness to accurately read what I actually... Read more

      On Nevada:  “Trump hits a Mormon wall”   On Utah:  “Why Trump Could Turn America’s Most Republican State Blue”   I’m not a Trumpist, of course.  But it would seem that, when your candidate risks losing the most committed portion of his party’s support, it might not be absurdly unreasonable to regard that as a potential problem.   Most observers have thought that the “Mormon moment” was over with Mitt Romney’s loss to Barack Obama in 2012.... Read more

    To be ambitious of true honor, of the true glory and perfection of our natures, is the very principle and incentive of virtue.  One hour of life, crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks, is worth whole years of those mean observances of paltry decorum, in which men steal through existence, like sluggish waters through a marsh, without either honor or observation.  O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise... Read more