But what, you will naturally be asking yourself, is this clown doing back in Egypt yet again, when he was just there at the end of last year? It’s a good question. Do I simply love jet lag? Let me back up just a bit before I give you The Answer. From what I’ve seen of it and from what I know about it, The Other Side Academy is one of the most remarkable undertakings that I’ve seen. Remarkable and moving on... Read more
As I say, I re-read C. S. Lewis’s book Mere Christianity on the flight over. It has been a fair while since I’ve read that particular book, and here are a couple of the many passages that struck me. I supply no page references both because there are multiple editions and because I was reading it on my iPad: I have been asked to tell you what Christians believe, and I am going to begin by telling you one... Read more
First of all, I need to explain that, for the next ten days or so, I will have limited and only occasional access to the internet and, for three of those days, very possibly none at all. So my ability to interact with people in the comments section to this blog, and to respond to emails, will be sharply restricted. That said, it’s good to be back in London again, even if for only a couple of days (at... Read more
Here is something from more than twelve years ago that you might find helpful as you begin your “Come, Follow Me” study of the Book of Mormon this year: “Learn more about the Book of Mormon witnesses: Read short biographies of each of the Three Witnesses and the Eight Witnesses” And please take a moment to browse through these items from the Church website, as well: “Church distributes 200 millionth copy of the Book of Mormon: ‘What is the Book of... Read more
Two new articles went up today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: “The Nahom Convergence Reexamined: The Eastward Trail, Burial of the Dead, and the Ancient Borders of Nihm,” written by Neal Rappleye Abstract: For decades, several Latter-day Saint scholars have maintained that there is a convergence between the location of Nahom in the Book of Mormon and the Nihm region of Yemen. To establish whether there really is such a convergence, I set out to reexamine where... Read more
This just went up on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: “The Temple: Ancient and Restored: ‘The Cosmic Mountain in Islamic Tradition,'” written by Daniel C. Peterson Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in The Temple: Ancient and Restored, Proceedings of the Second Interpreter Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference “The Temple on Mount Zion,” 25 October 2014 (2016) edited by Stephen D. Ricks and Donald W. Parry. For more information, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/the-temple-ancient-and-restored/. And these new... Read more
For Christmas, a neighbor gave us a new book by her brother. The book is Gary C. Lawrence, Millions Believe As We Do, But Haven’t Yet Found the Church: Conversation Ideas from a National Poll. Gary Lawrence is an active Latter-day Saint — currently, I believe, an ordinance worker in the Newport Beach California Temple — and a professional public opinion researcher (with a B.A. in political science from Brigham Young University and a Ph.D. in public affairs communication... Read more
I’ve recently shared three or four passages here with you from Hadley Vlahos, The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life’s Final Moments (New York: Ballantine Books, 2023). Here’s another one that I really liked, and that I think you might find interesting, as well: I’ve seen just as many patients who aren’t religious and don’t believe in an afterlife have end-of-life visitations from loved ones as I have those who do believe in a life after this one. Having said... Read more
As I mentioned in a recent blog entry, somebody in Modesto, California — I don’t know who it was — sent me a copy of a small and very accessible book a few days before Christmas: Hadley Vlahos, The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life’s Final Moments (New York: Ballantine Books, 2023). Ms. Vlahos is a still-young R.N., born and raised in Florida (I think) and still based there, and specifically a hospice nurse who attends to people who are... Read more
Our last church meetings of 2023 were, I thought, quite good. Our first sacrament meeting speaker today was a young woman from our ward who has interrupted her studies at Brigham Young University to accept a call to the Chile Antofagasta Mission. She spoke quite well and will, I think, be a wonderful missionary. Our bishop then spoke for the remainder of the meeting, making quite a strong plea for older people to serve as senior missionaries. (More... Read more
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