Every Primary child in the Church is familiar with the story of Ammon as he heroically defends the flocks of the Lamanite king against marauding brigands.   That’s plainly the most famous aspect of today’s reading, Alma 17.   Alma 17:18 tells us, regarding the sons of Mosiah, that Ammon was “the chief among them,” and that “he did administer unto them” and then “departed from them, after having blessed them according to their several stations, having imparted the word of God unto them,... Read more

    A second new article has gone up today in Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/reading-1-peter-intertextually-with-select-passages-from-the-old-testament/   We hope you’ll enjoy it!   Have a great weekend.     Read more

    There is absolutely no doubt, for a whole host of reasons, that we need to get our borders under control:   http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/06/03/afghan-national-tied-to-taliban-attack-plot-smuggled-into-us.html?intcmp=hpbt1   Intense airport security seems a bit silly if our long physical borders leak like a sieve.  (Though repeated tests seem to show that even our airport security isn’t very effective.)     Read more

    It’s Friday, and another new article has appeared in the pages of Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture: http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/now-that-we-have-the-words-of-joseph-smith-how-shall-we-begin-to-understand-them-illustrations-of-selected-challenges-within-the-21-may-1843-discourse-on-2-peter-1/ As always, it’s readily accessible at no charge.  (Contributions are welcomed, though!  This enterprise, though almost entirely voluntary, still has substantial expenses.)     Read more

    Two good articles from the superb magazine Commentary:   John Podhoretz, “The Clinton Anti-Trump Speech”   Jonathan S. Tobin, “Trump’s Reagan Defense Falls Flat”   And, as a bonus, a piece in the Washington Post by E. J. Dionne Jr., entitled “Is the GOP losing its religion?”     Read more

    Our man in Ireland, Robert Boylan, has called our attention to a pathbreaking work on the Pooh-Cycle:   https://www.academia.edu/3176336/New_Directions_in_Pooh_Studies_Überlieferungs-_und_traditionsgeschichtliche_Studien_zum_Pu-Buch   Winnie the Pooh has exerted enormous influence not only on the West, but in the East.  (Some of you, no doubt, devoted substantial time in graduate school to studying The Tao of Pooh and its canonical companion The Te of Piglet.)  So it’s with considerable excitement that the scholarly world has greeted this new approach to the understanding of one... Read more

    Hmmm.  It seems that we may not yet have definitively settled every scientific question:   http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2016-06-02-US-SCI–Expanding%20Universe/id-2b446e1fd0674b35b88da3a18c2f6f16     Read more

    There are quite a number out there (in the media and in other places) who seem to enjoy portraying Latter-day Saints as bigots and hateful religious fanatics.   The evidence doesn’t support that portrayal.   Here’s an example of actual reality:   http://www.npr.org/2016/06/01/480247305/how-the-utah-compromise-could-serve-as-a-model-law-for-other-states?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=religion       Read more

    A heads up for those who might be interested:   From 8 June through 18 June of 2017 — that’s next year — my wife and I will be accompanying a cruise on the Mediterranean.   Would you like to come along?   If you’re interested, you might want to start planning now.  Get your name on the list.     Read more

    “If there is no God, the labels ‘good’ and ‘evil’ are merely opinions.  They are substitutes for ‘I like it’ and ‘I don’t like it.’  They are not objective realities.” Dennis Prager     Read more