The resolution declaring pornography a “public health crisis” that was recently passed by the Utah state legislature has drawn considerable attention nationally and even internationally, most of it mocking.   But not all of it:   https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2016/05/27/the-anti-porn-movement-is-growing-the-public-is-just-catching-up/   It’s not entirely beyond the realm of possibility that the laughably puritanical and hyper-religious rubes of retrograde Utah are on to something.     Read more

    My wife and I came to know him somewhat, and we miss him still.  In my experience with him, he was unassuming, humble, good-humored, and unfailingly kind.  So I was happy to see this little retrospective item in the Deseret News:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865655171/Remembering-Elder-L-Tom-Perry-1-year-after-his-death.html     Read more

    The so-called “secularization thesis” is, it seems, a provincial myth:   http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2016/may/26/the-world-is-getting-more-religious-because-the-poor-go-for-god?CMP=share_btn_tw   And, while on that topic, you might enjoy this, too:   Louis C. Midgley, “Christian Faith in Contemporary China”     Read more

    My wife and I went to a viewing tonight for a young woman who died suddenly and unexpectedly a week ago last Sunday, at only twenty-two years of age.  We didn’t know her, but we’ve known her father for many years and have sometimes worked on shared projects with him.   It was a melancholy evening.  She had been full of life, a good daughter, with the confident expectation of many years ahead of her.  Her death was —... Read more

    This Church project represents a major investment in African-American family history:   http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/history-familysearch-freedmens-bureau-project   And, as you’ve noticed in the article, it will be pushed in connection with a national television miniseries launching tonight on the History Channel:   http://roots.history.com/identity/reading-for-roots   I’m excited to see it — both the miniseries and the project.  I’m very pleased that Roots, which had an enormous impact when it was first published and then first turned into a miniseries, is now being... Read more

    http://lds.net/blog/uncategorized/tupac-live-at-the-salt-lake-tabernacle/?utm_source=lds.net+users&utm_campaign=16049ad5c1-Newsletter_May_30_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_608611419d-16049ad5c1-86348953         Read more

    My thanks to my very long-time friend Scott Woolley for calling my attention to this eloquent little piece from Charles C. W. Cooke:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/435993/memorial-day-remembering-sacrifices-ensured-american-freedom?target=author&tid=23105   I wish a happy and fulfilling Memorial Day to all.  May we give at least some thought to the occasion for the holiday, and to those to whom we owe so much.     Read more

    Science is a marvelous enterprise that has contributed enormously not only to our comfort, health, and convenience but to our understanding of the universe.  Despite my religious beliefs — and contrary to the suggestions of some — I don’t minimize the value of science at all.  Quite the contrary.  I celebrate it.  I even find it religiously significant.   But, albeit an extraordinarily effective one, science remains a human enterprise, involving humans, constrained by human limitations, with a... Read more

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/muslim-scouts-pursue-an-american-tradition–in-an-america-wary-of-muslims/2016/05/25/ac6c798e-fa7f-11e5-80e4-c381214de1a3_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_muslimscouts-920a-s7_1%3Ahomepage%2Fstory     Read more