Today’s Hamblin/Peterson column for the Deseret News looks at one man’s response to an experience that too many of us have faced — and that, in some manner or another, all of us will face:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865655203/When-will-love-be-free-of-loss-and-lamentation.html?pg=all     Read more

    My wife and I just returned from a performance of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, with Thierry Fischer conducting the Utah Symphony Orchestra.   It’s a powerful and varied piece.   I’m grateful that Utah has a high quality symphony orchestra.  It’s another thing to appreciate in my adopted state.   Incidentally, it occurs to me how fortunate we are to live in an age of excellent recording technology.  Mahler’s Ninth requires quite a large orchestra.  Fortunately, by the time... Read more

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/05/25/why-are-so-many-muslim-refugees-in-europe-suddenly-finding-jesus.html?via=mobile&source=twitter   On one level, I don’t think this is very surprising.   On another, I’m astonished.   As Europe becomes more and more post-Christian and as extremist Muslims are seeking to expel Christians from the Middle East or even to exterminate them, it would be ironic if converted Muslims were to herald a Christian revival in Europe.  Even if only a small one.     Read more

      If this claim is true, it’s a pretty exciting discovery.  There is, simply, no bigger name in antiquity than that of Aristotle.  In certain ways, even people like Augustus Caesar don’t compare.   http://greece.greekreporter.com/2016/05/26/aristotles-2400-year-old-tomb-found-at-stagira-photographs/#     Read more

    Another weekly article from Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture.  Another interesting little feature of the Book of Mormon:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/the-scalp-of-your-head-polysemy-in-alma-4414-18/     Read more

    “Never compromise your principles, unless of course your principles are Adolf Hitler’s, in which case you would be well advised to compromise them as much as you can.” “Indeed, follow your star if you want to head north and it’s the North Star. But if you want to head north and it’s Mars, you had better follow somebody else’s star.”  “More important than your obligation to follow your conscience, or at least prior to it, is your obligation... Read more

    This isn’t just a transient political issue.  Unless momentum shifts and current trends are reversed or at least stopped, it will represent an epochal transformation — of world-historical dimensions:   http://www.realclearreligion.org/articles/2016/05/27/syria_christians_and_pluralism_in_the_middle_east_107119.html     Read more

      This is a miserable presidential season.  Faced with the choice of either Mr. Donald Trump (who apparently clinched the Republican nomination today) or the cynical return of Clinton Inc., some of us are confronting the most painful electoral dilemma of our lives.   And we’re not alone.  While certain Republican politicians — even some whom Mr. Trump has grievously abused and insulted — are now cravenly kneeling to kiss the Leader’s ring, polling data indicate that a majority of... Read more

    An amusing but perceptive note from the invaluable Robert Boylan:   http://scripturalmormonism.blogspot.com/2016/05/anti-mormons-acting-like-cultists.html     Read more

    The future starts today, not tomorrow.  Pope St. John Paul II     Read more