Still feeling under the weather and unambitious and, more importantly, thinking that there might be some interest in these, I share a couple of columns that I first published during Christmas seasons the better part of a decade ago. Here’s the first of them: The Book of Mormon is something worth noting at Christmas time: It’s a second witness for Jesus Christ. It begins, on its title page, by declaring that it comes forth “to the convincing of the... Read more
I published the column below in the Deseret News on 9 December 2010. I’m sharing it today partly because I’m sick and, for that reason, I have roughly the energy, at the moment, of an unusually lethargic clam. Despite its age, though, I don’t think that the article is, as yet, completely obsolete. And I hope that perhaps you might find something enjoyable or helpful in it for the season: I often wonder which of the two holidays,... Read more
I published this article in Salt Lake City’s Deseret News back on 19 December 2019: “What is the appeal of Christmas beyond Christian believers?” It was supposed to have been co-written with my dear friend William J. Hamblin. But, to my deep and continuing sorrow, he had suddenly passed away the previous week, on 10 December 2019: Landing this month at the international airport in Cairo, Egypt — busy gateway to a city and a nation that are roughly... Read more
Tomorrow night (Monday night), I will be giving the tenth in a final series of eleven “Learn Our Religion” lectures up in West Jordan, Utah. Reservations are required, I believe — by no later than 4 PM on the day of the lecture — and there is a charge for attendance. The title that has been announced for my remarks is “Mormons, Muslims, Muhammad and More . . . ” Lecture Pricing Pricing for Lectures: To secure... Read more
The other day, here on this blog, I posted an appreciation of Walt Disney and of the Walt Disney Company that he founded slightly more than one hundred years ago in Los Angeles, California, on 16 October 2023. Rather mysteriously, it was titled “In praise of Disney.” The immediate impetus for my post wasn’t Disney’s centenary but, rather, the fact that some of us had, in company with the principal locus of Cuteness in the western United States, been... Read more
This new article went up earlier today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “Pixelated Prophets: A History and Analysis of Book-of-Mormon-Themed Video Games,” written by Geoffrey M. Draper and Aaron M. Curtis Abstract: Video games represent an innovative medium for entertainment and artistic expression with potential for fostering deeper engagement with religious texts such as the Book of Mormon. Over the past three decades, developers have produced dozens of video games based on the Book... Read more
I thought this article, written by Jacob Hess, an interesting one and worth commending to your attention: “What is the modern apostleship? Elder Patrick Kearon enters an order Latter-day Saints believe to be ancient, divinely inspired” But now, on to a very different topic: I explained a few days ago that, inspired by President Russell M. Nelson’s recent book, Heart of the Matter, I’m trying to keep a kind of “gratitude journal.” I don’t share every entry, but here... Read more
The subject of this coming year in the “Come, Follow Me” curriculum of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will, of course, be the Book of Mormon. At the very beginning, the Witnesses of the Book of Mormon will be a focus. Accordingly, it seems an appropriate time to call attention, yet again, to the Interpreter Foundation’s “Witnesses” project, which includes not only the Witnesses theatrical film but the closely related two-part docudrama Undaunted: Witnesses of... Read more
I love Brigham Young University. I believe in it. I never wanted to teach anywhere else. I was deeply influenced by President Spencer W. Kimball’s memorable 1975 address, “The Second Century of Brigham Young University.” It still feels strange to me to be retired from BYU and to be, now, only a (small and insignificant) part of its history, rapidly receding into the rear-view mirror. I also worry about the University. So I was very interested in this article by... Read more
I noticed this Public Square Magazine article online the other day and found it interesting. And then found, to my surprise, that I myself was mentioned in it: “Tapped Out: Criticism an Unsustainable Fountain for Faith: The fact that accusation clouds religious epistemology is a lesson we can all learn from a debacle on a popular YouTube channel.” I have not seen this film, although I hope to watch it reasonably soon. So I’m not endorsing it. Obviously, I’m... Read more
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