A response to one very common criticism of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon:   http://stallioncornell.com/blog/2016/04/18/ces-reply-a-rock-in-a-hat/     Read more

    In 1948, the poet and future Nobel laureate T. S. Eliot published a book entitled Notes towards the Definition of Culture.  I’ve always been struck by one particular passage in it:   . . .  [W]hether education can foster and improve culture or not, it can surely adulterate and degrade it. For there is no doubt that in our headlong rush to educate everybody, we are lowering our standards, and more and more abandoning the study of those... Read more

    Mr. Runnells was actually excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Sunday.  Or, if you prefer his narrative, he himself excommunicated the Church immediately upon his emergence from the disciplinary council that decided to void his Church membership.  (He emerged, by the way, to the cheers and applause of a crowd that had gathered outside the chapel in American Fork where the council took place.  At least one person is reported to have traveled from California... Read more

    When I was quite young, I was a wildly enthusiastic Godzilla fan.  My mother used to tell me that — in days long before the advent of home video recorders (which some of you will have a difficult time even imagining) — I once watched the original Americanized Godzilla movie (with Raymond Burr) nine times within a single week.  (It played every day of the week on Los Angeles channel nine, which was then known as KHJ-TV, and twice... Read more

    Some of you, no doubt, are aware that a national and even international firestorm of criticism has erupted about Brigham Young University’s treatment of victims of sexual assault.   It hasn’t been merely suggested by some critics, but declared as fact, that, in its self-righteous and puritanical zeal, the University has been far more concerned with sniffing out and punishing possible sin than with offering compassionate help to those who have been violated.  Indeed, some have said, the... Read more

    Tomorrow, New Yorkers will tell us which New Yorker we should accept as our president.   I hope that others in flyover country are as excited about this as I am.   On the Democratic side, they’ll choose between a female who would be 69 years old upon her inauguration and a male who would be 75.  On the Republican side, where there is no significant challenger, they will recommend a male who would be 69.5.   Ronald... Read more

    “Faith is the bird that sings when the dawn is still dark.”  (Rabindranath Tagore)   Posted from Phoenix, Arizona     Read more

    http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865652322/Did-Jesus-teach-in-this-ancient-synagogue.html   Posted from Mesa, Arizona     Read more

    Some think (or claim to think) that public libraries should not include the Bible in their collections:   http://www.lifezette.com/faithzette/holy-bible-now-a-challenged-book/   Posted from Mesa, Arizona     Read more

    I’m a bit ambivalent, but this is very interesting:   https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/04/14/when-a-tiny-church-houses-three-religions/   I can certainly see economic benefits to such an arrangement, as well as the obvious benefits of added tolerance and appreciation.   Posted from Mesa, Arizona     Read more