If you’re philosophically inclined, or suspect that you might be; if you yearn for deeper reflections on the doctrines of the Restoration than you typically hear — you should probably meet Blake Ostler, who is one of the most interesting thinkers in contemporary Mormonism.   And here’s a good place to do that:  http://www.blakeostler.com/index.html   (If the above sounds like an advertisement . . . well, that’s pretty much what I intended.)     Read more

    If Mr. Donald Trump wins today’s Wisconsin primary, it will be very difficult to prevent him from getting the 1237 delegates he needs to seize the presidential nomination on the first ballot at July’s Republican convention.  If he loses the primary today, it will be very difficult for him to get those 1237 delegates for the first ballot.  And — so it strikes me, anyway — if he fails to win on the first ballot, the odds of his... Read more

    Just a bit more than a month away:   http://www.areasonforfaith.info/countdown-to-book-release/     Read more

    Not just pop culture trivia here.  Some really surprising stuff, from one of the most interesting writers in the history of the Deseret News:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865650812/25-things-you-might-not-know-about-Wonder-Woman.html?pg=all#v68TAGsEEzDk6Tm4.01     Read more

    A very quick and trivial comment about today’s reading, Mosiah 22:   Some Latter-day Saints like to claim that the wine mentioned in the scriptures was really just unfermented grape juice.   But this chapter makes that view untenable.  The wine offered by Limhi and Gideon to their Lamanite guards made those guards drunk.  Welch’s grape juice, however, can’t be relied upon to have that effect — at least, not in my experience.   And it isn’t as if... Read more

    My wonderful habanera daughter-in-law calls my attention to this positive story from a place that, alas!, offers few positive stories these days:   https://www.facebook.com/HuffingtonPost/videos/10153812271206130/?pnref=story     Read more

    The proper study of Man is anything but Man; and the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity. J. R. R. Tolkien   Read more

    I’ll have more details fairly soon, I think, but it seems that I’ll be doing a fireside on Islam somewhere in the Phoenix/Mesa area on Sunday, 17 April.   I thought that some might be interested and might even want to note it on their calendars.  (Perhaps, of course, that’s just self-flattery.)   I’ll be sharing the podium with Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, with whom some of you may be familiar from his many national television appearances.   There... Read more

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    She served on the National Security Council under Democratic President Jimmy Carter and, during the administration of Democratic President Bill Clinton, she became the nation’s first female Secretary of State.   But that isn’t enough, in some eyes, to qualify her to be a commencement speaker:   http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/04/04/california-college-students-object-to-white-feminist-madeleine-albright-as-commencement-speaker.html?intcmp=hppop     Read more