It being Easter Sunday, and some hating Christianity and Easter Sunday, I’ve seen a couple of references already today to the various dying and resurrecting gods that, a few critics claim, were a dime a dozen in the environment out of which the Christian faith emerged.   The claim is nonsense.   Here’s something that I wrote about it roughly four years ago:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765576518/Parallels-of-prophets-not-parallel.html?pg=all     Read more

    I would like to wish everyone out there a joyous Easter Sunday.   As the traditional Greek Christian greeting has it,   Χριστός ἀνέστη!   To which the traditional response is,   Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη!   “Christ is risen!”   “Truly, he is risen!”   A reading from 1 Corinthians 15 (New International Version): 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the... Read more

    Father James Martin’s article on Easter in the Wall Street Journal is excellent — which, to a certain degree, means that I agree with it and that I could very well have written it myself:   http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-challenge-of-easter-1458916153   But I really do commend it to your attention.   And, continuing somewhat in the same vein as Father Martin’s article, I’d like to share one of my very favorite poems:  “Seven Stanzas at Easter,” by John Updike:   Make... Read more

    An extraordinarily powerful Easter message from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, of the Quorum of the Twelve:   https://www.lds.org/youth/video/none-were-with-him?lang=eng     Read more

    I’m waaaaaay late on this, but I don’t want it to go unnoticed.   http://bookofmormoncentral.org/content/book-of-mormon-day   And I vow not to be late next year.     Read more

    Here’s an video from the British Daily Mail in which the seriously injured Sister Fanny Clain, of Montélimar, France, is briefly interviewed:   http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3507439/It-like-end-world-Brussels-blast-survivor-skin-melted-airport-explosion-speaks-shocking-ordeal-hospital-bed.html   She was at the airport, preparing to leave for service in the Ohio Cleveland Mission.   Elder Mason Wells, of Utah, who had four months remaining of his service in the France Paris Mission (which includes Brussels), was interviewed by CNN:   http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/25/europe/brussels-terror-attack-survivors/   But here’s the really remarkable interview with him, which is a must-watch:... Read more

    I wrote this Easter 2012 column just a few days after speaking at the funeral of my brother, my only sibling.  Believe me when I say that it was heartfelt:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765566003/The-gospel-truly-brings-joyful-news.html     Read more

    My wife and I attended a performance of The Lion King this afternoon in which two of the young children of one of our home teaching families had roles.  (One was “Young Simba” — a pretty substantial part.  The other donned and doffed and donned again probably at least a half dozen different costumes as part of the ensemble.)  It was an amazingly ambitious undertaking for children of their age and for their teachers and directors and support... Read more

    Okay.  I’m a Scandinavian.  And, many of my critics say, a particularly mean-spirited and black-hearted one.   I don’t do emotion.  (Except, of course — claim my detractors — rage and anger.)   But this brought a bit of moisture even to my eyes.   It’s shocking, really.  I’m becoming sentimental in my old age.  How would my spiritual mentors — Eric Bloodaxe and Sweyn Forkbeard — respond to such an appalling sign of weakness?   I’d better... Read more

    At the initiative of the good folks at Patheos (particularly Kathleen Mulhern), and thanks to their efforts, this blog (Sic et Non) now has a Facebook page of its own:   https://www.facebook.com/PatheosSicEtNon/?fref=photo   Facebook is 95% mystery to me.   When it comes to social media, I stand (rather wobbly and with very blurred vision) on the shoulders of giants.  Or, at least, on the shoulders of people far more knowledgeable and competent than I am on this... Read more