The Economist is, beyond reasonable dispute, one of the finest magazines in the English-speaking world.  (It’s British.)  So I’m pleased that it’s taken notice of the stalwart Mormon opposition to Donald Trump.  And I got a kick out of one of the accompanying photographs, which shows the skyline of Salt Lake City and pronounces it the “HQ” of the anti-Trump movement.  That’s something to be very proud of.   “Mormons against the Donald”   “Why Ted Cruz triumphed... Read more

    http://religiondispatches.org/mormon-rejection-of-trump-provides-insight-into-muslim-extremism/   Thanks to Cody Quirk for alerting me to this little piece.     Read more

    Moving on with our reading of the Book of Mormon, we come to Mosiah 12:   I’ve heard more than a few chuckles about the first verse, in which Abinadi comes into the city in disguise and then immediately identifies himself by name.  However, I take it that his goal wasn’t to remain incognito but to gain entrance to the city and begin to preach before he could be stopped.  Once he opened his mouth, people were going to... Read more

    No, you can take it from an expert in cover-ups–I’ve lived through Watergate–that nothing less than a resurrected Christ could have caused those men to maintain to their dying whispers that Jesus is alive and is Lord. Chuck Colson   Read more

    The rise of Trumpism has made this — by light years — the ugliest, most classless, most vulgar, coarsest, most unworthy presidential contest in my lifetime.   One might perhaps say that Mr. Trump has merely unleashed the angry incivility already lurking below the surface.  And, sadly, that’s almost certainly true.  (It doesn’t speak well for the state of our nation.)  But he’s also been the principal contributor.   He’s mocked women, boasted about the alleged size of... Read more

    A comment responding to one of my blog posts (in which, shockingly, I advocate tolerance for Muslims and better understanding of Islam) has deployed the old pseudo-scholarly argument that Allah, the word commonly used for the Supreme Being among Muslims, refers to a pagan Arabian moon deity, utterly unrelated to the God of Christianity.   This is pure bilge.   In fact, I regard it as one of the most irritating and transparently false criticisms of Islam that... Read more

    And indeed, they should be embarrassed:   http://religiondispatches.org/mormon-rejection-of-trump-embarrassing-for-evangelicals/   Some of the very people who strenuously opposed Mitt Romney as a non-Christian “cultist” have vocally supported Donald Trump, with his casual attitudes toward church affiliation and toward asking divine forgiveness, his multiple marriages and affairs, his coarse vulgarity, his mockery (and worse) of the religious faiths of others, and, yes, his prospective nude-model First Lady.  (Nancy Reagan, ye should be living at this hour!)     Read more

    For whatever it’s worth, my Deseret News “Easter offering” for this year is now up online:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865650754/A-great-cloud-of-witnesses-at-Easter.html     Read more

    In today’s reading, Mosiah 11, we meet one of the most notorious villains in the Book of Mormon:  King Noah.   I’ve always thought that monarchy has the potential of being an excellent form of government:  After all, if you knew for a certainty that a particular child would someday be king or queen, that child could be given all of the specific kinds of education and training that would equip him or her to assume that role competently and well.  ... Read more

    https://cnstopstories.com/2016/03/23/muslim-restorers-feel-history-in-work-on-mosaics-above-jesus-burial-site/   Thanks to Jabra Ghneim for bringing this wonderfully positive story to my notice.     Read more