Tomb, thou shalt not hold Him longer; Death is strong, but Life is stronger; Stronger than the dark, the light; Stronger than the wrong, the right . . . Phillips Brooks, “An Easter Carol”   Read more

    A past Deseret News column, appropriate for this week:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865601337/Holy-Week-aids-Easter-reflections.html     Read more

    I know that many won’t want to hear nuances today.  I haven’t been looking, but, even on my own Facebook page and in comments sent to me, I’ve challenged to defend Islam as a “religion of peace,” told that we ought to deport all Muslims or at least bar them at our borders, and reminded that only Islam causes people to strap on suicide bombs and kill innocent people.   The last comment is simply false, as Professor... Read more

  http://thefederalist.com/2016/03/21/how-mormons-could-prevent-a-president-trump/   Make it so.     Read more

    We don’t yet know — at least, I don’t — who is behind the horrific attacks in Brussels, Belgium.  (The fact that three LDS missionaries were among the wounded will bring this event closer to home for many of my readers.)   It’s virtually certain, though, that they were carried out by Islamists.  And that’s even without the report that I heard just a few minutes ago, which indicated that Arabic-sounding shouts were heard just before the two... Read more

    Kevin Williamson makes a quite serious point:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/432941/donald-trump-populist-demagogue-john-adams-anticipated   Incidentally, I would appreciate it if people who don’t trouble themselves to read the article would refrain from denouncing it as “moronic” and etc. here on my blog and on my Facebook page.   If they read it and then want to dispute its argument, of course, they’re perfectly welcome to do so.     Read more

    We joined with neighbors tonight to attend a performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Hale Center Theater in Orem.   It was very, very well done.   Dreamcoat is, so far as I can tell, an utterly vacuous play.  If it has any kind of a real point or serious idea, I’ve never been able to discern what it might be.  But its music is fantastic, it’s exceedingly clever, it’s very funny, and it’s... Read more

    Today’s reading, Mosiah 9, gives us a glimpse into one of the several distinct sets of records that were employed to construct the Book of Mormon — and is, therefore, yet another window into the complexity of the book that was given to the world through Joseph Smith.   Note the first phrase of verse one, which seems to be a formal record-opening (equivalent to an author’s signature) rather like 1 Nephi 1:1.   Note, too, the word sheum in verse nine.... Read more

    “The simple fact that the Christian fellowship, founded on belief in Jesus’ resurrection, came into existence and flourished in the very city where he was executed and buried is powerful evidence for the historicity of the empty tomb.” William Lane Craig   Read more

    In recent decades, activists of various stripes have demanded that American businesses “divest” from South Africa because of apartheid and from Israel because of its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza — though, notably, I don’t recall these folks as calling from divestment from China, Russia, Libya, Zimbabwe, Syria, and other such tyrannous violators of human rights.   The indignation has always been . . . umm, selective.   Now though, it seems, some activists have selected a... Read more