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

    One of the principal missions of Book of Mormon Central is to make some of the material generated about the Book of Mormon over the past sixty or seventy years or so much more accessible, in nicely-packaged form.   Sidney Sperry, Hugh Nibley, John Sorenson, the old Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) — these people (and many others) produced a great deal of very good stuff for a very long time.  But a lot of... Read more

  I will, once again, be accused of attacking science in the service of my irrational religious beliefs.   That, of course, is both false and unjust.   But I do think it important to remember that science is done by humans, and that scientists, like all other humans, are fallible, prone to fads, inclined to presuppositions and bias, liable to be misled, susceptible to manipulation, more generally ignorant than knowledgeable, limited by time and energy and personal quirks and... Read more

    I ran across this little item on page 68 of the April 2016 issue of the superb conservative magazine of religion and public affairs First Things:   “A friend’s son bought a Trump ‘Make America Great Again’ baseball cap.  The tag on the inside reads: ‘100% Cotton.  Made in China.”   That is a very nice illustration — though it’s far from the only one — of the sheer phoniness of Mr. Trump.   He rails against outsourcing... Read more

    A nice Easter-oriented article in the Deseret News from Taylor Halverson and Lisa Halverson:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865650388/Taylor-and-Lisa-Halverson-Easter-and-the-At-one-ment.html?clear_cache=1     Read more

    Two brief observations about today’s reading, Mosiah 8:   First, Mosiah is a book in which several different groups are traveling here and there, and several stories interweave, overlap, divide, and rejoin.  The story of the party sent out to find the land of Zarahemla, but that stumbles upon the remains (and the records) of the Jaredites, is one of these.  I say it again:  Mosiah is quite remarkably complex.   Second, I notice the reference to “wisdom” in verse twenty:... Read more

    In 1728, when he was still just a young man of twenty-one or twenty-two, Benjamin Franklin composed his own mock epitaph.  It was never actually used, but it seems not entirely inappropriate to mention it as we approach Easter:   The Body of B. Franklin Printer; Like the Cover of an old Book, Its Contents torn out, And stript of its Lettering and Gilding, Lies here, Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be whlly lost: For it... Read more

    Neal Rappleye describes a nice new contribution to Book of Mormon studies   http://www.studioetquoquefide.com/2016/03/names-and-meaning-part-2-zoram-revisited.html#more     Read more

  I still have melodies from The Redeemer coursing through my mind.  This is one of them, with a text drawn from Moroni 7:41, 48, in the Book of Mormon:      And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise. . . .  Wherefore, my beloved... Read more

    Today is the vernal equinox, which means that it’s the first day of spring.   It’s also Palm Sunday, commemorating Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the beginning of his last week in mortality.   Palm Sunday is, I’m afraid, to some extent a reminder of the fickleness of crowds.  Most of those who covered the path before him with palm fronds and their own cloaks and who shouted “Hosanna!” and welcomed him as their messianic king were... Read more