We’re looking forward to the dedication of the Provo City Center Temple.   There’s never been  temple-construction story quite like this one.  But it seems quite appropriate to me that its dedication is taking place during the Easter season.   Think about it:   The Saints built the old Provo Tabernacle back in the nineteenth century.  With the passage of time, it became a bit run down.  Its central tower proved structurally unsound, for example, and had to be... Read more

    It’s been a gratifying day.  My wife and I did interviews with the film crew working on our little project centered on Robert Cundick, and we were also present when one of his sons was interviewed.  Bob’s wife, Charlotte, was also there.   We had dinner in the Manwaring Center, on the campus of Brigham Young University – Idaho.  As it happened (was it really a coincidence?), we were seated at a table with a man who had sung in... Read more

  Just a couple of quick notes on today’s reading, Mosiah 7:   1)  Here, you begin to see the narrative split into parallel accounts, as we learn about the people of King Limhi in the land of Lehi-Nephi.  The book of Mosiah, which was dictated in just a few days, is quite complex.  But, at the end of the book, all of the various narratives come together like the resolution of a chord in music.  It’s very well done.  ... Read more

    God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.  (St. Augustine)   I’ve always found it significant that we do vicarious baptisms for the dead one at a time.  It would be so much more efficient if we could baptize dead people en masse, if we could perform all of the temple ordinances in bulk.   But we can’t.   Instead, we must patiently seek to identify each individual and then perform every ordinance... Read more

    Deeply disheartened at the rise of vulgar-populist Caesarotrumpism, I turn to something more cheerful:   http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/11/earthquake-threat-to-california-may-be-greater-than-thought   In the meantime, though, leftist politicians may still be able to destroy California’s economy more completely:   http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/californias-carls-jr-says-so-long-golden-state/   Thanks to John Walters for calling my attention to the item above, regarding my native state. Posted from Rexburg, Idaho     Read more

    The title is rather inflammatory, but this short piece is actually pretty thoughtful:   http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2016/03/is_voting_for_donald_trump_un-.html   Posted from Idaho Falls, Idaho     Read more

    We would be heading home this morning after last night’s Mormon/Muslim dialogue here in Idaho Falls, were it not for a performance of Robert Cundick’s The Redeemer tonight on the Rexburg campus of Brigham Young University-Idaho:   http://www.byui.edu/center-stage/robert-cundick’s-the-redeemer-a-service-of-sacred-music   Oddly, I remember not particularly liking The Redeemer when I first heard it performed, many years ago.  I’m not sure what was wrong with me that night, because Bob Cundick’s “sacred service of music” has long since become a... Read more

    The latest installment of the joint Hamblin-Peterson column is up in the Deseret News:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865650412/The-words-of-Easter.html?pg=1   Posted from Idaho Falls, Idaho     Read more

    Donald Trump expressed doubts about Ted Cruz’s evangelicalism.  Then he questioned Ben Carson’s Seventh-Day Adventism.  Now, he’s questioned Mitt Romney’s Mormonism:   “Trump on Romney: ‘Are You Sure He’s a Mormon?'”   And he’s just renewed his personal attacks on Megyn Kelly, of Fox News:   http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/03/19/fox-news-responds-to-trumps-attacks-on-megyn-kelly.html?intcmp=hpbt1   I don’t believe that there has ever been so publicly unpleasant a major-party frontrunner as Donald Trump, and so distasteful a presidential campaign.   My disdain for Mr. Trump increases... Read more

    In today’s reading, Mosiah 6, we learn that King Mosiah II himself worked as a farmer.   Which suggests that the Nephite society of this period in the Book of Mormon — corresponding to the Pre-Classic era — was quite different from the grandiosity of the largely Classic and Post-Classic ruins that dot Mesoamerica today.  It was a relatively humble and modest affair.  The vast Pre-Columbian temples that we often see in photographs and on tours, with their sculpted gods and... Read more