Today’s reading, the single-chapter book of Enos, offers one of the most popular brief stories in the Book of Mormon, a story that is often cited to illustrate points about prayer, forgiveness, and many other topics.  And rightly so.   I’ll pick up a couple of aspects of it.   First, any parent, and perhaps any missionary, should take heart from this story.  Enos’s father may sometimes have felt that his teachings were sailing right past the young man.  And maybe they... Read more

    A reader of this blog who goes by the name of “brotheroflogan” reminds me of an interesting fact:   Dan, I thought you’d be interested to know what I found out. I was reading my French Book of Mormon and the word that they used to describe Amalickiah’s “deception” is tromperie, from the verb tromper, which means “to deceive” or “to hoodwink.”   I’m reminded of the artistic term tromp l’oeil (French: literally, “deceive the eye”): “visual illusion in art,... Read more

    So said Elder David A. Bednar, of the Council of the Twelve.   And, quite predictably, he’s being depicted by a number of critics as insane, a bitter hater, oppressive, tyrannical, a homophobic bigot, oblivious to reality, an embarrassment to Mormonism, someone who ought to resign, in denial, and so forth.   Now, on one level, there are clearly homosexual members of the Church.  As a former singles ward bishop and as someone who has held various leadership positions, I’ve... Read more

    An interesting blog entry from Stephen Smoot (who, by the way, was just accepted as a graduate student in Egyptology at the University of Toronto):   http://www.plonialmonimormon.com/2016/02/out-of-mesoamerica-archaeological.html   In other, weirder, news, Br’er Smoot was recently featured on Conan O’Brien’s network television show.  (I’m not making this up.)  Be warned, if you choose to watch this, that there’s a gratuitous bit of fairly gross Conanesque crudity in it.  Otherwise, though, it’s fun.     Read more

    Max Lucado is a really big name in the American Evangelical community.  But will this make any difference?  Probably not.  It seems that nothing will.   Where are we going?  And why are we in this hand basket?   “For Trump Supporters, a Reckoning is at Hand”     Read more

    http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/events/2016-second-interpreter-science-mormonism-symposium-body-brain-mind-and-spirit/   The room in which the conference will be held can, I’m informed, seats something on the order of 280 people.  Unfortunately, as is typically the case with such events, I have no idea whether twelve people will show up, or five hundred.   Accordingly, my advice, for any who might want to be there for the full day, or at least for the first sessions, is to get there early.   But, on a Saturday, people will... Read more

    “The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.” H. L. Mencken     Read more

    It’s nice to hear of the good things that the Church and its members are doing:   http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/church-assists-cyclone-winston-victims-in-fiji     Read more

    I needed something to cheer me up tonight, and this helped:   http://prospect.org/article/academic-drivel-report   Now maybe I’ll go watch some mindless television.     Read more

    It has been — as I knew it would be — a very bad day for the Republican Party and for the Republic.   “America’s Worst Congressman Endorses Donald Trump”   “Donald Trump should enjoy is Super Tuesday win because he’s going to be crushed”   “The Coming Anti-Trump Onslaught”   “Donald Trump is Hillary Clinton’s Best Hope”     Caesarotrumpism remains on the ascendent, and the forces of limited-government constitutionalism are very much on the defensive, bruised... Read more