Probably — I haven’t checked, but I’m pretty confident — the longest chapter in the Book of Mormon, Jacob 5, today’s reading, is also among the most detailed and interesting.   And it was the focus of a major scholarly symposium back in (I think) 1993 under the auspices of the late and sadly missed Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), which was ultimately renamed the “Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship” and has now become something rather different... Read more

    Somehow, I missed this article when it was published way back last May.  I think I was traveling at the time.   Anyway, it’s a nice retrospective on the strong opposition that confronted the building of Brigham Young University’s Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies and a brief discussion of where things stand today:   http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/190863/byu-jerusalem-campus It even includes some of the lyrics of a 1986 anti-Mormon pop song directed against the building.     Read more

    It scarcely matters who you are or what office you hold.  Any normal human being would be fascinated by a gift such as this:   http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/vice-president-joseph-biden-receives-family-history-in-temple-square-visit     Read more

    In Scripture Roundtable 159 of the Interpreter Foundation, Cassandra Hedelius, Martin Tanner, Bruce Webster, and McKay White join together from Maryland, Utah, and Alberta to discuss 2016 Gospel Doctrine lesson 15, which is based upon Mosiah 1-3: http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/scripture-roundtable-159-book-of-mormon-gospel-doctrine-lesson-15-eternally-indebted-to-your-heavenly-father/     Read more

    I’m not sure how likely or plausible this really is.  And I don’t know that, even if he were drafted, Romney could win.  The Trumpists, surely, would be screaming about the “Establishment” and probably writing in Bernie Sanders.  But it’s undoubtedly interesting:   http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/presidential-campaign/270966-did-christie-just-spark-draft-romney-move   Mitt Romney is an adult.  And a decent human being.   How refreshing that would be!  The Republican Party needs a shower.     Read more

    http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2016/02/22/earth-is-a-1-in-700-quintillion-kind-of-place/#.VtJzikuegdv   Here’s a related Deseret News column that I wrote back in 2011:   “Is Earth a dump, or privileged?”     Read more

    “Donald Trump Thinks American Workers Aren’t Good Enough for the Trump Organization”   “Think Trump Will Be Tough on Immigration? Consider His Company’s Use of Guest Workers” “Donald Trump Turned Down 94.4 Percent of American Job Applicants, Applied for Hundreds of ‘H’ Visas Instead”   Read more

    A parable from the Philosophical Fragments of Søren Kierkegaard:   Imagine there was a King who loved a humble maiden. She had no royal pedigree, no education, no standing in the royal court. She dressed in rags. She lived in a hovel; she lived the ragged life of a peasant. But for reasons no one could quite figure out, the King fell in love with this girl in the way the kings sometimes do. Why he should love... Read more

    Marco Rubio seems to have been quite correct in branding Mr. Donald Trump a “con artist”:   http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/432010/trump-university-scam   But will the Trumpists care?   In other news:   “Christie Sells Soul”   “Christie’s Conscience”   “Christie Told Newspaper He Would Never Endorse Trump”   Friends, if you’re as concerned as I am about the impending Trumpist takeover of the Republican Party and the massive damage that this will do to the cause of American conservatism and limited... Read more

    Certainly in its earliest chapters, the Book of Mormon is the chronicle of a small group, essentially of a family.   Accordingly, I find inspiration in Jacob 4, today’s reading, for compiling personal and family histories, something that Latter-day Saints are strongly encouraged to do:   But we can write a few words upon plates, which will give our children, and also our beloved brethren, a small degree of knowledge concerning us, or concerning their fathers—Now in this... Read more