My wife and I were privileged, nearly three weeks ago now, to attend a dinner in honor of Elder Robert Gay of the Seventy, whom I’ve known since before his call as a General Authority and even before his assignment as a mission president in Ghana.  It was sponsored by the Utah Youth Village, which is a very estimable and worthwhile organization in its own right.   Here’s the press release that was sent out on that dinner beforehand:... Read more

    Anybody who writes very much — whether we’re talking about published books or plays, or letters or emails, or journal entries — knows that it’s very difficult to express all that one wishes to convey by means of mere letters on a page or a screen, and understands how inadequate mere words are to capture the fullness of a powerful feeling or experience.   In a letter of 27 November 1832 to William W. Phelps, the Prophet Joseph Smith wrote,... Read more

    An interesting piece from Allen Hansen:   http://calba-savua.blogspot.com/2013/09/more-terrible-than-even-persecutions-of.html?m=1     Read more

    You may be aware that Utah has been experiencing controversy of late on the matter of the legal status of marijuana — and particularly so since the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints took a public stand regarding one of two relevant bills being considered by the state legislature.   For various reasons, I haven’t yet been following the debate closely, nor even commenting on it.  But I was struck by this article, brought to my notice... Read more

    “I have trouble understanding why people drift away from the Church. . . .  There are all kinds of contradictions that I don’’t understand, but I find the same kind of contradictions in science, and I haven’’t decided to apostatize from science.” Dr. Henry Eyring     Read more

    I have to admit in advance that, without having seen her book, I’m inclined to be sympathetic.  For one thing, I rather like it when outsiders (e.g., Michael Ventris, with Minoan Linear B) stir things up in seemingly settled fields.  For another, I’ve always disliked it when scholars assume that ancient people were fools and that ancient texts are essentially superstitious mumbo-jumbo.   That said, though, I’m curious to hear what my LDS Egyptologist friends and acquaintances (e.g. John... Read more

    Because it was written by a friend and former neighbor, and because roughly eighteen months ago, my wife and I had a similar experience with a granddaughter — some of the most excruciating pain I’ve ever experienced, something that I never want to experience again, and, in a very real sense, something that was made all the worse by the fact that it was happening to our son and our daughter-in-law and there was absolutely nothing we could do to take... Read more

    My wife and I were saddened, yesterday, to learn of the death of Bob Blair, whom we’ve known for many years as a member of a monthly reading group to which we belong.   He was a remarkable linguist, the founder of BYU’s Department of Linguistics, a former mission president, a devoted Latter-day Saint, and a very good man.   Here is the Deseret News obituary for him:   http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/deseretnews/obituary.aspx?n=robert-wallace-blair&pid=177788558&fhid=32272   Here is his testimony, from Mormon Scholars... Read more

    A fairly brief item in a Jewish publication about the relatively small but interesting (and perhaps growing) community of Latter-day Saints from Jewish backgrounds:   http://www.jta.org/2016/02/21/news-opinion/united-states/for-jewish-mormons-hybrid-identity-seen-as-no-contradiction     Read more

    This sounds very interesting, and I look forward to reading it:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865648140/Book-review-6The-Book-of-Mormon-is-True7-studies-the-importance-of-a-unique-vocabulary.html?pg=all   Other studies that have found seemingly distinct authorial voices within the Book of Mormon include:   Grant Hardy.  Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Guide (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010)   Roger R. Keller.  Book of Mormon Authors: Their Words and Messages (Salt Lake City: BYU Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book, 1996)   And, of course, the classic computerized statistical wordprint studies... Read more