Here’s one in writing:   http://mormonscholarstestify.org/2791/john-s-lewis   Here’s another in the form of a beautifully produced four-minute video from the Church:   https://www.lds.org/pages/we-lived-with-god?lang=eng     Read more

    I suspect that the church sign above has been photoshopped.  But it takes very little searching to discover real anti-Mormon websites and other materials exhorting their audiences absolutely not to pray about the Book of Mormon.  So, whether or not the sign is authentic, the sentiment is genuine.   Which puts me in mind of a passage in today’s reading from the Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 32:   For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray,... Read more

    Harper Lee, the author of the legendary American novel To Kill a Mockingbird, died on Friday at the age of eighty-nine.  Here are nine quotations from that must-read book:   http://m.deseretnews.com/top/3604/0/9-memorable-quotes-from-To-Kill-a-Mockingbird.html   Thanks to Nathaniel Hancock for bringing this article to my attention.   And, by the way, a commenter added two more good quotations following the article.     Read more

    I’m not remotely qualified to judge the scientific merits of this debate, but it’s fascinating to see that the notion of a cosmic “Big Bang” roughly 13.7-13.8 billion years ago, which only became established doctrine within my lifetime (after the demise of Fred Hoyle’s “Steady State” alternative), may perhaps be on the way out:   http://phys.org/news/2015-02-big-quantum-equation-universe.html   But then again, maybe not.  We shall see.   Thanks to David Wills for bringing this item to my attention.  ... Read more

    The linked item below was called to my attention by its author, my friend and colleague Jeff Chadwick, with the following note:   “SUNDAY SCHOOL ALERT: In the BOOK OF MORMON, Nephi starts his long Isaiah section not with Isaiah chapter 1, but with Isaiah chapter 2 and THE GREAT JERUSALEM TEMPLE PROPHECY. In 2013 we published a chapter on this important prophecy in the annual Sperry volume, and it’s definitely outside-the-box reading. . . .  The html... Read more

    And (with apologies to Ecclesiastes 12:12) much study can be a weariness of the flesh.   But here’s a remarkable resource for responding to such objections:   http://en.fairmormon.org/Table_of_Contents   It certainly doesn’t exhaust all that might be said, and my own strong preference is to set forth reasons to believe rather than to explain why reasons being advanced for doubt may not actually bear the weight placed upon them.  But a good team in baseball, soccer, basketball, or football... Read more

  Does anybody else out there who cares about BYU and the future of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints find this at least a little bit, umm, problematic?   Does anyone wonder what our students have been taught at home, and what they’re being taught in their political science and history and American Heritage classes?  I wonder what Presidents David O. McKay and Ezra Taft Benson might have said about this.   http://universe.byu.edu/2016/02/19/feel-the-bern-poll-shows-byu-students-prefer-socialist-sanders/   (Thanks — I... Read more

    Today’s reading, 2 Nephi 31, is a marvelously clear statement of the necessity of baptism.  I certainly can’t improve on it, so I’m going to quote it.  At least one or two passages, anyway — “for my soul delighteth in plainness; for after this manner doth the Lord God work among the children of men” (verse 3):   “And now, if the Lamb of God, he being holy, should have need to be baptized by water, to fulfil all righteousness, O then,... Read more

    “A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.” H. L. Mencken     Read more

    Shon Hopkin, Martin Tanner, and Bruce Webster come together for the 158th scripture roundtable posted by the Interpreter Foundation.  They discuss 2016 Gospel Doctrine lesson 14, which is focused on Enos, Jarom, Omni, and the Words of Mormon:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/scripture-roundtable-158-book-of-mormon-gospel-doctrine-lesson-14-for-a-wise-purpose/     Read more