A helpful primer for those who’ve never seen the earlier films or whose memories of them are dim:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865643952/A-beginner7s-guide-to-Star-Wars-and-its-characters.html?pg=all#3w29HVu4PbL8UZSZ.01   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    “Christmas celebrates part of divine plan” (2010)   “Christmas in the Holy Land — somber but triumphant” (2010)   “Pure love led Christ to descend the courts of glory” (2011)   “The Savior can change dark to light” (2012)   “Pleased as man with men to dwell” (2013)   Posted from Richmond, Virginia   Read more

    The Catholic philosopher and theologian Stephen Webb takes a sympathetic view of Mormon doctrine in this transcript from the August 2015 FairMormon conference:   http://www.fairmormon.org/perspectives/fair-conferences/2015-fairmormon-conference/why-mormon-materialism-matters   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    A lot of uninformed accounts are out there, purporting to tell us the shocking and uniformly horrible truth about the Arabs and the Muslims.   One excellent corrective for this, a book that will (if it’s permitted to do so) put a human face on the people and the region, is Everyday Life in the Muslim Middle East, by my long-time BYU colleague Donna Lee Bowen, Evelyn A. Early, and, now, in its third edition, my former student Becky... Read more

    Mark 16:14-18   Most of us will not see Christ in this life.  But we have reliable accounts from reliable witnesses who have — both ancient and modern.   If we fail to credit those witnesses, we will be held accountable for our failure.   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    A reporter who had tried to keep up with, and debunk, fake Internet stories and bogus Web claims gives up:   https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/12/18/what-was-fake-on-the-internet-this-week-why-this-is-the-final-column/   As anybody with experience in this area knows, connivers, fanatics, and loons can launch falsehoods far faster than decent, honest, sane people can refute them.   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    Luke 24:36-43 John 20:19-29 Compare Matthew 16:19; 18:18; Mark 16:14   In the Lukan account, Jesus makes a deliberate effort to impress upon the disciples that his resurrection was truly physical.  He tells them to touch him, and he eats before them — and not, presumably, because he’s suddenly famished, as if being resurrected creates a big appetite.  Of course, this simply confirms what the fact that the tomb was empty has already indicated:  His body has been resurrected,... Read more

    Several months ago, on a flight to Europe, my wife and I both watched a Russell Crowe film called The Water Diviner.   I hadn’t heard of it before, but I was intrigued by its title, since I’m a passionately superstitious practitioner of water witching.   No.  Wait.  That’s the phony persona that’s been created for me by a small, inbred gaggle of my more obsessive, dishonest, and deranged critics.   Actually, the film caught my attention because it... Read more

    Luke 24:13-35 Compare Mark 16:12-13   This wonderful story occurs only in the gospel of Luke, although Mark plainly alludes to it.   Three brief observations:   1.   Jesus is the same and yet, somehow, subtly different, so that his identity isn’t at first apparent to the two disciples walking with him toward Emmaus.  This may be the point of an expression in Mark 16:12, which says that “he appeared in another form [ἐν ἑτέρᾳ μορφῇ].”  That phrase serves no apparent purpose... Read more

    Driving south from Reagan National Airport, it’s impossible to miss the number of large, new corporate buildings that line the way.  For a list of some of them, see here.   By at least one measure, most of the ten richest counties in the United States are now in the greater Washington D.C. area:   http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2015/mar/02/scott-walker/scott-walker-says-most-10-richest-counties-are-aro/   This wasn’t always so, and, for somebody who’s been visiting the area over a period of many years — I myself have... Read more