I’ll be delivering two lectures up there, at Cruise Lady headquarters, 9118 South Redwood Road:   Wednesday, 3 February 2016   “Who’s Who and What’s What in the Middle East”   Are you confused by all the players and factions in today’s Islamic world? (You won’t be alone, if you are.) This lecture will offer a brief and accessible guide to the main organizations and movements that often show up in the headlines but are frequently not well... Read more

    In this, the 151st scripture roundtable posted by the Interpreter Foundation, Kris Frederickson, Jeff Bradshaw, Craig Foster, and Ben McGuire join in a discussion of 2016 Gospel Doctrine lesson 7, which covers 2 Nephi 3-5:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/scripture-roundtable-151-book-of-mormon-gospel-doctrine-lesson-7-i-know-in-whom-i-have-trusted/     Read more

    I’m afraid that I’m a bit late in calling renewed attention to this, the first article ever published in Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/thou-knowest-that-i-believe/   In my ward, anyway, the Gospel Doctrine lesson for today covered (among other things) 1 Nephi 11.  And I can’t imagine, this early in the year, that there’s much divergence yet in teaching schedules across the Church.   Still, having just discussed this chapter today, some of you may find... Read more

    With today’s reading, 2 Nephi 1, we enter into an entirely different book within the Book of Mormon — its second.   That fact in itself is interesting.   No great lapse of time separates the end of 1 Nephi from the beginning of 2 Nephi.  No significant event marks the division.  Indeed, the happenings with which 2 Nephi 1 begins seem to occur on the very same day as those narrated in 1 Nephi 22.  They are, perhaps,... Read more

    “Faith is not something that goes against the evidence, it goes beyond it. The evidence is saying to us, ‘There is another country. There is something beyond mere reason’.” Alister E. McGrath     Read more

    Martin Tanner and Bruce Webster joined together for this discussion of Lesson 6 in the 2016 Gospel Doctrine curriculum.  It’s focused on 2 Nephi 1-2:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/scripture-roundtable-150-book-of-mormon-gospel-doctrine-lesson-6-free-to-choose-liberty-and-eternal-life/   This is, by the way, the 150th scripture roundtable posted by the Interpreter Foundation.  The one hundred and fiftieth.  For an organization that’s supposedly been on its deathbed since shortly after its founding roughly 3.5 years ago, that’s not altogether bad.     Read more

    A few days ago, somebody I’ve known (and liked) for years (and who, so far as I’m aware, remains active in the Church) expressed — rather fiercely, harshly, and vociferously — his contempt for President Russell M. Nelson’s statement (on which, see here and here) that the still-relatively-recent policy clarification regarding children in the custody of same-sex couples came as the result of revelation.  It was, this person said, a “lie.”  Which, I guess, makes President Nelson a liar.... Read more

    The Abbey Church of Saint Foy, in Conques, France, in which the somewhat unexpected mid-eleventh-century stone-carving detail above appears, was a popular stop for medieval pilgrims who were traveling along the “Way of St. James” en route to the shrine of Santiago de Compostela, which is located in what is now Spain.  But Conques had its own intrinsic appeal, as well — most notably, the alleged remains of St. Foy, a young woman who had been martyred for her Christian beliefs in the fourth century AD.  ... Read more

    In August of 2001, my longtime friend and colleague S. Kent Brown offered this presentation at the third annual FAIR conference:   http://www.fairmormon.org/perspectives/fair-conferences/2001-fair-conference/2001-arabia-and-the-book-of-mormon     Read more

    In connection with this Book of Mormon curriculum year, I think I’ll occasionally dust off one of my relevant previous Deseret News columns.  Here, for example, is a piece about a still-relatively new book that I strongly recommend:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865631371/From-Darkness-unto-Light-takes-a-fresh-look-at-recovery-publication-of-the-Book-of-Mormon.html     Read more