In company with at least two journalists, a group of LDS-focused bloggers from various points along the Mormon ideological spectrum met this morning up at the corporate headquarters of Deseret Book Company to talk about Patrick Q. Mason’s new book, Planted: Belief and Belonging in an Age of Doubt.   I was at a bit of a disadvantage because (a) I’m still struggling with some sort of everlasting respiratory infection and (b) the copy of the volume that I was... Read more

    It’s been a long and busy day, and it’s not over yet.  But I’m determined not to miss an entry.  Not yet, anyway.  (There will eventually be some travel days where it just won’t be possible to post.)  So I’m going to content myself with a very brief note on today’s reading, 1 Nephi 21.   The first verse already piques my interest:   And again: Hearken, O ye house of Israel, all ye that are broken off and are driven out... Read more

    “Nothing appeals to intellectuals more than the feeling that they represent ‘the people’.  Nothing, as a rule, is further from the truth.” Paul Johnson     Read more

    Jeff Lindsay has produced a good list of suggested readings that some of you might find interesting:   http://www.jefflindsay.com/lds/lds-reading-list/     Read more

    Some members of the Church believe that lobbying, demonstrations, petitions, rallies, marches, protests, and so forth should be brought to bear upon the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in order to pressure them into making what those members believe would be desirable improvements in Church practices and even doctrines (e.g., on the ordination of women and the validation of homosexual relationships).   They not infrequently point to the priesthood revelation of 1978, which,... Read more

      “Science makes major contributions to minor needs.  Religion, however small its successes, is at least at work on the things that matter most.” Oliver Wendell Holmes   I’m not sure that I fully agree with this comment.  In fact, at two points, I’m sure that I don’t.  However, I understand his point and am sympathetic to it.     Read more

    Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture actually published two articles today.  Here’s the second of them:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/the-case-of-plural%E2%80%89was-in-the-earliest-text/     Read more

    It being Friday, there’s a new article up from Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/the-case-of-the-th-plural-in-the-earliest-text/   Happy weekend!     Read more

    I somehow missed this story when it appeared late last April, but it’s such a pleasant one that I want to be sure that others see it:   http://www.fides.org/en/news/37699-AFRICA_EGYPT_Muslims_collect_money_to_build_a_church_in_the_Egyptian_province_of_Al_Manufiyya#.VpkRuUuegdv     Read more

    Thanks to Russell Spencer for bringing this very welcome item to my attention:   http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/egypts-president-attends-mass-vows-rebuild-churches#     Read more