Neal Rappleye suggests a rich new meaning for the beloved but (perhaps) originally pagan symbol of the Christmas tree:   http://www.studioetquoquefide.com/2015/12/behold-love-of-god-christmas-vision.html     Read more

    An essay from the estimable Ralph Hancock:   http://www.patheos.com/blogs/soulandcity/2015/12/april-1971-nothing-new-here-just-same-ol-mormonism/     Read more

    Matthew 26:30-35 Mark 14:26-31 Luke 22:31-34 John 13:36-38 Compare Matthew 28:7, 10; Mark 16:7; Luke 22:39; John 16:32; 18:1; 21:15-17   One of the signs of the truthfulness of the gospel accounts is their forthright portrayal of what is usually regarded as the very human weakness of Peter, despite his subsequent reputation as the “Rock” and a “pillar” of the church.   There’s no attempt to whitewash or glorify him.     Read more

    As the next installment in the campaign “A Savior is Born,” the Gardiner Sisters perform a classic traditional Christmas carol:   https://www.mormon.org/christmas/gardiner-sisters     Read more

    I’ve always loved Gustav Holst’s beautiful setting of Christina Rossetti’s “In the Bleak Midwinter.”  Listen, here, to choir and congregation sharing the wonder of the piece and its message:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRobryliBLQ     Read more

    Treat those who are good with goodness, and also treat those who are not good with goodness. Thus goodness is attained. Be honest to those who are honest, and be also honest to those who are not honest. Thus honesty is attained. Lao Tzu (ca. 5th century BC)   Read more

    There’s a new outcry for solutions that will solve nothing:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/427905/mass-shootings-gun-control     Read more

    I had a brief exchange in the comments section of my blog early this morning.  (Still jet-lagged, I woke up far, far too soon.)   It concerns a topic that’s important enough, and urgent enough, that I want my response to be very visible and clear.  I don’t think that I’m acting inappropriately with regard to the person to whom I’m responding because (a) s/he wrote under a pseudonym (“Big Brutha”), so his or her real-life identity is... Read more

    This week’s “Defending the Faith” column in the Deseret News:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865642903/Literally-hard-facts-at-the-beginning-of-Mormonism.html     Read more

    Video footage of the police response to yesterday’s mass shooting in San Bernardino shows officers arriving within about five minutes of the first call for help, and running toward the scene of the crime.   They didn’t have, couldn’t have had, any very clear idea of what they were running toward.  Yet they ran.   A video has surfaced of a police officer leading to safety some of those caught in the building where the massacre has just... Read more