A potentially helpful piece from the invaluable Gregory Smith:   http://blog.fairmormon.org/2016/01/11/what-should-i-do-if-i-think-ive-received-revelation-different-from-apostles-and-prophets/     Read more

    This is the kind of airstrike that I really, really like.  It’s far more important than using a high-tech fighter-bomber to take out the occasional run-down ISIS jeep:   http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/11/politics/us-bombs-millions-isis-currency-supply/index.html     Read more

    http://www.nationalreview.com/article/429526/hillarys-e-mail-scandal-grows-latest-batch-shows-she-broke-rules-again     Read more

    Some militant atheists like to contrast the fruitful and self-corrective nature of science with what they see as the whimsical, completely arbitrary, and fact-free character of religion.  (“Why not believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster,” they jeer, “or in Russell’s teapot, or in leprechauns?”)  And, of course, such things as the genetics of fruit flies and pea plants, the chemical composition of oxygen, and the variant temperatures of the earth’s atmosphere can in fact be measured rather clearly and fairly clearly... Read more

    A passage from President Russell M. Nelson’s talk at BYU-Hawaii has been generating considerable controversy (and even anger) in certain circles:   http://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2016/01/mormon-gay-policy-is-will-of-the-lord-through-his-prophet-senior-apostle-says.html   Here’s a more full and more balanced report on the speech:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865645244/President-Russell-M-Nelson-Becoming-true-millennials.html?pg=1   Here’s a passage from the fuller, more balanced report:   “Filled with compassion for all, and especially for the children, we wrestled at length to understand the Lord’s will in this matter,” he said. “Ever mindful of God’s plan of... Read more

    Today’s reading is 1 Nephi 16.   It’s in this chapter that Ishmael — who, with his family, had joined Lehi’s group on their journey away from Jerusalem — dies.  And he’s buried in a place called Nahom.   For a number of reasons, I believe the mention of Nahom to be one of the most impressive bull’s eyes in the Book of Mormon.   See here, for example, for a brief overview of the topic.  And, for a brief filmed... Read more

    “Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.” Theodore Isaac Rubin     Read more

    http://www.sltrib.com/lifestyle/faith/3391057-155/lds-gay-policy-came-from-god   I predict an absolutely rabid anti-Mormon hate-fest in the comments following this newly posted article from the Salt Lake Tribune.     Read more

    I’m not even remotely a fan of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, but I take no pleasure in such stories as this:   https://www.revealnews.org/blog/in-england-more-accusations-that-jehovahs-witnesses-hid-sex-abuse/   Thanks to Cody Quirk for alerting me to a sad situation.     Read more

    Barry Bickmore delivered this paper in California, at the very first annual conference of FAIR (now FairMormon) in 1999:   http://www.fairmormon.org/perspectives/fair-conferences/1999-fair-conference/1999-mormonism-in-the-early-jewish-christian-milieu     Read more