Here’s a Deseret News column that I published on Thanksgiving Day last year, 2014:   Many years ago, a friend (now deceased) told me about a very high-ranking Church leader (also now deceased) who had been asked to address a group of local senior service missionaries and their wives at their annual Christmas dinner.   As the program proceeded, various stories were related to illustrate the great things that this group of devoted volunteers had accomplished during the... Read more

    Michael De Groote has kindly brought this intriguing article to my notice:   http://www.theatlantic.stfi.re/science/archive/2015/10/the-most-interesting-star-in-our-galaxy/410023/?sf=lrebok   Posted from Marbella, Spain     Read more

    I know a pair of relatively young Muslim parents from Egypt who studied at BYU and who have chosen to remain to live and work in Utah.  I think very highly of them.  They’re fine people, gentle and good people, and assets to our valley.   I’ve just learned that a fellow student at the school that their (cute) little girl attends recently called their daughter a “terrorist.”   The family are upset.  And I’m ashamed that such a thing happened... Read more

    I like a stroll on the beach as much as anybody, and we’ve done a bit of that here.  But the real point of coming to southern Spain was to spend some time poking around the remnants of the Islamic golden age in al-Andalus.   On Friday, as I’ve already noted here, we visited the very ancient mountain town of Ronda.   On Saturday, we went to Córdoba, where, after parking in a structure located right by a... Read more

    The Church issues a statement on the issue:   http://www.ldsliving.com/Church-Responds-to-Speculation-About-Shorter-Sunday-Block/s/80640?utm_source=ldsliving&utm_medium=email   Posted from Marbella, Spain     Read more

    This is a chance for members of the Church to join in proclaiming the message of Christ’s birth for Christmas:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865642256/LDS-Church-to-release-A-Savior-is-Born-Christmas-initiative-on-Nov-29.html?pg=all   I’m intending to participate in the effort, and I encourage you to do so, too.   Posted from Marbella, Spain     Read more

    Here’s a column that I published in the Deseret News on Thanksgiving 2013:   It’s the season of Thanksgiving, and, so, minds like mine turn naturally to etymology, to word origins. Please be patient. There is method in my madness.   The origin of the word “religion” is obscure, and has been much debated. But all suggestions for it seem to agree that remembrance, an awareness of dependence and obligation, is at the core of what it means... Read more

    A sharp tongue is the only edge tool that grows keener with constant use.  (Washington Irving)   Posted from Marbella, Spain   Read more

    It was Jabra Ghneim, I believe, who called this item to my attention:   http://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2015/11/20/study-quran-commentary-combat-extremism-daniel-burke-orig.cnn/video/playlists/digital-studios-topicals/   I’ve been a reader of Seyyid Hossein Nasr for decades, and have had some slight contact with him over the years.  I hold him in enormous respect, and I look eagerly forward to seeing this new book.   Posted from Marbella, Spain     Read more

    Thanks to Cody Quirk for calling my attention to this item:   http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/melissa-mullins/2015/11/23/new-york-times-overplays-mass-resignations-harmful-mormon-church   It reminds me of a conversation that Bill Hamblin and I had with the American feminist Gloria Steinem many years ago in Cairo, when we were both graduate students there.  She had come to Egypt to deliver a major public lecture addressing the topic of sexism in religion.  We attended, and we were deeply impressed by the courage demonstrated in her remarks, which concentrated... Read more