We’re past Halloween, of course, but this piece (“The Pumpkin”) by the American Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) is directly relevant to Thanksgiving and to the time of harvest.  Please enjoy it:   Oh, greenly and fair in the lands of the sun, The vines of the gourd and the rich melon run, And the rock and the tree and the cottage enfold, With broad leaves all greenness and blossoms all gold, Like that which o’er Nineveh’s prophet... Read more

    Here’s the text of a column that I published in the Deseret News on Thanksgiving Day 2011:   Autumn harvest festivals were and are common across Europe, and, as every American schoolchild once learned, our modern Thanksgiving celebrations descend from a meal shared between Massachusetts Pilgrims and Native Americans in 1621.   It was not until 3 October 1863, however, that a uniform national holiday was established by presidential proclamation. Writing well into the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln declared that... Read more

    An eminent Austrian-American sociologist of religion responds to the question:   http://www.the-american-interest.com/2015/11/18/who-lost-the-american-culture-war/   Posted from Marbella, Spain     Read more

    Joel J. Miller is mounting an interesting theological challenge to Islam.  I’ve already posted a link to his article “Islam is a religion of violence: Or, why abstract theology actually matters,” indicating that I disagreed with him at some crucial points.   Now he’s published “The existential crisis behind today’s Islamic violence”:   http://blogs.ancientfaith.com/joeljmiller/islamic-violence/   As I say, I find his challenge interesting and important.  And I mean that.  But I don’t think he’s right.   I think... Read more

    For some reason, I immediately thought of him when I first heard the news.  And now it turns out that he was almost caught in the attack:   http://www.ldsliving.com/LDS-Presidential-Candidate-of-Mali-Narrowly-Escapes-Raid-by-Islamic-Extremists/s/80620?utm_source=ldsliving&utm_medium=email   Posted from Marbella, Spain     Read more

    Most of the universe is dark matter, which we know only indirectly, by inference.  A small nearby galaxy may rank among the highest of extraterrestrial bodies in its proportion of dark matter:   http://www.caltech.edu/news/dark-matter-dominates-nearby-dwarf-galaxy-48790   Posted from Marbella, Spain     Read more

    If, as I do, you spend a lot of time reading comments from apostates, cynics, and bitter enemies of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you might be inclined to believe their enthusiastic and hopeful declarations that the Church is in steep decline — indeed, virtually on its death bed.   But it’s not:   http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2015/november/evangelicals-mormons-jehovahs-witnesses-church-involvement.html   Posted from Marbella, Spain     Read more

    Accosted by sister missionaries at Temple Square, he was inclined at first to be irritated by the interruption.  But his irritation passed quickly:   http://www.realclearreligion.org/articles/2015/11/21/what_mormon_missionaries_taught_me_about_faith.html   Posted from Marbella, Spain     Read more

    Cassandra Hedelius, Jeffrey Mark Bradshaw, Daniel Peterson, and Stephen Smoot discuss 1 Nephi 16-18 (2016 Gospel Doctrine lesson 5) in this, the 149th scripture roundtable published by the Interpreter Foundation:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/scripture-roundtable-149-book-of-mormon-gospel-doctrine-lesson-5-hearken-to-the-truth-and-give-heed-unto-it/   Posted from Marbella, Spain     Read more

    Ernest Hemingway loved Spain.   But he had many loves, both human and urban.   Apparently, more than a few people leaving flowers at the memorials in Paris have also left copies of his posthumously-published memoir of life there in the 1920s, A Moveable Feast, which is something of a love letter to the city.   Here’s the passage from the book that gives it its title:   “If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a... Read more