Many have been puzzled by — and a few have vocally mocked — the assertion that the Book of Mormon contains linguistic features that were long obsolete by the time of Joseph Smith and that, in some cases, antedate the King James Version of the Bible.  In this piece, one of the two principal discoverers of those intriguing linguistic features lays out a part of the argument:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/joseph-smith-read-the-words/   As I’ve said before, believers in the Book... Read more

    First of all, Happy New Year!   But neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night nor New Year’s Day stays Interpreter from the swift and timely completion of its appointed tasks.  Thus, it being Friday as well as the first day of 2016, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture is in publishing mode:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/the-more-part-of-the-book-of-mormon-is-early-modern-english/     Read more

    My friend and colleague Ralph Hancock presented an important paper at the August 2013 FairMormon conference.  It was controversial with some even there.  I’m firmly convinced, though, that what he had to say deserves a careful hearing:   http://www.fairmormon.org/perspectives/fair-conferences/2013-fair-conference/2013-mormonism-and-the-new-liberalism-the-inescapability-of-political-apologetics     Read more

    https://www.lds.org/church/news/president-uchtdorf-helps-serve-homeless-a-christmas-day-dinner?lang=eng#3912976732     Read more

    “I think apologizing’s a great thing, but you have to be wrong.  I will absolutely apologize, sometime in the hopefully distant future, if I’m ever wrong.”  (Donald J. Trump, on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in September 2015)     Read more

    Seriously.   http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/questions-voter-supporting-donald-trump/2015/12/09/id/705143/     Read more

    There is an impassioned battle going on in some circles between adherents of the so-called “Heartland” model of Book of Mormon geography (e.g., Wayne May, Jonathan Neville, and Rod Meldrum), on the one hand, and, on the other, advocates of a Mesoamerican setting (as its been set froth by such writers as John Sorenson, David Palmer, and John Clark).   I haven’t really been involved much in these clashes, even though I’m an unapologetic believer, unless and until... Read more

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/magazine/the-price-of-secularism-in-bangladesh.html?_r=0   To put it mildly, I have a hard time feeling unalloyed enthusiasm for either side — militant radical Islamists or militantly anti-religious atheists.  But, so long as the former use threats, violence, and murder to “argue” their case rather than reason, they make the choice entirely easy.     Read more

    We’re discussing a very short chapter today:  1 Nephi 6.   It’s brief, but it makes an important point:  The Book of Mormon is not, and was never intended to be, a comprehensive history of the Nephites (let alone of the Lamanites, for whom it really provides no systematic history at all).  Details of secular history appear in the Book of Mormon, of course, but, to a very large degree, only to the extent that they’re necessary in... Read more

    The ever-endearing Donald seeks to raise religious suspicions against the candidate who’s currently leading him in Iowa:   http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/12/29/as-cruz-continues-to-lead-in-iowa-trump-urges-voters-to-just-remember-this-when-youre-casting-your-ballot-remember/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=story&utm_campaign=ShareButtons   (Not many Mormons come out of Cuba, either.  But my daughter-in-law did.  And even more literally than Ted Cruz.)   As a Latter-day Saint, I’m highly sensitive to such tactics.  As an Islamicist, moreover, I was disgusted to see him invoke religious bigotry against Muslims, and appalled and disheartened to observe how well it worked for him.  ... Read more