http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705363363/Telling-ghost-stories-is-a-lost-tradition-on-Christmas-Eve.html?pg=all   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    Responding to my request for a Cuban Christmas song, my Havana-born daughter-in-law suggests this one, Felicidades, by the Cuban-American singer Gloria Estefan:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cORUlthO04w&app=desktop   Cuba proper, under the rule of the Brothers Castro, hasn’t been a very favorable place for Christmas meditations or celebrations, so it’s fitting, I suppose, that we turn for a Christmas song to the Cuban exile community.   Coro: Felicidad en estas navidades Happiness in these christmas’s Felicidad!!!!! (x2) Happiness —————- Es el tiempo... Read more

    A good, fun article (excerpted from a book) by a good writer with whom I almost always agree — which, now that I think of it, makes him a superb writer:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/428867/war-christmas-christmas-virtues-excerpt   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOQRtYYERGo   I have travelled many moonless nights Cold and weary, with a babe inside. And I wonder what I’ve done. Holy Father, you have come And chosen me now To carry your son.I am waiting in a silent prayer. I am frightened by the load I bear. In a world as cold as stone, Must I walk this path alone? Be with me now. Be with me now. [Chorus] Breath of heaven, Hold me together. Be forever... Read more

    John 21:1-25 Compare Matthew 16:28; 26:30-35; Mark 9:1; 14:26-31; Luke 9:27; 22:31-34, 39; John 8:51-52; 13:36-38; 16:32; 18:1   In this chapter, which some have called an “appendix” to the gospel of John, we see Peter’s threefold affirmation of his love for Jesus (which may have been intended to compensate for this threefold denial just after the arrest of the Savior), a prediction of his death as a martyr, an unclear allusion to the idea that John the... Read more

    I can’t recall whether I shared this link before, but this article is a nice, sympathetic introduction to Islam written by Jim Mayfield, a Latter-day Saint political scientist (and one-time mission president) who devoted much of his career to the Islamic world.  It was published in the Ensign:   https://www.lds.org/ensign/1979/06/ishmael-our-brother?lang=eng.   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    These are actually fairly interesting, and one of them would serve well in a sacrament meeting talk:   http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2015/12/23/460797121/three-christmas-questions-answered-by-science   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    My Christmas column for this year:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865644338/We-needed-Christ-to-become-one-of-us.html   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    Matthew 28:16-20 Mark 16:9-20 Luke 24:44-53 John 20:30-31   1.   The gospel of Matthew ends with the so-called “Great Commission”:  “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”   The emphasis is on worldwide proselytizing (check!) and... Read more

    Of course we’re going to do more Händel this Christmas!   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f7jhk-IjDo   Posted from Richmond, Virginia   Read more