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<\/a>Fox News: \u00a0\u201c\u2018Mormon Wives\u2019 is clashing with core LDS values and America is eating it up: expert:\u00a0PR experts say counterintuitive premise creates curiosity about group cutting against proverbial grain\u201d<\/a> \u00a0Gosh. \u00a0Ya think<\/em>?<\/p>\n National Catholic Reporter<\/em>: \u201c\u2018The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives\u2019 offers repackaged oppression\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Salt Lake Tribune<\/em>: \u201cBig 12 commissioner says stopping derogatory chants at BYU games \u2018starts with me\u2019: Brett Yormark discussed the league\u2019s next steps ahead of the conference\u2019s title game.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n And, while we\u2019re at it:<\/p>\n Babylon Bee<\/em>: \u201cSanta Claus Converts To Calvinism, Moves Everybody To Naughty List\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n But then there\u2019s this brief and not quite entirely uncritical article, from The Economist<\/em>: \u201cMormonism\u2019s surprising boom in Africa:\u00a0The American sect has come a long way from being \u201cthe white people\u2019s church\u201d\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s really good to have actual data. \u00a0Of course, these folks are undoubtedly members of the vast globalist deep-state conspiracy against, umm, We the People, or something like that. \u00a0You just can\u2019t trust scientists, right? \u00a0JAMA Network<\/em>: \u201cCOVID-19 mRNA Vaccination and 4-Year All-Cause Mortality Among Adults Aged 18 to 59 Years in France\u201d<\/a>:<\/p>\n Key Points<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Question<\/strong>\u00a0 Are COVID-19 mRNA vaccines associated with the long-term risk of all-cause mortality?<\/p>\n Findings<\/strong>\u00a0 In this cohort study including 22.7 million vaccinated individuals and 5.9 million unvaccinated individuals, vaccinated individuals had a 74% lower risk of death from severe COVID-19 and no increased risk of all-cause mortality over a median follow-up of 45 months.<\/p>\n Meaning<\/strong>\u00a0 These national-level results found no increased risk of 4-year all-cause mortality in individuals aged 18 to 59 years vaccinated against COVID-19, further supporting the safety of the mRNA vaccines that are being widely used worldwide.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n To me, this testifies really eloquently about the Church\u2019s new leader, and it shows him in a very different light than that favored by some of his harsh critics: \u00a0\u201cGet to Know President Dallin H. Oaks: Why \u2018Forgotten Man\u2019 Painting Hangs in His Office:\u00a0\u2018It speaks to me and reminds me of things that I need to remember,\u2019 Prophet says\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n On an unrelated note: \u00a0A British-American Christian poet, essayist, and editor named Luci Shaw died very recently, less than a month shy of her ninety-seventh birthday. \u00a0I like a quotation that\u2019s attributed to her:<\/p>\n \u201cNo matter at what stage of our journey, for each of us the inevitability of dying is always there, like the blank wall of an impenetrable fortress. \u00a0Or an unexplored planet. \u00a0Or a looming cliff face before us, with few visible toeholds. . . .<\/p>\n \u201cMyself, I\u2019m hoping for an airy work space with lots of light and books and some flowering potted plants. \u00a0And a PC that never gets obsolete.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 Luci Shaw, from Adventure of Ascent: Field Notes from a Lifelong Journey<\/em> (InterVarsity Press, 2014)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Personally, I would prefer an Apple laptop.<\/p>\n At this time of the year, unfortunately, when decent, rational people just want to enjoy the annual winter solstice festival, fanatical theists seem to be even more obnoxiously in-your-face than they usually<\/em> are, trying \u2014 as they have for nearly two thousand years now \u2014 to hijack the holiday for their own ridiculous ideology. \u00a0Here\u2019s a quartet of abominations that I\u2019ve recently recovered from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122:<\/p>\n John Menzies Macfarlane, who was originally from Stirling, Scotland, wanted a new song for his choir to perform at an 1869 Christmas program in St. George. \u00a0So he wrote one. \u00a0It\u2019s a native Utah Christmas carol, composed by a Latter-day Saint, that has caught on to at least some degree beyond the Latter-day Saint community. \u00a0Here is a solid but slightly unusual rendition of it by the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square: \u201cFar, Far, Away on Judea\u2019s Plains\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n 1. Once again, try to imagine a better world, a world in which such songs didn\u2019t exist. \u00a0It\u2019s easy if you try.<\/p>\n P.S. \u00a0While he obviously knew Scotland and Utah, it\u2019s apparent that Brother Macfarlane hadn\u2019t seen Palestine: Beyond being quite arid on its eastern side, Judaea is mostly rugged hill country; one would be hard pressed to find any \u201cplains\u201d in the Judaean wilderness. \u00a0I don\u2019t know whether the practice continues, but there was a time when Latter-day Saints who lived in Jerusalem, in the heart of Judaea, would modify the lyrics of the carol just a bit: \u201cFar, far away in Judea\u2019s hills,\u201d they would sing, \u201cshepherds of old heard the joyous trills.\u201d \u00a0Not great, I\u2019ll admit. \u00a0But true to the local topography.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll give you another look at Judaea, immediately below.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>\n
<\/a>
\nFar, far away on Judea\u2019s plains,
\nShepherds of old heard the joyous strains:
\nGlory to God,<\/em>
\nGlory to God,<\/em>
\nGlory to God in the highest;<\/em>
\nPeace on earth, goodwill to men;<\/em>
\nPeace on earth, goodwill to men!<\/em>
\n2.
\nSweet are the strains of redeeming love,
\nMessage of mercy from heav\u2019n above:
\nGlory to God . . .<\/em>
\n3.
\nLord, with the angels we too would rejoice;
\nHelp us to sing with the heart and voice:
\nGlory to God . . .<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/a>