http://www.flickr.com/photos/hamblinofjerusalem/sets/72157630659713484/detail/ Read more

From today’s Gospel Doctrine reading: Alma 24:30 And thus we can plainly discern, that after a people have been once enlightened by the Spirit of God, and have had greatknowledge of things pertaining to righteousness, and then havefallen away into sin and transgression, they become more hardened, and thus their state becomes worse than though they had never known these things. Read more

My photos of the ancient Druid temple/ceremonial center. The Navan “Fort” (anciently known as Emain Macha) is an fortified ancient Druid ceremonial center in northern Ireland near Armagh.  It was the capital of the Ulaidh kingdom of the Ulster Cycle in Irish mythology. Read more

Defamation of the church and its members is hardly anything new.  It began, in fact, before the church had even been formally organized in 1830, and has continued more or less unabated until today (see, for example, Givens, Viper on the Hearth, 1997).  The current political campaign sometimes includes a subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) anti-Mormon undertones. As I was walking on my way to class today, my department chairman laughingly told me he had received letters from several people... Read more

“It seems only human nature to hang the label irrational on what we do not understand, since it is easy for us to assume that something must be irrational if our ingenuity is unequal to the task of deciphering it. That may actually reflect more on the limits of our ingenuity than on any supposed irrationality in what we are studying. For that reason it should come as a practical and fundamental warning not to impute irrationality to people in the study... Read more

Denied by Dan here. I can confirm, based on some first-hand knowledge as well as eyewitness accounts about this situation, that none of the accusations Dan references have any basis in fact.  If people wish to make such accusation, they should do so publicly rather than anonymously, and based on first hand knowledge rather than some unknown chain of rumors and lies.  The unfounded apostate slander, speculations, and sheer fantasy on this matter have been utterly shameful.  It’s been going... Read more

My photos of a Sufi saint shrine in Turkestan. (Unfortunately I did not write down the name of the saint!) The shrine is visited by pilgrims to receive baraka (blessings) from the saint, and to make sacrificial offerings (hudaiyoli). An animal is brought (or purchased there), sacrificed and slaughtered, then cooked, eaten by the family in a festive setting, and often shared with strangers or the poor. This practice broadly parallels pagan Turkish shamanistic (and Israelite) pilgrimage and high place... Read more

D. John Butler has written a new book, Plain and Precious Things: The Temple Religion of the Book of Mormon’s Visionary Men, (2012).   It is available as an ebook at Amazon and Smashwords I haven’t read it yet, but it looks like it might be interesting. Read more

Rober t F. Smith posted a bibliography on the temple in the Book of Mormon, which I’m reproducing here. Baker, LeGrand L.,, and Stephen D. Ricks, Who Shall Ascend Into the Hill of the Lord? The Psalms in Israel’s Temple Worship In the Old Testament and in the Book of Mormon (SLC: Eborn Books, 2010). Bokovoy, David, “Temple Imagery in the Book of Mormon,” 4-part BYU Education Week lectures for 2011, which I summarized here on MDDB. Butler, D. John, Plain and Precious Things:... Read more