More Islands and Atolls
Robert Alter, at BYU and on deep sale @ Ben Spackman
- Robert Alter is an emeritus professor of Hebrew, Literature, and Jewish Studies at...
Every Day’s a Love Fest @ Segullah
- In July of 1968 the stars twinkled in the night sky over the Bavarian Alps. Our group of...
Donald or Jesus? @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
- In a revelation given to Joseph Smith on August 6, 1833, we find the following: “When...
How to Win an Argument with God: A Lesson Sponsored by the Corona Virus @ Mormanity
- Ever since I participated in debate competitions in high school and maybe before, I have...
Come Follow Me: 2 Nephi 6-10 @ Ben Spackman
- Joseph Spencer’s book on typology and the Book of Mormon appears to be back in...
The Quitter @ Segullah
- I let my daughter do that thing that I swore I WOULDN’T do. Hot tip to younger parents-...
Old Testament Valentines @ Zelophehad's Daughters
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Previous years: Correlated Cards for Valentine’s Day, Happy...
Clear vision, rose-colored glasses, and hate versus love @ Segullah
- Fluorescent lights don’t impede my vision, but they impact my brain, so I gear up...
Talking to Yourself @ Segullah
- At 6PM on a Wednesday in the middle of winter, I sat in a corner booth waiting until a...
Come Follow Me: 2 Nephi 3-5 @ Ben Spackman
- First, if you haven’t read my post on 2Ne 1-2, you need to; it establishes that the...
Come Follow Me: 2 Nephi 1-2 @ Ben Spackman
- Today we enter into 2 Nephi, which immediately raises the question, why is there...
How to Build Resilient Faith: An Almost Ensign Article @ Ben Spackman
- In late 2014, I heard the story of a friend of a friend who had lost faith and left the...
(Deja) View on the Corona Virus @ Mormanity
- Please keep China in your prayers. The unprecedented efforts to contain the Corona virus...
Come Follow Me: 1 Nephi 16-18 @ Ben Spackman
- Some rough notes this week. 1Ne 16:10 If you want to win some Mormon trivia, ask which...
Superbowl Culture Shock @ Mormanity
- Since leaving for China over 8 years ago, I occasionally experience some culture shock...
What Vietnam Just Taught Me About Responding to Epidemics (Wuhan Coronavirus) @ Mormanity
- In China and many parts of the world, the price of face masks has jumped significantly. I...
Inerrancy: a Followup @ Ben Spackman
- My post on inerrancy generated… a large amount of traffic and conversation. I read...
BYU Studies, Evolution, and Faith: Some Clarification (Updated!) @ Ben Spackman
- We recently put forth an open call for abstracts for a special issue of BYU Studies...
Segullah Podcast “WORDS FALL IN” with Ilima Todd @ Segullah
- Stop the clocks! I decided it was time to interview a novelist on our podcast and I found...
Updates on the Wuhan Coronavirus @ Mormanity
- Concerns about the Wuhan Coronavirus may need to be adjusted upwards in light of the...
Dealing with the Wuhan Coronavirus: Some Thoughts for Those Traveling or Living in Asia @ Mormanity
- What some people may have viewed as just a normal outbreak of flu is beginning to cause...
Ready or Not @ Segullah
- I recently had to place a child. In an effort to avoid moving this child to our large...
Three Days to the Valley of Lemuel -- But From Where? @ Mormanity
- One of the things I enjoy about blogging is having readers with diverse perspectives who...
Inerrancy among Church Employees about Church Materials @ Ben Spackman
- I recently had a conversation in a public Facebook group (since deleted by an admin)...
Speaking in Provo in April, and two Kindle sales @ Ben Spackman
- First, I’ll be speaking in Provo April 3, along with Terryl and Fiona Givens,...
The River of Filthy Water in Lehi's Dream, and Perhaps in His Personal Experience @ Mormanity
- In Lehi's dream in 1 Nephi 8, he saw a river of water flowing by the great and spacious...
Resolution Evolution @ Segullah
- I gave up making resolutions years ago. I abandoned the practice for several reasons....
The Kindness of Two Chinese Strangers Turned Our Christmas Eve from Frustration to Joy @ Mormanity
- Sorry for the delay in posting this note which I wrote during the Christmas holidays and...
A Feast of Knowledge Awaits: New Field Work in the Arabian Peninsula Tells Us More About the Stunning Candidate Location for the River Laman and Valley of Lemuel @ Mormanity
- Prologue: Thoughts on Feasting When one eats a delicious meal prepared by a competent...
Pregnancy Prophets! @ Zelophehad's Daughters
- This guest post comes to us from Josiah of the blog Josiah Reckons.
We love babies at...
Great Expectations! @ Segullah
- As I write this, my wonderful, talented, intelligent, industrious daughter-in-law has...
The "Hoarding" Church @ Mormanity
- Hordes of critics are wringing their hands, often gleefully, about the uncharitable...
Savoury and Sharp @ Segullah
- Life at the university has picked back up again. This week I’ve been flailing under...
Nacle Notebook 2019: Funniest Comments @ Zelophehad's Daughters
- This post is my annual compilation of the funniest comments and bits of posts that I read...
Forest Fires and Christmas Cards in Australia @ Segullah
- As I write this, I am sitting at my desk in my home, looking out at the Australian...
The Willard Richards Book of Abraham Manuscript 2: Live Dictation of Abraham 3 in 1842, or Copying Existing Text? @ Mormanity
- In an important publication from the Joseph Smith Papers Project, The Joseph Smith...
Praising God @ Zelophehad's Daughters
- Praising God is a staple of Christian worship. In the various Pentecostal churches I’ve...
New Church Policies for a New Year @ Zelophehad's Daughters
- Some of my sisters visited me over the holidays, and together we came up with a list of...
Some Sources for the Kirtland Egyptian Paper's Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language, Part Two @ Mormanity
- In Part 1 of this topic posted earlier this week, I reviewed several pages of entries in...
An Update, Barely, on Barley @ Mormanity
- A Dec. 23, 2019 news release from Washington University in St. Louis reports new research...
Some Sources for the Kirtland Egyptian Paper's Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language, Part One @ Mormanity
- One of the vital issues in Book of Abraham debates is the role of the Kirtland Egyptian...
A Christmas Surprise: An Ancient Jewish Temple at the Same Time as Solomon's Temple @ Mormanity
- The Dec. 23 newsletter from the Biblical Archaeology Society surprised me with a report...
Is the Book of Abraham Translation Dependent on the Kirtland Egyptian Papers? Revisiting The Pearl of Greatest Price @ Mormanity
- A potentially troublesome flaw in the discussion of the Book of Abraham in the generally...
A Breakthrough in Understanding the Book of Mormon: Don Bradley's Brilliant Sleuthing on the Lost 116 Pages (or Lost 400 Pages!) @ Mormanity
- Don Bradley's new book, The Lost 116 Pages: Reconstructing the Book of Mormon's Missing...
Preliminary Thoughts on the Accusation that the Church Violated Tax Law @ Mormanity
- In response to the news stories about a whistleblower's complaint to the IRS regarding...
Points to Consider in the Concoted "Egyptian" Characters in the KEP @ Mormanity
- Update, Dec. 24 and 26, 2019: The statement describing the papyri originally occurs in a...
Christmas Carol Confusion @ Zelophehad's Daughters
- When I was a kid, I was deeply confused by the lyrics of some of the Christmas carols...
Food for Thought: A 911 Dispatcher Hears the Hidden Plea for Help When a Woman Orders Pizza @ Mormanity
- The secret to effective communication is a widely overlooked action that few of us...
What to do with the earnings on $100 billion @ Zelophehad's Daughters
- So, it appears that the Church may have an even bigger stack of investments than many of...
Power and Corruption @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
- Corruption is in the news almost constantly these days. Of course, we’re all aware of...
More on the Meaning of the Kirtland Egyptian Papers: Recent Explorations Based on Comments at The Interpreter @ Mormanity
- One of the best things about finally having a reply from the Joseph Smith Papers Project...
Review of Dr. David Charles Gore's The Voice of the People: A Valuable Approach to Dealing with Political Divides @ Mormanity
- David Charles Gore, The Voice of the People: Political Rhetoric in the Book of Mormon...
Word of Wisdom Update: Be Cautious with Green Tea Extract @ Mormanity
- For some past research, I once obtained some pure green tea extract that was 98% EGCG,...
Back and Forth with the Book of Abraham: Fascinating Circular Footnotes @ Mormanity
- One of the things I love about blogging and writing occasional articles for The...
Who bears their testimony in F&T meeting? @ Zelophehad's Daughters
- Who bears their testimony in fast and testimony meeting? I’m interested in this...
Going to the Edge @ Zelophehad's Daughters
- CW: Suicidality
To start with, it was my birthday, and even in good years I don’t like...
Do Scripture Stories ever depict heavenly people of color? @ Zelophehad's Daughters
- Well sure they do! For example, here’s a picture from New Testament Stories that...
How Can a Latter-day Saint Vote Republican in Trump’s America? @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
- I’ve taken a bit of a break from blogging. Life’s been busy, and I’ve been working...
Statistics, Misconceptions, and the Imperatives of Millennialism @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
- The Deseret News ran an article this week about the American Family Survey, an annual...
The Antiquated Second Amendment @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
- One of the most confusing, misunderstood, and misapplied pieces of the Constitution is...
Some Thoughts on the Mueller Report @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
- It took me a while, but as of Friday I can say—unlike most Americans and unlike 99...
The Book of Mormon Critical Text Project @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
- One of the interesting aspects of my job is that I am the primary proofreader for Royal...
Romanticized Notions @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
- One morning in the spring of 2005, when I was a senior editor at the Ensign, the new...
Mitt and Me @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
- Last week we were in San Diego for a little vacation. On Sunday (June 2), we attended...
De Facto Infallibility and the Difficulty of Deciphering Spiritual Manifestations @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
- The reversal of the POX has highlighted a growing problem for the Church. Church leaders...
A Parable @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
- A distinguished professor has a son who gets accepted to a prestigious university on the...
Dwelling in Righteousness with No Poor among Us @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
- So, I led a discussion on Sunday using the questions I listed in the last post as a...
One Heart and One Mind @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
- The ward I work with on the high council is having ward conference in a couple of weeks,...
Misinformation and Fearmongering @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
- Because the Democrats are proposing to actually do something about global warming, health...
Excerpts from Bruder: The Perplexingly Spiritual Life and Not Entirely Unexpected Death of a Mormon Missionary @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
- As I mentioned in my last post, BCC Press has recently released a rather unusual mission...
Mission Memoir, Ultimate Tourney, and Other Random Stuff @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
- It’s been a while since I posted anything. I’ll explain that in a minute, but first a...
Pyrric Victories @ Mormon Metaphysics
- JSTOR on Pyrric victories and the origin of the term.
Jerusalem’s Economy in Second Temple Period @ Mormon Metaphysics
- I’ve always had the assumption that the Jerusalem region was fairly poor — perhaps...
Chris on Religious Evolution @ Mormon Metaphysics
- Chris Goble has an interesting Twitter thread on the emergence of monotheism in axial...
Getting the Blog Back Together @ Mormon Metaphysics
- I’ve been posting regularly at Times and Seasons and plan on continuing with that....
Moth and Rust and Pulmonary Hypertension @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
- I’m a big fan of book reviews. We publish them in each issue of BYU Studies Quarterly,...
Changing Political Parties @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
- As should be clear to anyone who has been reading this blog, I am a Democrat. But I used...
"What Is Heaven Like?" @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
- In the First Presidency’s Christmas Devotional earlier this month, President Nelson...
The Trouble with Tax Cuts @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
- Everybody likes tax cuts. What’s not to like? But there is a proper time for tax cuts,...
The Moral Obligation of Latter-day Saint Voters @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
- This year is an important year for Latter-day Saint voters, the large majority of whom...
“Too Frequent Repetition of His Name” @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
- In the ongoing discussion regarding President Nelson’s instruction to use the full name...
To the People Defending the Church’s Decision to Ditch the “Mormon” Nickname @ Peculiar People
- First, I want you to know that I respect your decision to call yourself something other...
The Women Who Enable Abusive Men @ Peculiar People
- After the Kavanaugh hearing last Thursday, an image went viral that depicted a row of...
“What Boy Hasn’t Done This in High School?” Brett Kavanaugh and the Rotten Goose Egg Party at Oaklawn Park @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
- Failed Florida congressional candidate Gina Sosa is probably looking for a rock to hide...
Joseph, Potiphar’s Wife, and the Truth about False Allegations @ Peculiar People
- In response to multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against Brett Kavanaugh,...
Robert Kirby and Edgy Mormon Men @ Peculiar People
- Like many progressive Mormons, I’ve enjoyed Robert Kirby’s self-deprecating...
To the Men Who Grabbed McKenna Denson and Dragged her away from the Pulpit @ Peculiar People
- To the men who grabbed McKenna Denson without her consent and dragged her away from the...
Why Would a Feminist Keep her Father’s Name? @ Peculiar People
- Back in April I wrote about my experience with software systems and institutions...
The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
- By now, Rudy Giuliani’s infamous declaration to NBC’s Chuck Todd (“Truth isn’t...
Mormon: The New Shibboleth @ Peculiar People
- Here’s hoping Lindsey releases a new, revised video: I’m a member of Church...
Sorry to Bother You: The (Human) Body as Technology @ Peculiar People
- This review contains major spoilers for Boots Riley’s 2018 film Sorry to Bother You....
Do Married Mormon Men Understand Consent? @ Peculiar People
- Image obtained through creative commons. I was 28 years old when I got married...
$2,200 for a Screwdriver, and the Military Didn’t Buy It @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
- Well, it has been an interesting summer, to say the least. On Memorial Day, I was playing...
Making Ministering Holy @ Peculiar People
- My priesthood lesson prompt was very open-ended: “ministering.” My mind leapt to the...
What Will Combined MP Quorums Mean? @ Small and Simple
- In a shocking announcement during the Priesthood Session of the 2018 March/April General...
How Can Anyone Remain a Mormon in the Face of All the “Facts”? @ Small and Simple
- One of the things that you will see sometimes in anti-Mormon forums is what appears to be...
About That Taylor Christensen Video @ Small and Simple
- There is a video making the Mormon facebook circuit by Taylor Christensen. He starts...
The New York Times Thomas Monson Obituary and Fake News @ Small and Simple
- The president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently died, and the...
Perfect College Football Playoff System: 2017 Version @ Small and Simple
- Several years ago I published to the world the perfect college football playoff system. ...
Moderate Worship Losing Ground @ Mormon Metaphysics
- While it’s not really new news, Sociological Science had an interesting story on how...
Philosophy, Science and Religion: The Divine Hiddenness Argument @ Small and Simple
- The fourth week of the Coursera course on Philosophy, Science and Religion focuses on the...
Philosophy, Science and Religion: Friendly Disagreement, Testimonial Knowledge, and the Importance of Fellowship @ Small and Simple
- The third week of the Coursera course on Philosophy, Science and Religion addresses...
Philosophy, Science and Religion: The Conflict Between Science and Religion @ Small and Simple
- In the second week of the Coursera course on Philosophy, Science and Religion, professor...
Philosophy, Science and Religion: The Mind and The Religious Experience @ Small and Simple
- I am taking an online course through Coursera on Philosophy, Science and Religion. In...
Testimony and the Spiritual Experience @ Small and Simple
- I was raised in the religious tradition of my parents, which happens to be The Church of...
Bows, Arrows & the Book of Mormon @ Mormon Metaphysics
- This is just a “holder” post for a discussion I was having over whether...
Salvation in Mormonism @ Mormon Metaphysics
- Robert at Scriptural Mormonism does a good job discussing the place of grace in “old...
Terryl Givens on Mormons at the Forefront @ Mormon Metaphysics
- Terryl Givens has up an essay at First Things called “Mormons at the Forefront.”...
God and Evolutionary Psychology @ Mormon Metaphysics
- Evolutionary psychology suggests God makes more sense than not. I’m not sure he sees...
PEL on Scientism @ Mormon Metaphysics
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“…[scientism] is contributing to a growing trend on the left, quite as ferocious...
