Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 1011

Will the 3-hour Sunday meeting block soon be shortened?

    The Church issues a statement on the issue:   http://www.ldsliving.com/Church-Respo...   Posted from Marbella, Spain    

“LDS Church to release ‘A Savior is Born’ Christmas initiative on Nov. 29″

    This is a chance for members of the Church to join in proclaiming the message of Christ’s birth for Christmas:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/86...   I’m intending to participate in the effort, and I encourage you to do so, too.   Posted from Marbella, Spain    

Thoughts for Thanksgiving (3)

    Here’s a column that I published in the Deseret News on Thanksgiving 2013:   It’s the season of Thanksgiving, and, so, minds like mine turn naturally to etymology, to word origins. Please be patient. There is method in my madness.   The origin of the word “religion” is obscure, and has been much [Read More...]

Best not to sharpen THIS tool.

    A sharp tongue is the only edge tool that grows keener with constant use.  (Washington Irving)   Posted from Marbella, Spain  

“Taking the Quran Back from Radicals”

    It was Jabra Ghneim, I believe, who called this item to my attention:   http://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2...   I’ve been a reader of Seyyid Hossein Nasr for decades, and have had some slight contact with him over the years.  I hold him in enormous respect, and I look eagerly forward to seeing this new book.   [Read More...]

“New York Times overplays ‘mass resignations’ from ‘harmful’ Mormon Church”

    Thanks to Cody Quirk for calling my attention to this item:   http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/m...   It reminds me of a conversation that Bill Hamblin and I had with the American feminist Gloria Steinem many years ago in Cairo, when we were both graduate students there.  She had come to Egypt to deliver a major [Read More...]

“Is Islam a primary cause of international violence?”

      You may think the answer obvious.   And understandably so.   But the book that I discussed in this 2014 column for the Deseret News might cause you to see things quite differently:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/86...   I myself was prepared to resist Graham Fuller’s thesis, but he’s surprisingly persuasive.   And it [Read More...]

A sorrow that we try not to lose

    The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to be divorced.  Every other wound we seek to heal — every other affliction to forget: but this wound we consider it a duty to keep open — this affliction we cherish and brood over in solitude. Washington Irving (1783-1859) [Read More...]

Thoughts for Thanksgiving (2)

        Here’s the text of a column that I published in the Deseret News on Thanksgiving 2012:   William Ernest Henley’s famous Victorian-era poem “Invictus” provided the title and the theme for Clint Eastwood’s inspiring 2009 film about Nelson Mandela. It also provided the memorable claim “I am the master of my [Read More...]

“Could America Survive without Religion?”

    Important reflections from one of the premier social, legal, and political thinkers in the United States:   http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/201...   Posted from Marbella, Spain