Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 851

On Frankincense

    Continuing with my self-imposed writing assignment:   Frankincense is a fragrant gum resin consisting of small white chunks and beads that can easily be ground into a powder. When burned, this powder gives off a pleasant odor like that of balsam. The resin, milky white in color, was probably produced in the central [Read More...]

BOM Alma 28

    Today’s reading is Alma 28.   I’ll pick up on just one idea from it.   The chapter tells of a great war between the Nephites and the Lamanites about 75 years before the birth of Christ, and of the sorrow of those who lost loved ones during that war — sorrow not [Read More...]

“The group that wants to arm gay America”

    http://www.politico.com/magazine/stor...   I’m inclined to think this a good idea, and to support it.   (Thanks to Cody Quirk for bringing this item to my notice.)   Posted from Stockholm, Sweden    

How ONE group of gay-hating bigots responded to the Orlando shooting

    As all bien-pensants know, Chick-fil-A is a company run by hateful bigots and religious zealots, the kind of “Christian” operation that has no place in a tolerant city such as New York.   So I’m grateful to Dan Stewart for calling my attention to this item about the vicious way in which these [Read More...]

I think I’ve never been more proud of my fellow Latter-day Saints

    New York Times:  “Donald Trump’s Mormon Problem”   Washington Post:  “This new Utah poll is amazingly bad for Donald Trump”   Based upon preliminary observations here, by the way, I’m reasonably confident that absolutely no Swedish Latter-day Saints will vote for Mr. Donald Trump.   Posted from Stockholm, Sweden    

Liberalism as mental and emotional deficiency?

    I tend to take such things cum grano salis, as the saying has it.   Still, after decades of complacent pseudoscientific efforts to portray my religious and political inclinations as the product of psychosocial defects and/or depravity, it’s amusing to see the shoe on the other foot for once:   “Liberals are Simple-Minded”   [Read More...]

Vanity and Pride (Do You Agree?)

    “Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.”  Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice   It wasn’t a bad trip over.  I like to [Read More...]

Some Muslim reactions to Islamist terrorism and the Orlando massacre

    I’m repeatedly asked why Muslims don’t condemn Islamist terrorism.   I myself think that there ought to be a perfectly deafening response to murders in the name of Islam, and that the reaction, thus far, hasn’t been loud enough or, in some ways, clear enough.   But it’s simply wrong to say that [Read More...]

“Temples Rising from Destruction”

    Thanks to Robert Boylan for calling this interesting presentation to my notice, by Jasmin Gimenez of Book of Mormon Central:   http://scripturalmormonism.blogspot.s...   Posted from Stockholm, Sweden    

BOM Alma 27

    In today’s reading, Alma 27, the Nephites give the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi a land called Jershon for their inheritance, as a place of refuge.   That’s a strikingly apt name for a “land of inheritance.”   See, for example,   Stephen D. Ricks, “A Nickname and a Slam Dunk: Notes on the Book [Read More...]