Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 945

Able to Destroy, But Not to Create?

    I didn’t watch the most recent Republican debate, but I’ve heard almost everywhere that Governor Chris Christie managed to do some rather serious damage to Senator Marco Rubio during one of their exchanges.   I won’t pretend to be happy about that.   Governor Christie, most are saying, didn’t do much good for [Read More...]

“O How Great the Goodness of Our God”

    In this, the 152nd scripture roundtable produced by the Interpreter Foundation, Bruce Webster and Martin Tanner discuss 2016 Book of Mormon Gospel Doctrine lesson 8, which focuses on 2 Nephi 9-10:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/scri...      

About Those Super Bowl Ads

    I understand that the Super Bowl was played yesterday, and that it represented some sort of anniversary.  And that my beloved Dodgers didn’t win it.  (I met a distant cousin of my childhood hero Don Drysdale in Fresno about a week ago, by the way!)   Anyway, some advertisements seem to have been [Read More...]

“The Fallacy of Fundamentalist Assumptions”

    Blake Ostler, one of the most interesting thinkers in contemporary Mormonism, delivered these remarks at 2005′s annual FAIR (now FairMormon) conference:   http://www.fairmormon.org/perspective...    

“Seven Cities Announced for 2016 Mormon Tabernacle Choir European Tour”

    I’m very pleased at the news of this tour, and I’m particularly happy about the places where the choir will be singing:   http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article...   This is good news.  I wish the choir well.  It will be a great moment for the Church in a region that I care very much about.    

Bill Clinton calls Comrade Bernie supporters “sexist”

    That’s right.  Your eyes haven’t deceived you.   Bill Clinton — defender of womenfolk everywhere, reverent respecter of the divine feminine, and aspiring First Dude — has called some of the Sanderistas “sexists”:   http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02...   Thanks to Cody Quirk for calling that priceless item to my attention.    

“Official ‘Well-Being’ Statistics Show Religious People Are Happier Than Atheists”

    http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2016/...   It’s imperative that we religious people avoid reacting to this with anything remotely like the smug sense of superiority that so many militant atheists direct at us.   That shouldn’t be difficult.  It’s a very low bar.    

BOM 2 Nephi 20

    Today’s reading, 2 Nephi 20 (= Isaiah 10), focuses again on the international political situation of Isaiah’s day.  I’ll be brief, but I think that a few notes might be helpful:   Verses 1-2 refer once more to the greed and injustice of Judahite society, in which the poor are oppressed by the rich.  Although [Read More...]

Now is the time.

    “Forever is composed of nows.”  (Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886)   I suppose that one of the points to be taken away from this comment by the famous Belle of Amherst is that we shouldn’t always be living for the future.  Not that we shouldn’t prepare for the future at all, but that we only really [Read More...]

“The Sabbath is a Delight”

    When I’ve been able to live the Sabbath properly — and, frankly, even Sabbath-observant Latter-day Saints have a hard time keeping the day sufficiently uncluttered, unhectic, reflective, open for visiting family and the sick and the needy, available for scripture study — I have loved it.   The Sabbath is now an official [Read More...]