The Book of Mormon is a beautiful book, whatever may be its provenance. Like the Old and New Testaments, the lessons that it teaches are not always adhered to by those who would wish to see themselves as The Faithful. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is surely aspirational for we mere mortals. In Jacob, Chapter […]
Reading once again Thomas Taylor’s 1821 translation from the Greek of Iamblichus’ work “On the Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians,” written around 300 AD. This work never ceases to inspire and focus my mind on those things which are most important. The following caught my eye this time. “For on this account, because […]
The label “just like Hitler” is often attached to leaders, or would be leaders, as a simple way to accuse the target so labeled of being a very bad person. Without historical context the label “just like Hitler” is just a knee jerk reaction. With that said, put in historical context, I think there’s some […]
China rising from the ashes of the rule of Mao Zedong has shaken the world order, and how the world has reacted and will react to that rise in the decades to come will shape humanity’s future in so many ways. China’s rise has very little to do with those standing front and center on […]
Approaches to the scriptures seem to fluctuate between two extremes. One extreme views the scriptures as the complete, inviolable word of God, without error and unchallengeable, the interpretation thereof not open to debate and the meaning thereof set in proverbial stone. The other extreme views the scriptures as folk tales and pseudo-historical mumbo jumbo that […]
I have heard throughout my life at different times people say, in essence, “I believe in God, but not organized religion.” “I’m spiritual, but not religious.” Or some variant thereof. There is a natural inclination of people to seek for a higher purpose in life, to seek for some meaning in this life beyond accumulating […]
When Jesus of Nazareth, the Savior, was walking the earth in this mortal existence, He had a mission to fulfill, a task set before Him by Our Heavenly Father. To help fulfill His purpose He called certain men, Apostles, to assist Him. These Apostles were not men of stature in their communities, and were not […]
Scientifically speaking, sex has two main purposes: procreation and the bonding of parents for the care of children. If people do not reproduce in their lifetimes, it is a truism that upon their death there will be no more people. If once a child is born, the child’s parents or another caregiver do not care […]
My children’s ancestors came to the New World over a period of almost 300 years, the first that I know of for certain arriving on the Mayflower in 1620 and the last being Poles arriving from the border region between Russia and Poland around 1915. In between their ancestors were primarily English, Dutch, and German […]
During the Christmas break when I was in the first grade our family moved to Bratenahl Village in Ohio. Bratenahl’s main street, Lake Shore Boulevard, snakes along Lake Erie on a little sliver of land about 4 miles long north of Cleveland’s Collinwood and Glenville neighborhoods. Bratenahl is best known for the mansions along Lake […]