June 24 for people who reside in Utah and for many members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints worldwide, is “Pioneer Day.” It commemorates the entry of Brigham Young and the first group of Latter-day Saint pioneers — the advance or vanguard party — into the Valley of the Great Salt Lake on 24 July 1847 after the forced expulsion of their people from Nauvoo, Illinois, and other (mostly adjacent) locations in the eastern United States... Read more
I’m trying to find the time to get my remarks together for the upcoming FAIR conference, which I’m scheduled to deliver in the concluding session, I believe, of the final day, on Friday, 8 August. But it’s genuinely difficult. (Last night, for instance, watching K-Pop Demon Hunters with an element of my progeny cut unexpectedly into my work time.) I know what I want to say, but I’m confronting a mass of good material, and selecting from it is... Read more
A new article of mine has just appeared today in Meridian Magazine: “Facing the Silence: Why is it So Difficult to Talk about Death?” It’s partly my way of announcing that I’m likely to pass away sometime, sooner or later, within the next several decades. Maybe even today. Some will want to buy their party hats and noisemakers and fireworks now, in order to avoid the inevitable run on the store shelves when it happens. And this has just... Read more
It’s at times like this, when we’re acutely aware of our powerlessness to do anything meaningful to help, that we most starkly realize our desperate need for the only one who actually can help us: “The Words of Christ Bring Comfort and Hope to Grieving Families and Friends in Lesotho: Church and government leaders join families in finding hope in Christ at a combined funeral service in Maputsoe” “‘God is still God’ — Remembering the lives lost in Lesotho bus... Read more
I think that I may actually have been credited, the other day on the Peterson Obsession Board, with having invented the notion of a limited geographical model for the Book of Mormon — having done so, I suppose (because it’s the only reason for which I ever do anything), with an eye toward massive personal financial gain. If so, what an honor! Unfortunately, though, the writer in question wasn’t very clear, so I can’t quite be sure. And he... Read more
This new review-essay appeared today in the never-changing Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “The Plates of Gardner,” written by Kimberley Heuston: Review of Brant A. Gardner, The Plates of Mormon: A Book of Mormon Study Edition, and its companion volume, Engraven Upon Plates, Printed Upon Paper: Textual and Narrative Structures of the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2023). Study edition 598 pp.; $34.95 (paperback). Commentary 485 pp.; $24.95 (paperback). Abstract: This paper... Read more
It’s Thursday at the Interpreter Foundation, so here’s a chapter reprint for you: Seek Ye Words of Wisdom: Manipulating Text to Reinforce the Message: Content informs Form in the Bible and Book of Mormon,” written by my long-time friend Paul Y. Hoskisson Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in Seek Ye Words of Wisdom: Studies of the Book of Mormon, Bible, and Temple in Honor of Stephen D. Ricks, edited by Donald W. Parry,... Read more
So near and yet so far. We didn’t have enough minutes to do Yellowstone even approximate justice today; this has been, for at least two of us, a working vacation, one of whom has fixed hours of employment geared to a different time zone. So the eventual choice today wasn’t to go into the National Park but to take the grandchild who is with us here to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center right near our lodging. It was... Read more
Come, Follow Me — D&C Study and Teaching Helps (2025): Doctrine and Covenants 81–83: July 21 – 27: Where “Much Is Given Much Is Required” Jonn Claybaugh has contributed yet another concise set of helpful notes to the Interpreter Foundation for teachers and students of the Come, Follow Me curriculum of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was surprised (though not really surprised) to learn that Maurine Proctor, to whom I send my columns for Meridian... Read more
Every once in a while, I encounter the claim from some former member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that leaders of the Church are quietly, gradually, stealthily moving Latter-day Saints toward acceptance of the notion that the Book of Mormon is merely “inspired” fiction of some sort. Perhaps an allegory. A parable. Church leaders are being forced in this direction — so the reasoning typically goes — not only by the alleged lack of any... Read more
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