Our Last Day at the Festival

September 1, 2024 By Dan Peterson

I’ve fallen a bit behind, so it’s high time to catch up: These two pieces appeared on Friday on the Interpreter Foundation’s completely comatose website: “Restoring Melchizedek Priesthood,” written by John S. Thompson Abstract: Church historical sources make four differing claims as to when, how, and by whom Melchizedek priesthood was restored. These seemingly conflicting sources have led to many theories about what happened, including the idea that Joseph Smith changed his narrative and rewrote history as his ideas... Read more

A Preliminary Response on Brigham Young’s Financial Dealings

August 30, 2024 By Dan Peterson

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One or two folks have shown up on my blog attacking Brigham Young as greedy and corrupt. Brigham enriched himself, they say, by giving himself interest-free loans from Church funds in order to establish businesses. The lesson, supposedly, is that, if you want to become rich, you should become the head of a church. The commenters provide a list, from the late D. Michael Quinn, of businesses that Brigham owned and which he is said to have set up... Read more

Two Plays about Women Being Treated Badly

August 30, 2024 By Dan Peterson

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Somewhat spontaneously — we didn’t make the decision until last night — we drove down to Cedar City today to catch as much as we’re able to catch of this year’s Utah Shakespeare Festival. Owing to our crammed travel schedule last season, we were unable to attend. Prior to that, though, we hadn’t missed the Shakespeare Festival since, I think, sometime in the first half of the 1990s. It had become our end-of-summer ritual. And we didn’t want to... Read more

Why this next film?

August 28, 2024 By Dan Peterson

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Mark Goodman, James Jordan, Russ Richins, and I had already been talking, while we were still working on Witnesses and Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, about what, if anything, we would like to do next. We were actually pretty sure that, if we could, we wanted to do another film. But what should be its theme? One proposal that we discussed quite seriously — I recall that our first conversation about it arose during a long drive... Read more

“Ask God Whether It is True”

August 27, 2024 By Dan Peterson

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Professor John Turner, a member of the faculty at Virginia’s George Mason University who is not a Latter-day Saint, is the focus of the newest very short video clip (“Ask God Whether It is True”) from the Interpreter Foundation. These clips have been drawn from the 2022 Interpreter Foundation docudrama Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon. As before, we hope that you will enjoy this one and that you will pass it on. Here is something that might... Read more

Necessary Notes on “Six Days in August”

August 26, 2024 By Dan Peterson

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Correcting the falsehoods regularly purveyed by my Malevolent Stalker and his handful of zealous disciples over at the Peterson Obsession Board could easily be a full-time job if I permitted it to be. Sometimes, though, I do find it advisable to publicly contradict their allegations and accusations. Now is one of those times. I’ll be brief: No, my wife and I receive no compensation — we have received no compensation, and we will receive no compensation — from our... Read more

Setting the Record Straight, Though Without Much Real Hope

August 25, 2024 By Dan Peterson

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In our priesthood meeting today, we considered the address given by Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles at the most recent annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is entitled “Covenant Confidence through Jesus Christ.” The passage in his remarks that most stood out to me is actually repeated twice, almost verbatim. I think that Elder Soares really wanted us to register the point that he was making: Therefore,... Read more

Demand It in Your Area!

August 24, 2024 By Dan Peterson

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I’m pleased to report that a full video recording of the lectures given on Saturday, 10 August 2024, by Royal Skousen (“The Innovative and Revolutionary Book of Mormon Critical Text Project”) and Stanford Carmack (““The Archaic Language of the Original Book of Mormon”) has now been posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: “The Innovative and Revolutionary Book of Mormon Critical Text Project: Royal Skousen and Stanford Carmack: Saturday, August 10, 2024” The sound at the beginning of the... Read more

“But for Wales!”

August 23, 2024 By Dan Peterson

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It’s Friday, so — once again, as happens with tiresome regularity, new materials have appeared on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: ““That They May Know That They Are Not Cast Off Forever”: Jewish Lectionary Elements in the Book of Mormon,” written by Bradley J. Kramer Abstract: It is not uncommon for Jews who join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to notice connections between certain events in the Book of Mormon and modern Jewish practices associated... Read more

Moms for Liberty, BYU, and Banning Books

August 22, 2024 By Dan Peterson

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I notice that there are some (including the lamentable Salt Lake Tribune — which, I’m told, is the only newspaper in America to have succeeded in a campaign to deprive women of the vote — and this) who are ginning up controversy about the fact that Tina Descovich, a co-founder of the conservative organization Moms for Liberty and, it appears, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is speaking (or has spoken) this year at... Read more