It’s the Sabbath, so I won’t be hounding you to go see Six Days in August today. In fact, I hope that you don’t go today. Go twice tomorrow, instead. Go every day next week. Take friends. Take family. Buy tickets for your children and grandchildren who live far away from you. Now, having encouraged you not to attend a showing of Six Days in August on the Sabbath . . . Since our 2021 film Witnesses is temporarily... Read more
I’m happy to report that, because of the impressively high demand for it, free access to the 2021 Interpreter Foundation dramatic film Witnesses will continue until 18 October 2024. It’s a perfect movie for an evening before a Sabbath, or a Sabbath day, or a family night on Monday evening, or any other night of the week on which you don’t happen to be watching Six Days in August. It’s perfect for gatherings of neighbors, ward members, business colleagues,... Read more
I wax somewhat autobiographical — indeed, a little bit sentimental and perhaps even somewhat maudlin — in my introduction to the latest volume of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship, which has just gone up online: “It Helps to Have a Village” Abstract: In preparing the next generation, it really is helpful when parents don’t stand alone and they have the help of others outside the family. This is one of the reasons why the seemingly... Read more
Yesterday began in a one-hour conversation with my friend Safi Kaskas, about faith and religion from Latter-day Saint and Muslim points of view. He has been in town for the 31st Annual International Law and Religion Symposium of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University. Anybody who is interested can watch a video of our discussion at this link: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/x4cxlmuj0tpow1b38adms/Safi-Kaskas-Daniel-Peterson.mp4?rlkey=v2mkpzhtxzxk8il5ncg8uviqs&st=c0s5z85s&dl=0 Last night, we had the formal premiere of Six Days in August at Thanksgiving... Read more
One of the events depicted in Six Days in August is the destruction, by order of the Nauvoo City Council, of the dissident Nauvoo Expositor newspaper on the evening of 10 June 1844. That act was probably among the principal inflammatory factors leading to the eventual incarceration and murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith about two and a half weeks later. In the immediate wake of the destruction of the Expositor, opponents of Joseph Smith and the Latter-day Saints... Read more
There are just two days left, including today, to take advantage of the opportunity to view the 2021 Interpreter Foundation dramatic film Witnesses at no charge, which you can do here: https://vimeo.com/824199556/ecefc622ed. On Thursday, 10 October, when Six Days in August opens in theaters, that window of opportunity closes. I would, frankly, love to make Witnesses freely available all the time. And, someday, we’ll do that. But not for quite a while. In the meantime, we’re bound by contractual... Read more
Seventeen new temples! That’s more temples announced in one General Conference than existed in the entire Church when I was a teenager. The remarkable explosion of temple-building that commenced under President Gordon B. Hinckley continues at an even more rapid pace under President Russell M. Nelson. Plainly, the effort is intended to make temples more accessible to Latter-day Saints in all areas of the world and, thus, to make temple worship more central to the lives of the Saints.... Read more
I want to give another reminder of the “sneak peek” early showings of Six Days in August that will be available on Monday night along Utah’s Wasatch Front. (It won’t be my last reminder. Sorry.) These screenings will occur in nine Cinemark theaters: Salt Lake City, Ogden, Orem, Provo, American Fork, Draper, Farmington, Sandy/Midvale, and West Jordan: Six Days in August – Early Access And here’s another reminder that the 2021 Interpreter Foundation dramatic film, Witnesses, is currently available... Read more
A few days ago, Mark Goodman (the writer and director of Six Days in August) and I recorded a roughly twenty-minute interview with Martin Tanner up at KSL NewsRadio in Salt Lake City. Our interview will air tomorrow (Sunday) on his regular KSL program, Religion Today. But it’s already available in podcast form: “Six Days in August” Yes, I’m going to remind you right now that the 2021 Interpreter Foundation theatrical movie Witnesses is available for your viewing, right... Read more
Although I’m not identified as its author, I wrote this article that has now appeared on the KSL.com website: “‘Six Days in August’ movie about Brigham Young will inspire and captivate audience.” (I did not write the headline.) And — surprise! — a new article has just appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “The Pathophysiology of the Death of Jesus the Christ,” written by C. Thomas Black: Abstract: Centuries-long speculation continues regarding the circumstances... Read more
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