From Jackson County

In Adam-ondi-Ahman — Looking out over Adam-ondi-Ahman, in Missouri (LDS.org)

Arriving here in Missouri today, I’ve thought of the hymn “Adam-ondi-Ahman,” written by William W. Phelps and included in the first Latter-day Saint hymnbook in 1835. But I’m thinking of it very specifically in my favorite recording of it, which I have at home on vinyl but cannot find online. That recording is by Marvin Payne, and his lyrics, if I recall them correctly, differ just a little bit from those of Brother Phelps. Here’s how I remember them:

1. This earth was once a garden place,
  
  With all her glories common,
  
  And men did live a holy race,
  
  And worshiped Jesus face to face,
  
  In Adam-ondi-Ahman.
2. We read that Enoch walked with God,
  
  Above the pow’r of mammon,
  
  While Zion spread herself abroad,
  
  And Saints and angels sang aloud,
  
  In Adam-ondi-Ahman.
3. Her land was good and greatly blest,
  
  Beyond all Israel’s Canaan;
  
  Her fame was known from east to west.
  
  How great the peace and pure the rest
  
  Of Adam-ondi-Ahman!
4. Hosanna to such days to come,
  
  The Savior’s second coming,
  
  When all the Saints and nature meet
  
  And bow in beauty at his feet
  
  In Adam-ondi-Ahman.

Here is a performance of the song by Clayton Pixton.

Second completed temple in Missouri — Driving from the airport to our hotel, we passed by the very prominently situated Kansas City Missouri Temple. (LDS.org)

I’m back here in western Missouri through Saturday to film material for episodes of the Interpreter Foundation’s forthcoming series of short video features, Becoming Brigham. With me are our core team of filmmakers from RedBrick Film Works — Mark Goodman, James Jordan, and Russell Richins — as well as Camrey Bagley Fox (who played Emma Smith in Witnesses and in Six Days in August) and John Donovan Wilson (who performed the role of Brigham Young in Six Days in August).

Why are we doing this series? Permit me to share some insights that I recently gleaned from a lively discussion of this very topic. It’s a discussion that occurred last week over on what is known among clinicians as the Peterson Obsession Board, so you know that it’s going to be deep and of high quality:

The Interpreter Foundation is obsessed with Brigham Young.

Oh yes. Brigham is something of a monomania with us. But we’ve tried to conceal our fixation by having the Interpreter Foundation publish material in multiple formats on a diverse variety of subjects. At the moment, for example, the Foundation’s weekly Interpreter Radio Show is concentrated to a large extent on the Doctrine and Covenants, its blog is running a series of entries from Brant A. Gardner under the title of “The Heartland versus Mesoamerica,” its journal is serially publishing the chapters of a book by Matthew Roper devoted to Anachronisms: Accidental Evidence in Book of Mormon Criticisms. , and it is continuing to create a video record in both English and French of the pioneer Latter-day Saints of Africa entitled Not by Bread Alone. Moreover, the Foundation just recently concluded a two-day conference on “Abraham and His Family in Scripture, History, and Tradition,” the proceedings of which will appear shortly in book form.

The Becoming Brigham series is part of a plan to fund Interpreter.

Obviously, although it’s a very stupid plan, because filmmaking is expensive while Interpreter’s other activities are relatively less so.

So, why is the Interpreter Foundation obsessed with Brigham Young? It’s because he’s under attack, so Interpreter wants to present itself as his last defense. Thus, Interpreter is launching a new “purity test,” according to which Latter-day Saints will be vetted on the basis of their testimonies of Brigham. If Interpreter controls the conversation, the leaders of the Interpreter Foundation will hold the salvation of every member of the Church in their hands.

Mwahahahaha! And our fiendish plan is working!

The Becoming Brigham series is evidently being created in direct defiance of the wishes of the leaders of the Church. It’s a cynical power-grab, carefully calibrated to be offensive and abrasive to the Brethren but not so brazenly apostate as to get Daniel Peterson excommunicated, and it’s part of Interpreter’s ongoing war against ordinary chapel-attending Latter-day Saints.

Of course! Which is why the Church has helped us in numerous ways. It’s why we’re being permitted to film at Church visitor centers and on Church historical properties and why we’ve been offered the cooperation of staff at such sites and of scholars at the Church History Department in Salt Lake City, a number of whom will appear on camera in our videos when Becoming Brigham is released.

Essentially, since filmmaking is easy “work” that requires neither time nor effort, Becoming Brigham is an excuse for Peterson to go on constant vacation and to dine out.

Well, what can I possibly say in my defense? There really is no skill or labor or time involved in making films. I stand convicted. As revealed on the Peterson Obsession Board, my working motto really is “Consecration is for other people.”

Plainly, since Brigham Young and Daniel Peterson are kindred spirits (e.g., guilty of all manner of crimes and utterly devoid of moral conscience), Becoming Brigham is an attempt by Peterson at redemption by proxy, at rehabilitating himself by whitewashing the story of Brigham Young. This reflects a deep psychological need in Peterson.

Drat. Have I been that obvious?

By engaging in projects such as Becoming Brigham and the other work of the Interpreter Foundation, Peterson seeks to avoid the Lord’s commandment to serve a senior mission, in much the way that he evaded the law of tithing by teaching at Brigham Young University. His relationship with the Church is one hundred percent transactional; if he didn’t stand to profit handsomely from his apologetics, he would have no interest in the subject whatsoever.

Dang. I hadn’t realized that BYU professors were exempt from the payment of tithes. Just think how much money I could have saved over the years!

Peterson’s bizarre obsession with Brigham Young is evidence of a personal crush, a romantic fixation. It reflects his homoerotic feelings for the second president of the Church, which — an anonymous poster reports on the basis of anonymous informants — carried over during the filming of Six Days in August into his behavior toward the actor who portrayed Brigham.

I have to admit that this one is my personal favorite. What else could possibly better explain the creation of Six Days in August and Becoming Brigham by RedBrick Film Works and the Interpreter Foundation than my personal romantic feelings for Brigham Young?

However, I really wish that I had been able to be on the set for the filming of Six Days. Because of scheduling conflicts, though, I almost never was. In fact, I can’t remember a single time. Still, gotta love that anonymous poster’s sharing of those reports from his supposed anonymous informants! Very convincing!

We had a lot of fun. — The poster for the play. Fair use, I think, since I’m publicizing the production.

Yesterday, Monday evening, my wife and I went out to dinner with friends — her friends, of course, since (obviously) a person of my defective personality and vicious character can have no friends — and then to a performance of The Play that Goes Wrong at The Ruth at doTERRA (aka The Ruth & Nathan Hale Theater) in Pleasant Grove. It’s not exactly William Shakespeare’s Macbeth or Jean-Paul Sartre’s Huis clos, but it’s really funny and we enjoyed it.

Mike Lee speaking at CPAC in 2015 — A Wikimedia Commons photo, by Gage Skidmore, of Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) at CPAC 2015

I was once very impressed with Senator Mike Lee (R-UT). He is, or was, a serious constitutionalist, an ardent and intelligent advocate of limited government in a republic. And I guess I’m still pretty impressed with him — just not so positively. I’m sorry to say that, as a matter of fact, Donald Trump is not a modern Captain Moroni. And seeming to make light of the recent political assassination in Minnesota and baselessly misidentifying the murderous Vance Boelter as a “Marxist” hasn’t exactly added to his luster in my mind: