This thirty-one-minute video interview podcast with Christopher Blythe went up sometime yesterday evening: “Daniel Peterson on Brigham Young.” It was recorded several weeks ago, and there is one correction to it that I need to make: We have now rethought our plan for releasing our series of Becoming Brigham mini-docmentaries. Instead of “Octoberish,” as I said in the interview, we’re now planning for a launch sometime in mid-January. I hope that you’ll watch them, that you’ll enjoy them and profit from them, and that, when the time comes, you’ll recommend them to others. And if, in the meanwhile, you want to contribute financially to the support of our effort, I certainly won’t complain. I’m excited about the project.
My wife and I went to see Truth and Treason late this morning. It’s the true story of the Latter-day Saint teenager Helmuth Hübener, who was martyred for his resistance to the Third Reich, and I should warn you (in case you haven’t already guessed) that it’s not exactly The Feel-Good Movie of the Year. You won’t come out of the theater humming tunes, laughing, and dancing. In fact, the small to middling audience that watched the film with us stayed, and stayed profoundly silent, through the credits — as was, in my opinion, entirely appropriate.
I’ve thought about Brother Hübener’s story for decades now. It’s worth thinking about.
See this Deseret News article: “‘Truth & Treason’: The real story behind the Latter-day Saint teen who resisted the Nazis: Director Matt Whitaker has been absorbed by Helmuth Hübener’s story for decades. His film adaptation, ‘Truth & Treason,’ is distributed by Angel Studios”
Truth and Treason is a rather dark film in every sense of the word, but a very solid one, well acted and well directed. It doesn’t shy away from the difficulties posed by the story. (Jeremy Roberts has a thoughtful Facebook post on the subject.) What, for example, should we think of the branch president, Arthur Zander? (Despite the film’s calling him one, he wasn’t a bishop. There weren’t yet any wards or stakes in Germany during the 1940s.) I highly recommend the film to you.
One of the questions that faithful Latter-day Saints should ask themselves after encountering the story of Helmuth Hübener is this: How far does my duty to obey the law and sustain my government extend? Is it absolute? Can there ever come a time when rebellion is justified? Where and how and on what basis, if any, should we draw the line?
In the film, Helmuth’s branch president, standing at the pulpit on a Sunday, quotes the Twelfth Article of Faith:
We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.
On the other hand, Latter-day Saints venerate the American Founders, who established a new nation after rebelling against King George III. Benjamin Franklin is probably the person who suggested “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God” as a motto to be featured on the Seal of the United States. It wasn’t adopted, but Thomas Jefferson — who wrote the American Declaration of Independence, which is as close to secular scripture as anything in American history — eventually selected it for use on his own personal seal. What should we make of that?
I was impressed, as well, by the previews that we saw before the feature, all of which were from Angel Studios (as is Truth and Treason). We watched the trailers for I Was a Stranger, Young Washington: A Founder’s Story, and Sarah’s Oil. I want to see all of them.
I’m impressed that Angel is telling uplifting stories. They’re also good stories, stories that Hollywood, obsessed as it is with superheroes and “wokeness” and saturated in extramarital sex, seems uninterested in telling. Angel Studios merits our patronage and support. It truly is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
These stories seem to me mutually relevant:
- “Growing Share of U.S. Adults Say Religion Is Gaining Influence in American Life: More Americans also express a positive view of religion’s role in society”
- “As we grow out of intellectual adolescence, religion’s popularity soars”
- “Conservative young priests are the future of the American church — The political and theological views of younger priests are out of sync with their peers and with the Catholic population.”
As we did this week, we sometimes go up and spend time in Park City. (Happily, we have occasional access to a place up there where we can stay.) This time, we took a son and a Third-Generation Unit with us. (I redact that TGU’s name in order to protect the TGU against unwanted attention from my Malevolent Stalker and his small crew, who have, in the past and among other things, located a younger son’s online Amazon Christmas wish-list and sought to exploit it publicly as evidence of my morally-deficient parenting.
I love even the hour-long drive between our home and Park City. As soon as we’re more than a few blocks along our way, I feel happy and relaxed. The road through Provo Canyon along the Provo River is beautiful, and we love seeing Bridal Veil Falls and Deer Creek Reservoir and the Jordanelle Reservoir. The weather was gorgeous both ways this time, cool and sunny and perfectly clear, and the green and red and yellow and orange trees among and above the cow-studded pastures were still vibrant. We drove up to the top of Memorial Hill in Midway and had a panoramic view of our surroundings and, on the way back, we stopped in (as we like to do whenever we can) at Heber Valley Artisan Cheese.
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