“Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink”

Last updated on: March 20, 2025 at 1:34 am By Dan Peterson

I would like to call your attention to an upcoming conference, on “Abraham and His Family in Scripture, History, and Tradition.” It will be convened on the campus of Brigham Young University on two successive Saturdays, 3 May 2025 and 10 May 2025. Please see the poster above and, for further details (e.g., on presenters, program and abstracts, location, times, and the conference poster itself), click on this link. Through Abraham’s faithfulness, he merited the stunningly universal promise of God... Read more

Facing the Facts

Last updated on: March 18, 2025 at 2:36 pm By Dan Peterson

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Such stories don’t get much coverage in the major media: National Review, from back in 2018: “Desperate Pakistani Christians Languish in Thailand: The U.S. should provide asylum.” BBC, from way back in May 2019: “Christian persecution ‘at near genocide levels’: The persecution of Christians in parts of the world is at near “genocide” levels, according to a report ordered by Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.” But now for much more recent items: Christianity Today: “Syria Massacre Leaves Christians Asking If... Read more

“Mormon Wife Designs Future Planet On Pinterest”

Last updated on: March 18, 2025 at 12:15 am By Dan Peterson

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Newly posted on the blog of the Interpreter Foundation: “The Discernable Chronology of Mormon’s Life,” written by Brant A. Gardner And also newly posted on the Interpreter Foundation’s never-changing website: Interpreter Radio Show — March 9, 2025, including Doctrine and Covenants in Context: D&C 29: For the 9 March 2025 episode of the Interpreter Radio Show, Terry Hutchinson, Mark Johnson, and Kevin Christensen hosted special guest Sam Brunson during the second hour. They discussed Come, Follow Me Doctrine &... Read more

“Reexploring the Book of Mormon”

Last updated on: March 16, 2025 at 6:52 pm By Dan Peterson

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As a small constituent part of a long-term project that I’m working on, I’ll be extracting notes over the next several weeks or (more likely) months from John W. Welch, ed., Reexploring the Book of Mormon: A Decade of New Research (Salt Lake City and Provo: Deseret Book, 1992), and intermittently sharing them here. They represent the state of the questions as of the early 1990s and, in many cases, they will need to be fleshed out with whatever developments... Read more

A reflection from President Hinckley

Last updated on: March 15, 2025 at 9:48 pm By Dan Peterson

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We’re drawing ever nearer to Easter season or, as Claudia Bushman prefers to call the holiday itself, to “Resurrection Day.” I have long wished that Americans and/or Latter-day Saints paid more serious and sustained attention to this holiday. So I may make some efforts here, in my inescapably limited way, toward encouraging such attention. I was pleased, recently, to see this article: “See which new hymns to use for Easter worship: Find out more about 3 new Easter-specific hymns and... Read more

A reflection on our now owning the sites in Nauvoo

Last updated on: March 15, 2025 at 9:15 am By Dan Peterson

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I’m several days late in calling attention to something that I recently published in Meridian Magazine. I can only offer as my defense that I’ve been very busy elsewhere and that I’ve been off of my customary routine: “Things Deserving of “Awesome Wonder”” Up today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship is an exchange about the process of translation by which the English Book of Mormon was produced. It occurs in three parts: “Joseph and... Read more

“It is good for us to be here”

Last updated on: March 13, 2025 at 9:54 pm By Dan Peterson

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Our three core movie makers — Russ Richins, James Jordan, and Mark Goodman — filmed Camrey Bagley Fox and John Donovan Wilson and me today at various locations, mainly at the Smith Family Homestead, in front of the John and Elizabeth Browning Home and Gun Shop (where I wanted to announce the formation of the new Interpreter Foundation paramilitary wing, dedicated to a more effective defense of the Kingdom, but didn’t), and in a grove of large trees behind... Read more

“A resting-place for the weary traveler”

Last updated on: March 12, 2025 at 11:24 pm By Dan Peterson

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Camrey Bagley Fox and I spent the first part of the day being filmed in conversation together down at the Mansion House, mostly inside, and then on the grounds of the Smith Homestead, across from the Bidamon Stable and, much more importantly, the adjacent Nauvoo House. Joseph and Emma lived in the Mansion House with their family and with his widowed mother — in part of it, anyway, since the front portion of the building was managed as a... Read more

At Carthage Jail

Last updated on: March 11, 2025 at 10:50 pm By Dan Peterson

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We were up early and spent most of the first part of the day filming in and around Carthage Jail, a place of deeply tragic significance in the story of the Church. It was the longest time that I’ve ever spent at the site in Carthage, and it was pleasant to be there with very few others around. I’m glad that tourists come to the place in mass quantities — most of them Latter-day Saints but, I’m told, about... Read more

Exotic Antiquity in Western Illinois

Last updated on: March 10, 2025 at 9:46 pm By Dan Peterson

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My wife and I headed out this morning, Monday morning, over the Mississippi River and into Illinois, to the Cahokia Mounds, which are both a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an Illinois State Historic Site. I’ve wanted to visit Cahokia for many years but, somehow, we’ve always been in a hurry and unable to spare the time. On this occasion, though, we arrived early for precisely that reason, and we were able to spend much of the morning on... Read more