*** As we begin to pivot from our overall “Witnesses” film project — which isn’t quite finished, but is nearing completion — to our new undertaking, “Six Days in August,” I find myself thinking very much about a remarkable recording of President Wilford Woodruff. I distinctly remember how remarkably thrilled I was, probably around 1976, when I first encountered it in a flexible plastic LP record format that had, as I recall, been distributed with one... Read more
*** I’ve been pleased to see short thirty-second ads running on KSL-Television for the Interpreter Foundation docudrama Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon. (I believe that eight of them will have been aired this weekend, altogether.) Undaunted will go public on 24 May 2022, somewhat less than two months from now. *** From a testimony of Elizabeth Brotherton Pratt (1817-1897), an English convert to Mormonism who emigrated to Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1841, as it... Read more
*** Among the most interesting living writers on religion and science is the Israeli-American Gerald L. Schroeder, an Orthodox Jew who earned his B.Sc., his M.Sc., and his Ph.D. in nuclear physics and in earth and planetary sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He teaches currently at the College of Jewish Studies, in Jerusalem. Here, from his book God According to God: A Scientist Discovers We’ve Been Wrong About God All Along (New York: HarperOne,... Read more
*** A new article by the indefatigable Matthew L. Bowen has just appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: ““The Messenger of Salvation”: The Messenger-Message Christology of D&C 93:8 and Its Implications for Latter-day Saint Missionary Work and Temple Worship” Abstract: Several of the Prophet Joseph Smith’s earliest revelations, beginning with Moroni’s appearance in 1823, quote the prophecy of Malachi 3:1 with the Lord “suddenly com[ing] to his temple” as “messenger of the covenant.”... Read more
*** From the Best-Laid Plans Department: I gave a lecture last night up at the Jordan Events Center on the life of the Reformer Martin Luther. It was occasioned by the fact that, in June, I’ll be accompanying a tour to Germany in connection with the Oberammergau Passion Play. Thanks to my wife, I had some really good images put together to illustrate Luther’s biography and times. Thanks to the on-site computer, the PowerPoint presentation didn’t work. ... Read more
*** It is, I realize, a weird character flaw — or, probably more accurately said, a regrettable personality defect — but I’m quite interested in what critics of the Church have to say. For example, I look in every few days on two extremely unpleasant (and mostly atheist) online anti-Mormon message boards, so as to see what’s agitating or delighting people there. I’m often astonished, to be frank, at the profound cynicism, the deep and hostile... Read more
*** Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. (Theodore Roosevelt) As I’ve learned more about him, there is a very great deal about Theodore Roosevelt of which I disapprove. But I also continue to find him admirable in many ways. And I completely agree with the quotation from him given above. Moreover, I believe that it needs to be conjoined with a... Read more
*** I was a little bit surprised — but not at all displeased — to learn that the Interpreter Foundation’s dramatic film, Witnesses, is now streaming on Living Scriptures as well as on Deseret Video+. It’s also available on DVD and Blu-Ray through Deseret Book (and possibly elsewhere). We hope that you’ll share this information with anybody that you think might be interested. And please stay alert for the release of the docudrama sequel Undaunted:... Read more
*** I’ll be on the Interpreter Radio Show later this evening. I’m looking forward to the conversation. *** Some time ago, I read Terry Eagleton, Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009). The book is based on the 2008 Dwight H. Terry Lectures that Eagleton delivered at Yale University. A British literary critic and a committed Marxist radical, Eagleton is both stimulating and provocative and,... Read more
*** I recently sat down with Scott and Maurine Proctor of Meridian Magazine for another “Come, Follow Me” podcast discussion: “How the Plagues Defied the False Gods of Egypt–Come Follow Me Old Testament Podcast #14, Exodus 7-13” (I had previously also discussed Exodus 1-6 with the Proctors.) Tomorrow night — 7 PM, Sunday night, 27 March 2022 — I’m scheduled to be on the Interpreter Radio Show; during its second hour, I’ll be discussing... Read more
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