“Witnesses” streaming, and Vikings killing, assaulting, and pillaging

Last updated on: May 13, 2022 at 8:49 pm By Dan Peterson

*** It’s an appropriate time, I think, for a status report on the Interpreter Foundation’s Witnesses movie project. The first part of the project was production of the film Witnesses, which was released in theaters in June of 2021. We are excited that it is now available everywhere on streaming platforms: Deseret Video+: https://deseretbook.com/video Living Scriptures: https://stream.living scriptures.com/movies/witnesses Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/witnesses/id1619571357?ls=1 Google: https://play.google.com/store/movies/details?id=S_IussZpGG0.P Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.d1dbb090-26e6-491d-bf67-f9acb10d95d2?autoplay=1&ref_=atv_cf_strg_wb The second portion of the project was the development of a two-part, 2.5-hour... Read more

A double standard in the age of the #Me Too movement?

Last updated on: May 13, 2022 at 8:54 pm By Dan Peterson

*** The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is being held up right now more or less as a foreign object of horror and ridicule in the Hulu/FX miniseries Under the Banner of Heaven. Not for the first time — think of such cultural monuments as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet and Zane Grey’s Riders of the Purple Sage and the 1911 Danish silent film A Victim of the Mormons — and certainly... Read more

Remembrance

Last updated on: May 13, 2022 at 9:02 pm By Dan Peterson

*** If you’re at all interested in the topic of life before and after life, don’t let the opportunity pass you by to see Remembering Heaven while it’s in movie theaters. (I don’t know the extent of its distribution, but I know that it’s playing at several locations here in Utah Valley.). The film’s run may be over before you realize. *** Interpreter Radio Show — April 10, 2022 In the first hour of this... Read more

The Earliest Text of the Book of Mormon

Last updated on: May 13, 2022 at 8:58 pm By Dan Peterson

*** But briefly, first, please have a look at this article from today’s Meridian Magazine: ““Undaunted”: See the Docudrama that Tells the Rest of the Story Behind the Witnesses of the Book of Mormon” *** I’m pleased to mention here that tomorrow, 10 May 2022, is the date for which Yale University Press has scheduled the release of the second edition of The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text. Edited by my longtime friend... Read more

An important part of my approach to other faiths and worldviews

Last updated on: May 13, 2022 at 9:08 pm By Dan Peterson

*** Well over three decades ago now, I spent a summer in Berkeley, California, participating in a small seminar led by the preeminent student of comparative religions Huston Smith (1919-2016) and sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. It was an extraordinary and memorable experience on many levels — not the least of which was being able to attend a complete performance of Wagner’s “Ring Cycle” over at the San Francisco Opera during my stay in... Read more

Number Three

Last updated on: May 14, 2022 at 7:54 pm By Dan Peterson

*** I’m pleased to announce (although, owing to my schedule today, I’m announcing it about four and a half hours late) that the third installment of the Interpreter Foundation’s “Undaunted Witnesses” reels went up this (Saturday) evening: Undaunted Witnesses Episode 3: David Whitmer, Witness, with Camrey Bagley Fox and Gerrit Dirkmaat David Whitmer was one of the Three Witnesses, from a whole family of witnesses of the Gold Plates. Yet after falling out with Joseph Smith,... Read more

“Rich Vein or Fools Gold?”

Last updated on: May 13, 2022 at 9:22 pm By Dan Peterson

*** Intercontinental flights aren’t the ideal platform for blogging, so I’m afraid that I’m a bit late with these notifications. Still, I hope that you’ll enjoy them. They certainly haven’t gone out of date since yesterday: “Rich Vein or Fools Gold?” by Morgan Deane Review of Patrick Q. Mason and J. David Pulsipher, Proclaim Peace: The Restoration’s Answer to an Age of Conflict (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2021).... Read more

“About Those ‘Dangerous’ Mormons”

Last updated on: May 13, 2022 at 9:28 pm By Dan Peterson

*** Under the Banner of Heaven continues to enjoy its fifteen minutes of fame, so here are another couple of interesting reads on the subject: “What ‘Under the Banner of Heaven’ gets right — and wrong — about Mormons” I don’t agree with everything in the interview. I do, however, like this article in the Wall Street Journal: “About Those ‘Dangerous’ Mormons . . . The creator of Hulu’s ‘Under the Banner of Heaven’... Read more

Revelation, Divine and Human

Last updated on: May 13, 2022 at 9:34 pm By Dan Peterson

*** We bade farewell to our tour group this evening. It always seems that the time has been just a bit too short, and this tour was no exception. I hope that they had a good time, that their knowledge and understanding of some of the scriptural stories and the history of the land have been deepened, and that their faith has increased. I haven’t blogged much about our time here over the past few days, but... Read more

“The work of the expounder has scarcely begun”

Last updated on: May 14, 2022 at 11:28 pm By Dan Peterson

*** Here’s a new piece from the weekly Interpreter Radio Show: Audio Roundtable: Come, Follow Me Old Testament Lesson 20: “Rebel Not Ye against the Lord, Neither Fear” Numbers 11–14, 20–24 The Interpreter Radio Roundtable for Come, Follow Me Old Testament Lesson 20, “Rebel Not Ye against the Lord, Neither Fear” on Numbers 11–14, 20–24, featured Neal Rappleye, Jasmin Rappleye, and Hales Swift. That roundtable has now been extracted from the 3 April 2022 broadcast of the Interpreter... Read more