*** I’m pleased to announce that a new video, an hour and fifty-eight minutes in length, has now gone up on the website of Deseret Book: “What Is My Witness? Reflections From the Cast and Crew of Witnesses“ “Join the filmmakers and cast of Witnesses for a compelling look into the making of their critically acclaimed film.” It is accessible for your viewing at no charge. [ETA: Actually, it appears that you need to... Read more
*** Earlier this evening, we watched the sun go down over the island of Lānaʻi, not quite nine miles away across the ‘Au‘au Channel to our west. Beautiful hues of orange, red, and blue. A few days ago, I saw the famous sunset “green flash” from a cliff at Corona Del Mar, in California. Not tonight, though. If nothing else, Lānaʻi got in the way. Earlier in the day, we watched a very active pod of whales... Read more
*** We drove to Hancock Park today to meet with friends that we’ve known since our days of living in Egypt. They’re now living in the Los Angeles area, and the ones that we first knew when they were children now have (very lively) children of their own. We gawked at the La Brea Tar Pits, of course, but spent most of our time in the adjacent George C. Page Museum (and then at a leisurely lunch... Read more
*** A little article of mine — the most recently published installment of my regular column for Meridian Magazine — has appeared in, well, Meridian Magazine. (You expected maybe Rolling Stone?) I hope that some of you might enjoy and even benefit from it: “Why Latter-day Saints Cannot Disregard the Old Testament” *** Two new pieces went up online today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “Honoring Joseph’s Theophany... Read more
*** Several years ago, I read the superb book by Fiona Givens and Terryl Givens, The Christ Who Heals: How God Restored the Truth that Saves Us. I sometimes encounter derisive comments from certain critics about how shallow the doctrines of the Restoration supposedly are, and I readily admit that such complaints astonish me. I find the implications, entailments, and disclosures of the Restored Gospel radical and utterly, breathtakingly, profound. But then, many of the folks... Read more
*** How, you may ask, is the Interpreter Foundation’s forthcoming two-part 2.5-hour docudrama, Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, different from the Foundation’s theatrical film, Witnesses? Thank you for asking! Both Witnesses and Undaunted are parts of the same overall project, and the docudrama’s production and release have long been intended to follow on the heels of the earlier film’s run in theaters. Unlike Witnesses, though, which focused entirely on Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris,... Read more
*** I’m pleased to announce that Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon — the Interpreter Foundation docudrama that has been created to deepen understanding of and to comment upon Interpreter’s theatrical film, Witnesses — will receive its red-carpet premiere on Friday, 4 March, during the annual LDS Film Festival. And tickets for it and for the festival as a whole are now available. “The various witnesses of the gold plates, both official and unofficial, represent... Read more
*** Critics of the Church of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sometimes dismiss articles written by Latter-day Saint scholars and/or published in Latter-day Saint venues on the grounds that they’re Latter-day Saints. Such dismissals are very common among certain types of critic. So I’m going to cut to the chase. Arguments — and I use the term argument here as scholars and logicians typically do, to refer to orderly presentations of evidence intended... Read more
*** Nobody really knows what the long term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic will be for participation in religious worship services. My own hunch is that they will be negative — and that, even in secular terms (since participation in religious communities has been shown to be beneficial for social, psychological, and, yes, even physical health), the consequences of those consequences themselves will be harmful. Here, though, are some interim reports on the topic: “Contra French... Read more
*** For much of his lifetime, newspaper reports insinuated that Joseph Smith was duping his followers in a greed-motivated religious scam. For a person of his remarkable abilities and undeniable charisma, however, it seems that he derived very little monetary profit from his devilish scheme, if such it was. “Now father,” Helen Soby wrote in an 1841 letter responding to such concerns, “if you want to know about us or Joe Smith read the Book... Read more
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