“Far, far away on Judea’s plains”

Last updated on: December 7, 2025 at 10:25 am By Dan Peterson

Fox News: “‘Mormon Wives’ is clashing with core LDS values and America is eating it up: expert: PR experts say counterintuitive premise creates curiosity about group cutting against proverbial grain” Gosh. Ya think? National Catholic Reporter: “‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ offers repackaged oppression” Salt Lake Tribune: “Big 12 commissioner says stopping derogatory chants at BYU games ‘starts with me’: Brett Yormark discussed the league’s next steps ahead of the conference’s title game.” And, while we’re at it: Babylon... Read more

The Messiah, the Gentiles, and the Old Testament

Last updated on: December 5, 2025 at 1:45 pm By Dan Peterson

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A new article went up today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship, representing the Foundation’s 698th consecutive Friday of publishing a journal article. (The Foundation was launched 699.5 weeks ago.) The new article is ““Upon All the Nations”: The gôyim in Nephi’s Rendition of Isaiah 2 (2 Nephi 12) in Literary Context,” written by Matthew L. Bowen: Abstract: One of the most notable features of Nephi’s small plates rendition of Isaiah chapter 2 (2 Nephi 12)... Read more

Remembering a perfect Alpine Christmas

Last updated on: December 4, 2025 at 2:43 pm By Dan Peterson

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On many pages of the new Interpreter Foundation website, you will see an invitation to “Subscribe to Our Mailing List.” Whether you like and appreciate what we do or merely want to keep up with the steady stream of vicious, rage-fueled inanity, buffoonery, and mendacity that we pump out, I hope that you will choose to do so. It will cost you nothing (beyond a few years of sanity and peace of mind). Last night, I finished Dr. Michael Nahm’s... Read more

“O great mystery”

Last updated on: December 3, 2025 at 4:52 pm By Dan Peterson

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Newly posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Steadfast in Defense of Faith: “An Everlasting Witness: Ancient Writings on Metal,” written by Noel B. Reynolds: Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in Steadfast in Defense of Faith: Essays in Honor of Daniel C. Peterson, edited by Shirley Ricks, Stephen D. Ricks, and Louis Midgley. For more information, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/steadfast-in-defense-of-faith/. “From Joseph Smith’s earliest days as a prophet, talk of a record inscribed on... Read more

Hail, Mary!

Last updated on: December 3, 2025 at 11:18 am By Dan Peterson

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Here are two items that were newly posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation earlier today: Interpreter Foundation Come, Follow Me Podcast, December 8-14, 2025: “We Believe”: The Articles of Faith and Official Declarations 1 and 2: For the 20 November 2025 Come, Follow Me segment of the Interpreter Foundation Podcast, Martin Tanner, Kris Frederickson, and Bruce Webster discussed the Come, Follow Me Doctrine and Covenants lesson for December 8 – 14 covering the Articles of Faith and... Read more

It’s the Christmas season!

Last updated on: December 2, 2025 at 12:39 am By Dan Peterson

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The Daily Mail — a daily British middle-market tabloid — has often been criticized for unreliability, sensationalism, and inaccuracy. In February 2017, the English Wikipedia actually banned its use as a source. Happily, though, The Daily Mail has made a regular hobby of publishing sensationalistic articles about marginal or former Latter-day Saints — just Google “Daily Mail Mormon” to see what I mean — and this one is pretty much par for the course: “The REAL lives of Mormon... Read more

A Tribute to a Friend

Last updated on: November 30, 2025 at 12:41 am By Dan Peterson

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I was pleased to be able to participate on Saturday evening in an Interpreter Foundation event, a program followed by a light dinner that was jointly organized by the Foundation and by his children, in celebration of my former teacher and longtime friend and colleague Noel Reynolds. The occasion was the presentation to Noel of a festschrift — a volume of essays by friends and associates, in his honor. It was a very pleasant evening, attended by a good... Read more

Queer Theory and the Church of Jesus Christ

Last updated on: November 28, 2025 at 5:45 pm By Dan Peterson

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If you go to the home page of the Interpreter Foundation, you will find that the page has been fundamentally redesigned. It may take a while for you to become wholly accustomed to it, but I hope that you’ll come to appreciate it. The changes are very far from merely superficial and cosmetic. I’m very grateful to Allen Wyatt and Alan Sikes and the others from our side who saw this through to its current results. And you will... Read more

The Beatles, once again

Last updated on: November 28, 2025 at 12:03 pm By Dan Peterson

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A week or so ago, an intrepid critic of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced to a tough audience of similarly hostile critics that members of that Church hate and condemn the Beatles or, anyway, should hate and condemn them. Inspired by his research, I expressed my own disdain for the Beatles, and my righteous indignation against them, in a post that was rather cryptically titled “On my apparently deep dislike of the Beatles.” I’ve decided,... Read more

Four more for Thanksgiving

Last updated on: November 27, 2025 at 9:56 am By Dan Peterson

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First of all, I wish a Happy Thanksgiving to everybody. Even to those who live in places where today isn’t actually Thanksgiving Day. May you have an absolutely wonderful day! For various reasons, I haven’t written a “Thanksgiving column” every single year. But I’ve done several of them. In at least one year (2019), I wrote two. I shared a few of them yesterday. Here are a few more. I hope that somebody out there might find something worthwhile... Read more

Who said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God"?