*** On Saturday, en route from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, we stopped off at Sharon, Vermont, at the birthplace of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Although I had visited all of the other major eastern Church historical sites multiple times, I had never previously gone up to Sharon. (It’s a bit of a geographical outlier, pretty far removed from everything else, and, apart from his birth itself, little of Joseph’s life took place in Sharon.) The place was... Read more
*** I was curious to learn the origin of the name Smugglers’ Notch. It turns out that notch, in the parlance of New Hampshire’s White Mountains and presumably also, is a term for a deep, narrow, mountain pass. (Hence the name of the electorally famous Dixville Notch, about which we hear quite a bit every four years during the New Hampshire primary and the quadrennial presidential election.) If you look carefully at the photo above, you’ll... Read more
*** As many, many others have over the past couple of days, I’ve been thinking about the 9-11 attacks and, even more so, about their victims. So many lives snuffed out. So much pain and sorrow. My friend Anne Palmieri shared the words below on her Facebook page. They’re familiar; we all know the story. But I found myself moved to tears as I reread them this morning, and I think that some of you will find... Read more
*** New today, on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Book of Moses Essays #72: The Two Ways (Moses 5): Adam, Eve, and the New and Everlasting Covenant (Moses 5:4–6) *** We watched the Tabernacle Choir’s commemorative special on the victims of the September 11th attacks this morning, and this evening we watched a substantial portion of Spike Lee’s NYC Epicenters: 9/11 – 2021½. Marred somewhat (especially toward the end) by the intrusion of... Read more
*** A new article, by Jeff Lindsay, went up earlier today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “Book of Abraham Polemics: Dan Vogel’s Broad Critique of the Defense of the Book of Abraham” Review of Dan Vogel, Book of Abraham Apologetics: A Review and Critique (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2021). 250 pp. $18.95 (softback). Abstract: Dan Vogel’s latest book claims to offer clear-cut evidence showing what, when, and how Joseph Smith fraudulently translated the Book... Read more
*** I’ve been quite busy today, and I haven’t been at my computer very much. Here, though, are links to five articles that you might find of interest and that were published in a prior issue of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: William J. Hamblin, “The Sôd of Yhwh and the Endowment” Abstract: Most scholars agree that sôd, when used in relationship to God, refers to the heavenly council, which humans may sometimes... Read more
*** I return to a subject that I raised in my immediately previous blog entry — namely, the seemingly increasing tendency for some members of the Church to put their political ideologies ahead of their loyalty to the prophets and apostles who lead the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I spoke in the previous entry about the First Presidency statement on vaccination against COVID-19 and about Elder Holland’s exhortation to the faculty, staff, and administration... Read more
*** You may perhaps be aware of the controversy that has recently raged around Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, of the Council of the Twelve. Last night, Tuesday night, this article by Yr Obd’t Servant went up in Meridian Magazine: “Elder Holland: What They Heard is Not What He Said” I hope that it can shed at least a little bit of light on the topic rather than simply generating more heat. I have to... Read more
*** A new article by Richard O. Cowan appeared today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “Latter-day Houses of the Lord: Developments in Their Design and Function” Abstract: This essay traces the modern-day usage and understanding of temples from the Kirtland Temple to Nauvoo and the Salt Lake Temple. Architecture was used to teach principles. While the Kirtland Temple was preparatory (think of the vision of Christ and the conference of keys by Abraham,... Read more
*** Here are a few additional passages that I marked during my reading of Derek R. Sainsbury’s Storming the Nation: The Unknown Contributions of Joseph Smith’s Political Missionaries (Provo: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2020). Please note that such stories as these do not constitute the primary or even secondary focus of the book; they are tangential to its argument: A small number of electioneers received comfort in what they described as revelatory visions or... Read more
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