Philip Leaning, of New Zealand, has called a passage to my attention about the atonement of Christ that, I feel, is worthy of reflection on this sabbath day. It comes from the late Chieko Okazaki (1927-2011), who served as first counselor in the General Presidency of the Relief Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1990 to 1997. As Brother Leaning notes, while she was speaking specifically to the women of the Church, her fundamental... Read more
The German town of Weimar is tiny — it has only about 65,000 inhabitants — but its cultural importance is enormous. Martin Luther was in Weimar on several occasions. Between 1608 and 1617, Johann Sebastian Bach worked as a court organist in Weimar. In the nineteenth century, Franz Liszt made the city a center of German music. He premiered Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin in Weimar. Richard Strauss served between 1889 and 1894 as assistant director of the court orchestra in... Read more
I’ve been traveling and busy, and I’ve fallen behind in calling your attention to new items appearing from the (completely comatose) Interpreter Foundation. Here are three of them: “Finding the Elect Lady,” written by Spencer Kraus, was published earlier today, Friday, in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: Review of Lincoln H. Blumell, Lady Eclecte: The Lost Woman of the New Testament (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2025). 314 pages. $48.00 (hardcover). Abstract: For centuries, the consensus... Read more
We began the day quite early, as we usually do during these filming expeditions, down on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River where the “Trail of Hope” comes to the shore. This is apparently the spot where the Latter-day Saints began their crossing of the river and their flight into Iowa Territory and beyond. We chose the spot, of course, because we were filming part of an episode on the exodus to the west. I can scarcely imagine... Read more
As aways on these out-of-state Becoming Brigham expeditions, I’m here with our core film crew—Mark Goodman, James Jordan, and Russ Richins—and with my fellow hosts, Camrey Bagley Fox and John Donovan Wilson. (See them in Witnesses [2021] and Six Days in August [2024].) Filming on these short autumn days after the change back to “standard time” is a bit of a challenge, but we tried to use our time well on the way from the airport in St. Louis... Read more
This is the third time that I’ve been back to Nauvoo in 2025, and the fourth time that I’ve come back during 2024 and 2025. We’re here for more work on our series of Becoming Brigham documentaries, which still appears to be on track for launch in the latter part of January 2026. Things seem to be on track for launching the series in mid- to late January, with weekly short features appearing each week thereafter. We won’t be... Read more
I was amused to notice a discussion at a predominantly atheistic anti-Mormon website of what some there, at least, seem to consider a devastating discovery—that the Latter-day Saint notion of a “restoration” isn’t original to Latter-day Saints. This, I take it, is supposed to demonstrate that there are no new ideas in “Mormonism” and presumably this proves “Mormonism” false. Or something. (I haven’t been able, thus far, to force myself to read through the thread.) But did we ever... Read more
The American Thanksgiving holiday is approaching, and it’s appropriate, I believe, to be thinking about it before all the cooking and family gatherings and eating get underway, and before any nasty political arguments break out at the holiday table. Here’s an article that might be helpful in that regard: “‘Thanksgiving, For What?’ For Everything” And here, always worth reading and pondering, is Abraham Lincoln’s Proclamation of Thanksgiving. It was issued from the White House on 3 October 1863, in... Read more
I am, to put it mildly, no particular admirer of Zohran Mamdani, and I’m not at all a fan of “democratic socialism,” which is his espoused ideology. But even I am shocked that, already, just days after his election as mayor of New York City and long before he’ll actually assume the office, the New York public schools system has begun to teach its pupils Arabic numerals. (I thank my friend Tom Pittman for calling this outrage to my... Read more
This is an extremely important article, and I’ve been excitedly anticipating its publication for quite a long time — while, at the same time, not wanting to spoil the surprise. And now it’s here: “Historical and Stylometric Evidence for the Authorship of Doctrine and Covenants 132,” written by Paul Fields, Steven T. Densley, Jr., Matthew Roper and Larry Bassist: Abstract: This paper examines the claim that Joseph Smith was not the author of the verses in Doctrine and Covenants... Read more
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