Several millennia ago, when I was a teenager babysitting for my brother and my sister-in-law (or something like that), I came across a book on my brother shelves that has stayed with me ever since: Eric Hoffer’s The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, which was originally published in 1951. Oddly, though, until this past week I don’t think that I had ever re-read the book since then. However, my wife and I belong... Read more
We had a respectable though not huge audience for our panel discussion earlier this evening at the 19th Annual LDS Film Festival, and I think it went well. We led off with the video “sampler” that now appears on our Witness film project website, which is made up of mingled footage from our theatrical movie (still temporarily supplemented with some material from an earlier film that was created by our same team) and from the documentary film that... Read more
I’ve found myself thinking of the lyrics to an old Simon and Garfunkel song today. (See the title of this blog entry, taken from “The Boxer.”) There is, in an odd corner of the Web, an odd message board that is devoted, to a really surprising degree, to anonymously criticizing me and all my works, day in and day out, month after month, year after year. This has been going on for about a decade and a... Read more
I continue with notes that I’ve extracted mostly from an article written by a longtime friend of mine, the Latter-day Saint geologist Dr. Bart Kowallis, about the natural catastrophe described in the Book of Mormon as having occurred in the New World at the death of Christ: Bart J. Kowallis, “In the Thirty and Fourth Year: A Geologist’s View of the Great Destruction in 3 Nephi,” BYU Studies 37/3 (1997-1998): A skeptic may rightfully object that, although Professor Kowallis... Read more
“How Iran Became a New Epicenter of the Coronavirus Outbreak” “Iranian clerics keep shrines open, even as virus spreads” *** If you go to this link, you can see the various tours to Egypt that Cruise Lady: Latter-day Adventures will be sending over during the next few months: https://www.cruiselady.com/tour-destination/egypt/ If you look at the bottom of the page, you can watch videotaped testimonials about touring Egypt from Hany Tawfik, Brad Wilcox, and, alas,... Read more
I’ve begun to publish a short series of notes mostly extracted from an article written by a longtime friend of mine, the Latter-day Saint geologist Dr. Bart Kowallis, about the natural catastrophe described in the Book of Mormon as occurring in the New World around the time of the death of Christ in the Old World: Bart J. Kowallis, “In the Thirty and Fourth Year: A Geologist’s View of the Great Destruction in 3 Nephi,” BYU Studies 37/3 (1997-1998): ... Read more
It being Friday, a new article has appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scripture. This one is by Mark J. Johnson: “Scriptures through the Jeweler’s Lens” Review of Terryl Givens with Brian Hauglid, The Pearl of Greatest Price: Mormonism’s Most Controversial Scripture (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019). 285 pages. $34.95 (hardback). Abstract: Among the many revelatory works of Joseph Smith, members and scholars alike seem to give lesser attention to what is found in the Pearl... Read more
“Ultimate Egypt Lecture Series” “Cruise Lady: Latter-day Adventures is pleased to announce a new Learn Our Religion lecture series in anticipation of The Interpreter Foundation Ultimate Egypt Tour.” The lectures will be held at the Cruise Lady Jordan Event Center, in West Jordan, Utah. They will be open to anybody who wants to attend, at no charge. (Participation in the Ultimate Egypt tour is not a requirement.) However, since seating is very limited, reservations are required. Go... Read more
Today’s installment of my bi-weekly column in the Deseret News: “How Mary’s ‘Immaculate Conception’ is about her origin: The Virgin Birth and Immaculate Conception can be commonly confused, yet are quite distinct” *** I offer a final note — a quotation — drawn from Stephen Cranney, “”Who Is Leaving the Church? Demographic Predictors of Ex-Latter-day Saint Status in the Pew Religious Landscape Survey,” BYU Studies Quarterly 58/1 (2019): 99-108: Because there is no information [in the Pew... Read more
I signed an agreement with Purdie Distribution last weekend on behalf of the Interpreter Foundation and the Witnesses film project. Purdie Distribution has many years of experience with distributing independent films, and specifically films oriented to Latter-day Saint themes and audiences. Accordingly, our publicity push for Witnesses begins this week. That’s why we’ve been graciously invited to do a one-hour panel discussion on Witnesses as part of the nineteenth annual LDS Film Festival on Saturday, 29 February 2020 —... Read more
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