September 7, 2024

  IMPORTANT:  For those who are in Utah Valley, or who may or can be in the vicinity on the evening of Wednesday, 25 September, I would like to announce a major fireside.  It will take place at the SCERA Center for the Arts, in Orem.  I hope that you will make plans to be there:  “Unveiling History: Six Days in August Fireside.”  A good time will be had by all. I expect that many Latter-day Saints are aware of... Read more

September 6, 2024

  Two new articles have gone up on the website of the never-changing and completely dead website of the Interpreter Foundation: “The Man with No Name: The Story of the Brother of Jared as an Anti-Babel Polemic,” written by Walker Wright Abstract: Within the text of the Book of Mormon, the name of Jared’s brother is never revealed. Various reasons have been offered for the lack of a name, but nothing conclusive has been offered. Taking a cue from the... Read more

September 5, 2024

  Somehow I missed it when it occurred, but an article written by . . .  well, written by me went up a couple of days ago in Meridian Magazine:  “Hearing Wilford Woodruff’s Testimony in His Own Voice.”  I hope that you’ll read it.  And I hope that you’ll enjoy it. Also in the “me section” of this blog:  I joined in the recording of an audio podcast earlier today with Scott Woodward and Casey Griffiths for their “Church History... Read more

September 4, 2024

  As the release date for Six Days in August approaches, I find myself thinking about the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum, the Patriarch. Thomas Sharp and his conspirators down in Warsaw to the south, and the mob that did the deed in Carthage to the east, thought that, by murdering Joseph and Hyrum, they had put an end to “Mormonism.” Now, though, Thomas Sharp and his cronies are completely forgotten — except as evil... Read more

September 3, 2024

  This is a stunning story about the converting power of the Book of Mormon and about the motivating power of personal faith:  “Refugee walks 728 miles to be baptized after reading Book of Mormon: Amos Makulu walked across Tanzania to be baptized as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Now in New York, he is instrumental in creating a Swahili-speaking branch.” It offers yet another example of the fascinating stories that are emerging out of... Read more

September 2, 2024

  Last night, my wife and I watched a video — not quite an hour long — entitled Pioneers of Africa.  Directed by Marcy Brown and produced at least partially under the auspices of Brigham Young University, it’s about the limited, tentative, and awkward approaches of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the continent of Africa prior to the 1978 revelation on priesthood, and about the history of African Latter-day Saints thereafter up to the time of... Read more

September 1, 2024

  On 28 August 2024, I recorded a lecture in connection with the Interpreter Foundation’s approaching Mesoamerica tour.  It was entitled “The Importance, and Non-Importance, of Knowing the Geography of the Book of Mormon,” and it is now up on the Interpreter Foundation website.  Truth be told, it wasn’t one of my better outings — though it might still be preferable to an equivalent amount of time spent watching old reruns of The Young and the Restless or just about... Read more

September 1, 2024

  I’ve fallen a bit behind, so it’s high time to catch up: These two pieces appeared on Friday on the Interpreter Foundation’s completely comatose website: “Restoring Melchizedek Priesthood,” written by John S. Thompson Abstract: Church historical sources make four differing claims as to when, how, and by whom Melchizedek priesthood was restored. These seemingly conflicting sources have led to many theories about what happened, including the idea that Joseph Smith changed his narrative and rewrote history as his ideas... Read more

August 30, 2024

  One or two folks have shown up on my blog attacking Brigham Young as greedy and corrupt.  Brigham enriched himself, they say, by giving himself interest-free loans from Church funds in order to establish businesses.  The lesson, supposedly, is that, if you want to become rich, you should become the head of a church. The commenters provide a list, from the late D. Michael Quinn, of businesses that Brigham owned and which  he is said to have set up... Read more

August 30, 2024

  Somewhat spontaneously — we didn’t make the decision until last night — we drove down to Cedar City today to catch as much as we’re able to catch of this year’s Utah Shakespeare Festival.  Owing to our crammed travel schedule last season, we were unable to attend.  Prior to that, though, we hadn’t missed the Shakespeare Festival since, I think, sometime in the first half of the 1990s.  It had become our end-of-summer ritual.  And we didn’t want to... Read more


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