In case you haven’t seen or read it yet: “The First Presidency’s 2023 Christmas Message.” And please note that the annual annual First Presidency Christmas devotional broadcast is scheduled for a week from today, on Sunday, 3 December 2023. And then, of course, there’s this: “Temple Square Offering Christmas Experiences for 2023 Season: Lights turn on and most activities begin Friday, November 24” I presume that this will be available on KBYU-FM as well, although I’m not... Read more
While we were in Virginia recently, we not only took the time to visit some Civil War battlefields but to take family members to Jamestown — the first permanent English settlement in the Americas, famously associated with Pocahontas — out by Williamsburg, and, in the other direction, to Carter Mountain, near Charlottesville. In preparation for the Jamestown visit, some of us watched the 1995 Disney film Pocahontas. (Age appropriate, and all that.). And, of course, at Carter Mountain... Read more
I hope that you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday (where applicable). Over the past couple of days, the following note was sent out to the Interpreter Foundation’s email lists and went up on the Foundation’s websites: We are approaching Giving Tuesday and the month of December, when the hearts of many (in the United States, at least) turn to charity or, anyway, to tax deductions. We know that there are thousands of worthy causes out there,... Read more
Happy Thanksgiving! Both of these columns appeared in the Deseret News in connection with Thanksgiving 2019. Although I have a few more of these, they are (mercifully) the last of the Thanksgiving-themed columns that I intend to resurrect here this year: As we in the United States approach the national Thanksgiving holiday for 2019, it’s appropriate to consider things for which we should express our gratitude. Obviously, of course, there’s the good food that many of... Read more
Newly posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: “Conference Talks: From Temple to Church: Defining Sacred Space in the Near East,“ presented by David Calabro on Saturday, 7 November 2020, as part of the Interpreter Foundation’s 2020 Temple on Mount Zion Conference: “In this paper, I propose to revisit the question posed by Hugh Nibley, “What Is a Temple?” in Mormonism and Early Christianity (Salt Lake City and Provo, 1987), 355-90, and by John Lundquist, “What Is... Read more
Newly posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Interpreter Radio Show — November 5, 2023 Spencer Kraus, Martin Tanner, Brent Schmidt, and Hales Swift were the discussants for the 5 November 2023 episode of the Interpreter Radio Show. They discussed Come, Follow Me New Testament lesson 49, criticizing Church leaders, upcoming conferences, the After Death film, early Christian concepts of God’s nature, and other topics. And now, shorn of commercial breaks, their discussion has been archived and... Read more
I’m finally finding a few stolen moments in which to begin reading Richard Lyman Bushman’s newest book, Joseph Smith’s Gold Plates: A Cultural History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2023), and here is a chain of related passages from it that I would like to share with you: As his [Joseph Smith’s] account made clear, the plates were both of the earth and of heaven. They were mundane, material, historical, on the one hand, and divine, mysterious, holy, on... Read more
You might justly view yesterday’s blog entry here as a full-length installment from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™. In a very real sense, that is exactly what it was, and I hope that you’ll take the opportunity not only to buy something yourself but to call the opportunity to the attention of others. I already called attention a few days back to a brief excerpt from an Interpreter Foundation interview with Elder Dale G.... Read more
As you’ve probably noticed — I’ve scarcely been subtle or coy about it! — we are in the process of making a theatrical movie under the title of Six Days in August, and I’m urgently seeking additional funds for the completion of that venture, for which the actual filming is now approximately 82% finished. Much still remains to be done after the filming, including postproduction, editing, distribution, publicity, and the like, and the costs for such things have... Read more
Newly posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: “Largely Shadow, Short of Reality,” written by Allen Wyatt Review of Ronald V. Huggins, Lighthouse: Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Despised and Beloved Critics of Mormonism (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2022). 392 pages. $39.95 (hardback), $24.95 (paperback). Abstract: Jerald and Sandra Tanner have had a long ministerial career trying to convince people that that the truth claims of the Church are wrong. Even though their ministry has closed its... Read more
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