Is religious disaffiliation on the rise?

Last updated on: March 30, 2025 at 3:57 am By Dan Peterson

Religious disaffiliation is a problem (from my perspective) that interests and challenges me. Perhaps it even represents an opportunity, if approached in the right way. Here are a few links that are relevant to it: Pew Research Center: “Around the World, Many People Are Leaving Their Childhood Religions: Surveys in 36 countries find that Christianity and Buddhism have the biggest losses from ‘religious switching’” The Jerusalem Post: “Nearly a quarter of Americans raised Jewish have left the religion, survey... Read more

A Twentieth-Century Corruption of 1 Corinthians 13:12?

Last updated on: March 29, 2025 at 3:19 am By Dan Peterson

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I was out and about all day today, Friday, sadly bereft of my computer. So I’m very late in calling attention to today’s new article in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship to your notice. It is “Through a Glass Darkly: Was There a Twentieth-Century Corruption of 1 Corinthians 13:12?” which was written by Charles Dike: Abstract: This paper considers the well-known account of Paul having been struck blind on the road to Damascus and his... Read more

“Reclaiming Jefferson’s University”

Last updated on: March 28, 2025 at 4:18 am By Dan Peterson

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This Thursday Interpreter Foundation chapter reprint — not to be confused, although some folks really seem to enjoy being confused on the subject, with a Friday journal article — went up on, well, Thursday: “The Lead Books,” written by Margaret Barker, from The Temple: Plates, Patterns, & Patriarchs: Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in The Temple: Plates, Patterns, & Patriarchs, edited by Stephen D. Ricks and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw. For more information, go... Read more

“Change and Decay in All Around I See”

Last updated on: March 26, 2025 at 6:50 pm By Dan Peterson

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This little article of mine has just gone up in Meridian Magazine: “Can You Trust the Reliability of Eyewitnesses?” It was inspired by one of my critics, whom I wish to thank for the impetus that he provided. I also wish to remind you of the resources that are available at The Witnesses Initiative. (There is much more there than just the three major films.) Please call those resources to the notice of others who might be interested or... Read more

It’s been quite a day for the Hitchens File

Last updated on: March 25, 2025 at 11:37 pm By Dan Peterson

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By the way, in a bid to cement the status of this blog as your one-stop news source, I promise to keep you posted if I receive any really interesting tidbits from the National Security Advisor, the Secretary of Defense, the Director of the CIA, the Vice President of the United States, or the Director of National Intelligence. I’ll try my darnedest to ensure that you learn of such stuff before even the Russians, the Iranians, the Houthis, and... Read more

The Beat Goes On

Last updated on: March 24, 2025 at 7:36 pm By Dan Peterson

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Newly posted today on the Interpreter Foundation website: Interpreter Radio Show — March 16, 2025, including Doctrine and Covenants in Context: D&C 30-36: “Lift Up Your Voices . . . to Declare My Gospel” For the 16 March 2025 instantiation of the Interpreter Radio Show, Bruce Webster and Kris Frederickson discussed Come, Follow Me Doctrine & Covenants lesson 15 and Easter. Their conversation was recorded and archived. It has now been edited, commercial interruptions have been removed, and it... Read more

“Realer than Real”

Last updated on: March 24, 2025 at 12:17 am By Dan Peterson

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Before leaving for church today, I read “Brigham Young Unfiltered: His Life, Conversion, and Faith in His Own Words” (BYU Studies 64/1 [2025]: 5-19), written by the irreplaceable LaJean Purcell Carruth. I commend it to your attention: “When we have Brigham Young’s own words, what he really said according to the shorthand record, we hear a very different man from the one that is so often criticized. Brigham bashing has become a sport for some people—criticizing him for his words... Read more

Wisdom begins with wonder

Last updated on: March 23, 2025 at 3:22 am By Dan Peterson

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We spent much of Saturday out on the ocean, traveling from Port Allen, in Eleele on the south coast of Kaua’i, around to the end of the famous and spectacular Na Pali cliffs on the northwest side of the island, and back again. The weather was perfect. (Sunnier than in the image above.) We cruised among scores and scores of spinner dolphins and past a honu, a sea turtle. Snorkeling not far from Port Allen itself, we saw lots... Read more

“Anchoring Nephi’s Account in the Real World”

Last updated on: March 22, 2025 at 1:29 am By Dan Peterson

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As happens several times each week, something new has appeared on the website of the nearly-dead and never-changing website of the Interpreter Foundation. It’s a new review essay in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “Wonder No More: A Review of Into Arabia,” written by Brant A. Gardner: Review of Warren P. Aston, Godfrey J. Ellis, and Neal Rappleye, Into Arabia: Anchoring Nephi’s Account in the Real World (Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City: Eborn... Read more

Thoughts, even in Poʻipū

Last updated on: March 20, 2025 at 2:46 pm By Dan Peterson

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A new item has appeared in the Interpreter Foundation’s regular Thursday reprint series — which, for those out there who have had trouble with the concept, is entirely distinct from the Foundation’s regular publication on Friday of new journal articles. The latest item to appear in the reprint series is The Temple: Plates, Patterns, & Patriarchs: “The Sacred and the Temple in Ancient Christianity,” which was written by C. Wilfred Griggs: Part of our book chapter reprint series, this... Read more