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Two new articles went up today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Holy Ghost in the Book of Moroni: Possessed of Charity,\u201d<\/a> written by Newell D. Wright<\/a> and Val Larsen<\/a><\/p>\n Abstract:\u00a0<\/strong>The role played by the Holy Ghost is an especially important connecting thread that runs through the Book of Moroni. The book illuminates the various ways in which the Holy Ghost transforms fallen human beings into redeemed members of the kingdom of God. Three phrases \u2014 \u201ccleave unto charity,\u201d \u201cpossessed of it,\u201d and \u201cthat ye may be filled with this love\u201d \u2014 are particularly revelatory of the role the Holy Ghost plays in our exaltation. But the positive process illuminated by these phrases has an obverse. Those who reject the Holy Ghost cleave to and are possessed of Satan. They are filled with his hatred. Though his message is primarily positive, Moroni has witnessed and describes what happens to those who reject the influence of the Holy Ghost.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cInterpreting\u00a0Interpreter<\/em>: The Ghost of Moroni,\u201d<\/a> written by Kyler Rasmussen<\/p>\n This post is a summary of the article \u201cThe Holy Ghost in the Book of Moroni: Possessed of Charity<\/a>\u201d by Newell D. Wright and Val Larsen in Volume 57 of\u00a0Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>. An introduction to the Interpreting\u00a0Interpreter<\/em> series is available at https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/interpreting-interpreter-on-abstracting-thought\/<\/a>.\u00a0 The Takeaway:<\/strong>\u00a0 Wright and Larsen discuss what each chapter in Moroni has to teach us about the Holy Ghost, with an emphasis on its transformative power, and on the path we\u2019ll walk if we don\u2019t take advantage of that power.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n We started relatively late this morning, at 9 AM, and drove along Lake Windermore, through Rydal, to Grasmere, where we spent our time visiting Dove Cottage \u2014 in which the poet William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy lived, and where, eventually, Mary Hutchinson joined them as his wife and the mother of his children \u2014 and the quite well done Wordsworth Museum, which is, if I\u2019m recalling things correctly, much improved since our last visit.\u00a0 The Wordsworths come across as pleasant and attractive people.\u00a0 After we finished at the Wordsworth buildings, which could definitely sustain a longer visit, we visited the Wordsworth graves at St. Oswald\u2019s Church and then had lunch in town.<\/p>\n Wordsworth is quite deservedly popular among Latter-day Saints, but, alas, he didn\u2019t return the favor.\u00a0 Not, at least, during his lifetime.\u00a0 Having first taken \u2014 in Wordsworth\u2019s own phrase \u2014 \u201ca Methodistical turn,\u201d a niece of his wife\u2019s joined the Latter-day Saints, following \u201cthat wretch\u201d (Joseph Smith, presumably) and emigrated to America.\u00a0 In 1846, the aging Wordsworth wrote to his American publisher seeking information about the group that she had joined:\u00a0 \u201cDo you,\u201d he asked, \u201cknow anything of a wretched set of Religionists in your Country, Superstitionists I ought to say, called Mormonites or Latter-day Saints?\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I don\u2019t bear a grudge against Wordsworth for his negative opinion of the Latter-day Saints.\u00a0 After all, he seems to have known nothing, or virtually nothing, about them \u2014 except hostile rumor and popular prejudice.\u00a0 And the same was true for Mr. Reed, his American publisher:\u00a0 \u201c\u201cI know nothing of those wretched and wicked fanatics,\u201d Mr. Reed wrote in reply, labeling Joseph Smith, an \u201cImposter.\u201d\u00a0 As it happens, Wordsworth\u2019s niece, Margaret Hutchinson, had gathered with the Saints in\u00a0 Nauvoo and then, during the westward exodus, had died at Winter Quarters.\u00a0 (See \u201cThe Famous Writer Mormons Love Who Didn\u2019t Love Us.\u201d<\/a>)<\/p>\n In 1877, though, in the newly dedicated St. George Temple, Wilford Woodruff was baptized for many of the founders of the United States and for other eminent men and women \u2014 including William Wordsworth and Mary Hutchinson Wordsworth.\u00a0 (He and others may have even seen them in vision.)\u00a0 So we can hope that, now, the great poet knows better and has accepted the Gospel.\u00a0 There are certainly elements of the doctrine of the Restoration that should have immediately resonated with him when he heard them \u2014 which is why his poetry has often resonated with Latter-day Saints.<\/p>\n Leaving Grasmere, we drove to the area of Milnthorpe, in Westmorland (now part of Cumbria), where John Taylor (1808-1887), future apostle and third president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a>, was born and where he lived until he emigrated to Toronto, Canada, in 1832.\u00a0 Specifically, we visited the home of\u00a0James and Agnes Taylor, his parents, which still stands in the nearby village of Hale, and the King\u2019s Arms Inn (now The Tavern at Hale), which his parents may also have owned.\u00a0 During his boyhood in England, John Taylor is said to have had a vision of \u201can angel in the heavens, holding a trumpet to his mouth, sounding a message to the nations\u201d \u2014 which he apparently later identified as the angel Moroni.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n A few days back, I posted a blog entry that I called \u201cFidelity Month.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 I now offer a follow-up on that same\u00a0 topic:\u00a0 \u201cFrom Isolation to Integration: A Professor\u2019s Plea for Fidelity Month:\u00a0 Can a \u2018Fidelity Month\u2019 revive societal values and mend our disconnected world? Discover the compelling vision of renowned scholar Robert P. George.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>