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<\/a>I hope that what I\u2019m doing here with the image will count as acceptable \u201cfair use.\u201d I\u2019m struck by the painting because it\u2019s in somewhat the style of Grant Wood, which I love. \u00a0The original Nauvoo Illinois Temple is shown as it would have appeared in about 1846.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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My remarks at the 2023 FAIR LDS conference (\u201cUnderstanding History Backwards\u201d<\/a>) are now available via YouTube.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I am so surprised<\/em> that Yevgeny Prigozhin appears to have died in the catastrophic crash of a private jet. \u00a0(One of its wings apparently fell off in mid-flight, at about 26,000 feet.) \u00a0Could anybody possibly<\/em> have seen this coming? \u00a0(Out of the clear blue sky, as it were.) \u00a0But I\u2019m reassured by the fact that a Russian government investigative committee has been tasked with determining the cause of the crash.<\/p>\n And my confidence in Vladimir Putin as a defender of Christian civilization and its values \u2014 a faith that I still see occasionally expressed online \u2014 remains strong and unshaken.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And, speaking of Christian leaders, one Peggy Brown has been posting helpful commentary over on the Facebook page for the \u201cPreserve Our Cody Neighborhoods\u201d group in opposition to the building of the Cody Wyoming Temple<\/a> \u2014 and, for that matter, against the building of temples in general.<\/p>\n Mrs. Brown has marshaled a number of cogent arguments against the temple that Cody\u2019s Planning and Zoning Commission will, no doubt, find very useful in its consideration of the matter. \u00a0Did you know, for example, that Latter-day Saints regard Jesus as the brother of Lucifer and that we worship Satan? \u00a0I\u2019ll bet you didn\u2019t! \u00a0And were you aware of the Mountain Meadows Massacre? \u00a0(\u201cJohn D. Lee took a bullet for Brigham Young.\u201d \u00a0See my recent Meridian Magazine<\/em> article \u201cSearching Out the Truth about the Mountain Meadows Massacre.\u201d<\/a>) \u00a0Such actions are apparently typical of the Mormon \u201ccult,\u201d which is really a corporation masquerading as a church. \u00a0Others have joined in to complain about how the Latter-day Saint temples in Pocatello and Idaho Falls and Twin Falls \u2014 the latter with its \u201cphallic\u201d spire (spires being an architectural feature apparently unknown in prior religious architecture) \u2014 dominate their towns and blot out the wondrous natural beauty that was once so visible in those unfortunate areas, which are now blighted by the visible presence of Mormons<\/a>.<\/p>\n Some have demanded that the question of whether Latter-day Saints should be allowed to build a temple on a plot of land that the Church owns (because it was donated to the Church) should be put up for public vote even if it meets zoning rules<\/em>. \u00a0That\u2019s certainly a novel approach to private property rights. \u00a0I wonder if they intend to make their demand apply across the board, for all buildings (including all homes) or only in the case of a proposed Latter-day Saint temple.<\/p>\n The proprietors of the \u201cPreserve Our Cody Neighborhoods\u201d group, who have apparently blocked me from posting on it, wisely want to frame the dispute there as being entirely about the height of the temple spire (on which compromise is, I think, certainly possible), the brightness of its lighting (on which a compromise has already been offered), its vast size (which, at under 10,000 square feet, may well be smaller than some of the homes that will surround it and which will make it perhaps the second smallest temple that we\u2019ve ever built), and its sheer location.<\/p>\n But a subset of the participants at \u201cPreserve Our Cody Neighborhoods\u201d are disinclined to follow the preferences of the owners of the site when commenting there. \u00a0Some do think that it would be better sited elsewhere in Cody (perhaps in an area zoned for commercial and industrial activity), but some want it located somewhere amidst the sagebrush outside of the city, some think it should be built in another town altogether, where there is a higher percentage of Latter-day Saints, and some, quite candidly, oppose its being built at all, anywhere.<\/p>\n One commenter on the \u201cPreserve Our Cody Neighborhoods\u201d site has repeatedly proposed that, since Latter-day Saints favor and support pedophilia, a matching shrine to Jeffrey Epstein should be built adjacent to it. \u00a0On this matter, though, Jennifer Roach\u2019s presentation earlier this month at the 2023 FAIR LDS conference, \u201cShedding Light on the Complexities: Understanding Abuse within the LDS Church<\/a>,\u201d is an absolutely necessary foundation for any informed discussion on the topic.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not exaggerating even slightly<\/em>.\u00a0 It\u2019s scheduled to go up publicly on YouTube publicly next Wednesday, but, in the meanwhile, it can be watched now in the FAIR LDS bookstore after free registration<\/a>. \u00a0Moreover, a good source of material on the subject of \u201cAbuse and the Church,\u201d largely put together by Sister Roach, is already available on the FAIR website<\/a>.)<\/p>\n I was just a tad curious about Peggy Brown and her husband, Dale Brown, and I was not surprised to find that they are visible online well beyond the \u201cPreserve Our Cody Neighborhoods\u201d Facebook page. \u00a0Here are a few examples that should give readers an idea of their approach and their attitudes. \u00a0I spent only a few quick minutes looking for them; I expect that considerably more material is available:<\/p>\n I\u2019ve posted on four prior occasions here about the controversy that has been swirling around the proposed Cody Wyoming Temple<\/a>. \u00a0(See, in chronological order,\u00a0\u201cA small tempest about a small temple in Cody,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0\u201cIn the world after the Fall,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0\u201cOnce More, on the Conflict in Cody.\u201d<\/a> and \u201cAn Update on the Continuing Crisis in Cody, Wyoming.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/a>\n