{"id":102482,"date":"2023-10-30T15:04:52","date_gmt":"2023-10-30T21:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=102482"},"modified":"2023-10-30T15:28:41","modified_gmt":"2023-10-30T21:28:41","slug":"correcting-errors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2023\/10\/correcting-errors.html","title":{"rendered":"Correcting errors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Thames<\/a>
The dome of St. Paul\u2019s to the left, the skyscraper called \u201cthe Gherkin\u201d to the right, and, over the River Thames, the Blackfriars Bridge
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Halloween is nearly upon us \u2014 here in England as well as in the colonies \u2014 so some of you might find this article of interest that my late and much lamented friend Bill Hamblin and I published in the Deseret News<\/em> back in 2015: \u00a0\u201cAre Halloween\u2019s roots evil and satanic?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

And, speaking of Bill Hamblin, I sometimes receive notes from faithful Latter-day Saints wondering whether the rumor is true that Bill had lost his faith by the time that he died. \u00a0And, sometimes, I receive triumphant notes from unbelievers in which they gloat over the \u201cfact\u201d that he had<\/em>, in fact, lost his faith. \u00a0 Well, just before I left on this latest expedition to T\u00fcrkiye and Egypt (and, it was thought, to Israel), I was looking for a note that Bill had sent me two or three years before his sudden, untimely, and still shocking death, and I came across the note that I reproduce below. \u00a0It is the second to the last communication that I ever had from him \u2014 the absolute last, sent on 1 December 2019, was a brief and purely operational note, of no special moment, about a column to be submitted to the Deseret News<\/em> \u2014 and it was sent on 27 November 2019 in response to this, from me:<\/p>\n

I also owe an introduction next week for the forthcoming volume of Interpreter.<\/i> \u00a0Wanna write it for me? \u00a0(Your fans miss you, and would be delighted.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bill replied negatively, as I knew that he would:<\/p>\n

\n
Sorry, I am done with Mormon studies. \u00a0It\u2019s astonishing how the Church has managed to destroy LDS apologetics in just a decade.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
1- Let BYU Destroy FARMS<\/div>\n
2- Even worse, replacing it with MI as Sunstone South now officially part of BYU<\/div>\n
3- Hire people who reject historicity in religious education + dumbing down the RE curriculum.<\/div>\n
4- Punish all those at BYU attempting to support historicity of scripture<\/div>\n
5- publish the new volume of the BOA Joseph Smith papers which overtly rejects historicity, and completely ignores decades of work by dozens of scholars. \u00a0This will now be perceived as the official Church position. \u00a0Any further attempts at BOA apologetics can now simply be dismissed without further discussion. \u00a0Historicity of the BOA is dead. \u00a0Furthermore, this will be used as justification to dehistoricize all other JS scripture. \u00a0If the BOA is ahistorical, why not the BOM?<\/div>\n
6- Continually downplay and decontextualize scripture. \u00a0Now it\u2019s down to 2 hours a month in Sunday School. \u00a0The manuals are even more pablumatic than before if that\u2019s possible.<\/div>\n

So I quit wasting my time years ago, and I\u2019m glad I did. \u00a0I\u2019m happier without it, and having fun in retirement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, there are several things that might be said about this note. \u00a0I disagree with his take in several crucial regards, and I was disappointed at this firm refusal to get back into what was then still unproblematically called \u201cMormon studies.\u201d \u00a0I certainly don\u2019t think that \u201cLDS apologetics\u201d has been destroyed, although the destruction of FARMS and the hostile takeover of the Maxwell Institute by people who rejected apologetics certainly set us back for a while.<\/p>\n

For my purpose here, however, I want to note the obvious fact that there is no trace in Bill\u2019s note of a loss of faith in the scriptures of the Restoration. \u00a0Quite the contrary. \u00a0There is, clearly, a strong sense of disillusionment, even bitter disillusionment, with certain Church and University policies. \u00a0(I knew him very, very well. \u00a0Bill was, temperamentally, never \u2014 ever \u2014 an \u201corganization man\u201d; he would never go along simply to get along. \u00a0He had a fiercely independent streak and was often the rebel.). If anything, Bill was expressing the sentiments of a passionate but disappointed lover.<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve said above, the note to me that I\u2019ve included here was posted to me on Tuesday, 27 November 2019. \u00a0He died, while visiting Texas, on Tuesday, 10 December 2019. \u00a0If he really lost his testimony at the end of his life, he had only two weeks in which to have done it.<\/p>\n

I really wish that critics would stop trying to enlist him, posthumously, in their war against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Hyde<\/a>
The Hyde Park Chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London
(Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been mildly puzzled for years now about the hostile personal fixation that some pseudonymous folks over at the Peterson Obsession Board seem to have on me. \u00a0Well, I finally have a clue with regard to one of them \u2014 the one that I\u2019ve identified here as Everybody\u2019s WC<\/em> \u2014 who claims that he hates me because of a multiyear crusade of defamation and slander and ceaseless personal attacks that I conducted against his best friend in an attempt to get that friend fired. \u00a0Having seen the stress, the hurt, and the frustration that his friend and his friend\u2019s family suffered over those years, Everybody\u2019s WC has concluded that I am, in his words, \u201cpure evil.\u201d<\/p>\n

That would be a somewhat understandable reaction, I suppose, if a bit overwrought. \u00a0But\u00a0I have literally no idea what he\u2019s talking about. \u00a0I can think of no such case. \u00a0Even after searching through all of the dim recesses of my mind, I can\u2019t think of any instance in which I\u2019ve ever sought to have anybody fired. \u00a0Moreover, I can\u2019t even imagine myself doing such a thing. \u00a0What on earth does he have in mind?<\/p>\n

I really would like to know. \u00a0Seriously. \u00a0So I invite him, or some surrogate for him, either to contact me privately or to post something here in the comments section so that I can understand his accusation. \u00a0As it is, I haven\u2019t the foggiest idea.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The London England Temple (LDS.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And, not to be forgotten, this new installment of our ongoing weekly radio show has just been archived and posted: \u00a0Interpreter Radio Show \u2014 October 15, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n

For the 15 October 2023 episode of the Interpreter Radio Show, the discussants were Bruce Webster and Robert Boylan. \u00a0Their conversation focused on Come, Follow Me<\/em> New Testament lesson 46, changes in the Church\u2019s name, and a recent article in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em> by Brian C. Hales.<\/p>\n

The \u201cNew Testament in Context\u201d portion of this show, for the Come, Follow Me<\/em> New Testament lesson 46, \u201cAn High Priest of Good Things to Come\u201d on Hebrews 7\u201313, will also be posted separately on Tuesday, 31 October 2023.<\/p>\n

The Interpreter Radio Show can be heard on Sunday evenings from 7 to 9 PM (MDT), on K-TALK, AM 1640. \u00a0Or you can listen live on the Internet at ktalkmedia.com<\/a>. \u00a0Even if you\u2019re in London.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/div>\n
Posted from Bankside, London, England<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Halloween is nearly upon us \u2014 here in England as well as in the colonies \u2014 so some of you might find this article of interest that my late and much lamented friend Bill Hamblin and I published in the Deseret News back in 2015: \u00a0\u201cAre Halloween\u2019s roots evil and satanic?\u201d And, speaking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":35888,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[68,6961,17210,3760,9688,6963],"class_list":["post-102482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-apologetics","tag-bill","tag-halloween","tag-hamblin","tag-london","tag-william"],"yoast_head":"\nCorrecting errors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Halloween is nearly upon us -- here in England as well as in the colonies -- so some of you might find this article of 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