![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2024\/02\/Ovation_of_the_Seas_at_Sydney.jpg\")
<\/a>(A Wikimedia Commons public domain photo by Maksym Kozlenko)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Well, our cruise ended this morning where it first began. \u00a0We disembarked from our ship, the Ovation of the Seas<\/em>, and made our way to our hotel in Sydney. \u00a0Our group had said their goodbyes last night. \u00a0Most of them are over the Pacific Ocean by now. \u00a0The Australians who were among us are probably already home. \u00a0I always find the end of such tours rather sad: You get to know new people quite well (or strengthen relationships with people that you had already met). \u00a0You tour with them, you share meals with them, you meet with them for devotionals, you play games with them, you have long conversations with them, you\u2019re together with them pretty much every waking hour for a week or two weeks or so, and then it\u2019s suddenly over and they\u2019re gone. \u00a0It is, frankly, a little bit like mortality . . . and death<\/p>\n I did ten lectures during the cruise, all of them on the ship\u2019s \u201cat-sea days,\u201d each of which lasted between ninety minutes and two hours. \u00a0That, too, will probably remind some of death. \u00a0However, most of the members of our group appear to have survived the ordeal. \u00a0What may have helped them to do so is this: \u00a0We had a room reserved for our use (for the lectures and, at other times, for playing games or just gathering to talk) on deck thirteen\u00a0at the very stern of the boat, with a ceiling to floor window that provided a wonderful view of the sea and our ship\u2019s wake.<\/p>\n I call your attention to two new items that were posted today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:<\/p>\n The Book of Mormon in Context Lesson 9: \u201cHis Name Shall Be Called \u2026 The Prince of Peace\u201d: 2 Nephi 11-19<\/a><\/p>\n For the 4 February 2024 Come, Follow Me<\/em> segment of the Interpreter Radio Show, Martin Tanner<\/a> and Hales Swift<\/a> and Brent Schmidt<\/a> discussed Book of Mormon lesson 9, \u201cHis Name Shall Be Called \u2026 The Prince of Peace,\u201d covering 2 Nephi 11-19.<\/p>\n That discussion was recorded, and has now been archived, shorn of commercial interruptions, and made available (at no cost to you) for your listening pleasure. \u00a0The other segments of the 4 February 2024 radio program can be accessed at https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/interpreter-radio-show-february-4-2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Interpreter Radio Show can be heard weekly on Sunday evenings from 7 to 9 PM (MDT), on K-TALK, AM 1640. \u00a0Or, if that doesn\u2019t float your boat, you can listen live on the Internet at ktalkmedia.com<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cCome, Follow Me<\/em> \u2014 Study and Teaching Helps (2024): Lesson 9, February 26-March 3: 2 Nephi 11-19<\/a> Editor\u2019s Note: Four years ago, Jonn Claybaugh began writing the Study and Teaching Helps series of articles for Interpreter. We now have these wonderful and useful posts for all four years of Come, Follow Me lessons. Beginning this year we will be reposting these articles, with dates, lesson numbers, and titles updated for the current year\u2019s lessons. Jonn has graciously agreed to write new study aids for those lessons that do not directly correspond to 2020 lessons.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n One of the corollaries to Murphy\u2019s Law holds that \u201cIt\u2019s impossible to make anything foolproof, because fools are so ingenious.\u201d \u00a0I thought of this today when I noticed a thread over at what I call the Peterson Obsession Board.<\/p>\n Several days ago, I posted an entry (\u201cOf Sheep Shearing\u201d<\/a>) in the course of which, having just observed the expert shearing of a sheep near Picton, on the South Island of New Zealand, I briefly reflected on the complete submission of the Son to the will of the Father as reflected in the Christian application of the \u201csuffering servant poem\u201d in Isaiah 53:3-7 to the atoning life and death of Jesus Christ:<\/p>\n He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. \u00a0<\/span>Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. \u00a0<\/span>But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. \u00a0<\/span>All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord<\/span> hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. \u00a0<\/span>He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I am simultaneously astounded and unsurprised to see that, immediately thereafter, some of the folks on the Obsession Board apparently began to pretend \u2014 or do they really believe<\/em> it? is that even remotely possible<\/em>? \u2014 that, despite what I wrote, I wasn\u2019t<\/em> really pondering what Christians have regarded for the past two thousand years as a messianic prophecy. \u00a0Rather, as they affect to understand me, \u00a0I was advocating robotic, unthinking, slavish, and uninformed obedience to the leaders of my church and celebrating ignorant, unreasoning, and unquestioning acceptance of the teachings<\/em> of my church.<\/p>\n Robin Goodfellow\u2019s (aka \u201cPuck\u2019s\u201d) observation at III.ii.115 of William Shakespeare\u2019s A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em> is certainly applicable to such bizarre misreading.<\/p>\n In closing, here is a quartet of horrors that I\u2019ve lately retrieved from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122:<\/p>\n \u201cChurch responds with service and aid after deadly Chile forest fires: Area presidency statement invites people to pray for firefighters and provide strength to affected families\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cElder Stevenson Visits Humanitarian Project in Tanzania<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cElder Taniela B. Wakolo Prays for Peace, Love and Unity for French Polynesia\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\n\u201cHis Name Shall Be Called . . . The Prince of Peace\u201d<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>