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<\/a>(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
I was really busy yesterday \u2014 that\u2019s why I didn\u2019t post a blog entry for Wednesday \u2014 but I think that, for journalling purposes, I\u2019ll write up a note on what I was doing.<\/p>\n
I spent the entire day with Larry Eastland<\/a> , of what is now been renamed the John A. and Leah D. Widtsoe Foundation<\/a>, and \u00a0Salam al-Marayati,<\/a>\u00a0of the Muslim Public Affairs Council<\/a>. \u00a0It began with a breakfast with Larry and Salam, over which and after which we discussed the small book that Salam and I are to write \u2014 entitled Understanding Our Muslim Neighbors<\/em> \u2014 under the auspices of the Widtsoe Foundation. \u00a0It will be the fourth in a series<\/a> that already includes Understanding Our Jewish Neighbors<\/em>, Understanding Our Catholic Neighbors<\/em>, and Understanding Our Evangelical Neighbors<\/em>, and that, after ours, will feature a fifth volume entitled Understanding Our Eastern Christian Neighbors<\/em>. \u00a0Each volume features both an adherent of the named religious tradition and a Latter-day Saint. \u00a0If the response is good, Larry and the Widtsoe Foundation hope to continue the series with books that are focused on the religious traditions of Eastern Asia and the Indian subcontinent.<\/p>\n I had already written my half of Understanding Our Muslim Neighbors<\/em>, but Salam is now coming on as the Muslim co-author for that volume and my portion, which was (to a significant degree) written in response to prior content, will need to be revised if not altogether replaced in order to respond to what he writes.<\/p>\n I think that this is an extremely worthwhile project, and one that is badly needed, today more than ever before. \u00a0Besides, it gives me an opportunity right now to broach an interesting and controversial issue (see \u201cOpinion: An unprecedented opportunity to teach our kids about the world\u2019s religions\u201d<\/a>) and to mention a book that I really admire \u2014 all the way down to its clever title \u2014 and that I recommend to anybody who has been or ever will be invited to attend a ritual or a celebration of another faith (e.g., a wedding or a funeral or a bar mitzvah<\/em> or a confirmation) and that I wish that I written myself: How to Be A Perfect Stranger: The Essential Religious Etiquette Handbook<\/em><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Back, though, to my journal-writing.<\/p>\n I headed up quite early to Salt Lake City, where we had originally been scheduled to take Salam to Welfare Square<\/a> and the Church\u2019s Humanitarian Center<\/a>. \u00a0However, he had already visited those two facilities during an earlier visit to Salt Lake City, so we spent that time discussing the book instead, which was really quite fruitful.<\/p>\n Then we drove out on I-80, past the Salt Lake City International Airport, to the Bishops\u2019 Central Storehouse<\/a>, where we were met by the senior service couple, J. Christopher Lansing and Erlynn E. Lansing<\/a>, who head up VIP Hosting for the Church. \u00a0(They stayed with us for the rest of the day.) \u00a0The Bishops\u2019 Central Storehouse is a vast and very impressive facility. \u00a0(For devotees of the late Christopher Hitchens, of course, that will be \u201cimpressive in a negative way,\u201d since the Storehouse \u00a0is a blatantly obvious specimen from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122.) \u00a0We toured through and around the Storehouse by golf cart.<\/p>\n Afterwards, we headed back into downtown Salt Lake City to the Capital Grille<\/a>, where we had lunch (but did not participate in the Summer Wine Event) with Elder Carl B. Cook<\/a> of the Presidency of the Seventy.<\/p>\n From lunch, we headed over to the FamilySearch Library<\/a>, where two members of the staff \u2014 one of them of Palestinian Christian Arab background \u2014 gave a special presentation to Salam, including documents relating to his parents\u2019 immigration from Iraq in 1963 and photos from his high school days in Tempe, Arizona, and articles by and about him that he had forgotten. \u00a0They gave him a good overview of what the Library does and how non-Latter-day Saints can use it.<\/p>\n Then we walked over to the Tabernacle, where Richard Elliot<\/a> gave us a demonstration of the Tabernacle organ. \u00a0Did you realize that there is a second, much-smaller nineteenth-century organ located at the back of the Tabernacle. \u00a0I didn\u2019t know that, and I couldn\u2019t see it. \u00a0But Brother Elliott played it for us from the main console up front, and then actually used it in the final song that he performed for us, which was a rousing arrangement (his) of \u201cCome, Come Ye Saints.\u201d \u00a0To an extent, it imitated the march of the pioneer companies traveling from east to west. \u00a0It was marvelous.<\/p>\n We were met at the Tabernacle by (I think), the director of Church Security, who showed us a facility that I didn\u2019t know existed and certainly would never have expected to see. \u00a0And I think that\u2019s all that I\u2019m going to say about it. \u00a0We had this privilege because Salam and our Church Security host are friends, having been involved for years with the federal Joint Terrorism Task Forces.<\/p>\n We walked from that fascinating experience over to the Conference Center<\/a>, where we spent time looking at exhibits in the lobby and then admiring the enormous and beautiful auditorium itself, and then we walked to the Church Office Building<\/a>, where we enjoyed dinner on the top floor with Elders Matthew S. Holland<\/a> and Peter M. Johnson<\/a> of the Seventy.<\/p>\n It was a very long day \u2014 I returned home about 13.5 hours after I had left in the morning \u2014 but a very good one. \u00a0I enjoyed it, and it was good to get to know Larry Eastland and Salam al-Marayati much better than I had known them before.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 I was really busy yesterday \u2014 that\u2019s why I didn\u2019t post a blog entry for Wednesday \u2014 but I think that, for journalling purposes, I\u2019ll write up a note on what I was doing. I spent the entire day with Larry Eastland , of what is now been renamed the John A. and Leah […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":32275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[37908,37899,37905,37911,37896,37902],"class_list":["post-106638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bishops-central-storehouse","tag-larry-eastland","tag-muslim-public-affairs-council","tag-richard-elliott","tag-salam-al-marayati","tag-widtsoe-foundation"],"yoast_head":"\n