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<\/a>Yet another new item has been posted on the moribund website of the Interpreter Foundation: \u00a0Nibley Lectures: Come, Follow Me<\/em> Book of Mormon Lesson 38: \u201cLift Up Your Head and Be of Good Cheer\u201d: 3 Nephi 1-7.<\/a><\/p>\n This week for Come, Follow Me<\/em> lesson 38 covering 3 Nephi 1-7, we have lectures 80, 81, and 82 from Hugh Nibley\u2019s Book of Mormon classes at Brigham Young University, covering Helaman 13\u20133 Nephi 7.<\/p>\n During 1988, 1989, and 1990, Hugh Nibley taught Honors Book of Mormon classes for four semesters at Brigham Young University. The lectures were video-taped and audio cassettes and printed transcripts were made of the lectures. We believe these recordings will be interesting to listen to and valuable to your Come, Follow Me<\/em> study program this year. Each week, we will include the lectures covering the Book of Mormon chapters being studied that week.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And please mark your calendar for the 2024 Temple on Mount Zion Conference:<\/p>\n The seventh Interpreter Matthew B. Brown Memorial Temple on Mount Zion Conference will be held on Saturday, September 28, 2024 in room 251 of the Tanner Building, Brigham Young University. The conference will be held live with no streaming. Recordings of the presentations will be available at a later date. Expanded, fully footnoted versions of the presentations will be published in a book of proceedings, anticipated sometime in 2025.<\/p>\n For more information, including the program schedule, abstracts, and presenter biographies, go to https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/conferences\/2024-temple-on-mount-zion-conference\/<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n From the notorious right-wing fundamentalist rag The Economist<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cPortrait of a detransitioner as a young woman:\u00a0Carol has been a woman, a man and is a woman again. Her story has lessons for trans medicine\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Deseret News<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cThe real lives of Latter-day Saint wives:\u00a0What Latter-day Saint women are saying about a new Hulu show\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 There is apparently a large audience out there for this kind of dreck, so it\u2019s necessary to respond to it.<\/p>\n And you might find this<\/em> interesting: \u00a0\u201cGarrett Batty \u2013 Mormon Film Maker\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n May I remind you again of an upcoming event that will be held on the evening of Wednesday, 25 September, in Orem, Utah? \u00a0 \u201cUnveiling History: Six Days in August<\/em> Fireside: Join film director and cast members as they delve into the history of Six Days in August<\/em>.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n You can reserve a space at the event by clicking on the link above.<\/p>\n We\u2019re down in Moab for a few days with three other couples. \u00a0Still working, though. \u00a0I had to spend this morning on various bits of business while the rest of our number went over to Delicate Arch. \u00a0However, I\u2019m grateful for a laptop and the internet.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, I\u2019m able to get out a little bit here and look around. \u00a0This is an astounding landscape. \u00a0Europe has wonderful mountains and fjords and meadows and, of course, fascinating history and historical monuments. \u00a0There are probably very few Americans who are more passionate about the Alps than I am. \u00a0There very few, I\u2019m confident, who are more enthusiastic Anglophiles than I am. \u00a0Whenever we spend much time in the United Kingdom, we join both English Heritage and the National Trust \u2014 and we get our money\u2019s worth out of them. \u00a0But Europe has nothing even remotely like the scenery in southern Utah.<\/p>\n We drove out along the Colorado River to Fisher Towers this afternoon. \u00a0We were in the middle of nowhere and saw almost no other cars either there at the Towers or along the road, but I still noticed a small guest register there at the trailhead. \u00a0In the past two days, people from Canada, Germany, and New Zealand had signed the guest register, as well as visitors from California, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and Kentucky. \u00a0It seems that several movies have been filmed around Fisher Towers, including \u2014 no big surprise here \u2014 John Carter<\/em> (which was set on Mars).<\/p>\n From some of the online screeds that I\u2019ve read over the years, \u201cUtard\u201d (the home of the \u201cMor[m]ons\u201d or \u201cMorgbots\u201d) seems to be a kind of Hell on earth, rendered so by the oppressive religious cult that dominates it. \u00a0The truth, though, may differ just a bit: \u00a0\u201cUtah ranked 4th among happiest states in America: Why Utah among the top states in the country on the happiness scale\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Finally, here\u2019s an especially appalling report from the Christopher Hitchens \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122: \u00a0\u201cFinding Light and Love in a Dark Place | Michael\u2019s Story.\u201d<\/a> \u00a0Why can\u2019t theists just leave people alone to enjoy their lives? \u00a0The late great H. L. Mencken\u2019s definition of puritanism<\/em> as \u201cThe haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy\u201d certainly applies to Latter-day Saints, as well, as is vividly illustrated in Michael\u2019s story.<\/p>\n But the Hitchens File<\/em> is inexhaustible! \u00a0For example, are you nostalgic for the Europe of the 1930s and 1940s? \u00a0If so, please don\u2019t overlook the threat that a flourishing religiosity might have posed to the electoral rise of the Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland<\/i> party (AfD, \u201cAlternative for Germany\u201d): \u00a0\u201cReviving Germany\u2019s dark spirits? Some see the rise of the far-right AfD party as a threat to democracy.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe spiritual void eased the rise of the AfD, which like other far-right European parties, champions the [sic<\/em>] cultural Christendom against Islam while disdaining actual Christian faith.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Do you believe that breathing unhealthy and polluted air is the birthright of every human born on this planet, and that silly, meddling theists have no business trying to interfere with that right? \u00a0Then you\u2019re not going to be at all happy with this brief video: \u00a0\u201cGo Forth to Serve in Nepal: BYU Students Research Human Impact of Air Pollution\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/a>
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photo by Steven Damron)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n