![\"ouiytr\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2023\/09\/A730147-Large-scaled.jpeg\")
<\/a>If I\u2019m not mistaken, at least some of the movie theaters in my area offer discount ticket prices on Tuesdays. \u00a0If that\u2019s true, today \u2014 Tuesday \u2014 would be a remarkably good day to go see Six Days in August<\/em><\/a>, or to go to see it a second time, or to watch it a third time, or to treat your children to it (you can buy tickets for them, or for friends or cousins, at a distance), or to take others to see it. \u00a0But, of course, absolutely any<\/em> day is a good day for Six Days in August<\/em>.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve heard from two or three people now who tell me that they\u2019ve gone to see the film a second time, and that they\u2019ve liked it even better on a repeat viewing. \u00a0I find that interesting because, curiously, that\u2019s been my experience, as well. \u00a0I saw the whole thing several times while it was still going through post-production and while adjustments were still being made. \u00a0And I\u2019ve seen the final version, with score, three times now. \u00a0I\u2019ve liked it better with each viewing. \u00a0That surprises me just a bit, but I\u2019m grateful for it.<\/p>\n Incidentally, I mentioned here last week that four past or present General Authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> had attended the premiere of Six Days in August<\/em> on Wednesday, 9 October: \u00a0President Dallin H. Oaks of the Church\u2019s First Presidency, Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Kevin W. Pearson of the Seventy (who also serves as the president of the Church\u2019s Utah Area), and Elder Robert C. Gay, an emeritus member of the Presidency of the Seventy. \u00a0I was surprised to learn, just the other day, that a fifth General Authority was there, as well: \u00a0Elder S. Mark Palmer, a current member of the presidency of the Seventy, attended with his daughter Whitney, who played Phebe Rigdon in the film. \u00a0I didn\u2019t see him there \u2014 the auditorium was full pretty much to capacity, with something between 500 or 550 in attendance, such that we had to turn down several requests for additional tickets \u2014 and I hadn\u2019t made the connection between Whitney Palmer and Elder Palmer (who, by the way, is a native of the blessed land of New Zealand).<\/p>\n I enjoyed Studio Five<\/em>\u2018s roughly five-minute interview video with Ted Bushman<\/a> (Wilford Woodruff) and Jenessa Sheffield<\/a> (Vilate Kimball). \u00a0Perhaps you will, too: \u00a0\u201cSee the Film About The Succession Crisis of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n My wife and I went out to dinner with a group of friends last night, and then on to a performance of The Magician\u2019s Elephant<\/em> at the Hale Centre Theatre in Sandy. \u00a0It\u2019s curious play, a musical. \u00a0I enjoyed it, although I can imagine that some didn\u2019t. \u00a0I really like getting together with neighbors and former neighbors in this fashion. \u00a0It\u2019s good to catch up over dinner, and the plays are always icing on the cake.<\/p>\n Recent comments here and elsewhere about the testimonies recorded from the witnesses of the Book of Mormon have sought to discredit them as mere \u201cghost stories\u201d about \u201cmagically\u201d appearing and disappearing golden plates. \u00a0Such tales, I think we\u2019re supposed to conclude, are more suited to the campfire than to a courtroom or to serious historical analysis. \u00a0They\u2019re merely \u201cmiracle stories,\u201d of an ordinary kind that is common to religious (or superstitious) people.<\/p>\n But this is to grievously misrepresent the witness testimonies, and to reduce them to an agenda-driven caricature.<\/p>\n Consider, for example, the accounts given by the Eight Witnesses. \u00a0There is nothing in them about an angel or about anything supernatural, much less about a \u201cghost.\u201d \u00a0There is nothing supernatural about the plates, which figure in the various accounts given by the Eight as a simple and quite mundane material object, noticeably heavy, that they \u201chefted\u201d and \u201chandled\u201d and closely examined, and of which they \u201cturned\u201d the \u201cleaves.\u201d \u00a0This isn\u2019t a fairy tale or a mere \u201cmiracle story.\u201d \u00a0And we aren\u2019t told how the plates arrived nor how they exited. \u00a0Nothing is said on that topic. \u00a0Simply that the plates were there, that they were literally visible, \u00a0that they were substantial, and that they were tangible.<\/p>\n The same can be said about the related, unofficial, but well documented experiences of Lucy Mack Smith and Mary Musselman Whitmer and William Smith and Katherine Smith Salisbury and Josiah Stowell and Emma Smith and one other that I\u2019m not yet at liberty to share. \u00a0No ghosts. \u00a0No angels. \u00a0Nothing mystical or supernatural. \u00a0Quite matter of fact. \u00a0It\u2019s true that Mary Whitmer\u2019s remarkable account involves an elderly-seeming man showing her the plates and allowing her to handle them, but there is nothing overtly angelic or ghostly or supernatural about him. \u00a0(See Royal Skousen, \u201cAnother Account of Mary Whitmer\u2019s Viewing of the Golden Plates.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0And see the depiction of Mary Whitmer\u2019s encounter with the Book of Mormon plates in Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon<\/em><\/a>.)<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t really very much like discerning the face of the Virgin Mary on a flour tortilla or seeing Jesus in a bowl of porridge. \u00a0(For the record, I do take Catholic accounts such as those of the visions of Lourdes and of Guadalupe seriously, and I\u2019m still trying to form my final thoughts on them. \u00a0I don\u2019t rule them out in advance, on the basis of ideology or presuppositions; I think that it would be intellectually dishonest to do so, and I\u2019m quite willing to entertain the thought that the Lord is working in many ways, even beyond his authorized, restored Church. \u00a0But my confidence in the accounts of the Book of Mormon witnesses doesn\u2019t depend upon what I may decide about, say, Marian apparitions.)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 If I\u2019m not mistaken, at least some of the movie theaters in my area offer discount ticket prices on Tuesdays. \u00a0If that\u2019s true, today \u2014 Tuesday \u2014 would be a remarkably good day to go see Six Days in August, or to go to see it a second time, or to watch it a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":89453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[56,6165,2905,28443,38064,921],"class_list":["post-107424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-book-of-mormon","tag-hale-centre-theatre","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-six-days-in-august","tag-the-magicians-elephant","tag-witnesses"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a><\/a>