![\"HQ](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2025\/02\/768px-Independent_Bank_in_Texas.jpg\")
<\/a>Controversy about the proposed McKinney Texas Temple<\/a> (actually to be located in adjacent Fairview, north northeast of Dallas), appears to be bubbling up again, and critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> are, once again, accusing the Church of trying to bully and intimidate a humbly idyllic little community into rolling over and playing dead while the Mormons<\/a> callously impose an enormous, triumphalist temple on innocent rural people. \u00a0(For aerial views of the neighborhood immediately surrounding the proposed temple in Fairview, see here<\/a>.) \u00a0It\u2019s the same bullying playbook that the Church followed in Cody, Wyoming, where a vast 9,950-square-foot monstrosity<\/a> is already beginning to loom over the city, blotting out the night sky and obscuring the surrounding mountains from view. \u00a0(For aerial perspectives on the densely packed but sylvan residential area into which the Cody temple is being inserted, see here<\/a>.) \u00a0It\u2019s the same kind of unethical intimidation that the Church practiced with the Lone Mountain Nevada Temple<\/a> in Las Vegas, which, the Associated Press has reliably informed its readers, is slated to be larger than the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. \u00a0(See the latter portion of my 3 October 2024 blog entry entitled \u201cFlawed Reporting about the New Temple Proposed For Las Vegas.\u201d<\/a> \u00a0And, again, for aerial views of the surroundings of the Lone Mountain Nevada Temple, which my wife and I visited again just a week or two ago, please look here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Some say, \u201cI do not like to do it, for we never began to build a temple without the bells of hell beginning to ring.\u201d I want to hear them ring again.<\/p>\n We completed a temple in Kirtland and in Nauvoo; and did not the bells of hell toll all the time we were building them? They did, every week and every day. \u00a0(Discourses of Brigham Young,<\/em> 410).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n If you would like to be better informed on the controversy in Fairview\/McKinney, there are some very helpful materials online, including letters to city leaders from the Church\u2019s attorney, a prominent native Texan who, I believe, is not a Latter-day Saint: \u00a0\u201cLatest News and Media\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Up today in Meridian Magazine<\/em>: \u00a0Daniel C. Peterson, \u201cHow Film Brings the Book of Mormon Witnesses to Life\u2014Now Streaming Free\u201d<\/a> \u00a0And then there is this, which I encourage you to watch and even to share: \u00a0\u201cEpisode 23: Why did Martin Harris Join So Many Churches?<\/a><\/p>\n Witnesses of the Book of Mormon\u2014Insights Episode 23: Martin Harris was away from the church for many years before finally returning. Critics have tried to use the fact that he joined other denominations as something that invalidates his testimony of The Book of Mormon. What\u2019s the real story here? This is Episode 23 of a series compiled from the many interviews conducted during the course of the Witnesses film project. . . . \u00a0These additional resources are hosted by Camrey Bagley Fox, who played Emma Smith in Witnesses<\/em>, as she introduces and visits with a variety of experts. These individuals answer questions or address accusations against the witnesses, also helping viewers understand the context of the times in which the witnesses lived. This week we feature Daniel C. Peterson, President of the Interpreter Foundation and Executive Producer of Witnesses<\/em>. For more information, go to <\/span>https:\/\/witnessesofthebookofmormon.org\/<\/a><\/span>. Learn about the documentary movie Undaunted\u2014Witnesses of the Book of Mormon<\/em> at <\/span>https:\/\/witnessesundaunted.com\/<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Once again, be sure to visit The Witnesses Initiative<\/a> where, for the rest of February, you and your family and your friends and your neighbors can stream Witnesses<\/em> at no charge, and where you can all stream Undaunted<\/em> for free into the foreseeable future. \u00a0But this month of February is swiftly passing:<\/p>\n In other film news, it\u2019s been amusing to watch how some of my critics, who like to describe me as \u201cwhining\u201d about the hit Netflix miniseries American Primeval<\/em>, try to defend it: \u00a0I\u2019m all upset that it\u2019s historically inaccurate, they say, but it never claimed<\/em> to be anything other than fiction. \u00a0Anyway, it is<\/em> historically accurate. \u00a0And, anyhow, it\u2019s not<\/em> historically accurate, because it\u2019s kinder to Brigham Young and the Latter-day Saints than they deserve: \u00a0The Saints and their despotic, Stalinesque ruler were even more brutally violent than the too-gentle Netflix production shows<\/em> them to have been.<\/p>\n In the meantime, the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s dramatic film Six Days in August<\/em>, which tells the story of Brigham Young and the Twelve and the leadership crisis that ensued upon the assassination of Joseph Smith in June 1844, is streaming on numerous commercial platforms<\/a>. \u00a0We hope that you\u2019ll enjoy it.<\/p>\n Realistically, there is simply no earthly way for any mortal to keep up with all of the depravities that are routinely visited upon humankind by theists in the name of their theism. \u00a0Nonetheless, drawing upon the inexhaustible resources of the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122, I try to give my eager readers at least a taste of those evils. \u00a0Here, as it were, is an ennead of recent entries:<\/p>\n \u201cHow Church humanitarian efforts in 4 countries are \u2018building people, building hope\u2019:\u00a0Projects in England, Turkey, Russia and Switzerland demonstrate the Church\u2019s global humanitarian reach\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAfter devastating fire in Ecuador, Church members serve \u2018shoulder to shoulder\u2019 to repair damage:\u00a0\u2018It filled me with joy to see this solidarity. We are the hands of the Savior here on earth, and we demonstrate this through service\u2019\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cStrengthening Marriage classes help couples in Sierra Leone:\u00a0Local Church leaders take part in pilot program to then teach their own members\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAn Update on Meridian\u2019s Kids in India\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cChurch members\u2019 service promotes social inclusion and accessibility in 2 South American countries:\u00a0Recent efforts in Argentina and Peru \u2018allow us to serve our community and strengthen social inclusion beyond our beliefs\u2019\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWheelchairs Donated by the Church Enable Independence in Europe\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n
<\/a>\n
\nThe millennial year
\nPresses on to our view, and eternity\u2019s here,
\nPresses on to our view, and eternity\u2019s here.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/a>