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<\/a>(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Along with her sister, my wife and I drove the famous \u201cRoad to Hana\u201d<\/a> along the northeastern coast of Maui on Friday, taking time to walk out to waterfalls and sample local cuisine and gaze at spectacular vistas. \u00a0The road is very winding and slow, the landscape and its flora are wild, and I was many rugged and mountainous miles away from my computer. \u00a0So I\u2019m very late in calling attention to the new review article that appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em> early on Friday afternoon. \u00a0Here it is: \u00a0\u201cThe Flimsiest Show on Earth,\u201d<\/a> written by Blake T. Ostler<\/a>:<\/p>\n Review of Lars Nielsen, How the Book of Mormon Came to Pass: The Second Greatest Show on Earth<\/em> (Minnetonka, MN: self-pub., 2024). 390 pages. $19.95.<\/p>\n Abstract:<\/strong> Every so often an anti-Mormon book comes along that lowers the bar for attacks on the faith.<\/em> How the Book of Mormon Came to Pass is one such work. It relies on speculation, conjecture, and tenuous connections to render, out of whole cloth, a hypothesis for the Book of Mormon\u2019s creation that is almost laughable.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n In connection with the current focus of the Come, Follow Me<\/em> curriculum, you might also find this short Interpreter Foundation video of interest: \u00a0\u201cEpisode 28: Ancient Metal Plates?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Witnesses of the Book of Mormon\u2014Insights Episode 28: In Joseph Smith\u2019s day, people claimed that his story of ancient metal plates was evidence against him\u2014because no such thing existed. In modern times, with the discovery of many examples of ancient plates, critics now claim that, of course, Joseph knew about ancient records on metal. What do we really know about Joseph and metal plates? This is Episode 28 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>; Richard Lyman Bushman, Emeritus Professor of History, Columbia University; Susan Easton Black, Emeritus Professor of Church History and Doctrine, Brigham Young University; Gerrit Dirkmaat, Associate Professor of Church History and Doctrine, Brigham Young University; and Paul Wuthrich, who played Joseph Smith in 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 And, by the way, if you\u2019re interested in watching Undaunted<\/em> \u2014 which, of course, by all reasonable standards you should<\/em> be \u2014 you can stream that docudrama at no charge via a link given at The Witnesses Initiative<\/a>. \u00a0Moreover, for the rest of this month<\/em>, you can likewise stream the theatrical film Witnesses<\/em> itself for free, also by means of a link that is provided at The Witnesses Initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n Somehow, I had never so much as heard of the 2022 film Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery<\/i>, starring Daniel Craig as the master detective Benoit Blanc, let alone seen it. \u00a0But we ended up watching it on Friday evening. \u00a0Some of you will no doubt have seen it \u2014 it seems to have done quite well at the box office \u2014 but I don\u2019t want to spoil the plot for those who haven\u2019t. \u00a0I can, however, mention one aspect of it that caught my attention:<\/p>\n In the narrative of the film, Miles Bron, the co-founder of a technology company called Alpha, hosts a murder mystery game at the Glass Onion, his mansion on a private island in Greece. He invites to it a group of his friends, to whom he repeatedly refers as the \u201cDisruptors.\u201d \u00a0This term made me think of my late friend Clayton Christensen, whom I first met when we lived on the same dormitory floor at BYU during our freshman year, prior to our missions.<\/p>\n In his famous 1997 book\u00a0The Innovator\u2019s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail<\/i>, Clayton expanded on the concept of \u201cdisruptive technologies,\u201d a term that he had coined in his co-authored article \u201cDisruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave,\u201d which was published in the Harvard Business Review<\/i>\u00a0for January\u2013February 1995.<\/p>\n I wondered whether the scriptwriters for Glass Onion<\/em> might perhaps have been thinking of the notion of \u201ccreative disruption\u201d or \u201cdisruptive innovation\u201d that is prominently \u00a0associated with Clayton and a few other management theorists and economic thinkers. \u00a0And then I saw a very brief scene in the movie that plainly showed the cover of a book, although the book was partially obscured by another object. \u00a0And the book was, of course, The Innovator\u2019s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail<\/i>,\u00a0<\/em>written by Clayton M. Christensen.<\/p>\n Incidentally, the concept of \u201cdisruption\u201d is also prominently mentioned at the end<\/em> of Glass Onion<\/em>. \u00a0Unfortunately, Clayton passed away \u2014 much too young \u2014 at the end of January 2020, too early to have seen the movie. \u00a0But I like to think that he would have found its allusions to him and to his work amusing. \u00a0He is in interesting company in the film, which also features cameo appearances (as themselves) by such celebrities as Stephen Sondheim,<\/sup> Angela Lansbury,<\/sup> Natasha Lyonne,<\/sup> Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,<\/sup><\/sup> Yo-Yo Ma,<\/sup> Jake Tapper, and Serena Williams.\u00a0<\/sup> And \u2014 oh yes \u2014\u00a0Jeremy Renner\u2019s face appears on a bottle of hot sauce.<\/p>\n Although his health was already badly failing by then \u2014 I was obliged to transcribe his words from a recording, but the recording itself was so problematic that I myself needed to create the audio file for him \u2014 Clayton furnished the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s 2015 Christmas essay: \u201c\u201cHe Did It\u201d: A Christmas Message.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 And, while I\u2019m at it, Clayton also sent the following to me for sharing through the Interpreter Foundation: \u00a0\u201cA Clarification from Clayton Christensen\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n He was also the very first person, as I recall, to contribute an entry to my Mormon Scholars Testify<\/em> website (now Latter-day Saint Scholars Testify<\/em>): \u00a0\u201cWhy I Belong, and Why I Believe\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n
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