![\"The](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/01\/800px-Canterbury-Cathedral-Church-of-England-1890-1900.jpg\")
<\/a>This Thursday Interpreter Foundation chapter reprint \u2014 not to be confused, although some folks really seem to enjoy<\/em> being confused on the subject, with a Friday journal article \u2014 went up on, well, Thursday: \u00a0\u201cThe Lead Books,\u201d<\/a> written by Margaret Barker<\/a>, from The Temple: Plates, Patterns, & Patriarchs<\/em>:<\/p>\n Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in The Temple: Plates, Patterns, & Patriarchs<\/em>, edited by Stephen D. Ricks and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw. For more information, go to https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/books\/the-temple-plates-patterns-patriarchs\/<\/a>. For video and audio recording of this conference talk, go to https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/conferences\/2022-temple-on-mount-zion-conference\/videos\/barker\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2011 The Jewish Chronicle<\/em> announced that some metal books had been found in Jordan, together with other artifacts. Various stories were told as to how they had been found, where they had been found, and when. Above all, who owned them. At first they were welcomed as ancient objects, then they were dismissed as fakes. Other items began to appear, which were obviously fakes, manufactured for the tourist market.\u201d<\/p>\n Yesterday, we had a really delicious (and definitely fresh) lunch at Merriman\u2019s, in Waimea<\/a>. \u00a0We\u2019ve eaten there before, including once with a large group of our neighbors and friends from Utah, and the excellence of the food wasn\u2019t a surprise. \u00a0Today, we spent the morning off of the Kohala Coast aboard a large catamaran<\/a>. \u00a0A substantial portion of that time was spent snorkeling and, both sailing out to the snorkeling area and sailing back, we watched Hawaiian spinner dolphins.<\/p>\n But there is sadness today, as well. \u00a0BYU\u2019s run in \u201cMarch Madness\u201d came to an end against Alabama. \u00a0I wasn\u2019t altogether surprised but, still, I would like it to have gone on longer. \u00a0However, the blow that really<\/em> hurts is the decision by the leaders of the Sundance Film Festival to take it over to Boulder, Colorado, beginning in 2027. \u00a0I haven\u2019t always been pleased by what has been screened there \u2014 to the extent that I\u2019ve followed it \u2014 and I\u2019m far from an uncritical fan of Hollywood, but, for forty years, Sundance has been not only an economic boon but \u00a0a cultural flagship for my adopted home state. \u00a0I\u2019m deeply sorry to see it go.<\/p>\n When we finished with our time offshore at about noon, we drove a few blocks uphill to the site of the Kona Hawaii Templ<\/a>e, which is said to be \u201cclosed for renovation.\u201d \u00a0Now that\u2019s<\/em> an understatement: \u00a0It\u2019s gone<\/em>. \u00a0We\u2019ve attended sessions in that temple and Sunday services in the adjacent chapel. \u00a0What is visible on the temple site right now is part of the metal frame of the new temple that will replace the one with which we were familiar. \u00a0That\u2019s it. \u00a0The new temple will look much like the previous one, but will be 2000-3000 square feet larger. \u00a0I have no idea why it was deemed necessary to reconstruct it essentially from scratch.<\/p>\n After sunset \u2014 life is one ordeal after another, ain\u2019t it? \u2014 we went snorkeling again, somewhere offshore north of Kona International Airport. \u00a0We spent our time floating above giant manta rays. \u00a0The people running the tour<\/a> set up lights to attract plankton, which in turn attracted hungry mantas. \u00a0I\u2019ve been swimming with mantas before (or, more accurately, trying to stay as nearly motionless as I could in the water with mantas) but these were significantly larger. \u00a0They look like aliens, or like some sort of fighter spacecraft from a science fiction movie. \u00a0Multiple times, I thought that they were going to brush against me or even collide with me but, somehow, they never quite did. \u00a0It was an otherworldly evening.<\/p>\n I strongly<\/em> support this bill in the Utah State Senate, crafted and introduced by my friend John Johnson: \u00a0\u201cReclaiming Jefferson\u2019s University: Academic Freedom, Civic Renewal, and the Utah Model \u2014\u00a0Thomas Jefferson envisioned education as essential for liberty, founding the University of Virginia to cultivate an informed citizenry capable of self-governance. However, modern universities have veered from this mission, resulting in widespread civic illiteracy. Utah\u2019s Senate Bill 334 aims to restore civic education and philosophical inquiry to higher education, ensuring students engage with foundational texts and ideas.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n With all of the turbulence in the news that, for some inscrutable reason, has been erupting virtually everywhere over the past three months \u2014 from the Gulf of Australia (in the middle of which I\u2019m currently typing) all the way to Russia\u2019s breakaway province of Ukraine and our foes in Denmark, from Central Command to the editorial offices of The Atlantic<\/em>, from Marjorie Taylor Greeneland to our once and future American canal in Panama, from the enemy regime in Ottawa to the Gulf of America \u2014 it\u2019s easy to overlook little stories like this one that can bring a welcome ray of hope into our otherwise troubled lives:<\/p>\n This may seem rather perfunctory, but it\u2019s not. \u00a0I close with four items taken directly from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122. \u00a0Even when we lack the time to lament such atrocities appropriately and to express our indignation against them properly, it\u2019s important to continue to document the relentless parade of horrors that are imposed upon innocent, long-suffering humanity by theists and theism:<\/p>\n Posted from the Kohala Coast, the Island of Hawai\u02bbi, Hawai\u02bbi<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 This Thursday Interpreter Foundation chapter reprint \u2014 not to be confused, although some folks really seem to enjoy being confused on the subject, with a Friday journal article \u2014 went up on, well, Thursday: \u00a0\u201cThe Lead Books,\u201d written by Margaret Barker, from The Temple: Plates, Patterns, & Patriarchs: Part of our book chapter reprint […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":40007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[482,38524,34149,38521,38527,782],"class_list":["post-109600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hawaii","tag-john-d-johnson","tag-kona","tag-senate-bill-334","tag-sundance-film-festival","tag-utah"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a>
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