![\"Oregon's](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2017\/04\/portland-temple-lds-1079112-gallery.jpg\")
<\/a>This is my final warning:<\/strong> \u00a0Decent people who may be in or near the Pacific Northwest on the evening of Friday, 12 September 2025<\/strong>, should maintain a safe distance from the chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> that stands at 4195 Southwest 99th Avenue in Beaverton, Oregon, on that evening between approximately 7:00 PM and 8:30 PM<\/strong>. \u00a0In fact, it might be prudent to avoid Oregon\u2019s Washington County altogether \u2014 from late afternoon, perhaps, until midnight \u2014 just to be on the safe side. \u00a0I will be speaking there during that time, on the subject of the Witnesses to the Book of Mormon.<\/p>\n Up today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: \u00a0Seek Ye Words of Wisdom<\/em>: \u201cRestoration Insights into Barrenness and Divine Intervention,\u201d<\/a> written by Shirley S. Ricks<\/a>:<\/p>\n Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in Seek Ye Words of Wisdom: Studies of the Book of Mormon, Bible, and Temple in Honor of Stephen D. Ricks<\/em>, edited by Donald W. Parry, Gaye Strathearn, and Shon D. Hopkin. For more information, go to https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/books\/seek-ye-words-of-wisdom\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Bible relates several instances in which husbands and wives who were childless sought and received divine intervention to overcome their barrenness. The tension between God\u2019s commandment to \u201cbe fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth\u201d (Gen. 1:28) and the inability of some couples to bear children seems palpable. Although it might feel natural to blame God for this contradictory state of affairs (which was done in some instances), ultimately, the biblical remedy for infertility often involved supplication to the Lord and a willingness to abide by his timetable. The children resulting from God\u2019s intervention were often seen as children of promise who had an important role to perform. Even so, I do not propose that every instance of barrenness in biblical times resulted in the birth of a child. Rather, I suggest that each of us should turn to the Lord in the face of challenges of any nature and wait in patience for his response.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Virtually all Americans (and many others besides) will recognize that today is the anniversary of the attacks on the Pentagon and on New York\u2019s World Trade Center and of the downing of United Airlines Flight 93 in a Pennsylvania field. \u00a0It was a day \u2014 to borrow the language of President Franklin D. Roosevelt about an earlier sneak attack on the United States that also launched a lengthy and lethal war \u2014 \u201cthat will live in infamy.\u201d \u00a011 September 2001, like 7 December 1941, changed the course of American and world history. \u00a0It should never be forgotten, and the lessons that it has to teach us should be repeatedly pondered.<\/p>\n It will be less widely recognized that today is also the anniversary of the tragic Mountain Meadows Massacre in southern Utah \u2014 although, as was inevitable, some critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are celebrating it as a revelation of the darkness that lies at the very heart of the Restoration. \u00a0I think that there is a great deal to be learned from contemplating the massacre at Mountain Meadows, which is surely the worst thing in our history. \u00a0(I\u2019m reminded of Plato\u2019s Socrates at Gorgias<\/em> 473a, who says that it is even worse to do<\/em> wrong than to suffer<\/em> wrong.)<\/p>\n In fact, I\u2019ve long thought, if the opportunity ever presents itself, of doing a fireside or even a sacrament meeting talk on the lessons that can be derived from it. \u00a0To my mind, it has many of the elements of a Greek tragedy. \u00a0And, in my judgment, the most interesting thing about it is that it was perpetrated by men who were not simplistically evil but rather, on the whole, good. \u00a0Without wanting to minimize the sorrow and the injustice that were imposed upon its victims \u2014 it\u2019s a virtual certainty, of course, that I\u2019ll be claimed to have done precisely that \u2014 the fact that decent men committed a massively heinous and indecent crime, coupled with the plausible \u201clogic\u201d that, once the events began, led inexorably to the full horror seems to me the most classically \u201ctragic\u201d aspect of the story.\u00a0 As I\u2019ve reviewed the story, I\u2019ve wanted to shout out at the decision makers, yelling \u201cNo! \u00a0No! \u00a0I understand what you\u2019re thinking, but stop! \u00a0Go no further!\u201d<\/p>\n Anyway, please permit me to mention three books that represent the best of contemporary scholarship on the Mountain Meadows Massacre and its aftermath:<\/p>\n Familiarity with them would put an end to a lot of the historical falsehoods that have circulated about this terrible event among both Latter-day Saints and critics of the Church.<\/p>\n This article in the Deseret News<\/em> saddens and concerns me: \u00a0\u201cOpinion: What\u2019s behind declining vaccination rates for children entering school in Utah?\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 I worry about what it might be saying about a growing mindset among Latter-day Saints in Utah and, perhaps, in America more broadly. \u00a0Here is the relevant text in the Church\u2019s General Handbook<\/em>:<\/p>\n Of course, as many others do as well, I continue to be upset by yesterday\u2019s assassination of Charlie Kirk. \u00a0Very near to where my wife and I live, where we raised our children, where our children attended elementary school and junior high school, and where a grandchild currently attends. \u00a0(These schools that we know well were under police security measures yesterday.) \u00a0 And I\u2019m upset to see partisan ideologues both left and \u201cright\u201d immediately seeking to weaponize the tragedy against their \u201cenemies.\u201d \u00a0Here are links to some commentaries that I\u2019ve found valuable:<\/p>\n Posted from Gleneden Beach, Oregon<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 This is my final warning: \u00a0Decent people who may be in or near the Pacific Northwest on the evening of Friday, 12 September 2025, should maintain a safe distance from the chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that stands at 4195 Southwest 99th Avenue in Beaverton, Oregon, on that evening […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":40286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8007,39161,2905,788,782,5469],"class_list":["post-112787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-assassination","tag-charlie-kirk","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-mormon","tag-utah","tag-utah-valley-university"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a><\/a>
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