{"id":112961,"date":"2025-09-23T22:14:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T04:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=112961"},"modified":"2025-09-23T22:14:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T04:14:12","slug":"you-really-ought-to-give-iowa-a-try-from-the-music-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2025\/09\/you-really-ought-to-give-iowa-a-try-from-the-music-man.html","title":{"rendered":"“You really ought to give Iowa a try” (from “The Music Man”)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Mississippi River Lock and Dam number 19 with Keokuk Rail Bridge and Keokuk-Hamilton Bridge downstream, in a 1997 Wikimedia Commons public admin photograph<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At one point, the city of Nauvoo, Illinois, was well on its way to someday having its own international airport. \u00a0But the events of late June 1844 and those of the two years that followed blocked that pathway, and Nauvoo is now a small and very remote town, and quite hard to reach. \u00a0I flew into St. Louis, where it was raining fairly heavily, and then drove three solo hours through Hannibal, Missouri, up to exotic Keokuk, Iowa, \u201cthe town that time forgot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our core film crew arrived here yesterday, along with John Donovan Wilson<\/a> (\u201cBrigham Young\u201d in Six Days in August<\/em>) and Camrey Bagley Fox<\/a> (our \u201cEmma Smith\u201d in both Witnesses<\/em> and Six Days<\/em>). \u00a0They filmed today in both Nauvoo and Quincy. \u00a0I needed to stay in Utah for an important meeting. \u00a0But I\u2019m here now. \u00a0Filming begins for me ma\u00f1ana<\/em>.<\/p>\n

My wife isn\u2019t here. \u00a0She intended to be, but there was a change in calendar. \u00a0So she headed down to Moab today, with friends, on a long-scheduled trip. \u00a0To the real<\/em> Moab, by the way. \u00a0The one in southern Utah \u2014 not the wannabe pretender in the southern portion of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.<\/p>\n

And \u2014 get this! \u2014 her friends don\u2019t have to be paid<\/em> to be there. \u00a0In stark contrast, those who are with me here are here for a job<\/em>. \u00a0They\u2019re working<\/em> here. \u00a0And that probably tells you all that you need to know about my repellent personality and my legendarily repulsive lack of character.<\/p>\n

Finally, I have a confession to make: \u00a0I ate again<\/em> last night. \u00a0My wife and I met a fair number of our neighbors at a Greek fast food place, and I ate. \u00a0(Clearly, I\u2019ve fallen in with a bad crowd. \u00a0They shamelessly encourage me in my addiction to daily eating.) \u00a0Afterwards, we all attended a performance of Flowers for Mrs. Harris<\/em><\/a> nearby at The Ruth and Nathan Hale Theater<\/a> (aka \u201cThe Ruth,\u201d at doTERRA) in Pleasant Grove, where the play is having its North American premiere. \u00a0I confess to having not liked the first half overly much, but the second half of the play redeemed it (in, admittedly,\u00a0a very sentimental and moralizing way).<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Chicago Illinois Temple (LDS.org) is the oldest still-functioning temple in the state.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yesterday, having had a very long day in which I could not write, I reposted an old item about whether there can be any valid evidence against the claims of the Restoration. \u00a0I had another long day today, during which I was unable to write. \u00a0So I\u2019m reposting the blog entry with which I followed up that original post. \u00a0I\u2019ve made a few minor mechanical changes to it and insert a brief bracketed notes:<\/p>\n

A short while ago, I posted a blog entry titled \u201cCan there be any valid criticisms of the Church?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s generated quite a storm of indignant criticism in certain quarters over the past hour or two, none of which seems to me to have much merit, since it\u2019s based on a fundamental misunderstanding of my point.<\/p>\n

Why? \u00a0Because my point was and is a simple, modest, and, properly understood, uncontroversial one.<\/p>\n

Perhaps, of course, I\u2019m just incompetent, a poor communicator. \u00a0(More than a few of my many anti-fans will readily grant that, and even enthusiastically insist<\/em> on it.) \u00a0Or perhaps some, out of adversarial hostility or over-hastiness or pre-existing judgments or because of some other factor or factors, misread what I wrote. \u00a0Or some combination of the two.\u00a0 (I used the term ex hypothesi<\/em> in my previous post, for instance, and I think that many of the critics of the post either failed to notice it or, perhaps, didn\u2019t know what it means.)<\/p>\n

Whatever. \u00a0It hardly matters.<\/p>\n

Let me try again, this time syllogistically:<\/p>\n