{"id":113147,"date":"2025-10-06T16:15:36","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T22:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=113147"},"modified":"2025-10-06T16:15:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T22:15:36","slug":"my-persecution-complex-is-calling-to-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2025\/10\/my-persecution-complex-is-calling-to-me.html","title":{"rendered":"My persecution complex is calling to me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
Inside the Conference Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> in Salt Lake City
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A number of the addresses given at our just-completed general conference really spoke to me, and I look forward to reading them. \u00a0I\u2019ve been thinking of my late friend Ann Madsen (my friend Truman Madsen\u2019s widow), and of something that I posted in remembrance of her when she passed away back in 2022:<\/p>\n

Once, many years ago, I was over in the old Joseph Smith Building on the BYU campus for some sort of meeting.\u00a0 When that meeting finished, I was trying to decide whether I should walk back to my office in another building, since I had yet another (unrelated) meeting in the Joseph Smith Building less than an hour thereafter.\u00a0 Suddenly, I ran into Ann in the hallway.\u00a0 She was a bit surprised to see me in her building.\u00a0 She was off to teach a class, and she offered to let me sit in her office while I waited for the next meeting to start.\u00a0 That was good, as I had work with me that I could do while biding my time.<\/p>\n

I sat down at her desk, in her chair, as she had invited me to do.\u00a0 From that vantage point, I noticed something that nobody else in the office would be able to see:\u00a0 Taped to one of her filing cabinets so that she could easily see and read it, she had a typed-out list of all of the speakers at the most recent installment of the General Conference of the Church.\u00a0 And, next to each name, she had a specific resolution of something that she personally intended to do in response to that speaker\u2019s remarks.\u00a0 I was both inspired and a little shamed by what I saw.\u00a0 Plainly, she was very serious about General Conference in a way that rather put me in the shadow.\u00a0 Since that time, I\u2019ve made sporadic and not very impressive efforts to follow her example.\u00a0 My results have been mixed, but I still remember the standard that she set for me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m really looking forward to the conference edition of the Church magazine. \u00a0I plan to buy two special copies of it, one for me and one for my wife. \u00a0Then, we intend to go through them, marking them up one talk at a time, making a list of resolutions for ourselves. \u00a0Ann\u2019s example continues to challenge and inspire me.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
An aerial view of the Bountiful Utah Temple (LDS Media Library)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This recording was posted earlier today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: \u00a0The Interpreter Foundation Podcast \u2014 September 24, 2025: \u201cHoliness to the Lord: Latter-day Saint Temple Worship<\/em>, by Jonathan Stapley\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

For the 24 September 2025 episode of the Interpreter Foundation Podcast, Terry Hutchinson, John Gee, and John Thompson interviewed Jonathan Stapley about his new book, Holiness to the Lord: Latter-day Saint Temple Worship<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Christensen<\/a>
The massacre at Haun\u2019s Mill, depicted here in a nineteenth-century painting by C. C. A. Christensen, occurred on 30 October 1838, three days after Governor Lilburn W. Boggs issued Missouri Executive Order 44, the so-called \u201cExtermination Order,\u201d in which he declared that \u201cthe Mormons<\/a> must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary for the public peace.\u201d This year will mark the 187th anniversary of the event. \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For several days after the murderous attack on that stake center in Grand Blanc, Michigan \u2014 and for several days after news of the attacker\u2019s hatred for Latter-day Saints had been fairly widely reported \u2014 I continued to see articles speculating about possible motives behind his crime. \u00a0It\u2019s pretty generally recognized now that he felt a burning animus against the Church and its membership, but this piece in the Babylon Bee<\/em> (\u201cFake News You Can Trust\u201d) still seems relevant to me: \u00a0\u201cUK Police Still Searching For Motive Of Terrorist Named \u2018Jihad Jewkiller.'\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

And some have begun to notice historical precedents. \u00a0Thus, for example, this piece on CNN: \u00a0\u201cAttack on LDS Church<\/a> harkens back to its early history of religious persecution\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Yakima Herald-Republic<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cYakima man charged with assaulting Latter-day Saint missionaries with rocks.\u201d<\/a> \u00a0I missed this story when it appeared somewhat more than a month ago. \u00a0According to an affidavit, the suspect \u201ccalled them \u201cheretics,\u201d and said they should be \u201cput to death\u201d and needed to leave the neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

9News (Australia): \u00a0\u201cMormon church in Sydney\u2019s west destroyed by fire.\u201d<\/a> \u00a0I know no more about this incident than what is contained in the article but, from my untutored perspective, the fact that fires were reported \u201cin three sectors of the complex\u201d sounds more than a little suspicious.<\/p>\n

LDS Newsroom: \u201cStatement on Fire at Church of Jesus Christ Meetinghouse in Sydney: Fire causes significant damage to Church meetinghouse in Hebersham\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Do such reports suggest a new trend? \u00a0I don\u2019t know. \u00a0I don\u2019t see any obvious link between an apparently unhinged man\u2019s lone-wolf attack in Michigan and another evidently unhinged man\u2019s lone-wolf attack in Washington State, let alone any connection with a possible case of arson in Sydney, Australia. \u00a0Further, if there is<\/em> a link between the three incidents, it\u2019s difficult to think of a reason why such things would be happening now<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In any event, the question arises for us of how we should respond<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf America is going to make it it will be because people choose forgiving things they should never have had to forgive over hurting people they have every right to be angry with.\u201d (Kelsey Piper<\/a>, on X)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the New York Times<\/em>, the estimable David French<\/a>, an Evangelical Protestant who has been consistently friendly to Latter-day Saints \u2014 he and his wife headed up \u201cEvangelicals for Mitt\u201d back in the day \u2014 has published a wonderful reflection on the LDS-led fundraiser for the widow of Thomas Jacob Sanford, the Michigan mass murderer. \u00a0I hope that some of you will be able to access it: \u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s a Path Out of This Divide.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Samuel J. Abrams<\/a> and Sarah Jane Weaver<\/a> published this piece in the Deseret News<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cFor Jews and Latter-day Saints, tragedies can be a foundation, not a weight:\u00a0In Jewish and Latter-day Saint tradition, tragedy and rebuilding are real. The blood of martyrs consecrated the ground, but the living chose to sow new beginnings\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Deseret News:<\/em> \u00a0\u201cOpinion: Choosing love over division \u2014 Arthur Brooks\u2019 recent University of Utah keynotes\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Deseret News<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cWhen we can see the good, we can overcome the bad:\u00a0Recent headlines make it feel like the world is collapsing in on itself. But by seeing good and doing good, we can ease anxiety\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Africa<\/a>
A more or less current public domain political map of the continent of Africa, from Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally, I close with something from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122: \u00a0\u201cForum: Pathway to Hope; BYU-Pathway in Africa.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 I do want you to see this 22.5-minute video: \u00a0\u201cGeneral conference special: \u2018Pathway to Hope: Jane Clayson Johnson in Africa.'\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 It will give you at least some inkling of the kind of toxic theistic evil against which poor beleaguered secularists must struggle \u2014 although I should grant you fair warning that it may tempt a few who see it over to The Dark Side.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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