![\"Perhaps](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/10\/800px-Plan_9_Alternative_poster.jpg\")
<\/a>(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
I published a seasonally appropriate article today in Meridian Magazine<\/em> that some readers might be able to enjoy without requiring medical attention: \u00a0\u201cUnmasking Halloween: Its Origins and Meaning.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n And here\u2019s an article that I published in Meridian<\/em> back on 28 October 2021 for that year\u2019s Halloween: \u201cWays of Remembering the Dead.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 In it, I discussed the history and development of the Halloween holiday, which is both complicated and, I think, very interesting. \u00a0(And, I hasten to add, not at all Satanic.)<\/p>\n Newly posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Seek Ye Words of Wisdom<\/em>: \u201cRituals, Magic, and Outsiders in Tannaitic Judaism: The Case of the Customs of the Amorites,\u201d<\/a> written by\u00a0Avram R. Shannon<\/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 about the book, go to https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/books\/seek-ye-words-of-wisdom\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cStephen Ricks noted the tendency for magicians to be categorized as outsiders in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. This paper shows how the ancient Jewish Sages used their own ritual categories to create an outsider category that was not quite idolatry, but still not approved, as a way of defining certain ritual practices as outsider magic. For this article, I will be focusing on the Sages of Tannaitic period (ca. 150 BC\u2013AD 200), as expressed in the Mishnah and especially Tosefta.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I\u2019ve always enjoyed the cinema and have been quite conscious of the potential power of film. \u00a0Still, I never imagined myself actually becoming involved in the production of films. \u00a0And, while I can\u2019t claim ever to have been present at the creation of such mighty cinematic achievements as Trapped by the Mormons<\/em> or A Victim of the Mormons<\/em> or Surviving Mormonism<\/a> with Heather Gay<\/em>, I did spend much of today working on one of the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s forthcoming Becoming Brigham<\/em> mini-documentaries.<\/p>\n Up at the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City, Camrey Bagley Fox (who played Emma Smith in both Witnesses<\/em> and Six Days in August<\/em>) and John Donovan Wilson (who played Brigham Young in Six Days in August<\/em>) and I (who played a biceps-flexing muscleman in a San Gabriel High School production of Li\u2019l Abner<\/em> during the Vietnam War era) participated in a filmed discussion with\u00a0Matt Grow<\/a>, who is the Managing Director of the Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a>. \u00a0(For more information on the films that, together, make up The Witnesses Initiative, see here<\/a>.) \u00a0Today\u2019s discussion will form the basis of the inaugural episode of Becoming Brigham<\/em>, which we expect to release in or near mid-January.<\/p>\n Yesterday<\/a>, I called your attention to the forthcoming three-part Bravo miniseries Surviving Mormonism with Heather Gay<\/em>, which promises to be a landmark venture in ethnographic filmmaking from an eminently qualified scholarly authority. \u00a0Here\u2019s something on Latter-day Saint responses to the as-yet unreleased miniseries:\u00a0\u201c\u201dSurviving Mormonism\u201d Is Unhinged In The Best Way Possible | Trailer Reaction and Viral Trend\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n In an approach that is somewhat similar to that favored by Bravo (and Hulu and similar platforms), the British tabloid newspaper the Daily Mail<\/em> continues its record of publishing articles that reveal the bizarre, dangerous, evil, and sordid reality that is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. \u00a0(Surely you haven\u2019t forgotten this classic little Daily Mail<\/em> gem from just ten days ago, 13 October, about Provo<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cAmericans flock to conservative city with a scandalous past where religion and reality shows collide and homes are cheap.\u201d<\/a> \u00a0Well, here\u2019s the latest<\/em> from the Daily Mail\u2019s<\/em> wonderful journalists: \u00a0\u201cRich son, 34, murdered parents and housekeeper at $6m Newport Beach mansion \u2018after going on Mormon mission sent him haywire.'\u201d<\/a> \u00a0Please note how, while not troubling herself to supply any evidence for her claim, the author of the article, Sonya Gugliara, identifies Camden Burton Nicholson\u2019s missionary service<\/em> as the cause for his evident mental illness.<\/p>\n Finally, I close with something that I found right beside the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122: \u00a0\u201cOpinion: Radical grace \u2014 the power that evil cannot defeat,\u201d<\/a> \u00a0written by Bob Woodson<\/a>. \u00a0In it, he refers to the recent fundraiser for the widow and children of the man who attacked that Latter-day Saint chapel in Grand Blanc, Michigan, where he killed four congregants, wounded several others, and was himself killed by police. \u00a0For what little it\u2019s worth, many years ago I spent several days in company with Bob Woodson and a number of others for a small dialogue between the West and the Islamic world that took place in Valletta, on the island of Malta in the Mediterranean. \u00a0Bob Woodson was part of the team from the West.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 I published a seasonally appropriate article today in Meridian Magazine that some readers might be able to enjoy without requiring medical attention: \u00a0\u201cUnmasking Halloween: Its Origins and Meaning.\u201d And here\u2019s an article that I published in Meridian back on 28 October 2021 for that year\u2019s Halloween: \u201cWays of Remembering the Dead.\u201d\u00a0 In it, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":104621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[18619,39266,17210,5,9632,17213],"class_list":["post-113378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-all-hallows","tag-all-saints","tag-halloween","tag-history","tag-origin","tag-samhain"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>