![\"LofC](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2017\/06\/Gutenberg_Bible.jpg\")
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A short article that I wrote for Meridian Magazine<\/em> went up this morning: \u201cThe Case Against Sola Scriptura<\/em>: From the Bible Itself\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n And this new article appeared today on the unchanging and effectively dead website of the Interpreter Foundation: Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>: \u201cOf Book of Mormon Stories\u2014and Giants,\u201d<\/a> written by Brant A. Gardner<\/a>:<\/p>\n Abstract:<\/strong> Stories of giants have occurred throughout the ages and in different cultures. These stories contrast to the scientific evidence that there never have been races of giant humans, even though there are some specific cases of unusually tall individuals. If the stories don\u2019t come from true experience, where do they come from?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n It\u2019s accompanied on the website by Interpreting Interpreter<\/em>: \u201cBook of Mormon Giants,\u201d<\/a> written by Kyler Rasmussen<\/a>:<\/p>\n This post is a summary of the article \u201cOf Book of Mormon Stories\u2014and Giants<\/a>\u201d by Brant Gardner in Volume 67 of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>. All of the Interpreting Interpreter<\/em> articles may be seen at https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/category\/summaries\/<\/a>. An introduction to the Interpreting Interpreter<\/em> series is available at https:\/interpreterfoundation.org\/interpreting-interpreter-on-abstracting-thought\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n A video introduction to this Interpreter article is now available on all of our social media channels, including on YouTube at https:\/\/youtube.com\/shorts\/EYbfQWKKF70<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Takeaway:<\/strong>\u00a0 Gardner discusses the idea of \u201cgiants\u201d being present in the ancient Americas, noting the lack of archaeological evidence for such giants and arguing that there is no need to assume literal giants within an authentic Book of Mormon.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Also up today on the Interpreter Foundation website, where nothing new ever goes up, is \u201cThe Interpreter Foundation Podcast \u2014 November 20, 2025: Responding to Critics of the Church\u201d<\/a>:<\/p>\n In the 20 November 2025 episode of the Interpreter Foundation Podcast, Martin Tanner, Kris Frederickson, and Bruce Webster discussed how to respond to critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n For a while, I had the impression that all Latter-day Saint women always wear long 1950s-style pastel dresses and wear their hair up in exactly the same way, as illustrated by the polygamous wives of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. \u00a0(See here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Apparently, though, I was uninformed. \u00a0I now realize that, in their dress and grooming, typical Latter-day Saint women look like television\u2019s Mormon Wives. \u00a0Here, from Cosmopolitan <\/em>is the well-researched and scholarly article that changed my mind: \u201cThere\u2019s a Reason You Can\u2019t Tell the \u2018Secret Lives of Mormon Wives\u2019 Cast Apart: Hint: It\u2019s the \u201cUtah look.\u201d\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n I suppose that the common ground between the Mormon Wives and the FLDS wives is that they are all seen as some variation of Stepford Wives<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll admit to being frustrated with the stereotypes of Latter-day Saints that I continually encounter, and particularly in a cultural moment that professes to dislike and reject stereotyping. \u00a0While I was spending a summer at Princeton University quite a while back, we attended a performance on Broadway of Angels in America: Millennium Approaches<\/em>, the first part of Tony Kushner\u2019s massive play, which won a Pulitzer Prize and multiple Tony Awards. \u00a0Later, my wife went to see the second part, Angels in America:<\/em> Perestroika<\/em>. \u00a0(For reasons that I no longer recall, I was unable to attend.). Much of Kushner\u2019s story focuses on \u201cMormonism,\u201d a caricature version of Moroni plays an important role, several of the characters are Latter-day Saints, a portion of the two-part play is set in a Latter-day Saint visitors center, and, well, I wouldn\u2019t describe the play\u2019s treatment of my faith as precisely reverent or respectful.<\/p>\n During Perestroika\u2019s<\/em> intermission, the man seated next to my wife (who was, by the way, wearing a yarmulke<\/em>), turned to her and asked \u201cHave you ever been to Salt Lake City?\u201d \u00a0And then, without waiting for her answer, he told her \u201cThat\u2019s exactly what they\u2019re like\u201d and proceeded to make some denigrating remarks about Latter-day Saints.<\/p>\n I was glad, when she told me of her encounter at the theater, that I had not been there. \u00a0I would have responded to the man\u2019s comments with some comments of my own, probably about caricatures and stereotypes of Jews and New Yorkers. \u00a0She handled it rather differently than I would have.<\/p>\n Incidentally, while we\u2019re on the subject of Utah women, here\u2019s a new announcement from the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: \u00a0\u201cWomen Can Now Serve Missions for the Church of Jesus Christ at Age 18\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n My wife and I like the work of the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt very much. \u00a0In fact, a reproduction of Klimt\u2019s famous work Der Kuss<\/em> hangs in our bedroom. \u00a0I suppose that its gold background speaks to my inner Byzantinist, and the painting as a whole speaks to my very Latter-day Saint sense of the holiness and eternal significance of marriage, for which I borrow lyrics from the duet \u201cBei M\u00e4nnern, welche Liebe f\u00fchlen\u201d in Mozart\u2019s Die Zauberfl\u00f6te<\/em> (\u201cThe Magic Flute\u201d)<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>