![\"Corpany](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2018\/09\/22Calm_as_a_Summers_Morning22_statue_B.jpg\")
<\/a>(Wikimedia Commons public domain image) \u00a0The ensemble is often called either \u201cLast Ride\u201d or \u00a0\u201cCalm as a Summer\u2019s Morning.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
I published a piece today in Meridian Magazine<\/em> under the title of \u201cThe Tragedy of Nauvoo: Remembering the Lost City of the Latter-day Saints.\u201d<\/a> \u00a0I hope that you\u2019ll take a look at it. \u00a0I appreciate the beautiful photographs that accompany the article, which were (I assume) taken by Scot Facer Proctor.<\/p>\n The teaser for Episode 7 of Becoming Brigham<\/em> (Becoming Brigham<\/em> TRAILER\u2014\u201dYoung Brigham Young,\u201d Part Two<\/a>) has now been posted. \u00a0The full episode will appear on Monday.<\/p>\n And you may be aware by now that Episode 6 of Becoming Brigham<\/em> is already up online. \u00a0If not, let me be the first to inform you that it is<\/em>: Becoming Brigham<\/em>, Episode 6\u2014\u201dYoung Brigham Young,\u201d Part One<\/a>.\u00a0 \u00a0And all six of the currently published installments are available at the home page of the series, which is becomingbrigham.com<\/a>. \u00a0We intend \u2014 with possibly one or two exceptions down the line, when we may do something a little bit different \u2014 that a new episode go up each week.<\/p>\n \u201cAn American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters,\u201d said Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth today, in announcing the destruction of the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena<\/em>. \u201cInstead, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death. The first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War Two. Like in that war, back when we were still the War Department. We are fighting to win.\u201d<\/p>\n Joining Secretary Hegseth for the announcement, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the Iranian vessel was \u201ceffectively neutralized\u201d in a Navy \u201cfast attack\u201d using a single Mark 48 torpedo. He added that the U.S. Navy achieved \u201cimmediate effect, sending the warship to the bottom of the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n In a separate incident, Secretary Hegseth said, the U.S. Navy sank another Iranian military vessel, the corvette class missile ship Soleimani, <\/em>which apparently went down near the Iranian shore in the Strait of Hormuz. \u00a0The Soleimani<\/em> was named for Qasem Soleimani, who, from 1998 until his assassination by the United States in a 2020 drone strike, was the commander of the Quds Force, a division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). \u00a0(Giving it its Arabic definite article, which Persian tends not to use, the term al-Quds<\/em> \u2014 \u201cThe Holy\u201d \u2014 is a very common Arabic\/Islamic name for Jerusalem.) \u00a0In that role with the IRGC, Soleimani was primarily responsible for extraterritorial and clandestine military operations, and he played a key part in the Syrian civil war.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Iranian Navy rests at the bottom of the Persian Gulf,\u201d said Secretary Hegseth. \u201cCombat ineffective, decimated, destroyed, defeated. Pick your adjective. \u00a0In fact, last night we sunk their prize ship, the Soleimani<\/em>. Looks like POTUS got him twice. Their navy, not a factor. Pick your adjective. It is no more.\u201d<\/p>\n Regarding another story, Secretary Hegseth announced to reporters today that the leader of an Iranian unit that may have been behind an attempted 2024 plot to assassinate President Donald Trump has been killed: \u201cYesterday, the leader of the unit who attempted to assassinate President Trump has been hunted down and killed. \u00a0Iran tried to kill President Trump, and President Trump got the last laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n And, in a Sunday telephone interview with ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl, President Trump himself mentioned the alleged assassination plot while discussing the U.S. and Israeli strike that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei: \u201cI got him before he got me,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThey tried twice. Well, I got him first.\u201d<\/p>\n Please don\u2019t get me wrong. \u00a0I\u2019m not a pacifist. \u00a0I\u2019m not a leftist. \u00a0I\u2019m pleased that the Iranian Navy will probably be blocked from blocking the Strait of Hormuz. \u00a0I\u2019m anything but a fan of Ali Khamenei, Qasem Soleimani, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or the Islamic Republic of Iran. \u00a0The theocratic thugs in Tehran have oppressed and murdered their own people, fostered untold grief and violence across the Middle East and beyond, and covered themselves in innocent blood. \u00a0I\u2019m perfectly happy to see many of them heading for the exits, and I would be delighted if Iran were to rise to the freedom and prosperity that it deserves and that would be worthy of the glorious Persian past.<\/p>\n But I\u2019ve been put off by rhetoric about \u201cquiet death,\u201d \u201clast laughs,\u201d \u201cI got him first,\u201dand \u201cLooks like POTUS got him twice.\u201d \u00a0(And, I confess, I don\u2019t like Secretary Hegseth\u2019s tattoos.<\/a>) \u00a0War is a grim business. \u00a0A necessity, it can be argued, but an occasion for neither self-satisfaction nor gloating. \u00a0Every human death is a tragedy. \u00a0Even the worst of these people are children of God, our brothers and sisters for whom Christ died. Moreover, even on the level of mere pragmatic self-interest, the Iranian regime still retains some degree of power to kill, hurt, and maim. \u00a0We have taken out their leaders. \u00a0It\u2019s not impossible that they could yet do the same to some of ours and wound us in our own cities and homes. \u00a0We must be wary of hubris.<\/p>\n In the past, when some notable murderer has been executed, I\u2019ve been appalled to see news footage of loud tailgate parties near the prisons where the executions have taken place. \u00a0Even if I regard the execution as just, I\u2019m repulsed by the idea of celebrating<\/em> it.<\/p>\n Do you remember, toward the end of the Book of Mormon, when the retreating Nephites experienced a last, brief, and ultimately illusory round of military successes?<\/p>\n And it came to pass that we did contend with an army of thirty thousand against an army of fifty thousand. And it came to pass that we did stand before them with such firmness that they did flee from before us.<\/p>\n And it came to pass that when they had fled we did pursue them with our armies, and did meet them again, and did beat them; nevertheless the strength of the Lord was not with us; yea, we were left to ourselves, that the Spirit of the Lord did not abide in us; therefore we had become weak like unto our brethren. (Mormon 2:25-26)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n And now, because of this great thing which my people, the Nephites, had done, they began to boast in their own strength, and began to swear before the heavens that they would avenge themselves of the blood of their brethren who had been slain by their enemies.<\/p>\n And they did swear by the heavens, and also by the throne of God, that they would go up to battle against their enemies, and would cut them off from the face of the land.<\/p>\n And it came to pass that I, Mormon, did utterly refuse from this time forth to be a commander and a leader of this people, because of their wickedness and abomination. (Mormon 3:9-11)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Personally, I found the videos of the sinking of the Dena<\/em> rather sickening. I\u2019m told that most Iranian Navy personnel are draftees. \u00a0A frigate such as the Dena<\/em> is typically manned by a crew of approximately two hundred sailors; a corvette class missile ship like the Soleimani<\/em> commonly has a crew of between forty and a hundred. \u00a0I suspect that their deaths were not<\/em> \u201cquiet.\u201d<\/p>\n After the drowning of the pursuing army of Pharaoh in the Red Sea, the Israelites rejoiced at their deliverance:<\/p>\n And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. \u00a0<\/span>And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the Lord<\/span>, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. \u00a0(Exodus 15:20-21)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is a very human reaction. \u00a0But the rabbis say that the angels, observing the destruction of the Egyptians on that occasion, also broke into song although they should have known better: \u00a0God sees the angels\u2019 rejoicing, and he isn\u2019t pleased. \u201cMy creatures are drowning in the sea,\u201d he says, \u201cand you sing songs.\u201d \u00a0As the rabbis put it, \u201cThe Holy One, Blessed be He, does not rejoice over the fall of the wicked.\u201d \u00a0(See the Midrash, from Megilla 10; Sanhedrin 39b; Pesikta de- Rav Kahana [ed. S. Buber, p. 189a])<\/p>\n In my view, one of the great chapters of scripture, and one to which I often return, is Ezekiel 33. \u00a0Here, I quote verse eleven from it:<\/p>\n As I live, saith the Lord God<\/span>, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But similar messages are found elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, as well. \u00a0A notable case is found in the story of Jonah, which illustrates God\u2019s care even for Israel\u2019s worst enemies. \u00a0In that story, the prophet Jonah is sent to preach repentance to the people of Nineveh, the capital of the brutal and imperialistic Assyrian Empire, and to warn them against pending destruction. \u00a0Famously but vainly, he tries to escape and to evade God\u2019s call. \u00a0However, in the end he very grudgingly fulfills his assignment and then, to his disgust, watches as the people of Nineveh repent and are spared:<\/p>\n But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. \u00a0<\/span>And he prayed unto the Lord<\/span>, and said, I pray thee, O Lord<\/span>, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. \u00a0<\/span>Therefore now, O Lord<\/span>, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. \u00a0<\/span>Then said the Lord<\/span>, Doest thou well to be angry? . . . And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand? <\/span>\u00a0(Jonah 4:1-4, 11)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I find myself thinking of the great Nephite commander Moroni who, brilliant military leader though he was, didn\u2019t rejoice in the death of his enemies:<\/p>\n Now Moroni, when he saw their terror, commanded his men that they should stop shedding their blood. And it came to pass that they did stop and withdrew a pace from them. And Moroni said unto Zerahemnah: Behold, Zerahemnah, that we do not desire to be men of blood. Ye know that ye are in our hands, yet we do not desire to slay you. (Alma 43:54-44:1)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And I think of Moses 7, in the Pearl of Great Price, which I regard as one of the great passages of scripture given to us through the Prophet Joseph Smith. \u00a0In that chapter, Enoch is astonished at seeing God weep:<\/p>\n How is it thou canst weep?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/header>\n The Lord said unto Enoch: Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency;<\/p>\n And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood. . . .<\/p>\n But behold, their sins shall be upon the heads of their fathers; Satan shall be their father, and misery shall be their doom; and the whole heavens shall weep over them, even all the workmanship of mine hands; wherefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer? (Moses 7:31-33, 37)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n (For some brief reflections on Moses 7 and on the stark difference between the God of the scriptures and the God of classical theism, see my 8 March 2022 column for Meridian Magazine<\/em>, \u201cDivine Emotions: A Contradiction to Aristotle\u2019s Best Thinking on God\u201d<\/a>; also my much longer article\u201dOn the Motif of the Weeping God in Moses 7,\u201d which can be found online in the BYU Scholars Archive.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I find myself thinking, too, of Rudyard Kipling\u2019s famous poem \u201cRecessional,\u201d which was written in 1897 for Queen Victoria\u2019s Diamond Jubilee and which will be familiar to some from the current Latter-day Saint hymnal. \u00a0It offers a solemn warning against imperial arrogance, urging humility and remembrance of God even at the zenith of the British Empire\u2019s power:<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>\n
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