{"id":44280,"date":"2017-09-16T12:09:39","date_gmt":"2017-09-16T18:09:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=44280"},"modified":"2017-09-16T12:09:39","modified_gmt":"2017-09-16T18:09:39","slug":"thoughts-from-the-silence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/thoughts-from-the-silence.html","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts from the silence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A view of Lake Geneva (Lac L\u00e9man) in Switzerland, with Voirons and Sal\u00e8ve in the background.
\u00a9 Yann Forget \/ Wikimedia Commons \/ CC-BY-SA-3.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As some of my critics like to point out, the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> silenced me back in the summer of 2012.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a cunning fellow, though, and I\u2019ve managed to get around their Verbot<\/em> by writing under the pseudonym of Daniel C. Peterson<\/em>. \u00a0Doing so has even enabled me to publish an average of seventy-eight (78) columns annually in the Church\u2019s own daily newspaper<\/em>. \u00a0(Mwahahahaha!)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Curiously, even though each column is inevitably crammed to overflowing with my characteristic blend of malice, brazen mendacity, name-calling, ad hominem<\/em> fallacies, illogic, and bigotry, nobody seems to have made the connection between the Daniel C. Peterson whom the Brethren silenced and the person writing under the clever pseudonym of Daniel C. Peterson.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the most written specimen of my hateful rants, this one written with William J. Hamblin:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Protestant Reformation\u2019s other great writer\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Along with Jeff Peterson<\/a>, Hal Boyd<\/a> is one of my favorite writers in the Deseret News<\/em>. \u00a0Here\u2019s his latest piece:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Mormon answer to theological apathy and agnosticism\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The article draws on the work of the late (and sorely missed) Stephen H. Webb. \u00a0Here are a couple of things that I myself published about Stephen Webb in the Deseret News<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

13 August 2015: \u00a0\u201cMaterialism isn\u2019t what it used to be\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

10 March 2016: \u00a0\u201cThinking about religion and science, Thursday through Sunday afternoon\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The last time I saw Stephen, my wife and I brought him to sacrament meeting and Sunday school in our ward, before taking him up to the Salt Lake airport for his flight home. \u00a0His death was an enormous shock to us.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I enjoyed a pleasant lunch yesterday with Tarik LaCour. \u00a0In the course of our conversation, he mentioned a blog post that he had written some time ago, which I had missed. \u00a0So, last evening, he kindly sent me a link to it:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIs Daniel Dennett a New Atheist?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And here, by the way, is something that Tarik LaCour himself recently posted about Stephen H. Webb:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFriday Traditio: Stephen H. Webb\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I came across this item by sheer chance a few days ago. \u00a0It\u2019s a non-Mormon video, but it\u2019s very nice, and I think that at least a few out there might find it very helpful, or might know somebody who would find it helpful. \u00a0If you have roughly ten minutes, give it a look:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGod\u2019s love letter for you\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally, and in stark contrast to the video that I\u2019ve just mentioned, is this:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cReasons to Hope: Suicide is Utah\u2019s most preventable tragedy\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints seek to use Utah\u2019s relatively high rate of youth suicide as a weapon against Mormonism, holding it responsible for those deaths.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I doubt that this accusation is even remotely fair or justified, but I would very much like to have some experts comment on the subject and\/or to be directed to serious published discussions of it. \u00a0What do we know about the factors entering into the numbers? \u00a0What role, if any, does Mormonism play? \u00a0What can be done to help?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0 \u00a0 As some of my critics like to point out, the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints silenced me back in the summer of 2012. \u00a0 I\u2019m a cunning fellow, though, and I\u2019ve managed to get around their Verbot by writing under the pseudonym of Daniel C. Peterson. \u00a0Doing so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThoughts from the silence<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    As some of my critics like to point out, the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints silenced me back in the summer of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/thoughts-from-the-silence.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thoughts from the 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