{"id":68448,"date":"2018-12-17T14:51:59","date_gmt":"2018-12-17T21:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=68448"},"modified":"2018-12-17T14:51:59","modified_gmt":"2018-12-17T21:51:59","slug":"remembrance-of-weird-things-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/12\/remembrance-of-weird-things-past.html","title":{"rendered":"Remembrance of (Weird) Things Past"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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\"Mitchell<\/a>
The Federal courthouse in Salt Lake City, Utah, where I testified in the competency hearing for Brian David Mitchell and then, a year later, in his trial. \u00a0\u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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It seems that CNN is in the process of producing a two-hour documentary on the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping case, to appear sometime next year on its HLN channel.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve just returned from being interviewed for slightly more than an hour\u00a0by CNN\u2019s field producer on the project.<\/p>\n

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It has been literally years since I\u2019ve thought seriously about the Smart case, and I told CNN\u2019s representatives that in advance. \u00a0After all, the competency hearing for Brian David Mitchell, Elizabeth\u2019s kidnapper, took place in late 2010, and his federal court trial was almost exactly a year later, in 2011, and I was more than happy to move on thereafter. \u00a0(Instead of focusing on the Qur\u2019an and on texts by Plato, Aristotle, Philo Judaeus and various other Middle Platonists, Plotinus, Proclus, Iamblichus, al-Kindi, al-Razi, al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, and al-Kirmani \u2014 my professional research foci \u2014 I had spent the better part of two years poring over the somewhat less rich works of \u201cImmanuel David Isaiah.\u201d) \u00a0So, in order to help me refresh my memory of the details, they sent me the following links:<\/p>\n

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NBC News: \u00a0\u201cExpert analyzes religious text in Smart case: \u00a0BYU professor likens street preacher\u2019s manifesto to student\u2019s \u2018term paper'\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

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CNN: \u00a0\u201cDocuments trace strange odyssey of suspect in Smart kidnapping\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

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New York Times<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cEnd of an Abduction: The Overview; Suspect\u2019s Wife Is Said to Cite Polygamy Plan\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

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ABC News: \u00a0\u201cElizabeth Smart Tells Court Brian David Mitchell Would Pray for Sex\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

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Washington Post<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cPolygamy Cited as Motive in Kidnapping\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

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And those articles did, in fact, pretty much get me back into my 2010 and 2011 mindset. \u00a0(I offer them here in case anybody is suffering from nostalgia for hearing again about Brian David Mitchell and his works.)<\/p>\n

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The topics that CNN\u2019s field producer had told me that we would discuss were, in fact, the principal subjects for the interview today:<\/p>\n

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