{"id":88489,"date":"2020-10-03T22:19:06","date_gmt":"2020-10-04T04:19:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=88489"},"modified":"2020-10-04T22:06:02","modified_gmt":"2020-10-05T04:06:02","slug":"turning-gems-into-dirt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/10\/turning-gems-into-dirt.html","title":{"rendered":"“Turning Gems Into Dirt”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Felucca<\/a>
A felucca on the River Nile at sunset. (Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph by Ian Pudsley.). We took many such rides on the Nile \u2014 it was, for example, a Cairo Branch tradition to load every member onto one or two large boats for Easter sunrise gatherings \u2014 and we still love to include such an evening cruise for guests on our tours to Egypt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Up today, on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Book of Moses Insights #23: Enoch, the Prophet and Seer: Enoch\u2019s Prophecy of the Tribes (Moses 7:5\u201311, 22)<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two recent items from Jeff Lindsay:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTurning Gems into Dirt: The Case for Adam Clarke as a Source for the \u201cInspired Translation\u201d of the Bible\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, B.H. Roberts Did Not Abandon Belief in the Book of Mormon\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last weekend, my wife and I enjoyed an outdoor, physically-distanced, partially potluck dinner in the backyard of the widow of our good friend and former branch president in Cairo, my eventual colleague on the faculty at Brigham Young University (on whom, see \u201cArnold H. Green [1940-2019]\u201d<\/a> and \u201cBidding Farewell to Arnie Green\u201d<\/a>).\u00a0 Also there, with their wives and a daughter, were my former mentor, colleague, and department chair Dil Parkinson<\/a>, now retired, and\u00a0 Joey Green, Arnie and Lani\u2019s son, who was a very young boy when we first met him in Egypt and who has somehow managed to combine a passion for jazz guitar and the novels of Jane Austen with a highly successful and still unfolding career in the military.\u00a0 (See \u201cJoseph Green: Fully Committed.\u201d<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We had a very enjoyable time, not only eating and reminiscing but, well, discussing such subjects as film adaptations of Jane Austen\u2019s novels and Dil\u2019s challenging work on a not yet complete new translation of the Book of Mormon into Arabic.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A couple of weeks ago, the anonymous perennial detractor whom I\u2019ve dubbed my \u201cMini-Stalker\u201d was shedding his usual crocodile tears about my sad hate- and anger-driven career, which has brought such shame on my church and my university.\u00a0 His specific theme, this time, was my ever-accelerating descent into obscurity. irrelevance, and loneliness.\u00a0 There can be no doubt that he\u2019s right, of course, and that my depressing fate is richly merited and entirely just.\u00a0 Still, I take comfort and satisfaction in the fact that I\u2019ll be accompanied to my solitary and disgraced exile by such good friends.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I hope that you enjoyed General Conference today as much as I did.\u00a0 I\u2019m looking forward to the Sunday sessions.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0 \u00a0 Up today, on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: \u00a0 Book of Moses Insights #23: Enoch, the Prophet and Seer: Enoch\u2019s Prophecy of the Tribes (Moses 7:5\u201311, 22) \u00a0 *** \u00a0 Two recent items from Jeff Lindsay: \u00a0 \u201cTurning Gems into Dirt: The Case for Adam Clarke as a Source for the \u201cInspired […]<\/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":[14762,3613,17377,3622,1038,1453,17123,56,14780,16723,14759,948,17386,1809,17129,17393,17117,17383,17380,17371,17230,17227,14765,933,14977,12595,2905,1815,5346,6924,17120,14823,55,14771,14774,16726,3004,17231,17389,17392,17374],"class_list":["post-88489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-adam-clarke","tag-american-university-in-cairo","tag-arnie-green","tag-arnold-green","tag-b-h-roberts","tag-bible","tag-bill-reel","tag-book-of-mormon","tag-borrowing","tag-brigham-h-roberts","tag-brigham-henry-roberts","tag-cairo","tag-cairo-branch","tag-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints","tag-commentary","tag-copying","tag-dehlin","tag-dil-parkinson","tag-dilworth-parkinson","tag-everybody-wang-chung","tag-haley-wilson","tag-haley-wilson-lemmon","tag-inspired-revision","tag-john-dehlin","tag-joseph-smith-translation","tag-jst","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-lds","tag-los-angeles","tag-mini-stalker","tag-mormon-discussions","tag-mormon-stories","tag-mormonism","tag-new-translation","tag-plagiarism","tag-shannon-caldwell-montez","tag-thomas-wayment","tag-tom-wayment","tag-ucla","tag-university-of-california","tag-wayment"],"yoast_head":"\n"Turning 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