{"id":94837,"date":"2022-04-14T11:35:19","date_gmt":"2022-04-14T17:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=94837"},"modified":"2022-04-14T11:35:19","modified_gmt":"2022-04-14T17:35:19","slug":"some-vacancies-have-apparently-opened-up-for-junes-tour-in-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/04\/some-vacancies-have-apparently-opened-up-for-junes-tour-in-germany.html","title":{"rendered":"Some vacancies have apparently opened up for June’s tour in Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Ishtar<\/a>
The Ishtar Gate, built in approximately 575 BC by Nebuchadnezzar II, as it now stands in Berlin\u2019s Pergamon Museum
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Die<\/a>
The Wartburg\u00a0 (Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Oberammergau<\/a>
The Oberammergau Passion Play stage in 2010 (Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I had a good time last night delivering a lecture up in West Jordan, Utah, about the history and character of the famous Oberammergau Passion Play.\u00a0 (Whether anybody in the audience<\/em> had a good time or not is, of course, a quite separate question.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

By the way, I learned last night that six or perhaps even seven vacancies have opened up for the tour that I\u2019m accompanying to Oberammergau<\/a> (including a performance of the play itself, which occurs only once a decade), the \u201cLuther City\u201d of Wittenberg, the legendary and historic fortress of the Wartburg, the German capital city of Berlin, and so forth.\u00a0 The tour has been filled up for many months, but apparently \u2014 for whatever reason \u2014 several people have recently withdrawn from it.\u00a0 (The website still shows it as \u201csold out,\u201d but that is evidently no longer accurate.)\u00a0 So, if you\u2019re interested, you suddenly have an unexpected opportunity.\u00a0 Don\u2019t hesitate.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just before the lecture last evening, someone who was there in attendance called my attention to a Heartlander site online in which one person declared that my opinions about the Book of Mormon count for absolutely nothing since I like to sit around watching General Conference with my arrogant apostate cronies while we swill coffee.\u00a0 This was news to me, and it should definitely be reported to my bishop and my stake president.\u00a0 (I just renewed my temple recommend this past Sunday.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Which reminds me that, of late, I haven\u2019t been sharing links from the Neville-Neville Land<\/em> blog.\u00a0 So here are several recent articles from that sadly necessary website:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPeter\u2019s hiatus and three brief notices\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAn open letter to Stephen Reed, aka<\/i> \u201cTwoCumorahFraud\u201d\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cFollow-up: The character of Stephen Reed (\u201cTwoCumorahFraud\u201d)\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cJonathan Neville\u2019s latest folly: The Kinderhook Plates\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cRian Nelson pulls a Michael Scott\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two weeks ago, my attention was caught by this article:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAuthor Lee Strobel, after brush with death, explores \u2018Case for Heaven\u2019 in film: \u2018The topic of what does indeed happen after we leave this world is more relevant to a lot of people today than it was a couple of years ago,\u2019 Strobel said.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

So my wife and I bought tickets and went to see the film.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I was enormously disappointed.\u00a0 Several years ago, I read Lee Strobel\u2019s book The Case for Christ<\/em>.\u00a0 Strobel, an originally-atheistic investigative journalist who has since become a vocal and prolific Evangelical Protestant believer, has a gift for laying out lucid arguments for his positions, in orderly fashion.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t read his recent book, The Case for Heaven<\/em>, but I expected it to take a similar approach.\u00a0 And perhaps it does.\u00a0 But the film that\u2019s based upon it definitely doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some time back, my filmmaker friends and I were considering what, if anything, we might do after the Witnesses project draws down.\u00a0 (It hasn\u2019t yet, but the end is now in sight.). We never seriously considered doing nothing, but our leading idea for quite a while was to do something on the conversion (and the apologetic arguments) of the great C. S. Lewis.\u00a0 And then out came The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C. S. Lewis<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 It checked just about every box that I had in mind for our own film.\u00a0 So we dropped that idea.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I thought that something analogous might happen with Lee Strobel\u2019s new film.\u00a0 Not that we were planning a film on the case for life after death, but that is definitely a subject on which I\u2019ve thrown together scores of thousands of words for eventual publication in print or as an online book.\u00a0 Perhaps my own efforts were now redundant?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Strobel\u2019s film could have put together a powerful case.\u00a0 It emphatically did not.\u00a0 Its pacing was languid, there was a surprising amount of flatly wasted time, and too much of it was far too focused on rather tangential but specifically Evangelical themes and aimed at specifically Evangelical audiences.\u00a0 At several points, it briefly approached making the kinds of argument that I myself would have made, but this was only occasional and it left those arguments largely undeveloped.\u00a0 At two or three points in the movie, I thought that it was about to come to an end and then, disappointingly, it picked up again.\u00a0 Very unfortunate, from my point of view.\u00a0 A missed opportunity.\u00a0 There was only a very sparse audience in the theater where we watched the film.\u00a0 I was saddened at the sight of that small number of people before the movie began.\u00a0 Afterwards, I judged that it had attracted just about the crowd that it deserved.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

So now, in our own movie-making efforts \u2014 just to refresh memories \u2014 we\u2019re focused on the launch of our docudrama Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon<\/em>, which will go public on 24 May 2022, somewhat more than a month from now, and on our series of short Witness-related features, which will begin to appear online, at no charge, on 23 April 2022, the Saturday following Easter.\u00a0 And, of course, we\u2019re moving forward on our next complex of film projects, under the name of Six Days in August<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 The way we\u2019re thinking about Six Days in August<\/em> is, right now at least, very similar to the way that we eventually configured our Witnesses project, with a dramatic film for theatrical release, an expanding and explanatory docudrama, and an accompanying flotilla of short features that will examine specific issues in greater depth.\u00a0 That could change as the project develops and evolves \u2014 the Witnesses project certainly morphed as it moved along \u2014 but, at the moment, that\u2019s how we conceive it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And I would be remiss in my duties as president of the Interpreter Foundation and executive producer of these films if I didn\u2019t, frankly, invite others to join us in supporting these efforts.\u00a0 We need funding.\u00a0 And we would welcome volunteers across a whole spectrum of our activities.\u00a0 Please join us!\u00a0 You will profit in exactly the same way that I do from my own involvement.\u00a0 Not financially, no.\u00a0 I don\u2019t make any money from these things, and you won\u2019t, either.\u00a0 But it feels good to be seriously involved in good things.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 *** \u00a0 I had a good time last night delivering a lecture up in West Jordan, Utah, about the history and character of the famous Oberammergau Passion Play.\u00a0 (Whether anybody in the audience had a good time or not is, of course, a quite separate question.) \u00a0 By the way, I […]<\/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-94837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSome vacancies have apparently opened up for June's tour in Germany<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"        ***   I had a good time last night delivering a lecture up in West Jordan, Utah, about the history and character of the\" \/>\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\/2022\/04\/some-vacancies-have-apparently-opened-up-for-junes-tour-in-germany.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Some vacancies have apparently opened up for June's tour in Germany\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"        ***   I had a good time last night delivering a lecture up in West Jordan, Utah, about the history and character of the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/04\/some-vacancies-have-apparently-opened-up-for-junes-tour-in-germany.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-14T17:35:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2019\/06\/Ishtar_Gate_at_Berlin_Museum.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/04\/some-vacancies-have-apparently-opened-up-for-junes-tour-in-germany.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/04\/some-vacancies-have-apparently-opened-up-for-junes-tour-in-germany.html\",\"name\":\"Some vacancies have apparently opened up for June's tour in Germany\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-14T17:35:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-14T17:35:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\"        ***   I had a good time last night delivering a lecture up in West Jordan, Utah, about the history and character of the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/04\/some-vacancies-have-apparently-opened-up-for-junes-tour-in-germany.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/04\/some-vacancies-have-apparently-opened-up-for-junes-tour-in-germany.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/04\/some-vacancies-have-apparently-opened-up-for-junes-tour-in-germany.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Some vacancies have apparently opened up for June’s tour in Germany\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/\",\"name\":\"Sic et Non\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\",\"name\":\"Dan Peterson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Peterson\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\\\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Some vacancies have apparently opened up for June's tour in Germany","description":"        ***   I had a good time last night delivering a lecture up in West Jordan, Utah, about the history and character of the","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/04\/some-vacancies-have-apparently-opened-up-for-junes-tour-in-germany.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Some vacancies have apparently opened up for June's tour in Germany","og_description":"        ***   I had a good time last night delivering a lecture up in West Jordan, Utah, about the history and character of the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/04\/some-vacancies-have-apparently-opened-up-for-junes-tour-in-germany.html","og_site_name":"Sic et Non","article_published_time":"2022-04-14T17:35:19+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2019\/06\/Ishtar_Gate_at_Berlin_Museum.jpg"}],"author":"Dan Peterson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Peterson","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/04\/some-vacancies-have-apparently-opened-up-for-junes-tour-in-germany.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/04\/some-vacancies-have-apparently-opened-up-for-junes-tour-in-germany.html","name":"Some vacancies have apparently opened up for June's tour in Germany","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-04-14T17:35:19+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-14T17:35:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045"},"description":"        ***   I had a good time last night delivering a lecture up in West Jordan, Utah, about the history and character of the","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/04\/some-vacancies-have-apparently-opened-up-for-junes-tour-in-germany.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/04\/some-vacancies-have-apparently-opened-up-for-junes-tour-in-germany.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/04\/some-vacancies-have-apparently-opened-up-for-junes-tour-in-germany.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Some vacancies have apparently opened up for June’s tour in Germany"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/","name":"Sic et Non","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045","name":"Dan Peterson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Peterson"},"description":"\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94837\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}