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<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n We left Oberammergau this morning and drove to the nearby Schloss Linderhof, the only one of his palaces that Ludwig II lived to see actually completed.\u00a0 It\u2019s a small gem, surrounded by beautiful fountains and grounds and remarkably ornate inside.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the \u201cVenus Grotto,\u201d inspired by Richard Wagner\u2019s Tannh\u00e4user<\/em>, is closed for repairs until sometime in 2024.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I was especially interested to visit, once again, the Maurischer Kiosk<\/em> or \u201cMoorish Kiosk,\u201d a small structure out on the extensive wooded and hilly grounds of the palace.\u00a0 It\u2019s been a while.\u00a0 I commonly used it in my Islamic humanities classes to illustrate the fascination with \u201cthe Orient\u201d that accompanied the introduction of translations of the Alf Layla wa Layla<\/em>, the \u201cThousand and One Nights\u201d or \u201cArabian Nights,\u201d to Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by such scholars as Jean-Antoine Galland, Edward William Lane, and Sir Richard Burton.\u00a0 I seem to recall seeing somewhere that Ludwig II \u2014 who built all of his palaces in order to privately live out his fantasies about the absolute monarchy of Louis XIV at Versailles and about the romantic and heroic sagas of Richard Wagner\u2019s operas \u2014 liked to dress up as an Arabian prince, go out to his \u201cMoorish Kiosk,\u201d and read from the Thousand and One Nights<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n My attention was called today to this review of the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s theatrical film Witnesses<\/em><\/a>, which is now available both on DVD and via streaming.\u00a0 It was written by Mark Tensmeyer, an attorney in Texas, and published on the website of the Association for Mormon Letters.\u00a0 I might quibble here or there, but I think it\u2019s a fair-minded review:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cGoodman \u201cWitnesses\u201d (Reviewed by Mark Tensmeyer)\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The failure of Witnesses<\/em> to cover the Eight Witnesses (to say nothing of the informal or unofficial witnesses) in addition to the Three Witnesses, which is noted by the reviewer, has now been at least partially remedied (precisely according to prior plan) by Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon<\/em><\/a> and will likely be addressed by our ongoing series of short witness-related video features<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n One necessary correction:\u00a0 While Witnesses<\/em> is distributed on DVD by Excel Entertainment, the film was not produced<\/em> by Excel Entertainment.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n A few days back, on 10 June, I posted an item here entitled \u201cAre Latter-day Saints immune to doing great evil?\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 I\u2019ve just now noticed an obviously relevant item that appeared on 14 June on the website of Book of Mormon Central, a friendly sister organization to the Interpreter Foundation:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhy Were Violent Acts like the Mountain Meadows Massacre Committed by Latter-day Saints?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In this regard, I very much like this passage from a lecture that was given in New York City by the great British New Testament scholar (and former Anglican bishop) N. T. Wright:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHumans are made to reflect God out into the world \u2014 and at the same time, to reflect the rest of the world back to the Creator in worship and praise.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cLet me explain. \u00a0I\u2019m an ancient historian by training. \u00a0Once, when I was going through the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, it struck me that all the greatest statues of Roman emperors and their families they\u2019ve got in that museum were found, not in Rome but in Turkey, Greece, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and North Africa: all over the place, in other words. \u00a0In Rome, they knew who their emperor was. \u00a0But out there in the provinces, the emperors put images of themselves so as to say to all the cities and countries over which they ruled, \u2018This is who your boss is.\u2019<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAnd the point about Genesis 1 is that the gracious God, who is as unlike a Roman emperor as you could wish him to be, has put into his world an image of himself called men and women<\/em> made in his image to show his world what he is like. \u00a0Tragically, we humans decided we would prefer to turn it around and reflect the world back to itself and worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator, as Saint Paul puts it. \u00a0This has caused the image to be fractured and broken, distorting human rule over the world. \u00a0But the point is that once we listen to those echoes of a voice [intimations of divinity that he has previously discussed] and once we are renewed and refreshed in listening to the story of Jesus, then we begin to be able to reflect the image once more.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n [N.T. Wright, in Eric Metaxas, ed., Life, God, and Other Small Topics: Conversations from Socrates in the City<\/em> (New York: Plume\/Penguin, 2011), 216.]<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In a time of deep political and social division, I \u2014 who am far more philosophically akin to Justice Clarence Thomas than to Justice Sonia Sotomayor \u2014 have really appreciated her kind words about him:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSotomayor on Thomas: \u2018The One Justice in the Building That Literally Knows Every Employee\u2019s Name\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cJustice Sotomayor praises Clarence Thomas as a \u2018friend\u2019 who \u2018cares deeply about the court\u2019: Sonia Sotomayor says she and Clarence Thomas \u2018share a common understanding about people and kindness toward them'\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Finally, I share an item \u2014 the first one in quite a while, for which I apologize; I\u2019ve been busy and distracted \u2014 from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File\u00a9<\/em>:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOnce again, secular science commends a religious instinct and outlook (think compassion)\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And these two articles were also found in the vicinity of the Hitchens File<\/em>:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cChurch\u2019s women leaders minister in Mexico, encourage faithfulness to Jesus Christ\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a>
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