{"id":95606,"date":"2022-07-02T21:49:26","date_gmt":"2022-07-03T03:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=95606"},"modified":"2022-07-03T20:33:43","modified_gmt":"2022-07-04T02:33:43","slug":"what-were-the-voree-plates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/07\/what-were-the-voree-plates.html","title":{"rendered":"“What were the Voree Plates?”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
An 1845 broadside depicting \u201cThe Record of Rajah Manchou of Vorito,\u201d commonly known as the \u201cVoree Plates,\u201d which were allegedly discovered by James J. Strang and used to promote his leadership of the Latter Day Saint movement.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A new short-video feature was posted earlier this evening on the website of the Interpreter Foundation.\u00a0 The Witnesses film project continues to generate material that we hope will be of interest and helpful to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> and to anybody investigating the claims of the Restoration:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWitnesses of the Book of Mormon \u2014 Insights Episode 11:\u00a0What were the Voree Plates?\u201d<\/em><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

In 1845, former member of the Church James Strang claimed to have found ancient metal plates. What were the Voree Plates?<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the eleventh in a series compiled from from the many interviews conducted during the course of the Witnesses film project. This series of mini-films is being released each Saturday at 7pm MDT. These additional resources are hosted by Camrey Bagley Fox, who played Emma Smith in Witnesses, as she introduces and visits with a variety of experts. These individuals answer questions or address accusations against the witnesses, also helping viewers understand the context of the times in which the witnesses lived. For more information, go to\u00a0https:\/\/witnessesofthebookofmormon.org\/<\/a>\u00a0or watch the documentary movie\u00a0Undaunted<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Short clips from this episode are also available on\u00a0TikTok<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Instagram<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel at\u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/theinterpreterfoundation<\/a>\u00a0and our other social media channels on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0Instagram<\/a>, and\u00a0TikTok<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ernest Hemingway, from the dust jacket photo of the first edition of \u201cFor Whom the Bell Tolls.\u201d The photo was taken in late 1939 at the Sun Valley Lodge, in Idaho. We had dinner there with friends earlier this evening, and it\u2019s within just a few minutes\u2019 walk of where I\u2019m typing right now..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The grave of Ernest Hemingway in the cemetery at Ketchum, Idaho
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Ernest Hemingway Memorial above Trail Creek in Sun Valley, Idaho.\u00a0
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The base of the Hemingway Memorial in Sun Valley, Idaho.\u00a0 The bronze plaque reads, \u201cBest of all he loved the fall, the leaves yellow on cottonwoods, leaves floating on trout streams, and above the hills the high blue windless skies \u2026 Now he will be a part of them forever.\u201d\u00a0 Hemingway wrote the tribute for a friend, several years before his own death.
(Sca at English Wikipedia))<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m plainly in an elegiac mood today, and not merely because of the eulogy of my father that I posted earlier today<\/a>.\u00a0 This afternoon, with friends, we visited the grave of Ernest Hemingway in the Ketchum cemetery here.\u00a0 He committed suicide in Ketchum on 2 July 1961, at the age of sixty-one.\u00a0 Precisely sixty-one years ago today.\u00a0 His grave is, by the way, surrounded by those of several other members of his family, including that of his granddaughter Margot (aka Margaux)<\/a>, who attained stardom as a supermodel and as an actress but ended her own life in 1996, twenty-six years ago yesterday, at the age of only forty-two.\u00a0 Plainly, something was amiss in the Hemingway family:\u00a0 His father also committed suicide, as did two of his siblings.\u00a0 There were many stones on his grave, apparently placed there by people who were, in some way, imitating a similar Israeli practice of remembering.\u00a0 But also pens \u2014 lots of them \u2014 probably left there because he was a (very great) writer.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And here is a set of tributes, posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation, to Michael Lyon, who died this past week.\u00a0 They were written by a few of his grieving friends (including Jeff Bradshaw, John Gee, Don Parry, Shirley Ricks, David Seely, and me):<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Michael Lyon Tributes<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0<\/p>\n

With death so much on my mind, I choose to conclude this blog entry on a much more optimistic and upbeat note.\u00a0 I\u2019ve indicated here before that I\u2019m something of a universalist, in the sense that I think that the eternal fate of almost all of the world\u2019s people \u2014 including tortured souls like some of those (it seems) in the Hemingway family \u2014 will be inexpressibly good.\u00a0 That\u2019s largely because of my faith in the Restored Gospel.\u00a0 But there are other voices that also join in the choir.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the most interesting writers of classical Islam is the Anatolian poet and Sufi mystic Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi (AD\u00a01207-1273). \u00a0He is also known as a jurist and theologian, and as the head of a mystical community. \u00a0But he is most famous today as the author of a huge collection of rhymed Persian couplets called the Mathnawi<\/em> (or, depending on your language and pronunciation, the Masnavi<\/em> or several other possibilities). \u00a0The title simply means \u201ccouplets.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rumi is especially\u00a0popular\u00a0among Iranians, Turks, and South Asians, typically under the title mawlana<\/em> or mevlana<\/em> (\u201cour master\u201d) or mevlevi<\/em> (\u201cmy master\u201d), or simply as Rumi<\/em> (pronounced roo-MEE<\/em>; meaning \u201cRoman\u201d or, more accurately, \u201cByzantine,\u201d since he lived in former Byzantine territory under the Seljuq Sultanate of \u201cRum\u201d or \u201cRome\u201d).\u00a0 The Mevlevi Sufi order, which was founded after his death, is best known in the West as the \u201cWhirling Dervishes.\u201d \u00a0They are famous for using music and ritual dance as means of meditation and of drawing near to God.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rumi\u2019s work has been widely translated, and I\u2019m told that he has been, and may still be, the most popular or best selling poet in the United States. \u00a0(He\u2019s very fashionable\u00a0among adherents of \u201cNew Age\u201d thinking, though I\u2019m not at all sure that they understand him as he would have wanted to be understood.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also very quotable. \u00a0(You\u2019re probably aware of the story of the blind men and the elephant, which appears in the Mathnawi<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But I want to cite one particular passage of his poetry, which seems to me to be laying out a curious theory of a kind of \u201cevolution\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I died as a mineral and became a plant.<\/span><\/p>\n

I died as plant and rose to animal.<\/span><\/p>\n

I died as animal and I was Man.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why should I fear?\u00a0 When was I less by dying?<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar<\/span><\/p>\n

With angels bless\u2019d; but even from angelhood<\/span><\/p>\n

I must pass on: all except God doth perish.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I have sacrificed my angel-soul,<\/span><\/p>\n

I shall become what no mind e\u2019er conceived.<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, let me not exist! For Non-existence<\/span><\/p>\n

Proclaims in organ tones,<\/span><\/p>\n

To Him we shall return.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

On one level, there almost seems to be a reference to evolution in those lines.\u00a0 In the end, though, he\u2019s talking about a mystical union with the divine. \u00a0But it seems to me not unreasonable to read him as talking, also, about a kind of human deification.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anyway, I share the passage with you as something to think about.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Posted from Sun Valley, Idaho<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0 \u00a0 *** \u00a0 A new short-video feature was posted earlier this evening on the website of the Interpreter Foundation.\u00a0 The Witnesses film project continues to generate material that we hope will be of interest and helpful to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and to anybody investigating the claims of […]<\/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":[28449,28446,19823,19826,19829,936,29570,1965,29555,1212,29564,29540,27728,27731,29543,11782,12920,12917,7209,7048,29552,29561,29558,9147,9153,29508,29546,2532,5406,29567,12914,12926,12923,29549,1206,12929],"class_list":["post-95606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-camrey-bagley","tag-camrey-bagley-fox","tag-dan-peterson","tag-daniel-c-peterson","tag-daniel-carl-peterson","tag-daniel-peterson","tag-david-seely","tag-deification","tag-dirkmaat","tag-divinization","tag-don-parry","tag-ernest-hemingway","tag-gerrit-dirkmaat","tag-gerrit-j-dirkmaat","tag-hemingway","tag-idaho","tag-james-jesse-strang","tag-james-strang","tag-jeff-bradshaw","tag-john-gee","tag-ketchum","tag-margaux","tag-margot","tag-masnavi","tag-mathnawi","tag-michael-lyon","tag-mike-lyon","tag-peterson","tag-rumi","tag-shirley-ricks","tag-strang","tag-strangism","tag-strangite","tag-sun-valley","tag-theosis","tag-voree"],"yoast_head":"\n"What 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