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Two new items have gone up today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:<\/p>\n
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Come, Follow Me<\/em> \u2014 Old Testament Study and Teaching Helps: Lesson 41, October 3\u20139: Isaiah 58\u201366 \u2014\u00a0\u201cThe Redeemer Shall Come to Zion\u201d<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Once again, Jonn Claybaugh has generously supplied a concise set of notes for students and teachers of the \u201cCome, Follow Me\u201d curriculum in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Audio Roundtable:\u00a0Come, Follow Me<\/em> Old Testament Lesson 41: \u201cThe Redeemer Shall Come to Zion\u201d <\/em>(Isaiah 58\u201366)<\/a><\/p>\n In the Interpreter Radio Roundtable for Come, Follow Me<\/em>\u00a0Old Testament Lesson 41,\u00a0\u201cThe Redeemer Shall Come to Zion\u201d<\/em> on Isaiah 58\u201366, the discussants were Steve Densley, Mark Johnson, and Matthew Bowen. This roundtable, which was originally broadcast on 28 August 2022, has now been extracted the overall Interpreter Radio Show for that date, cleansed of commercial and other, umm, pollutions, and made available for you to listen to at your convenience and at absolutely no charge.\u00a0 The complete show may be heard, as well, at https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/interpreter-radio-show-August-28-2022\/<\/a>.\u00a0 And I\u2019m pleased to point out that the Interpreter Radio Show can be heard live each and every week of the year on Sunday evenings, from 7 to 9 PM (MDT) on K-TALK, AM 1640.\u00a0 If, though, the radio option doesn\u2019t work for you for some reason (whether it\u2019s sin or geographical distance or whatever), you can still listen live on the Internet at ktalkmedia.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Hal Boyd is reliably thoughtful and thought-provoking, and this piece from him doesn\u2019t disappoint:<\/p>\n Think: Opinion, Analysis, Essays<\/em>:\u00a0 \u201cMormons are used to turning the other cheek. But that\u2019s not ending bigotry.\u00a0 Too much good humor in the face of prejudice can unintentionally normalize objectionable behavior.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n This is a potentially huge story:<\/p>\n The Guardian<\/em>:\u00a0 \u201c\u2018Something big is happening\u2019: the Iranians risking everything to protest: Five people share their experiences of the protests sparked by Mahsa Amini\u2019s death in custody, as hope of real change grows\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The Catholic Church caught an enormous amount of flak over this matter.\u00a0 But was it even true?<\/p>\n Common Sense<\/em>:\u00a0 \u201cThe Great Canadian Mass Graves Hoax: Why so many journalists embraced a story as \u201ctrue\u201d even though it wasn\u2019t real.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Perhaps not unrelated to the link immediately above:<\/p>\n \u201cIs the media failing people of faith? A new study, which drew on insights from news consumers around the world, says the media should do more to boost religious understanding\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Sadly, Queen Elizabeth II has been gone for a while now, but here are two reflections on her funeral that I enjoyed:<\/p>\n \u201cPlug-In: Ties the bind \u2013 Elizabeth II wove threads of faith and family into her funeral rites\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Till we cast our crowns before Thee\u2019 \u2013 ties that bind in last rites for Queen Elizabeth II\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I suspect that Brigham Young\u2019s tastes in theater may have been more overtly didactic than mine are, and we very probably disagree on his distaste for tragedies, but I\u2019m surely grateful that he gave such strong support to drama from the very earliest days of Mormon settlement in Utah. \u00a0(So, too, is my wife, the theater major.)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf I were placed on a cannibal island and given a task of civilizing its people,\u201d Brigham is said to have remarked, \u201cI should straightway build a theatre.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And, very plainly, history and his actions bear him out on that claim. \u00a0Soon after they arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, the Latter-day Saints erected a temporary shelter made from tree boughs on a frame structure that came to be called \u201cThe Bowery.\u201d \u00a0It stood on the southeast corner of what we now know as Temple Square. \u00a0The forerunner of the Tabernacle, it was used for religious services \u2014 but also for concerts, plays, and dances.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In 1853, not much more than five years after the arrival of the Mormon pioneers in the valley, Salt Lake City\u2019s Social Hall was formally dedicated. \u00a0The non-Latter-day Saint lawyer and federal territorial official Benjamin G. Ferris (1802-1891), a native of New York who was no friend to the Restored Church, favorably compared the theatrical performances held there to dramatic presentations along the eastern seaboard.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Thereafter, in 1862, Brigham Young dedicated the Salt Lake Theatre, which was one of the finest theater buildings of its time anywhere in the United States.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cUpon the stage of a theater,\u201d said Brigham, \u201ccan be represented in character, evil and its consequences, good and its happy results and rewards; the weakness and the follies of man, the magnanimity of virtue and the greatness of truth. The stage can be made to aid the pulpit in impressing upon the minds of a community an enlightened sense of a virtuous life, also a proper horror of the enormity of sin and a just dread of its consequences. The path of sin with its thorns and pitfalls, its gins and snares can be revealed, and how to shun it\u201d (Discourses of Brigham Young,<\/em>\u00a0243).<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n What he said about live theater could also, of course, be true of the cinema.\u00a0 We routinely misuse and abuse the power of films, it\u2019s true.\u00a0 But the potential is there.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Finally, I share with you four items from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u00a9, which seeks, by documenting representative examples of the horrifying evils wrought by religious belief and religious believers, to demonstrate the truth of his claim that the world would be a far better place if theism were to vanish from the earth:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cChurch Donates US$5 million to Benefit UNICEF\u2019s Global Malnutrition Program:\u00a0Contribution is part of the No Time to Waste Campaign\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cHurricane Fiona Affects the Islands of the Caribbean: In the face of the damage caused, the Church responds through its humanitarian services.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cJustServe Efforts in Colorado Catch the Attention of the U.N.: Community partners worked together to help resettle thousands of Afghan refugees in Colorado\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cPresidents Johnson and Porter Meet with Government Leaders on Women\u2019s Issues in South America: The Presidents of the Church\u2019s Relief Society and Primary general organizations minister in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And I found these two articles in the immediate neighborhood of the Hitchens File.\u00a0 They merit some reflection, I think:<\/p>\n