A new column of mine went up this morning in Meridian Magazine: “He Was “All He Professed to Be”: How Brigham Young Remembered Joseph”
In 1854, to mark the tenth anniversary of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, a portion of the annual April general conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was adjourned until 27 June. That fact, in and of itself, should be enough to indicate the great respect that the Church’s leaders had for the Prophet Joseph.
I allude at the end of the column to Rob Gardner’s partial setting of John Taylor’s 1845 poem “O Give Me Back My Prophet Dear.” Here’s a video of a performance of that piece with soloist, orchestra, and choir. If I have my way, some form or another of Brother Gardner’s setting will be included at the end of Six Days in August, running behind the credits. We’ll see. Overall, the score of the film is being created and recorded by the prominent Latter-day Saint composer Sam Cardon, who also provided the score for Witnesses.
By the way, we’re still attempting to raise funds for post-production of Six Days in August, for publicity and distribution, and for the projected docudrama that we hope will follow it. We’re really far along, but some additional money would not be amiss.
The Interpreter Foundation has begun to release a series of short video features — typically, I think, around one minute in length — that are drawn from our docudrama Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon. Here is one that features Terryl Givens and that is entitled “An Alternative Way of Grounding Truth and Authority.”
We invite you to watch these short videos, and to share them with friends, neighbors, relatives, ward members, and any others who come into your minds. We would like to see these shared as widely as they possibly can be. That’s why we’re making them. That’s why we made the docudrama.
Please join with us in this effort. Help us to spread the word.
Incidentally, since I’m appealing for your help and, further above, for additional donations, I feel that I need to clarify something yet again. You have a right to know that I’m not feathering my own nest with any donation that you happen to make.
Some days ago, on a message board where false allegations are a basic staple, it was casually (and, of course, anonymously) declared that “Interpreter donors and the More Good Foundation spend a lot of money to send [Peterson] on his world adventures and only a fraction of it comes from tithing and fast offerings.”
This is, of course, completely false. Moreover, since I’ve denied such allegations on numerous previous occasions, I think it just to say that it isn’t merely an error. It’s a lie. A public and unashamed lie.
Since I’m asking for donations and for assistance, I want this to be clearly understood. No donations to Interpreter have ever been used to fund my travel. No More Good Foundation funds have ever been used to fund my travel. No tithes have ever been used to fund my travel. No fast offerings have ever been used to fund my travel.
I hope that’s clear enough for rational and decent people. (I realize that it won’t be enough for others.)
And, to be perfectly clear in the present case, neither my wife nor I nor any member of my family earned any money from the Witnesses film. None of us earned any money from Undaunted. None of us will earn anything from Six Days in August. In none of the legal materials or agreements for any of these films has there ever been any provision allowing for me, my wife, my family, my pets, or any of my heirs or assigns ever to receive any profit from the films. To the contrary, my wife and I have, ourselves, been donors and volunteers.
I wonder, sometimes, why some people seem to derive such enjoyment from baseless slander.
Newly posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:
This week for Come, Follow Me lesson 30 covering Alma 32-35, we have lectures 55 from Hugh Nibley’s Book of Mormon classes at Brigham Young University, covering Alma 32-35.
During 1988, 1989, and 1990, Hugh Nibley taught Honors Book of Mormon classes for four semesters at Brigham Young University. The lectures were video-taped and audio cassettes and printed transcripts were made of the lectures. We believe these recordings will be interesting to listen to and valuable to your Come, Follow Me study program this year. Each week, we will include the lectures covering the Book of Mormon chapters being studied that week.
The Book of Mormon in Context Lesson 30: “Plant This Word in Your Hearts”: Alma 32-35
In the 30 June 2024 Come, Follow Me segment of the Interpreter Radio Show, Martin Tanner and Terry Hutchinson discuss Book of Mormon lesson 30, “Plant This Word in Your Hearts” discussing Alma 32-35.
Their discussion, minus any and all commercial interruptions, has been archived and made freely available to you. The other segments of the 30 June 2024 radio show can be accessed at https://interpreterfoundation.org/interpreter-radio-show-june-30-2024.
Each and every week, the Interpreter Radio Show can be heard on Sunday evenings from 7 to 9 PM (MDT), on K-TALK, AM 1640, or you can listen live on the Internet at ktalkmedia.com.
Editor’s Note: Four years ago, Jonn Claybaugh began writing the Study and Teaching Helps series of articles for Interpreter. We now have these wonderful and useful posts for all four years of Come, Follow Me lessons. Beginning this year we will be reposting these articles, with dates, lesson numbers, and titles updated for the current year’s lessons. Jonn has graciously agreed to write new study aids for those lessons that do not directly correspond to 2020 lessons.
I think that this event is worth mentioning. It contains material that could also justly be placed in the Hitchens File (for which, see further below):
Finally, as is my frequent custom, I close with deliciously terrible news from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™ that should help you to maintain your gratifying indignation toward theism and theists:
How long, O deaf and uncaring cosmos, will we be obliged to endure such provocations?
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