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Early Modern English and Mormon Urban Planning

Early Modern English and Mormon Urban Planning

Last updated on: September 1, 2017 at 10:24 am by Dan Peterson

Early Modern English and Mormon Urban Planning 2017-09-01T10:24:10-06:00 Dan Peterson

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The 1833 plan for the City of Zion (Wikimedia Commons)

It being Friday, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture has posted yet another new article:

“On Doctrine and Covenants Language and the 1833 Plot of Zion”

***

And, speaking of that 1833 plan for the city of Zion, here’s an interesting article from Forbes:

“A Brief Introduction to Mormon Urbanism”

There are a couple of odd year-date errors in it, one of them likely owing to a mere typo and the other a bit odder and harder to explain.

Permit me to comment, here, on how we should respond (if we must respond) to such errors:

In a discussion last week, a few of us were talking about the media coverage given to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some of it routinely commits gross errors — most coastal media operations are populated by people who know and care little about Mormonism, and many writers are sloppy — and a portion of it is downright hostile and contemptuous. (I see these latter attitudes quite a bit in the European media, reflecting elite societies that are even more secular than is the American elite.)

But — and this sometimes seems to be a manifestation of a peculiarly Mormon defensiveness (perhaps understandable, given our history) — there are articles (such as this one) where the author has no apparent hostility and has tried to be fair, but which nonetheless contain errors. One person indicated that he had heard from certain journalists that they intended to avoid Mormon topics in the future. Why? Partially because of the astounding vitriol of the anti-Mormons who write abusive comments by the boatload in response to even the most anodyne and inoffensive of articles about Mormonism. But also partly because of the hyper-aggressive criticisms that they receive from Latter-day Saints if they get even the smallest things wrong.

It’s good to remember that writing Wilfred Woodruff for Wilford Woodruff isn’t a crime, and that putting the date of the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1820 rather than 1830 is pretty weak evidence of deliberate authorial malice. We should, as a group, be charitable in such cases.

***

And, now, another reminder that the results of the Interpreter Foundation’s first moviemaking effort will be broadcast this coming Sunday on BYUtv. (Please note that BYUtv is distinct from KBYU-TV, which is a related but separate Utah-oriented division.)

Here’s the announcement of the broadcast as it appears on the Interpreter Foundation website:

The premiere broadcast of the Interpreter Foundation’s first filmmaking venture, Robert Cundick: A Sacred Service of Music, is scheduled for 3:00 PM (MDT) on Sunday, 3 September 2017, on BYUtv (not KBYU). Please share this information with others who might be interested.

We don’t intend this to be our last such undertaking.

***

“‘From here, we rebuild’: Texans prepare for arduous cleanup process: LDS Church members band together to help neighbors”

Cue the response from our worst critics:

If the Latter-day Saints or their church say that they do anything to help others in cases of need, they’re boasting of their good works and, accordingly, deserve condemnation.

If they don’t say that they do anything to help others in cases of need, that proves that they’re doing nothing and that, accordingly, they deserve condemnation.

Between them, those two simple critical options pretty well exhaust the possibilities between them.

And, while we’re at it:

“Blackhawk rescues: Utah National Guard plucking victims from flood-ravaged landscapes”

“How you can help Texas recover from Harvey”

The LDS Humanitarian Aid Fund

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