Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
Travel and Religion
Why this next film?

Why this next film?

Last updated on: August 31, 2024 at 12:26 pm by Dan Peterson

0 Comments

Why this next film? 2024-08-31T12:26:37-06:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

C. S. Lewis at about the age of fifty (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Mark Goodman, James Jordan, Russ Richins, and I had already been talking, while we were still working on Witnesses and Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, about what, if anything, we would like to do next. We were actually pretty sure that, if we could, we wanted to do another film. But what should be its theme?

One proposal that we discussed quite seriously — I recall that our first conversation about it arose during a long drive from New York City, where we had interviewed Richard Lyman Bushman for Undaunted, down to Fairfax, Virginia, where we were going to interview John Turner — was to do a film about the conversion of C. S. Lewis to Christianity. It’s a story that Lewis himself had told in his 1955 book Surprised by Joy. I was instantly thrilled with the notion. I recall saying to them, “You do know, don’t you?, that I’m a C. S. Lewis fanatic.” “We know,” one of them replied. “That’s why we thought that you would like the idea.”

However, in 2021, the same year in which Witnesses appeared, Fellowship for Performing Arts — a group whose work and mission I greatly admire — premiered its film The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C. S. Lewis. It checked every single box of the film that I myself had conceived, and it did so very, very well. Time after time, I would think to myself as I watched it, “Okay, at this place I would make this point” or “Right now, I would make such and such an argument.” And, just about every single time, The Most Reluctant Convert made exactly that point or offered the very argument that I had had in mind.

I could see no purpose in making the film of which I, at least, had conceived. It had already been made, and it had been made very beautifully and effectively.

“Brigham Young,” “Wilford Woodruff,” and “Lyman Wight,” captured between the filming of scenes in Upper Canada Village.

My filmmaking friends, however, were not at all downcast. They immediately came up with another idea for a film. How about, they said, doing one on the August 1844 succession crisis? This difficult time in Church history pitted Sidney Rigdon against the Twelve, and, in particular, against the president of the Twelve, Brigham Young.

I agreed, realizing that this would be a very dramatic story, and that it was an important one to tell. I will frankly confess, though, that it didn’t seem so exciting to me, or of such pivotal, foundational significance, as the story of the witnesses to the Book of Mormon.

But I’ve changed my mind.

On the set of “Six Days in August,” Brigham Young ponders what to do following the assassination of Joseph Smith.

Why? I’ve grown more and more concerned as I’ve seen Brigham Young vilified, demonized, and thrown under the bus even by a few active, believing members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And I’ve felt, more and more, the personal obligation to stand up and be counted as one who admires him and who is willing to defend him.

For the better part of two centuries, for instance, Brigham Young has been pronounced responsible for the atrocity known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre, despite the work of historians such as Juanita Brooks and, much more recently, Ron Walker, Rick Turley, and Glen Leonard. Such accusations continue.

He’s been denounced as a racist, to the point where some, at least, have even demanded that the three Church-owned universities that bear his name be rechristened, and that he be, to the extent that he can be, “erased.” However, while it is true that he said some things about race that make us cringe today, the same is true of Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, and — I recently read David McCullough’s biography of Harry Truman — of the modern American president who integrated the military and pushed some of the earliest civil rights legislation. And Brigham’s record contains some surprisingly positive elements, even with regard to racial issues, that shouldn’t be overlooked.

LORD POLONIUS: “My Lord, I will use them according to their desert.”
HAMLET: “God’s bodykins man, better. Use every man after his desert, and who should ‘scape whipping? Use them after your own honour and dignity. The less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty.”

Brigham Young has been declared a vicious misogynist. And, since at least the days of the sensationalistic dime novels of the nineteenth century, and carried on by Zane Gray and his tales of the “Danites,” he has been labeled a murderer and an assassin. Recently he has even been accused of leading an apostolic coup to seize control of the Church and, no less, of having ordered John Taylor and Willard Richards to kill Joseph and Hyrum Smith in Carthage Jail.

Accordingly, I began quite some time ago to regard our decision to make Six Days in August as an inspired one and a timely one, quite beyond my wisdom or that of my filmmaking associates. Along with the materials that we hope to make available on the film’s website and the academic interviews that we continue to record and that we will incorporate into a docudrama sequel to accompany Six Days and turn into short video features, we are attempting, in our modest way, to reintroduce Brother Brigham to members of the Church that he led from 1844 to 1877.

You will also see entries here that will call attention to readings and facts about Brother Brigham with which I think people should be familiar.

In this historic photograph, taken by James Jordan, the family of Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith gather on the set of the Interpreter Foundation’s Witnesses film project.

Here’s an item that I’ve retrieved from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™. Specifically, I found it in the Jewish magazine Mosaic: “Orthodox Jews, Mormons, and Why Fertility is Contagious.”

If you abhor humans as carbon-footprint-bearing, virus-carrying heterosexual breeders that have overrun our planet to an unacceptable degree, you will recognize the abominable character of the idea that there should be yet more of them.

Travel and Religion

History and Religion

Previous Post

August 27, 2024

"Ask God Whether It is True"

Next Post

August 30, 2024 Two Plays about Women Being Treated Badly

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"DP: “But Mr. Sutherland worries about the fact that our time, when we can communicate ..."

Theodore Brandley

Learning more about a region of ..."

"Sutherland's lecture sounds interesting. He seems to restate the Washington consensus that trade brings peace ..."

B. Wilson

Learning more about a region of ..."

"In a meeting today, I learned another important reason why accurate (or at least as ..."

the PROBLEM

From Serbia’s “White City,” Belgrade

"I've been watching a lot of video interviews of NDErs and researchers. I think in ..."

brotheroflogan

Accounts of Premortality?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What island was John on when he wrote Revelation?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Cyprus Patmos Crete Malta