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In which I confess my ability to err

In which I confess my ability to err

Last updated on: September 25, 2024 at 10:06 pm by Dan Peterson

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In which I confess my ability to err 2024-09-25T22:06:31-06:00 Dan Peterson

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Twyla Wilson as Mary Ann Angell, newly married to Brigham Young in a scene from the movie.

Well, I always knew that it would happen someday. I knew that I was bound to make a mistake. And I did. It happened this morning, when John Donovan Wilson (who plays Brigham Young in Six Days in August) and I were being interviewed earlier today by Tim Hughes and Amanda Dickson during their Utah’s Morning News program on KSL NewsRadio. (John and his wife, Twyla, who portrays Mary Ann Angell Young in the film) were on a KSL-TV interview show on Monday.

I was asked about the “sneak peeks” early screening of Six Days in August that will take place tomorrow (Thursday) evening at 7 PM. In reply I mentioned that nine theaters along the Wasatch Front — in American Fork, Draper, Farmington, Ogden, Orem, Provo, Ogden, Salt Lake City, and West Jordan. But I said that they were Carmike theaters, whereas they’re actually Cinemark theaters:

Six Days in August — Early Access

And to make things yet worse, I think that I’ve probably made this mistake before, as well.

Now, I’ll admit that inerrancy has been fun. I’ve enjoyed it for many years, and probably for far longer than I really should have. And crashing down so abruptly into the world of ordinary mortals has been a real shock. It’s not fun, and I’ll frankly admit that I’ve been reeling all day, ever since. Somebody corrected me during the show, and it was kindly done. Still, it hurts.

So please be patient with me as I process my newfound fallibility. Try to imagine what it would be like for Superman if, one morning, he woke up and realized that he was now permanently, and inescapably, Clark Kent. That’s something of what I’m feeling right now. You can help out, however, by thronging those nine Cinemark theaters tomorrow night.

Incidentally, too: I’m informed that signage for Six Days in August has now appeared on billboards along I-15 (of the kind that rotate their content) in the corridor between Provo and Bountiful, and at least one in the St. George area, and, possibly, one at University Mall in Utah Valley. But I haven’t seen any of them. Can anybody out there confirm that they exist?

Incidentally, from tonight’s big Six Days in August fireside at the SCERA Center for the Arts here in Orem. We had a good turnout, and I hope that you were among those who were able to make it. I had thought that it would be good, but it was even better than I had expected it to be.

“Hurrah for Israel!” Heber C. Kimball (Quinton Kappel) and Brigham Young (John Donovan Wilson), both seriously ill, head off on a mission in a scene from “Six Days in August.”

Back in April 2015, the following figures drawn from the previous twenty general conferences of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — indicating the frequency with which the name Joseph Smith was mentioned in those conferences — drew the attention of certain critics of the Church. The numbers, they suggested, demonstrated that the Church was embarrassed by Joseph and that it was attempting to distance itself from the Prophet and, thereby, to go “mainstream.”

Conference Frequency Oct 2005 84 Apr 2006 33 Oct 2006 21 Apr 2007 39 Oct 2007 21 Apr 2008 41 Oct 2008 36 Apr 2009 27 Oct 2009 40 Apr 2010 27 Oct 2010 35 Apr 2011 21 Oct 2011 25 Apr 2012 29 Oct 2012 24 Apr 2013 27 Oct 2013 21 Apr 2014 32 Oct 2014 34 Apr 2015 4

Average = 31.05 per conference (29.6 excluding the extremes).

Median = 28.

High = 84 in Oct 2005

Low = 4 in Apr 2015

I have no idea whether the figures given were accurate or not. But, even if they were, there’s an obvious explanation for the very high spike shown October 2005: We were approaching the bicentennial of Joseph’s birth. And it’s probably not insignificant, that the April 2015 general conference of the Church fell on Easter weekend. Jesus tends to be mentioned quite a bit at Easter.

Moreover, I wonder what the figures since April 2015 have been. Does anybody know? My guess is that that will typically have ranged from the low twenties to the high thirties, occasionally straying into the low forties — in other words, just as they were from October 2005 through October 2014. In other words, April 2015 was very likely an outlier.

I’m unaware of even the slightest disposition among believing Latter-day Saints and their leaders to back away from the Prophet. I’ve detected not a trace of such a retreat.

In any event, so as to remove any possible doubt about my own position, I quote the words of John Taylor, who nearly died with Joseph and Hyrum at the hands of that anti-Mormon mob in Carthage, Illinois, and who eventually succeeded Joseph Smith and Brigham Young as the third president of the Church of Jesus Christ in this dispensation:

Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it. . . . He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people; and like most of the Lord’s anointed in ancient times, has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood; and so has his brother Hyrum. . . .

Hyrum Smith was forty-four years old in February, 1844, and Joseph Smith was thirty-eight in December, 1843; and henceforward their names will be classed among the martyrs of religion; and the reader in every nation will be reminded that the Book of Mormon, and this book of Doctrine and Covenants of the church, cost the best blood of the nineteenth century to bring them forth for the salvation of a ruined world; and that if the fire can scathe a green tree for the glory of God, how easy it will burn up the dry trees to purify the vineyard of corruption. They lived for glory; they died for glory; and glory is their eternal reward. From age to age shall their names go down to posterity as gems for the sanctified.

They were innocent of any crime, as they had often been proved before, and were only confined in jail by the conspiracy of traitors and wicked men; and their innocent blood on the floor of Carthage jail is a broad seal affixed to “Mormonism” that cannot be rejected by any court on earth, and their innocent blood on the escutcheon of the State of Illinois, with the broken faith of the State as pledged by the governor, is a witness to the truth of the everlasting gospel that all the world cannot impeach; and their innocent blood on the banner of liberty, and on the magna charta of the United States, is an ambassador for the religion of Jesus Christ, that will touch the hearts of honest men among all nations; and their innocent blood, with the innocent blood of all the martyrs under the altar that John saw, will cry unto the Lord of Hosts till he avenges that blood on the earth. Amen.

And here are more words from Elder Taylor, some of which, sung by Casey Elliott, of Gentri, to an arrangement by Rob Gardner, will close Six Days in August as the credits roll:

O give me back my Prophet dear,
And Patriarch, O give them back;
The Saints of latter days to cheer,
And lead them in the gospel track.
But ah! they’re gone from my embrace,
From earthly scenes their spirits fled;
Those two, the best of Adam’s race,
Now lie entombed among the dead.

Ye men of wisdom tell me why,
When guilt nor crime in them were found,
Why now their blood doth loudly cry,
From prison walls, and Carthage ground
Your tongues are mute, but pray attend,
The secret I will now relate,
Why those whom God to earth did lend,
Have met the suffering martyr’s fate.

It is because they strove to gain,
Beyond the grave a heaven of bliss;
Because they made the gospel plain,
And led the Saints in righteousness.
It is because God called them forth,
And led them by his own right hand
Christ’s coming to proclaim on earth,
And gather Israel to their land.

It is because the priests of Baal
Were desperate their craft to save;
And when they saw it doomed to fail,
They sent the Prophets to the grave.
Like scenes the ancient Prophets saw,
Like these, the ancient Prophets fell;
And till the resurrection dawn,
Prophet and Patriarch-Fare thee well.

I join my voice with that of John Taylor and millions of others; I’m not backing away from Joseph Smith, the Prophet who opened this last dispensation. Not even close.

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