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Trying to reach people wherever they are, however we can

Trying to reach people wherever they are, however we can

Last updated on: September 24, 2024 at 11:52 am by Dan Peterson

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Trying to reach people wherever they are, however we can 2024-09-24T11:52:19-06:00 Dan Peterson

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Brigham Young as a grieving young widower in “Six Days in August”

Yes, I’m reminding you yet again of the Six Days in August event that will be held tomorrow (Wednesday) night in the SCERA Center for the Arts, which is located in Orem: “Unveiling History: Six Days in August Fireside.”

And I’m calling your attention once more to the “sneak peek” early screenings of Six Days in August that will be given in nine Carmike theaters along the Wasatch Front — in Ogden, Farmington, Salt Lake City, West Jordan, Midvale/Sandy, Orem, Provo, American Fork, and Draper: Six Days in August — Early Access.

Cover art by Greg Newbold from “Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days: The Standard of Truth: 1815–1846”
I hope that what I’m doing here with it will count as acceptable “fair use.” I’m struck by the painting because it’s in the style of Grant Wood, which I love.

As we approach the release of Six Days in August, and probably well into its release and even beyond, I’ll be calling to your notice certain other things that some might want to watch or to read in connection with the overall film project, which won’t be concluded when the Six Days feature film exits the theaters. (We also envisage an eventual documentary or docudrama shedding light on Brigham Young, the Twelve, and the succession crisis that occurred within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during the summer of 1844.) One of those items is the talk that Prof. Gerrit Dirkmaat gave at the Interpreter Foundation’s eleventh birthday party back on Saturday, 5 August 2023. A 48-minute video of his remarks is available here: “‘Sweeter Than Honey’: Brigham Young’s Devotion to Joseph Smith’s Teachings After the Martyrdom.” The notion is currently circulating out there in the fever swamps that John Taylor and Willard Richards murdered Joseph and Hyrum Smith in Carthage Jail on the orders of Brigham. It was supposedly an “apostolic coup.” Professor Dirkmaat’s remarks illustrate how silly — not to say evil — how and counter to historical reality that conspiracy theory is. (Again, having John Taylor’s hymn “O Give Me Back My Prophet Dear” play over the final credits of Six Days in August wasn’t merely an aesthetic wish of mine; the hymn powerfully expresses Elder Taylor’s powerful testimony of the calling of Joseph and Hyrum.)

Another suggestion that I make is the work of Dr. LaJean Purcell Carruth. You can get a glimpse of her stance from this presentation that she gave at the 2023 FAIR conference: ““His Accuracy was not What it Ought”: Comparing George D. Watt’s Original Shorthand Record to his Published Transcripts in the Journal of Discourses.”

And yet another is the seminal article Ronald K. Esplin, “Joseph, Brigham and the Twelve: A Succession of Continuity,” BYU Studies Quarterly 21/3 (1981): 301-341.

I’ll probably be making further such suggestions in the near future, and they will likely go up on the webpage for Six Days in August.

“Burning of the [Nauvoo, Illinois] Temple,” by Carl Christian Anton Christensen (1831-1912)
Wikimedia Commons public domain image. An arsonist destroyed the building.

I have been vaguely aware of a fellow who calls himself “Nemo the Mormon” for quite a while now. But I’ve paid him no attention. Up until recently, in fact, I didn’t even know whether he was a committed, believing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or not. I didn’t know his real name, which is Douglas Stilgoe. Nor did I know that he is English. I think that I thought of him as a rather liberal but active member and I dimly imagined that he lived in eastern Canada. In all of that, I now realize that I was completely and utterly wrong. If you have the appetite for a twelve-minute video about an especially shameless specimen of ex-Mormon pretense and play-acting, I can recommend “Nemo the Mormon: The Disingenuous Hero of Anti Mormonism.” It’s pretty disgusting — to me at least — although it’s been feted, praised, and lauded in certain circles.

On a brighter note, though, here’s something that I’ve just begun to read but that looks pretty good: Austin Fife, Light and Truth Letter: My Search for More Light and Truth. Brother Fife worked his way through a serious crisis of faith and, I think, offers help to others who might be facing the same or similar challenges.

I’ve also begun to watch what, thus far, has been a very good interview with the thoughtful Ben Spackman, now a newly minted Ph.D.: “LDS Bible scholar: We don’t play by Protestant rules”

“The Nauvoo Temple in Ruins” (Frederick Piercy, 1853) Wikimedia Commons public domain image

This past Saturday night, while most normal people in the area were in LaVell Edwards Stadium watching Brigham Young University surprise Kansas State, my wife and I attended a performance of Eric Liddell: The Chariot of Fire, at BYU’s temporary theater facility in the former Provo High School. (A new theater building is under construction.) The play, which is obviously related to the wonderful 1981 film Chariots of Fire, was performed by four British members of the visiting Searchlight Theatre Company.

Brigham Young, who loved and appreciated theater, would have approved of Searchlight’s declared “vision to create theatre that can share life-changing stories with audiences, making them laugh and cry, experiencing and sharing what it is to be human as well as experiencing God.” I certainly approve. Hence my involvement in Robert Cundick: A Sacred Service of Music (2017) and Witnesses (2021) and Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon (2022) and Six Days in August (2024).

The modern, reconstructed Nauvoo Illinois Temple (LDS.org)

Finally, here’s an absolutely chilling tale of horror that appears to have been located by intrepid researchers in or very near to the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™. It’s difficult to believe that religious beliefs weren’t at least peripherally involved in this example of terrible behavior by BYU’s overwhelmingly theistic fanbase: “BYU fans help K-State QB Avery Johnson reach donations goal: BYU fans are doing good off the field for Avery Johnson’s pledge to fight cancer.”

And I append two further ghastly abominations from the Hitchens File:

“In Geneva, Former Relief Society General President Advocates for Parental Engagement in Education”

“Church Donation Aids Liberian Refugees Returning to Their Country: “We See the Face of God in What You Are Doing”

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