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“The Plates of Gardner”

“The Plates of Gardner”

Last updated on: July 18, 2025 at 1:07 pm by Dan Peterson

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“The Plates of Gardner” 2025-07-18T13:07:40-06:00 Dan Peterson

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A shelf in the restored Grandin Print Shop in Palmyra, New York, loaded with replica copies of the Book of Mormon’s first edition (LDS.org)

This new review-essay appeared today in the never-changing Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “The Plates of Gardner,” written by Kimberley Heuston:

Review of Brant A. Gardner, The Plates of Mormon: A Book of Mormon Study Edition*, and its companion volume,* Engraven Upon Plates, Printed Upon Paper: Textual and Narrative Structures of the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2023). Study edition 598 pp.; $34.95 (paperback). Commentary 485 pp.; $24.95 (paperback).

Abstract: This paper addresses the reasons for a recent spurt in Book of Mormon study editions and contextualizes the unique contributions of Brant Gardner’s The Plates of Mormon: A Book of Mormon Study Edition*. Unlike other study editions, which cater to the needs of believing Church members, prospective missionaries, or the (secular) scholarly community, Gardner writes that* The Plates of Mormon is an attempt to understand the book in terms of the ancient Mesoamerican culture that produced it, something for which he, a trained Mesoamericanist, is uniquely qualified. To do so, he must first peel away the layers superimposed upon its current version by Joseph Smith’s translation for his Early American frontier community. That complicated process is detailed in a companion volume, Engraven Upon Plates, Printed Upon Paper: Textual and Narrative Structures of the Book of Mormon*, which receives the bulk of this review’s attention. Gardner’s discoveries and conclusions are briefly rather than comprehensively summarized in this review.*

If you’re interested in other writing by Kimberley Heuston, you can find some of it here.

Political map of Africa (public domain, Central Intelligence Agency). Lesotho is embedded within the Republic of South Africa, near the southern end of the continent.

This is a very sad story: “Memorial Held for Victims of Tragic Accident in Lesotho: The identities of the members and friends of the Church who lost their lives have been released; a funeral is set for Saturday, July 19” The little Latter-day Saint community in Lesotho needs our prayers and support.

This photograph of the Fairview Texas Temple, taken just after its dedication in 2075 — having recently seen a live-theatrical version of “Back to the Future,” I’ve added time travel to my toolkit — shows part of the final solution (the “Endlösung,” as it were) to the problem that had been posed by that temple. The temple is located fifty feet below the surface of the building site. The entrance tunnel for it opens across the street, in the much more frinedly town of Allen, Texas. (Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)

From to time, I’ve looked in on the still raging controversy about a proposed Latter-day Saint temple in Fairview, Texas. Here is the latest news item to emerge from it, which was published yesterday (Thursday) in The Dallas Morning News: “Fairview mayor: A call for compromise with LDS church reflecting shared values: A temple built through collaboration can become a symbol of unity and reverence.”

It’s interesting to contrast the sheer quantity of news links about the proposed temple in Fairview with the paucity of news links about the Fort Worth Texas Temple, which is also located in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. (In their current designs, the Fort Worth Texas Temple and the Fairview Texas Temple are essentially identical in size.) The temple in Fort Worth was announced a full year before the announcement of the temple in Fairview, and its construction is well underway. Yet this friendly piece is the only news story that appears about it: “Construction underway for Fort Worth Latter-day Saints temple, expected to open in 2026.”

From what I’ve seen, the comment following the Fairview mayor’s article, written by “Timothy,” which is (at least currently) the first reader comment, accurately summarizes the history of the dispute over the proposed Fairview Texas Temple. The Church has made all the concessions. Repeatedly. And it’s now being asked to make yet more concessions. However, I’m inclined to differ with “Timothy” on one point: I don’t think that I would go back to the original (larger) temple design and “see ’em in court.” Rather, if it’s all possible, I would lean toward simply yanking the temple from Fairview and seeking to build it somewhere else in the Dallas-Fort Worth area that’s more welcoming. Honestly, it doesn’t seem to me that the politicians in Fairview have been acting in good faith on this issue, and it appears unlikely to me that they’ll be acting in good faith at any time soon.

This is a modern reconstruction of the Peter Whitmer home in Fayette, New York, where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, with six members, on 6 April 1830
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)

This came in yesterday from a reader: “Matt Martinich, a prominent researcher on LDS church growth and a faithful member, has put out a survey to ask LDS people about convert baptisms in their area. It takes five minutes to do, and it will hopefully help him gauge what church growth looks like worldwide. He asked for the link to be shared widely, so here it is: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/P8VCFSL”

The Port Moresby Papua New Guinea Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is well along its way to completion. It is shown here as it appeared on 25 May 2025, in a photograph taken by Josephine Vauro. A building to lodge temple missionaries and patrons, which also includes a residence for the temple president and matron and a distribution center, stands in the foreground. I hope that Josephine Vauro won’t mind my using her photograph here.

I close, as I’m wont to do, with a story — or, in this instance, with a group of stories — that I’ve recovered from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™: “Latter-day Saints Around the World: July 2025: Children clean shelter in Peru, and projects in the Marshall Islands seek to improve safety and sustainability”

Newsroom features stories from its dozens of websites worldwide to show what members and leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are doing to serve their communities. Today, we feature news from Chile, El Salvador, the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines and Togo.

It’s almost as if these theists feel no shame about such crimes against humanity but, instead, positively revel in them. And now they’re coming for innocent children, coercing them into slaving for their wicked schemes.

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