Two Anniversaries and a Final Warning

Last updated on: September 11, 2025 at 8:03 pm by Dan Peterson

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Two Anniversaries and a Final Warning 2025-09-11T20:03:30-06:00 Dan Peterson

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The Portland Oregon Temple was the first Latter-day Saint temple to be built in Oregon. (LDS Media Library)

This is my final warning: Decent people who may be in or near the Pacific Northwest on the evening of Friday, 12 September 2025, should maintain a safe distance from the chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that stands at 4195 Southwest 99th Avenue in Beaverton, Oregon, on that evening between approximately 7:00 PM and 8:30 PM. In fact, it might be prudent to avoid Oregon’s Washington County altogether — from late afternoon, perhaps, until midnight — just to be on the safe side. I will be speaking there during that time, on the subject of the Witnesses to the Book of Mormon.

“Samuel Dedicated by Hannah at the Temple,” by Frank W. W. Topham (1838-1924) Wikimedia Commons public domain image

Up today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Seek Ye Words of Wisdom: “Restoration Insights into Barrenness and Divine Intervention,” written by Shirley S. Ricks:

Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in Seek Ye Words of Wisdom: Studies of the Book of Mormon, Bible, and Temple in Honor of Stephen D. Ricks, edited by Donald W. Parry, Gaye Strathearn, and Shon D. Hopkin. For more information, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/seek-ye-words-of-wisdom/.

“The Bible relates several instances in which husbands and wives who were childless sought and received divine intervention to overcome their barrenness. The tension between God’s commandment to “be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” (Gen. 1:28) and the inability of some couples to bear children seems palpable. Although it might feel natural to blame God for this contradictory state of affairs (which was done in some instances), ultimately, the biblical remedy for infertility often involved supplication to the Lord and a willingness to abide by his timetable. The children resulting from God’s intervention were often seen as children of promise who had an important role to perform. Even so, I do not propose that every instance of barrenness in biblical times resulted in the birth of a child. Rather, I suggest that each of us should turn to the Lord in the face of challenges of any nature and wait in patience for his response.”

A monument erected (by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I’m told) at the site of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, in southern Utah
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)

Virtually all Americans (and many others besides) will recognize that today is the anniversary of the attacks on the Pentagon and on New York’s World Trade Center and of the downing of United Airlines Flight 93 in a Pennsylvania field. It was a day — to borrow the language of President Franklin D. Roosevelt about an earlier sneak attack on the United States that also launched a lengthy and lethal war — “that will live in infamy.” 11 September 2001, like 7 December 1941, changed the course of American and world history. It should never be forgotten, and the lessons that it has to teach us should be repeatedly pondered.

It will be less widely recognized that today is also the anniversary of the tragic Mountain Meadows Massacre in southern Utah — although, as was inevitable, some critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are celebrating it as a revelation of the darkness that lies at the very heart of the Restoration. I think that there is a great deal to be learned from contemplating the massacre at Mountain Meadows, which is surely the worst thing in our history. (I’m reminded of Plato’s Socrates at Gorgias 473a, who says that it is even worse to do wrong than to suffer wrong.)

In fact, I’ve long thought, if the opportunity ever presents itself, of doing a fireside or even a sacrament meeting talk on the lessons that can be derived from it. To my mind, it has many of the elements of a Greek tragedy. And, in my judgment, the most interesting thing about it is that it was perpetrated by men who were not simplistically evil but rather, on the whole, good. Without wanting to minimize the sorrow and the injustice that were imposed upon its victims — it’s a virtual certainty, of course, that I’ll be claimed to have done precisely that — the fact that decent men committed a massively heinous and indecent crime, coupled with the plausible “logic” that, once the events began, led inexorably to the full horror seems to me the most classically “tragic” aspect of the story. As I’ve reviewed the story, I’ve wanted to shout out at the decision makers, yelling “No! No! I understand what you’re thinking, but stop! Go no further!”

Anyway, please permit me to mention three books that represent the best of contemporary scholarship on the Mountain Meadows Massacre and its aftermath:

Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley, and Glen M. Leonard, Massacre at Mountain Meadows (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)
Richard E. Turley and Barbara Jones Brown, Vengeance Is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023)
Janiece Johnson, Convicting the Mormons: The Mountain Meadows Massacre in American Culture (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2023)

Familiarity with them would put an end to a lot of the historical falsehoods that have circulated about this terrible event among both Latter-day Saints and critics of the Church.

“Wendy and I were vaccinated today against COVID-19. We are thankful for the countless individuals who performed the work required to make this possible. We have prayed for this literal godsend. Receiving the vaccine is part of our personal efforts to be good global citizens.” (President Russell M. Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., sustained as the Prophet, Seer, and Revelator of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, shown here and quoted on 19 January 2021). I hope that this counts as fair use.

This article in the Deseret News saddens and concerns me: “Opinion: What’s behind declining vaccination rates for children entering school in Utah?” I worry about what it might be saying about a growing mindset among Latter-day Saints in Utah and, perhaps, in America more broadly. Here is the relevant text in the Church’s General Handbook:

General Handbook 38.7.13: Vaccinations

Vaccinations administered by competent medical professionals protect health and preserve life. Members of the Church are encouraged to safeguard themselves, their children, and their communities through vaccination.

Ultimately, individuals are responsible to make their own decisions about vaccination. If members have concerns, they should counsel with competent medical professionals and also seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost.

Prospective missionaries who have not been vaccinated will likely be limited to assignments in their home country.

A view on the campus of Utah Valley University, which is very near my home.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Of course, as many others do as well, I continue to be upset by yesterday’s assassination of Charlie Kirk. Very near to where my wife and I live, where we raised our children, where our children attended elementary school and junior high school, and where a grandchild currently attends. (These schools that we know well were under police security measures yesterday.) And I’m upset to see partisan ideologues both left and “right” immediately seeking to weaponize the tragedy against their “enemies.” Here are links to some commentaries that I’ve found valuable: