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“Far, far away on Judea’s plains”

“Far, far away on Judea’s plains”

Last updated on: December 7, 2025 at 10:25 am by Dan Peterson

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“Far, far away on Judea’s plains” 2025-12-07T10:25:34-07:00 Dan Peterson

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This, it seems, is the reality of the lives of Latter-day Saint women, against which television’s “Mormon Wives” are leading the resistance. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Fox News: “‘Mormon Wives’ is clashing with core LDS values and America is eating it up: expert: PR experts say counterintuitive premise creates curiosity about group cutting against proverbial grain” Gosh. Ya think?

National Catholic Reporter: “‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ offers repackaged oppression”

Salt Lake Tribune: “Big 12 commissioner says stopping derogatory chants at BYU games ‘starts with me’: Brett Yormark discussed the league’s next steps ahead of the conference’s title game.”

And, while we’re at it:

Babylon Bee: “Santa Claus Converts To Calvinism, Moves Everybody To Naughty List”

But then there’s this brief and not quite entirely uncritical article, from The Economist: “Mormonism’s surprising boom in Africa: The American sect has come a long way from being “the white people’s church””

Rumor has it that the Eiffel Tower is actually an antenna whereby the Deep State maintains contact with its reptilian overlords on Planet Zarkon. (Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)

It’s really good to have actual data. Of course, these folks are undoubtedly members of the vast globalist deep-state conspiracy against, umm, We the People, or something like that. You just can’t trust scientists, right? JAMA Network: “COVID-19 mRNA Vaccination and 4-Year All-Cause Mortality Among Adults Aged 18 to 59 Years in France”:

Key Points

Question Are COVID-19 mRNA vaccines associated with the long-term risk of all-cause mortality?

Findings In this cohort study including 22.7 million vaccinated individuals and 5.9 million unvaccinated individuals, vaccinated individuals had a 74% lower risk of death from severe COVID-19 and no increased risk of all-cause mortality over a median follow-up of 45 months.

Meaning These national-level results found no increased risk of 4-year all-cause mortality in individuals aged 18 to 59 years vaccinated against COVID-19, further supporting the safety of the mRNA vaccines that are being widely used worldwide.

Louis Pasteur in his Paris laboratory, ca. 1885 (by Albert Edelfelt). With his so-called “germ theory of disease,” M.Pasteur too was an obvious member of The Scientific Establishment. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

To me, this testifies really eloquently about the Church’s new leader, and it shows him in a very different light than that favored by some of his harsh critics: “Get to Know President Dallin H. Oaks: Why ‘Forgotten Man’ Painting Hangs in His Office: ‘It speaks to me and reminds me of things that I need to remember,’ Prophet says”

On an unrelated note: A British-American Christian poet, essayist, and editor named Luci Shaw died very recently, less than a month shy of her ninety-seventh birthday. I like a quotation that’s attributed to her:

“No matter at what stage of our journey, for each of us the inevitability of dying is always there, like the blank wall of an impenetrable fortress. Or an unexplored planet. Or a looming cliff face before us, with few visible toeholds. . . .

“Myself, I’m hoping for an airy work space with lots of light and books and some flowering potted plants. And a PC that never gets obsolete.”

— Luci Shaw, from Adventure of Ascent: Field Notes from a Lifelong Journey (InterVarsity Press, 2014)

Personally, I would prefer an Apple laptop.

Winter Solstice 2004 at Stonehenge (Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)

At this time of the year, unfortunately, when decent, rational people just want to enjoy the annual winter solstice festival, fanatical theists seem to be even more obnoxiously in-your-face than they usually are, trying — as they have for nearly two thousand years now — to hijack the holiday for their own ridiculous ideology. Here’s a quartet of abominations that I’ve recently recovered from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™:

The recently dedicated Red Cliffs Utah Temple is the second temple within the city limits of St. George. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

John Menzies Macfarlane, who was originally from Stirling, Scotland, wanted a new song for his choir to perform at an 1869 Christmas program in St. George. So he wrote one. It’s a native Utah Christmas carol, composed by a Latter-day Saint, that has caught on to at least some degree beyond the Latter-day Saint community. Here is a solid but slightly unusual rendition of it by the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square: “Far, Far, Away on Judea’s Plains”

Far, far away on Judea’s plains,
Shepherds of old heard the joyous strains:
Glory to God,
Glory to God,
Glory to God in the highest;
Peace on earth, goodwill to men;
Peace on earth, goodwill to men!
2.
Sweet are the strains of redeeming love,
Message of mercy from heav’n above:
Glory to God . . .
3.
Lord, with the angels we too would rejoice;
Help us to sing with the heart and voice:
Glory to God . . .

Once again, try to imagine a better world, a world in which such songs didn’t exist. It’s easy if you try.

An aerial view of the Judean wilderness (near Masada), by Andrew Shiva (Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)

P.S. While he obviously knew Scotland and Utah, it’s apparent that Brother Macfarlane hadn’t seen Palestine: Beyond being quite arid on its eastern side, Judaea is mostly rugged hill country; one would be hard pressed to find any “plains” in the Judaean wilderness. I don’t know whether the practice continues, but there was a time when Latter-day Saints who lived in Jerusalem, in the heart of Judaea, would modify the lyrics of the carol just a bit: “Far, far away in Judea’s hills,” they would sing, “shepherds of old heard the joyous trills.” Not great, I’ll admit. But true to the local topography.

I’ll give you another look at Judaea, immediately below.

Posted from Newport Beach, California

The Judaean hills. Or, if you’re in a Christmas mood, “Judea’s plains.” (Public domain photo by David Shankbone, from Wikimedia Commons.)

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