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Swimming against strong currents

Swimming against strong currents

Last updated on: March 5, 2026 at 9:03 pm by Dan Peterson

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Swimming against strong currents 2026-03-05T21:03:11-07:00 Dan Peterson

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The Joseph Regenstein Library, on the University of Chicago campus, where Steve Olsen earned his doctorate in anthropology (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

The Interpreter Foundation, which went dormant years ago according to prophecy, continues moving by sheer inertia along its unchanging path, illustrated by these two new items on its website:

Steadfast in Defense of Faith: “Foundations of a Sacred Latter-day Saint Worldview: A Literary Reading of Doctrine and Covenants 59,” written by Steven L. Olsen

Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in Steadfast in Defense of Faith: Essays in Honor of Daniel C. Peterson, edited by Shirley Ricks, Stephen D. Ricks, and Louis Midgley. For more information, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/steadfast-in-defense-of-faith/.

“The discipline of cultural anthropology was founded in part on the intellectual premise that human consciousness is culturally conditioned. This perspective claims that all peoples, from traditional to modern and from simple to complex, make sense of their seen and unseen worlds in terms that are meaningful for them but that may seem strange—absurd even—to those from different traditions. Worldview is an academic term that refers to the most comprehensive expression of human consciousness. Scholars recognize several subsets of this analytical concept, including the temporal, spatial, ontological, metaphysical, theological, human, social, and moral dimensions of existence. The present study is not a systematic, comprehensive exposition of a given worldview and its sociocultural implications. Rather, it is an examination of the literary craftsmanship of a sacred text belonging to a specific cultural group, illustrating how the tools of language, including diction, syntax, rhetoric, figures of speech, and structural logic, reveal key dimensions of the group’s meaningful universe.”

The Interpreter Insights Podcast — March 5, 2026: BYU’s New Testament Commentary Series, with Brent Schmidt

In the 5 March 2026 episode of The Interpreter Insights Podcast, Terry Hutchinson and his guest Brent Schmidt discuss BYU’s New Testament Commentary series, in which Brent has been involved.

Emma Smith (Camrey Bagley Fox) watches as the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum are returned to Nauvoo in the film Six Days in August.

I had hoped to attend at least some of the events at the Zions Indie Film Fest this past week, but I ended up having a cold — and, given my signature selfishness, I was unwilling to share it with others. But I’m very happy to report that Camrey Bagley Fox, who played Emma Smith in the Interpreter Foundation films Witnesses (2021) and Six Days in August (2024) and who is one of the co-hosts of our ongoing Interpreter Foundation series Becoming Brigham, took home the Best Actress award for her role in the Bagley family film production Sense & Sensibility: A Modern Retelling. Congratulations to Camrey!

And, while we’re at it, the teaser for Episode 7 of Becoming Brigham (Becoming Brigham TRAILER—”Young Brigham Young,” Part Two) has now been posted. The full episode will appear on Monday.

Episode 6 the series (Becoming Brigham, Episode 6—”Young Brigham Young,” Part One) is already up online. And all six of the currently published installments are available at the home page of the series, which is becomingbrigham.com. Our plan — with one or two possible exceptions down the line, when we may do something a little different — is to put a new episode up on the Monday of each week.

Dedicated in 1978, the São Paulo Brazil Temple (LDS Media Library) was the first to be erected in Brazil and, indeed, in South America as a whole. Now, half a century later, temples dot South America and the city of São Paulo itself will soon have a second.

In a time of international conflicts and tensions, deep political and cultural divisions, and a perceptible general decline in civil and charitable dialogue between religious and political factions, I’m deeply gratified to see attempts such as this that are intended to spread good will, to foster faith and optimism, and to build bridges between nations, cultures, and peoples: “Tabernacle Choir Points Hearts to Jesus Christ in São Paulo.” And I’m delighted that we have a Brazilian apostle. (Moreover, for what little it may be worth, I quite like the setting and the slightly unusual look of the Belo Horizonte Brazil Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is nearing completion and which, in addition to Brazil’s eleven currently operating temples, is one of thirteen temples that are either under construction in the country or have been announced for it.)

The “key art” poster for our new “Becoming Brigham” mini-documentary

You may have missed these two substantial interviews that I did regarding the Becoming Brigham series, which was just being launched at around the time that they were recorded. I can’t really recommend either of them, because I’ve never listened to them (and probably never will). But a few people have evidently listened to them:

The Cwic Show, with Greg Matsen: “Brigham Young Was NOT the Villain You’ve Been Told – feat. Daniel Peterson” (not quite fifty minutes)
Let’s Get Real, with Stephen Jones and Scripture Central: “Why It’s Easier to Flatten Brigham Young | Dr. Dan Peterson E0051” (slightly more than two hours and eighteen minutes)

Francisco Goya, El Tres de Mayo de 1808 in Madrid, showing the execution of Spanish patriots by the French (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Finally, here’s a note that will no doubt appear strange (and oddly vague) to most readers, but that I feel compelled to post: Over at The Usual Place, where character-assassinating accusations against me spring up continually like poisonous toadstools on the lawn after a warm autumn rain, I’ve just been angrily accused (yet again, although for the first time in several years) of having entered into an agreement quite a while ago with a person who occasionally posts there — and then of having brazenly violated that agreement. As is commonly the case, there are two sides to this story and, for the record, my side of the story differs from his. I kept the agreement according to my understanding of it. (I care about integrity. I even value my reputation for integrity, and I won’t let this anonymous public accusation stand publicly uncontradicted. !كفاية كده)

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