A Follow-Up on How I Met President Jeffrey R. Holland

Last updated on: May 31, 2026 at 8:29 pm by Dan Peterson

0 Comments

A Follow-Up on How I Met President Jeffrey R. Holland 2026-05-31T20:29:43-06:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A view of Discovery Bay in Washington, near where I’m currently writing. (Wikimedia Commons

On 27 December 2025, I responded to that morning’s sad news with a blog entry here that I titled “Memories of President Jeffrey R. Holland.” Among the memories that I included in that blog entry was the following:

I first met President Holland — to me, he has always been “President Holland,” from the beginning — when I was a new member of the faculty at Brigham Young University. And it wasn’t a very auspicious start.

I had been invited to speak to a small group called “Students for Human Rights,” or something to that effect, about human rights in the Middle East. So, for about forty-five of the fifty minutes allotted to me, I discussed the sorry state of human rights across the region, which continues to be sorry pretty much to this day. At the end, I devoted roughly five minutes to the situation in Israel at the time, saying that Israel had a far better record than did the countries surrounding it, but that it was still definitely not perfect.

Brigham Young University’s Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies was under construction at the time and was still the focus of loud controversy in Israel and even beyond, because of fears that it wasn’t really going to be an academic institution but, rather, a sneaky missionary project. There remained a possibility that it would be blocked. I pointed out the obvious, which was that, in a country with full religious freedom, whether or not the Center was for proselyting would be a matter of complete indifference to the government.

I saw nothing controversial in what I said about Israel. However, unbeknownst to me, there was a “stringer” for the Associated Press in the audience, and an article soon appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune and elsewhere that made it look as if I had devoted the entirety of my remarks to denouncing Israel as unfree and religiously oppressive.

University leaders were concerned that what I had (allegedly) said might threaten the completion of the Jerusalem Center, and I was soon privileged to meet several senior members of the administration. I recall actually sitting in the office of one of them, a physics professor, as he watched over my shoulder while I wrote a kind of recantation to the Tribune. At one point, when he seemed distracted for a moment, I muttered under my breath E pur si muove. “What did you say?” he asked. “Nothing,” I quickly replied.

I made my letter to the editor as unyielding and accurate as I could while still satisfying my taskmaster, but this was not a good position to be in for a junior, junior new hire. I was very vulnerable. Not only did I not yet have tenure (or its rough BYU equivalent, “continuing status”), I hadn’t even finished my dissertation.

Later, I was told by a high-ranking friend that my name had come up in one of the leading councils at the University, and that someone had described me to President Holland as a “loose cannon.”

Within a day or two, I found myself standing right next to President Holland, whom I had never before met. We were both browsing in the BYU bookstore. I introduced myself to him and said, “President Holland, I am not a loose cannon.” I explained and justified what I had told the student group, observing that what I had said was self-evidently true, and describing myself as very much a moderate on Middle Eastern political matters, much more sympathetic to Israel than the overwhelming majority of my fellow non-Israeli Arabists.

We became friends that day. I don’t want to overdo it — we were never poker buddies, we didn’t meet every Wednesday for lunch — but we remained friendly thereafter. A large part of that friendship was due to his remarkable memory for people and personal details. And to his genuine warmth and lack of pretense. Communications from him were always to “Dan,” from “Jeff.” (Elder Neal A. Maxwell had been the same way. “Hello, Dan? This is Neal.” I remember thinking once that I would never, ever, worlds without end, call him “Neal.”)

I related that story at the dinner that the Interpreter Foundation hosted on Friday evening for presenters at our conference on the Small Plates of Nephi and special invited guests.

In his own subsequent remarks on Friday evening, Elder Matthew S. Holland of the Seventy, who is a son of President Holland, told about his father’s last days. Sometimes, he said, his father was a little bit unclear. But, he told the audience, my story had clarified one puzzlement for him. At one point, President Holland drew Matt close to him and instructed him to “Go down to Provo, find Dan Peterson, and plug that cannon!”

Elder Holland commented that, until Friday night, he had been mystified by what his father’s directive had meant. Now, though, he finally understood. And I’m sure that his remembered account is literally true in every detail.

BYU’s Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies (Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)

Over at the Peterson Obsession Board, of course, where they follow absolutely everything that I do and say with remarkable dedication (albeit also with unsleeping hostility and, often, with wildly untethered imaginations) that story has inspired several of the denizens of the POB to new heights of derision, feigned indignation, disdain, and tendentious historical revisionism. The brightest of them actually even tracked down the text of the letter, mentioned above, that I wrote to the Salt Lake Tribune in 1988 under the watchful eye of a BYU administrator. I had, myself, never thought to do so, but re-reading it after nearly forty years was mildly entertaining. Here it is, thanks to the fixated diligence of a member of the Obsession Board:

Didn’t Say It

I was quite surprised by the headline in the June 1 Tribune, “BYU Professor Calls Middle East ‘Most Corrupt Place on Earth.’ ” In fact, I claimed that the Middle East is the most ill-governed place on Earth. With Gadhafi, Khomeini, et al., in mind, I stand by this statement.

The article did not fully represent the tenor of my remarks. My speech was a historical overview — beginning in the 11th century — of the circumstances leading to today’s human rights problems in the region.

Delivered to a small campus group at lunchtime, it was a rather abstract and academic speech, perhaps — I thought at the time — too little oriented toward contemporary issues. In the course of an hour-long discussion, I spent only a few minutes on Israel.

I wish to stress that, while I am an uncritical supporter of neither the Israeli government nor my own, I am not an enemy of Israel, either. I fear that the article may have given a misleading impression.

DANIEL C. PETERSON
Provo

The inspiration for the contest. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

I’m pleased to announce a prize (the precise nature of which is yet to be determined) for the zaniest answers to the following urgently burning questions:

For what disreputable purpose is Peterson now in the State of Washington?
What specific unhealthy foods is Peterson consuming in mass quantities during his stay?
Whom did Peterson defraud and/or browbeat into paying his expenses for this trip?
How does his being in the State of Washington once again demonstrate him to be both depraved and a buffoon?

Please note that, although this competition is principally designed to gratify the interests of the folks at the Peterson Obsession Board, participation isn’t restricted to them. All are welcome to propose answers to the questions. Even sane people.

Posted from Discovery Bay, Washington

Travel and Religion

History and Religion

Uncategorized

BYU

Jeffrey Holland

Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies

Latter-day Saint

Matthew S. Holland

Mormon

Previous Post

May 30, 2026

Two full days. Very full.