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History and Religion
Passing it on

Passing it on

Last updated on: May 23, 2026 at 9:58 pm by Dan Peterson

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Passing it on 2026-05-23T21:58:02-06:00 Dan Peterson

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A generic photo for a post about movies

I’m generally tired enough on transoceanic flights that I’ve given up trying to do any serious reading while we’re in the air, and today’s flight was no exception. So I watched four — count ’em, four! — movies on the way home from England:

Song Sung Blue, starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson. I wasn’t particularly thrilled about seeing this one, but my wife started to watch it so, since I like to discuss movies with her, I chose it was well. And I must say that I enjoyed it far, far more than I had expected. In fact, I found it quite touching.
I thought that I had better try to catch up with popular culture a bit. So, although I don’t recall that I’ve ever seen the stage play and certainly haven’t seen the movie version of Wicked, I watched Wicked: For Good. I was impressed with Cynthia Arivo’s performance but, truth be told, I didn’t particularly care for the film. It was alright, but I won’t really need to see it again.
Whale Rider. I hadn’t seen this New Zealand film since it first appeared in 2002 and I had forgotten how powerful it is. Interesting note: The screenplay was co-written by the important New Zealand Māori author Witi Ihimaera, based upon his 1987 book The Whale Rider. Ihimaera, who is gay, studied at the Church College of New Zealand in Temple View, Hamilton, for a year. (It was, until its still relatively recent closing, a boarding school.) He grew up in a strongly Latter-day Saint Māori family and, from what little I know about him, he seems to retain a positive view of the Church.
Notting Hill (1999). By the time for the fourth film, I was becoming quite tired, so I settled for re-watching this romantic comedy starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts. It’s a sweet little thing about the basic humanity within even the rich and the famous. On the whole, I’ve always heartily disliked Hugh Grant, but I think that he fits his role in Notting Hill quite well.

I started two other films. But I soon found William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, too irritating. And the first ten minutes of My Father’s Shadow moved too slowly to keep me engaged when one of my principal goals was passing time while uncomfortable. The latter seems, however, to be worthy of another attempt.

And then, magically, we had arrived at our destination. Painless!

Although it’s no longer used for regular weekly services, the Gadfield Elm Chapel is the oldest meetinghouse in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

I come away from this most recent Church history tour of England deeply impressed by the faith of those who accepted the Restored Gospel when it was introduced by the early apostles and the other nineteenth-century missionaries who accompanied them and followed them, and by the legacy of faith and commitment to the Kingdom that has been passed on, in many cases, through multiple generations. Many of the participants in our tour group (including me and my wife) were descendants of some of those converts in the 1800s.

People fell away in those early days. Not a few of the descendants of those original British converts have fallen away. In a phrase favored by my venerable friend Louis Midgley, more than a few, sadly, have “gone missing.” As President Jeffrey R. Holland observed more than once, the Church is never more than one generation away from extinction; there are people today who have no knowledge that the Restored Gospel once dramatically and profoundly touched the lives of their ancestors. But many have been able to pass the torch of faith and testimony on, from grandparents to children and grandchildren, and the Kingdom — not only in the United Kingdom and the United States but around the world — is much the greater for their contributions over many years.

In the meetinghouse that I attended as a young man in Southern California and from which I was sent on my mission to German-speaking Switzerland, a large inscription appeared on the wall behind the speaker and to his or her left. I’m not sure that it meant much to me when I was in my teens and early twenties, unmarried and self-absorbed. But I remember it. And, with the passage of time, it has come more prominently to the forefront of my concerns:

And again, inasmuch as parents have children in Zion, or in any of her stakes which are organized, that teach them not to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands, when eight years old, the sin be upon the heads of the parents.

For this shall be a law unto the inhabitants of Zion, or in any of her stakes which are organized.

And their children shall be baptized for the remission of their sins when eight years old, and receive the laying on of the hands.

And they shall also teach their children to pray, and to walk uprightly before the Lord. (Doctrine and Covenants 68:25-28)

We do not, of course, have control over the decisions of our descendants. Not even of our children. Nor should we. But we need to try, as wisely but as devotedly as we’re able. I’ve always been impressed by the teaching of Hippocrates that the first duty of a healthcare provider is “First, do no harm.” (It’s frequently cited in Latin as premum no nocere.) Even if we’re unable to cure an illness (or a doubt), we should try. And we should certainly make every effort not to cause illness or to encourage doubt.

Michelangelo’s Ezekiel, from the Sistine Chapel (1510)
Wikimedia Commons public domain

The image at Ezekiel 33:1-9 can be applied to parents as to missionaries and Church leaders and ordinary Saints:

Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman:

If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;

Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.

He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.

But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.

So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.

When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.

Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.

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