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Two brief battlefield reports from Fairview, Texas, etc.

Two brief battlefield reports from Fairview, Texas, etc.

Last updated on: July 25, 2026 at 1:27 pm by Dan Peterson

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Two brief battlefield reports from Fairview, Texas, etc. 2026-07-25T13:27:30-06:00 Dan Peterson

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“Abraham’s Gate” at Tel Dan in northern Israel, which is also called the “Canaanite Gate” in order to distinguish it from the later “Israelite Gate” that is located not very far away.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

This item appeared earlier today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation — which, exactly as its critics correctly predicted, died many years ago and hasn’t been heard from since then: Conversations with Interpreter: Jennifer Lane, Part 1: “Ḥesed and the Redemption of Abraham”

This is the first of a two-part discussion with Dr. Jennifer Lane, professor emerita from Brigham Young University-Hawaii on two recent studies about redemption in the scriptures. Over her career, Dr. Lane has worked extensively on the presentation of redemption in the scriptures and this discussion is another entry into that impressive body of work. In this episode, Dr. Jennifer Lane speaks about the role that redemption and God’s performance of hesed is illustrated in the life of Abraham and his family. The paper under discussion in this episode was given at an Interpreter conference on Abraham in the scriptures and history. The episode explores the how and why of Abraham’s redemption and what that can mean for Latter-day Saints today.

Dr. Lane’s presentation “Ḥesed and the Redemption of Abraham” is available at https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2025-abraham-and-his-family-conference/videos/lane. Information about the publication of the conference proceedings is available at https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/abraham-and-his-family.

The design of the Fairview Texas Temple, at an estimated at 30,742 square feet considerably reduced from the original proposal, as it is currently being built. (fair use from lds.org)

I was very pleased to see a couple of comments on Facebook this morning, where the focus of discussion was the continuing construction of a temple in Fairview, Texas, in the face of very loud and continuing opposition from the mayor and at least some of the local citizenry:

I live in Fairview, TX. My house is less than a mile due north of the temple site. What we are trying to do locally is just be good citizens. What I hear from nearly all of my neighbors is nothing but support for the temple. This is being driven by a small minority of people in our community. . . . The temple will be built and they know it. . . .All those signs they purchased and placed around town are now mostly gone and largely forgotten. The local missionaries are actually seeing an uptick in interest due to the temple.

To which came this response:

As a Fairview resident, I can confirm everything my dear Bro [Name] states here.

This is pretty much what I’ve suspected all along (because I’ve seen it before). A small group of vocal activists should not be mistaken for an entire community. My prediction is that the Fairview Texas Temple will soon be readily accepted and even regarded as an adornment to the town.

The Rexburg Idaho Temple was dedicated in 2008. It stands adjacent to the campus of Brigham Young University-Idaho. (LDS.org)

And, while we’re on the subject of temples: I was delighted to see this photograph from Rexburg, Idaho, the home of the Idaho campus of Brigham Young University. It shows the Teton River Idaho Temple under construction in the foreground, with the Rexburg Idaho Temple visible in the (surprisingly close) background.

In fact, let’s continue with the temple theme. Here are a couple of quotations from Brigham Young. In the first, he is referring to the Salt Lake Temple, which has been closed over the past several years for fundamental renovations and structural improvements and which is now approaching a grand open house and rededication. He also mentions opposition to the construction of temples — and in both of the quotations that I cite here he speaks of the large numbers of temples that will eventually be built. We are seeing the beginnings of the fulfillment of what he foresaw.

I want to see the Temple built in a manner that it will endure through the Millennium. This is not the only Temple we shall build. There will be hundreds of them built and dedicated to the Lord. This Temple will be known as the first Temple built in the mountains by the Latter-day Saints. And when the Millennium is over, and all the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, down to the last of their posterity, who come within the reach of the clemency of the Gospel, have been redeemed in hundreds of Temples through the administration of their children as proxies for them, I want that Temple still to stand as a proud monument of the faith, perseverance and industry of the Saints of God in the mountains, in the nineteenth century.

I told you thirteen years ago, that every time we took up our tools to progress with that Temple, we should see opposition. Our enemies do not love to see it progress, because we are building it for God, and they do not love him. (Journal of Discourses 10)

To accomplish this work there will have to be not only one temple but thousands of them, and thousands and tens of thousands of men and women will go into those temples and officiate for people who have lived as far back as the Lord shall reveal. (Discourses of Brigham Young, 394.)

Gathering to Zion: “Helping the Martin Handcart Company across the Sweetwater River,” by Clark Kelley Price (LDS Media Library)

And, while we’re speaking of Brigham Young, I would like to remind you of the Interpreter Foundation’s ongoing series of short video documentaries about Brigham Young and his times and the issues that often swirl about him. Entitled Becoming Brigham, the series is available to you easily and at no charge, and — now that your ward pancake breakfast is behind you — it offers (among many other things) a perfect and exceptionally appropriate way to spend a portion of a Pioneer Day weekend.

Moreover, please don’t miss out on the opportunity that we’re providing to enjoy a free viewing of the 2021 Interpreter Foundation theatrical film Witnesses. You can find out how to access such a viewing right there on the Becoming Brigham website.

Please feel free to subscribe — again, at no charge and with absolutely no further obligation — and to call both the Witnesses opportunity and the ongoing Becoming Brigham series to the attention of friends, neighbors, family, ward members, bemused supermarket cashiers, random passersby on the street, and policemen who are citing you for traffic violations.

At Butchart Gardens, in British Columbia (Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)

My wife and I listened to the funeral of a friend and former neighbor this morning. We were sad not to be there for her farewell, but we’re grateful that the technology now exists that allowed us to listen in. I actually enjoy funerals, in a way, because they offer a good summing up of what really counts in a life and, thus, a good occasion for reflection as well as for memory.

Posted from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

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