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Where will YOU be in mid-August?

Where will YOU be in mid-August?

Last updated on: July 17, 2026 at 3:00 pm by Dan Peterson

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Where will YOU be in mid-August? 2026-07-17T15:00:29-06:00 Dan Peterson

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An illustration (by Jerry Thompson, for the Primary children’s lesson manual) of the appearance of an angel to Alma the Younger and the four sons of Mosiah, as recounted in the Book of Mormon.

A new article appeared today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 69 (2026): 215-236. It is “The Literary Structure of Alma 16,” and it was written by Derek Squire:

Abstract: Alma 16 is an easily overlooked chapter in the Book of Mormon. It could be dismissed as a simple summary and “tidying up” of the narrative. It comes after two of the most dramatic scenes in the Book of Mormon, wherein women and children are burned to death in Ammonihah and Alma and Amulek are miraculously delivered from prison. It also directly precedes the account of the sons of Mosiah journeying to Lamanite lands to preach the gospel. However—as is the case with other chapters in the book of Alma that serve to summarize and conclude large sections of the text—Alma 16 is carefully developed, highly structured, and beautifully written. In this article, I will analyze the literary structure of Alma 16, which is composed of two major literary units. Both units are structured as chiasms in which the matching units share many strong links and parallels. These two chiasms also work together to engage the reader with striking parallels and dramatic contrasts. Alma 16, being the concluding chapter of Alma’s missionary efforts among the Nephites, reveals a particular splendor and distinction. The two main chiastic structures help with the exegesis of these verses by highlighting significant yet potentially underappreciated features.

The official film poster for Witnesses (2021)

The team who have been (and will continue to be) bringing the Interpreter Foundation’s series of short documentary videos, Becoming Brigham, to you are doing something a little special and different for this coming week. Here’s a minute-long foretaste of it: “A Teaser for Episode 26: A Special Episode.” I hope that you’ll take full advantage of the opportunity.

And please don’t forget to watch our twenty-fifth installment, which went up online this past Monday: “Mobs to Mercies? – Becoming Brigham, Episode 25″

The Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni and Visitors Center on the campus of Brigham Young University (Brigham Young University photo). I will be speaking in this building, in its main assembly hall, from Tuesday through Friday during this year’s BYU Education Week.

Two members of the Interpreter Foundation’s board of directors will be speaking at BYU Education Week 2026 in Provo on 18-21 August. Please check as the event draws nearer to be sure that no information has changed, but I want you to be able to begin thinking already about places that you’ll want to avoid and times when you’ll want to be doing something else:

Peterson, Daniel C.—Professor emeritus, Asian and Near Eastern Languages, BYU; PhD in Arabic and Islamic studies. (19) 12:30–1:25 p.m.

Daniel C. Peterson
After and Before the Apostles: Highlights from British Christian History Between Dispensations
Assembly Hall, Hinckley Center (HC)
T Christianity Comes to the British Isles
W Figures from the History of British Monasticism

Th Stories from the English Reformation

F Dissenters from the Church of England

Frederickson, Kristine W.—Retired adjunct faculty, BYU and UVU; PhD in modern European history.
(26) 3:10–4:05 p.m.

Kristine W. Frederickson
“Sacrifice Brings Forth the Blessings of Heaven”: Early Husband and Wife Missionary Efforts to Great Britain
B190 Joseph F. Smith Building (JFSB)
T Trust in the Lord
W “Led by the Spirit Not Knowing Where I Was to Go”

Th Helping Gather Souls unto Christ
F The Importance of Supporting and Ministering to One Another

My adopted home, Utah, is in very many ways, a pretty great state.
In the Uinta Mountains of Utah, looking south toward Kings Peak from above the Henry’s Fork Basin. Taken by Hyrum K. Wright (Hkw2 at the English language Wikipedia) on 25 August 2004.

This story caught my attention: “Stephen King calls out Utah: ‘What’s wrong with these people?’ The bestselling author was responding to news that a 1982 book would not be available in schools”

Stephen King is a good author — though not particularly to my taste (although I quite liked — and almost immediately lost — a book of his on the craft of writing that I bought several years ago during an autumn cruise along the coast of New England and Atlantic Canada) — and, obviously, a very successful one. But he doesn’t always strike me as a careful thinker.

In this story, for example, he claims that one of his books has been “banned in Utah.” But, of course, it hasn’t. If you want to buy it through an Utah bookstore, you still can. And it’s probably still available in many if not most public libraries in the state.

What I take from the story is that the book is no longer on the approved list of books for purchase by public school libraries in the state and probably, too, that it won’t feature on reading lists for the public school curriculum.

But it was probably never part of the public school curriculum in the first place. The vast majority of books, even the vast majority of universally acclaimed classics, aren’t part of the curriculum. There simply isn’t time to include all of the books that it would be good to include; choices must inevitably be made.

And the same is true, mutatis mutandis, for public school libraries. They can’t include all books. They are relatively small, and choices must be made. Many, many worthwhile and valuable books won’t be sitting on the library shelves of public elementary schools, junior high schools, and high schools. Even large university libraries with collections of hundreds of thousands or even millions of books don’t include all books and journals. They can’t. It’s physically and financially impossible that it be otherwise. And even the largest such libraries will have areas of strength and, unfortunately, areas of weakness. Decisions must inevitably be made.

I can understand that an author might take umbrage at his book being omitted from lists of books to be purchased across the public school libraries of an entire state, and that he would be disappointed. But it’s nonsense to speak of this as a statewide ban, which it clearly isn’t. Nor, really, is it censorship. Yes, some books will be approved for purchase and some won’t. But that is perfectly unavoidable. It cannot be otherwise. If I can buy only one burger and I choose a double cheese burger, that isn’t a crime against bacon mushroom burgers. If I have money for only one book and I choose to purchase Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea rather than H. G. Wells’s War of the Worlds, I’m neither banning Wells nor censoring him.

Posted from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

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