Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
History and Religion
We’ve been at it for fourteen years now

We’ve been at it for fourteen years now

Last updated on: August 9, 2026 at 1:46 am by Dan Peterson

0 Comments

We’ve been at it for fourteen years now 2026-08-09T01:46:05-06:00 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.

Jesus carries his cross in a scene from the official Bible videos produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (LDS Media Library). This is a depiction of a scene from the life of Jesus Christ.

Up new today on the never-changing and, in fact, long-dead website of the Interpreter Foundation: Conversations with Interpreter: Jennifer Lane — Part 2: “Jesus as Kinsman-Redeemer in the Small Plates”

This episode of Conversations with Interpreter is number two in a two part series of interviews with Jennifer C. Lane. The first discussed her work on redemption and the life of Abraham, while this episode focuses on exploring the idea of redemption in the Small Plates of Nephi. Dr. Lane in particular connects the teachings about Christ with the Old Testament notion of the kinsman-redeemer. The authors of this part of the Book of Mormon frame redemption in its connection to covenant and the covenant relationship we build with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. This episode discusses Dr. Lane’s paper “Knowing Our Redeemer: Christ as Kinsman-Redeemer in the Small Plates,” presented as a keynote at the 2026 Small Plates of Nephi Conference held on May 29-30th at Brigham Young University in Provo, UT. More information on the conference and Dr. Lane’s paper is available at https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2026-small-plates-of-nephi-conference.

The Cody Wyoming Temple (aka Barad-dûr), as envisioned by its fiercest opponents. (Provenance of image unknown. If there is an objection to its use here, please contact me at [email protected].)

The Cody Wyoming Temple is essentially completed and its dedication approaches rapidly. Recent photographs of the temple demonstrate how fully the dire predictions of its opponents have been fulfilled. We are left, exactly as they had prophesied, to mourn the region’s blue skies, which will never again be visible above Cody because of the sheer mammoth size of the 9,950-square-foot temple. We are also left to lament the nighttime stars that will be perpetually blocked in that part of Wyoming because of the building’s enormous, weather-altering spire, the mountains that will never more be seen behind its massive bulk, and the houses and other buildings of the town, clustered tightly around its base, that will be everlastingly overshadowed by its vast, looming, cyclopean walls.

An image of the Tree of Life and of the “great and spacious building” that figure prominently in 1 Nephi, in the Book of Mormon. I have been unable to find the source or to identify the creator of this painting. If the owner or originator of the painting wishes to contact me to assert his or her rights over it, I would be fine with that.

I think that our fourteenth annual Interpreter Foundation birthday party, simplified and streamlined though it was, went very well. Derek Westra offered a fascinating presentation on the cultural environment in which the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day is operating these days and the popular-cultural headwinds against which it’s obliged to swim. Quite challenging. I wish that all of our volunteers and donors could have heard what he had to say.

Jeff Bradshaw offered some remarks about our recent books and conferences, as well as about his film work in Africa. I spoke as well, summarizing some of what has recently been done and sharing a few thoughts on the importance of apologetics.

This was Interpreter’s fourteenth birthday party. A very great deal has been accomplished during the years since our founding. And the future, if I may coin a new and completely original phrase, looks very bright. Critics predicted that we would fail within a few months. But, well, we haven’t. And I’m deeply grateful to all who’ve made the Foundation’s successes possible.

An early RCA Victor television (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Speaking of today’s cultural situation, here’s a take on it from Peter Kreeft, The Philosophy of Tolkien: The Worldview Behind The Lord of the Rings:

Every human soul craves “the good, the true, and the beautiful” absolutely and without limit. And it is precisely about these three most fundamental values that the gap is the widest. Ordinary people still believe in a real morality, a real difference between good and evil; and in objective truth and the possibility of knowing it; and in the superiority of beauty over ugliness. But our educators, or “experts” (Fr. Richard John Neuhaus calls them “the chattering classes”), feel toward these three traditional values the way people think medieval inquisitors felt toward witches. Our artists deliberately prefer ugliness to beauty, our moralists fear goodness more than evil, and our philosophers embrace various forms of post-modernism that reduce truth to ideology or power.

The Nairobi Kenya Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was dedicated in 2025 by Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

I’m sorry, but it’s time — heck, it’s past time and long overdue — for another bracing dose of horror from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™. I offer you a quintet of abominations:

History and Religion

Travel and Religion

Uncategorized

Cody

Interpreter Foundation

Previous Post

August 7, 2026

A Good Friday

Next Post

August 9, 2026 What matters most

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"Sutherland's lecture sounds interesting. He seems to restate the Washington consensus that trade brings peace ..."

B. Wilson

Learning more about a region of ..."

"In a meeting today, I learned another important reason why accurate (or at least as ..."

the PROBLEM

From Serbia’s “White City,” Belgrade

"I've been watching a lot of video interviews of NDErs and researchers. I think in ..."

brotheroflogan

Accounts of Premortality?

"PL: "Let's hope he doesn't have your address..."I have to frankly confess that a few ..."

DanielPeterson

From Serbia’s “White City,” Belgrade

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which Christian principle is highlighted in the parable of the Good Samaritan?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Ignore strangers Compassion for all Only help friends Seek praise