FAIR

2022 FAIR Conference videos are now available to watch!

Perspective

FAIR Voice #34: Witnesses Pt. 1 with Daniel C. Peterson

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Dr. Peterson joins Hanna to talk about the upcoming feature film Witnesses as well as discuss some of the important historical issues surrounding the witnesses themselves. You won’t want to miss this interview or this film! As mentioned in the intro, FAIR’s conference is soon! Please look here for more details.

A native of southern California, Daniel C. Peterson received a bachelor’s degree in Greek and philosophy from Brigham Young University (BYU) and, after several years of study in Jerusalem and Cairo, earned his Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Dr. Peterson is a professor of Islamic Studies and Arabic at BYU, where he has taught Arabic language and literature at all levels, Islamic philosophy, Islamic culture and civilization, Islamic religion, the Qur’an, the introductory and senior “capstone” courses for Middle Eastern Studies majors, and various other occasional specialized classes. He is the author of several books and numerous articles on Islamic and Latter-day Saint topics–including a biography entitled Muhammad: Prophet of God (Eerdmans, 2007)—and has lectured across the United States, in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, and at various Islamic universities in the Near East and Asia. He served in the Switzerland Zürich Mission (1972-1974), and, for approximately eight years, on the Gospel Doctrine writing committee for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He also presided for a time as the bishop of a singles ward adjacent to Utah Valley University. Dr. Peterson is married to the former Deborah Stephens, of Lakewood, Colorado, and they are the parents of three sons.

Hanna Seariac is a MA student in Greek and Latin at Brigham Young University. She works as a research assistant on a biblical commentary and as a research assistant on early Latter-day Saint history. Her interests thematically center around sacrifice, magic, and priesthood as it pertains to ancient Judaism, early Christianity, ancient Egyptian religion, and early Restoration history.

Defending Agency

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Every church leader or parent has been confronted with the same basic argument—

“You can’t make me put my phone away! What ever happened to agency?”

“I can date before I’m 16 if I want to because I have agency!”

“You can’t tell me to wear a mask at church. I have my agency!”

“The Church’s stance on abortion is inconsistent with agency.”

“Why is the Church opposed to same sex marriage? Don’t we believe in agency?”

Partly because we place such a high doctrinal value on agency, Latter-day Saints are often poorly equipped to deal with these criticisms.

Before the world began, Lucifer “rebelled against [God], and sought to destroy the agency of man” (Moses 4:3).  Satan and his followers lost the ensuing war and were cast out, but they continue to “rage in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up in anger against that which is good” (2 Nephi 28:20). Satan has never conceded his loss; He persists in trying to “destroy the agency of man.”

FAIR Voice #33: Dan Ellsworth on Fowler’s stages

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See his article here: https://publicsquaremag.org/faith/easter-is-reality/

Dan Ellsworth is a consultant and writer living in Charlottesville, Virginia. Dan serves on the Mormon Studies Council at the University of Virginia, and is a contributor to Interpreter and other groups dedicated to improving Latter-Day Saints’ understanding of theology and scripture.

 

 

Hanna Seariac is a MA student in Greek and Latin at Brigham Young University. She works as a research assistant on a biblical commentary and as a research assistant on early Latter-day Saint history. Her interests thematically center around sacrifice, magic, and priesthood as it pertains to ancient Judaism, early Christianity, ancient Egyptian religion, and early Restoration history.

Who Was Hugh Nibley?: Announcing a New, Landmark Book, “Hugh Nibley Observed”

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Post 1 | Post 2 | Post 3 | Post 4 | Post 5 | Post 6 | Post 7 | Post 8 | Post 9

Post 1 of 9

by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw

For more information on the book, visit https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/

This is the first of nine weekly blog posts published in honor of the life and work of Hugh Nibley (1910–2005). Each week our post will be accompanied by interviews and insights in pdf, audio, and video form — some short and some longer.

Today, April 1, is not only April Fool’s Day (an irony Hugh Nibley would appreciate), but also the eleventh anniversary since the appearance of the nineteenth and last volume of the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, entitled One Eternal Round. This book was Hugh’s master work, decades in the making.

This series is our way of celebrating the availability of a new, landmark publication entitled “Hugh Nibley Observed.”[1] It is available today in softcover, digital, and audio versions, and, in May, a beautiful hardback edition. The book contains many never-before-told anecdotes and stories that weave together Nibley’s life and scholarship. We hope it will not only delight and inspire old friends already familiar with Nibley’s work but also many new friends who may have heard stories about the man but have never read anything by or about him. [Read more…] about Who Was Hugh Nibley?: Announcing a New, Landmark Book, “Hugh Nibley Observed”

FairMormon Conference Podcast #59 – Elder Kim B. Clark, “Seek the Lord Jesus Christ”

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This podcast series features past FairMormon Conference presentations. This presentation is from our 2020 conference, held earlier this month. If you would like to watch all the presentations from our 2020 conference, you can still purchase the video streaming.

Elder Kim B. Clark, Seeking Jesus Christ

The transcript and video are available here.

Kim ClarkElder Kim B. Clark was sustained as a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 4, 2015. He was released on October 5, 2019. During his time in the Seventy he served as the Commissioner of the Church Educational System. At the time of his call, Elder Clark was serving as the president of BYU-Idaho.

Elder Clark received a bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. He joined the faculty of the Harvard Business School in 1978 and was named dean of that school in 1995. In 2005 he became president of BYU-Idaho. Elder Clark currently serves as the NAC Professor of Management at the BYU Marriott School of Business.

Kim Bryce Clark was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on March 20, 1949. He married Sue Lorraine Hunt in June 1971. They are the parents of seven children, and grandparents of 26 grandchildren.

 

Vaughn J. Featherstone’s Atlanta Temple Letter

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[FairMormon has received several questions about this recently, so we were pleased to see Interpreter publish this essay by Christopher J. Blythe. It has been cross-posted with permission.]

Abstract: In this essay, I examine a letter written by Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone in 1983 and deposited in the cornerstone of the Atlanta Georgia Temple. The letter is addressed to twenty-first century members of the Church and is written with the expectation that these future Saints will have been alive for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. I consider the claims made about this letter from a recent viral video entitled “7 Year Tribulation in the SEVENTH Seal TIMELINE.”

On March 12, 2020, the video “7 Year Tribulation in the SEVENTH Seal TIMELINE” was released on YouTube.1 Six weeks later it had 375,000 views and had made the rounds on various Facebook groups, including one devoted to discussion among seminary teachers. The video presents a last days timeline that places the Second Coming in the very near future. The video’s creator, Masayoshi Montemayor, makes his points largely through official Church sources, including the Church’s website, institute manuals, and conference reports. However, in other instances, he points to obscure sources, including an April 1983 letter written by Seventy Vaughn J. Featherstone. This letter serves as Montemayor’s final piece of evidence for an imminent second coming. In this essay, I examine this document to understand its limitations for the argument Montemayor makes. My goal is not to criticize Elder Featherstone or to disparage sincere Latter-day Saints — among them presumably this video’s creator — who like myself are eager to be present for our Savior’s coming. [Read more…] about Vaughn J. Featherstone’s Atlanta Temple Letter

How to Build Resilient Faith

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[Cross-posted from Ben Spackman’s blog, where background is given about how this almost became an Ensign article.]

While rereading the Book of Mormon, I discovered something surprising: Captain Moroni took time away from constructing important physical defenses in order to prepare “the minds of the people to be faithful” (Alma 48:7). As a volunteer institute teacher, I’m engaged in a spiritual struggle for hearts and minds,[1] so the idea of “preparing minds to be faithful” stuck out to me. I wondered what Moroni had done, so I began looking for principles and prophetic teachings I could use to prepare “the minds of the people to be faithful.”

Since then, I have identified six broadly applicable principles that can help build resilient faith—whether in our students, our children, or ourselves.

1. Study the Scriptures Deeply

We can miss out on scripture’s full potential when we just skim over the surface or only read that which is familiar or easy. Do we read the scriptures or really study—taking notes, looking for patterns, asking questions, researching contexts, and so on? [Read more…] about How to Build Resilient Faith

Post-Mortem Analysis on this Year’s Exposé Stunt

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Monday sometime, news reports made it clear that (at least for the opponents of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Christmas had come a little early. In a post from the, um, Post, we read that, “In a declaration signed under penalty of perjury, Nielsen [a former employee and current whistleblower] urges the IRS to strip the nonprofit of its tax-exempt status and alleges that Ensign could owe billions in taxes. He is seeking a reward from the IRS, which offers whistleblowers a cut of unpaid taxes that it recovers.”

Though at first glance this might seem like a story about someone speaking truth to power, closer examination suggests it is an attempt by someone who doesn’t like the Church of Jesus Christ to tar its reputation. Accusations have been filed with the IRS, but that says nothing of the merit of those accusations. Due process is one of the wonderful ideas embodied in the American system. In news reporting, however, no such standard prevails, and there is often an advantage to be gained by making an accusation and tarring your opponent with it. A substantial first mover advantage exists when attacking an opponent through the news, because reporting accusations and scandal is much more exciting and consequently reaches a larger audience than reporting the resolution of those charges or their refutation.

So why do I think that this story reflects an attempt to attack the Church’s reputation rather than a more narrow desire to right wrongs with regard to the provisions of tax law and the Church’s compliance? One goes to the media when one wants the effect that the media will predictably produce, in this case frenzy leading to reputational damage. Now it’s plausible that the whistleblower is motivated by the prospect of money. As a whistleblower, he has essentially written himself a lottery ticket. In the (frankly improbable) event that the IRS finds that someone managing an investment erred in complying with tax regulations, he stands to receive a percentage of any taxes recovered. Nice work if you can get it. On the motivational end of things, however, there appears to be more to unpack. First of all, I don’t think this is going to pan out very well for him. I’m always open to being corrected by reality, but most of what he has actually claimed amounts to the Church operating frugally, living within their means and saving for a rainy day, consistent with their published statement. Though I can’t rule it out, I would actually be inclined to largely dismiss his financial motivation for doing this, and won’t cover it more in this post. Others have dealt with the claims about the actual financial transactions very capably, notably KSL, and made the case that this is, in essence, a nothing-burger. Beyond the improbable financial outcome, however, several aspects of what was actually published cause me to call into question whether this stunt had any real intent to do anything more than tar the Church for the duration of a news cycle. [Read more…] about Post-Mortem Analysis on this Year’s Exposé Stunt

Applying Heidegger to Religious Conviction

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by Jeffrey Thayne and Ed Gantt, cross-posted from Latter-day Saint Philosopher

A number of philosophers (Martin Heidegger, Hubert Dreyfus, and others) argue that there are two basic “ways of being,” or modes in which we live-out our lives and make sense of the world:  the ready-to-hand and the present-at-hand. The first denotes our ongoing, active, purposeful, and engaged involvement in relationships and activities as we go about our daily life. The second identifies the more abstract, detached, reflective, or more “intellectual” or “theoretical” way in which we sometimes take up the world and our place in it.

The following example from Dreyfus may help to illustrate this distinction:

We hand the blind man a cane and ask him to tell us what properties it has. After hefting and feeling it, he tells us that it is light, smooth, about three feet long, and so on; it is occurrent for him. But when the man starts to manipulate the cane, he loses his awareness of the cane itself; he is aware only of the curb (or whatever object the cane touches) or, if all is going well, he is not even aware of that, but of his freedom to walk, or perhaps only what he is talking about with his friend.[1]

[Read more…] about Applying Heidegger to Religious Conviction

Seeking Truth

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by Dennis B. Horne

Some months ago I noticed the comments of a critic of the Church posted on a (highly critical) chat-site forum. This person wanted to engage with me in a debate about Church history and doctrine in hopes of causing doubt or loss of faith. His opening catch-phrase was clever, something like, “I assume he is a truth-seeker” (meaning me). This was meant to sound innocent; after all, for goodness sake, shouldn’t we all be truth-seekers?; especially Latter-day Saints?

At first glance I knew sophistry was in play. I realized that this question “are you/is he a truth-seeker,” was a wolf-question in sheep-question disguise. It was a way to ensnare, to set a trap. Something like “beware of the evil behind the smiling eyes.”

But it also gave me further occasion to ponder whether or not I am a truth-seeker, and if so, what kind of truth-seeker I am, and this caused me to engage in some introspection. Sometimes the deceptions of the enemy (Satan’s mortal servants and spokespeople who often don’t know they are) can prod thoughtful people into adjusting or refining their thinking and views, and such was the case for me. While I made no direct response to the subtle crafty critic then, I now offer some broader thoughts on the subject. [Read more…] about Seeking Truth