Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 14

More on the Latter-day Saints and Presidential Politics

  Details regarding the approaching 2025 FAIR conference can be found here.  I hope to see you there, although it’s very likely that I won’t be speaking on the topic that’s currently listed for me online.  I’m not even sure where that title came from.  Did I suggest it?  If I did, I don’t remember […]

After a very productive day

  We conducted a very good series of lengthy and substantial interviews today at the Church History Library, which sits directly to the east of the Conference Center, directly to the northeast of Temple Square.  The interviews, of course, are for the Interpreter Foundation’s forthcoming series of short video features, which are being produced under […]

Acting the bully in Fairview, Texas?

  I wrote the other day regarding the approval of a temple in Texas about which considerable and acrimonious controversy has swirled.  (See “Quick Thoughts Occasioned by the Fairview Texas Temple.”)  I’ve received some email responses to my position and I’ve seen some online reactions to the agreement that has evidently been reached, and I […]

Book of Mormon anachronisms?

  I’m obviously very late with calling attention to them — see below for the reason behind my delay — but these items went up on the website of the Interpreter Foundation on Friday afternoon, and I heartily commend them to your attention.  Two of them appear in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith […]

Transoxiana

  Bukhara and Samarkand, where I’ve spent pretty much the past week, lie in what the West has long called Transoxiana (roughly, “beyond the [River] Oxus”).  The name was first coined by Alexander the Great [“the Great”!) — or, anyway, by somebody in his entourage, in the fourth century BC.  I’ve always been amused by […]

Quick Thoughts Occasioned by the Fairview Texas Temple

  Even over here in Uzbekistan, I’ve seen the report that, on a vote of 5-2, the city council of Fairview, Texas, has given grudging conditional approval for construction of a proposed Latter-day Saint temple in their small town, which is located in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area.  The approval comes after a lengthy and […]

Bukhara

  Tuesday was the last day of the “Diplomacy of the Heart” conference.  The morning began with a “breakfast conversation” led by Brent Bishop of the Sharetix Foundation on “Purposeful Planning: Aligning Values, Vision, and Action for a Fulfilled Life.” The first morning session was chaired by Gregory C. Hill, who is the Chief Administrative […]

On the Silk Road

  It’s difficult to overstate the historical and cultural importance of the place where I’m sitting at this very moment.  For one thing, Samarkand is located on what has come to be called, quite famously, the “Silk Road.”  The term was originally coined in German, in the nineteenth century, as die Seidenstraße.  It entered English […]

The first full public day

  I was the respondent in the first full, public session of the conference today.  (The overall conference title is “Diplomacy of the Heart: The Power of Intercultural Dialogue and Education in Peacebuilding.”)  Given the fact, as discovered and announced over on the Peterson Obsession Board, that I’m a religious and cultural bigot and something […]

Of Goodness and Greatness

  Wow.  I flew over Bandar Abbas on the night that this happened:  “Massive explosion at Iranian port kills 14 and injures hundreds” The topic of fluctuations in religious faith and commitment continues to interest me: “Gen Z is finding religion. Why? 3 theories for Gen Z’s return to God and faith.” “The Plateau Of […]