(Wikimedia Commons public domain image.)
Did I announce this article of mine from Meridian Magazine? I think that I may have neglected to do so, even though it was published nearly two weeks ago: “Are Latter-day Saint Temples too Lavish?”
My wife and I recently watched a streamed version of the Latter-day Saint British Pageant that is performed every four years (I think) near the Preston England Temple in Chorley, Lancashire. The pageant tells the story of the beginnings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Great Britain, starting with the mission of Elder Heber C. Kimball in 1837. I’m not sure that it’s available online anymore, though I hope that it is and, if not, I wish that it would be made available.
I have to be honest: I’ve never been a particularly enthusiastic fan of pageants and I wasn’t expecting much. But both my wife (who was a theater major at BYU) and I were surprised to be quite impressed by the British Pageant. It was extremely well done. The music and singing and dancing were well executed and, at various times, I found it moving. Moreover, it did a good job of telling its remarkable story.
I’ve been to other Church pageants, including the old Manti Miracle Pageant and the Hill Cumorah Pageant, both of which have now been discontinued (for reasons that, I admit, are a bit obscure to me). They were well done, too, but I expected the British Pageant to be fairly amateurish. It wasn’t.
A story: On the one occasion that I attended the Hill Cumorah Pageant, many years ago while I was back for a summer faculty seminar at Princeton University with my wife and children, I had vowed that I would not interact with any of the anti-Mormons who, I knew, would be out in force ringing the pageant site. When we arrived, though, and after we had found our place for watching the performance, I walked back toward the entrance. Probably for refreshments or something of that sort. On the way in, I had seen two young Latter-day Saint men — pre-mission age, I guessed — who had been engaged in energetic conversation with a very vocal evangelical Protestant anti-Mormon.
When I came back by, they were still there. I almost immediately recognized the anti-Mormon man to be the now-departed John R. Farkas. I had never met him before, but I had seen his photograph and I knew that he lived in the Palmyra area. I had also read some of his writing.
He was really letting the two young men have it — quite harshly, too — and they were plainly being knocked back on their heels. His pre-planned attack was far more practiced than their defense.. So, I thought, maybe I’ll step in for just a second and help them out. (I can’t remember what specific issue they were discussing at precisely that moment, but it was something for which I thought that I had a very good answer. Evidently he thought so too, because he quickly changed the subject.)
Very soon, the two young men were able to withdraw from the conversation — I expect that they were greatly relieved to do so — thus leaving me alone with Mr. Farkas. I’ve had many discussions with avowed evangelical critics of the Church, though relatively few of them in recent years, but I have to say that, of all of those critics, Mr. Farkas was the most unpleasant that I’ve ever encountered. He was not only unrelentingly hostile toward the Church but personally obnoxious, sneering, insulting, and condescending.
By the time the pageant was underway and I had managed to extricate myself from Mr. Farkas in order to resume my seat with my family, I was in a pretty poor mood and was reproaching myself for having been foolish enough to be drawn, against my resolution, into the worst kind of confrontation with a Protestant anti-Mormon. Contrary to my image in some circles, I really dislike face-to-face contention. There was not a trace of the Spirit present in that discussion, and it took me easily twenty or thirty minutes before I could get myself fully into a frame of mind that would allow me to enjoy the pageant.
I try to avoid such encounters like the plague.
Willard Hirschi was our bishop when we first moved to Utah and I joined the faculty at Brigham Young University, and then a member of our stake presidency. I liked him. He had a dry sense of humor. He didn’t call attention to himself, and I know now that we didn’t really understand what a significant person he was. But the Deseret News understood: “Remembering the rock of a man, Willard Hirschi: Former BYU head track coach Hirschi dies at age 89”
Another member of our ward in those days was Elaine Michaelis, who features prominently in this piece that was published in the Deseret News near the end of this past July: “Who should be immortalized on BYU’s Mount Rushmore? Narrowing it down to 4 is no small task”
It was a privilege to get to know her, too — although, once again, I think that we were pretty clueless as to her importance.
Continuing with the “Mount Rushmore” article: I was also fortunate enough to see the great Krešimir Ćosić play basketball. I’ve met Tom Holmoe once or twice, though he certainly wouldn’t remember me or those occasions. And I had several encounters with LaVell Edwards, mostly during his post-coaching life. He had a great sense of humor.
And, finally, as a service to those who hunger, thirst, and even pant for new theistic evils to lament, I offer a six-fold dip into the inexhaustible riches of the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File:
“Wildfires in Maui: Church Providing Temporary Shelter, Assistance to Evacuees” (11 August 2023)
“Maui Wildfires: Community Comes Together as Evacuations and Assessment Begin: Five Latter-day Saints have died in the fires” (12 August 2023)
“Maui wildfires: Church provides humanitarian update as death toll climbs” (12 August 2023)
It’s appalling that such religious misbehavior is even legal.
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