There are two events on October 14th of note. The Sacred Geometry matter announced below will begin. Yvonne Bent has organized the event and several interesting speakers are coming. For those interested in the subject it should be delightful.
The same evening Benchmark Books will be hosting an event in which Terryl Givens and Matthew Grow will be speaking about their new book on Parley Pratt. This will be held at the Benchmark store location at 3269 South Main, Suite 250.
Both of these events look to be quite worthwhile.
I was saddened by the passing of Matthew Brown, who was only 48 years old. His widow and children are not protected by any life insurance and a fund has been set up to donate for anyone interested. I would encourage anyone who can to do so.
My wife brought a matter to my attention which I thought I'd comment about again. I put up some cautions about how the new book was going to have those who wanted to take sensational statements out of context and put them on the Internet in isolation, separated from the many sources carefully assembled to lay a foundation to understand the statements. That has begun. I'd only remind those who are interested that anything can be made to look sensational if it is divorced from context. I could make the most benign of Joseph Smith's statements look fanatical and rob them of all meaning if I wanted to do so. But to understand the Prophet, it takes careful, even prayerful, study.
I have no agenda apart from explaining the truth as I understand it. But when I explain it, I give (particularly in the case of the latest book) enough historic and scriptural support that any conclusions are only an extension of what the Prophet, or the Book of Mormon, or the history itself compels us to conclude. The conclusions are rather anticlimactic. They are only the result of the accumulated and disclosed body of information preceding them. When, therefore, someone takes merely the conclusion and represents it as an accurate statement of what I've written, it is so gross a distortion that it is essentially untrue. Time, care, patience and great effort was taken to show the history for the benefit of the reader. Divorcing all that from a single sentence and parading it as what I think is, at best, a disservice.
But people crave the 'sound-bite' solution to everything. Therefore the cunning and fearful want to rush to expose and distort, in hopes to mislead and inoculate people from learning some things which help them find their way to the Lord. As I say in the book, I've been ministered to by the Lord. I'd caution those who want to distort what I've written to be careful, therefore, and prayerful (as I have been) in how they elect to proceed.
The souls of men are something no one should trifle with. I've never done so. I'd encourage others to avoid doing so unless they are certain they are on the Lord's errand.