It’s all about U.S. dollars, right?
Contrary to the claims of the Peterson Obsession Board, I do not make big bucks blogging.
Interpreter Radio Show — June 12, 2022
In the first half of this episode of the Interpreter Radio Show, Martin Tanner, John Gee, and Kevin Christensen discuss Under the Banner of Heaven — thus, no doubt, somehow mystically confirming my own ongoing personal obsession with that recent FX/Hulu miniseries. The second portion of the show is devoted to a roundtable discussing the upcoming Come, Follow Me lesson #30 (Ezra 1; 3–7; Nehemiah 2; 4–6; 8). The Interpreter Radio Show can be heard Sunday evenings from 7 to 9 PM (MDT), on K-TALK, AM 1640, or you can listen live on the Internet at ktalkmedia.com.
Interpreter Radio Show — June 19, 2022
The first portion of the 19 June 2022 Interpreter Radio Show features Martin Tanner, Bruce Webster, and Kris Frederickson talking about fatherhood. The second half of the show is given over to a roundtable discussion focused on the upcoming Come, Follow Me lesson #31 (Esther). The Interpreter Radio Show is transmitted each and every Sunday evening, from 7 to 9 PM (MDT), by K-TALK, AM 1640. Or, if that doesn’t suit your preferences, you can listen to the show live on the Internet at ktalkmedia.com.
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Some time ago, somebody over at the Peterson Obsession Board discovered that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints now owns Patheos, a platform on which I used to blog. This was said to explain a lot about me. I don’t remember what it was supposed to explain, exactly. Probably the vast amounts of money that I make from blogging, my servile obedience to the Brethren, and so forth. It also illustrated my dishonesty, since I hadn’t publicly revealed that I’m a paid mercenary who does the bidding of the leaders of the Church, here as everywhere else. I responded that, if it was true that the Church had bought a company that owned a company that owned a company that owned Patheos (or something of that sort), this was news to me, and that, so far as I could tell, whatever ownership change might have occurred hadn’t affected me in any way that I could identify.
Now, though, a friend (who was writing on a totally different topic and, so far as I’m aware, is completely unaware of the alleged clandestine corporate shell game identified over at the Obsession Board, has mentioned to me in passing that, back in September 2016, Patheos was purchased by Beliefnet, which, he says, is a firm belonging to Evangelical Protestants. So not to Latter-day Saints.
Now, I have no idea which of these scenarios, if either of them, is actually true. And, to be perfectly candid, I don’t much care. Not, anyway, so long as they don’t try to micromanage what I say and, of course and much more importantly, so long as the gold bullion continues to be delivered in dump trucks to my front door every morning and every evening.
Of course, maybe I should ask: Am I still reaching anybody? Can anybody still read what I’m posting? A couple of weeks back, the Obsession Board was buzzing about the imminent termination of this blog. The Brethren, it was reported on the basis of, well, something or other that went unidentified and unmentioned, were said to be deliberating on how and when to pull the plug on my blogging. So, have they? Inquiring minds want to know. Perhaps I’ve been euthanized and I just don’t know it yet!
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Plainly, we got out of town just in the nick of time. The neighborhood has suddenly gone spectacularly downhill:
“Who’s Who At The Legendary Summer Camp For Billionaires In Sun Valley, Idaho”
Incidentally, I should probably explain both our recent trip to Germany and our brief stay in Sun Valley for those who desperately worry about my finances and my obvious corruption: My food, lodging, and travel expenses, and those for my wife, were paid in Germany by Bountiful Travel, which has assimilated — or, anyway, is in the process of assimilating — the Cruise Lady company. (We did not receive any payment beyond expenses.) Why would they pick up our expenses? Presumably, it’s a fairly cool-headed business decision: The company assumes, whether correctly or not, that my accompanying such a tour will add value to it and, thus, attract (paying!) tour participants. I provide historical and other commentary during such trips and, in this as in a number of other cases, gave preparatory lectures (for this specific instance, two lectures on Martin Luther and the Reformation and one lecture on Oberammergau and its venerable decennial Passion Play) prior to departure. The brief trip to Sun Valley, which I had never visited before, was the result of a gift from very generous friends to me and my wife and to another couple, friends of ours, with whom we traveled up to the resort and back. It was very pleasant to spend time with them. (As is my usual practice, I withhold their names here because I don’t want to subject them to vicious commentary from denizens of the Peterson Obsession Board. Being acquainted with me is already punishment enough.)
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From the Wall Street Journal. Perhaps you can access it: “What Porn Does to Teen Brains—and How to Keep It Off Their Devices: Adolescents have a harder time controlling urges and diverting attention, but psychologists caution parents against telling kids porn will rot their brains”
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You’ve had it far too easy for far too long. So here’s a chilling story of terror for you from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything File©. Read it and weep:
“BYU nursing students provide relief to Ukrainian refugees during study abroad in Poland”
And here’s another tale of theistically-induced depravity that will make your skin crawl:
“Ukrainian Refugees Find Open Arms and Generous Hearts in Western Canada”
But I’m still not done. Religious beliefs don’t merely hurt groups. They also seek out and damage individuals:
And here’s an item that wasn’t directly in the Hitchens File but that I found in close proximity to that infinitely rich chamber of horrors:
Here, though, is something in which secularists might still potentially find a ray of hope amidst the pervasive, wicked gloom generated by theism and theists:
Posted from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
