The "Witnesses" Movie as Outright Mopologetics

[_Symmachus]

Joseph, my son, we have a work for you to do after we finish prancing in the woods .....

Suddenly, the magic mushroom angle has more weight.

"Here I come!" said the coffee to my laptop as it exited my nose.

[_Kishkumen]

DCP responds:

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2019/11/dismissing-witness-testimony.html

Well, that was hilariously inept. I hope he didn’t waste much time on it.

[_Kishkumen]

Laying out the defense for Mr. Joseph Smith against charges of capital homicide, defense attorney Daniel Peterson called the defendant to the stand to testify. The defendant claimed, under oath, that he saw an angel pump six revolver rounds into Mr. Chauncey Gardner while Mr. Gardner lay on the ground pleading for his life. He also reported hearing the angel screaming “Die, Chauncey! Die!” When asked under cross examination why none of the witnesses to the crime saw the angel, Smith said that they “clearly lacked faith to see the angel with their spiritual eyes.”

Reaching into his breast pocket and removing some wrinkled manuscripts with a dramatic flourish, Mr. Peterson then solemnly intoned, “Your Honor, Mr. Smith has brought these signed statements from his family and friends averring that they, too, saw the murderous angel, who appeared to them later and confessed to the crime. We ask that these statements be entered into the record.”

When the jury returned a verdict of “guilty,” jurors explained to those who questioned them, first of all, that any fool can claim he has seen an angel, that a scoundrel is much more likely to invoke an act of God fraudulently, and that the unverifiable statements of the defendant’s family and friends have all the credibility of a truant child’s forged excuse note.

Asked for his reaction to the verdict, defense attorney Daniel Peterson, clearly stunned by the outcome, lamented the secularization of America and repeatedly touted the honor and rectitude of the signatories to the statements Smith produced, leaving onlookers incredulous.

[_Doctor Scratch]

DCP responds:

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2019/11/dismissing-witness-testimony.html

You left out the best part of that post!:

For some reason, my little post on “Running with the golden plates” has inflamed a certain tiny sector of the web that I like to watch, and they’ve been pulling out the big guns (e.g., even the eminent American philosopher and historian Mark Twain; who ever saw that coming?) to demolish the testimony of the Witnesses to the Book of Mormon. They also don’t like the Interpreter Foundation’s Witnesses film at all, having (of course) never seen it but pronouncing it, among other things, stupid, annoying, and dishonest. I’m absolutely shocked. I had so confidently expected their enthusiastic endorsement!

Anyhow, one of the angles of response particularly amused me, so I offer here a brief repurposing of its fundamental argument, in story form:

Hey, now: for the record, I very much like the Witnesses Film! I doubt there is another film slated for 2020 that I am looking forward to more that the Witnesses film! I mean, it has already paid off so richly in dividends... Could this be a case where the hype actually winds up doing damage to the film--i.e., that the hype will build up so much that the movie cannot help but be an enormous let-down?

As for the thinking behind the project--and, generally, the Interpreter Foundation, and the people who run it--well, yes: stupid, annoying, and dishonest sound about right. (No profits whatsoever from the movie? Really? Are you prepared to prove that with documentation?)

[_Doctor Scratch]

Joseph, my son, we have a work for you to do after we finish prancing in the woods .....

Suddenly, the magic mushroom angle has more weight.

It would be awesome if the movie featured something like that--it's like something out of Inland Empire, or pretty much any of David Lynch's other work. But like Reverend Kishkumen said earlier (correctly, I fear), the movie is likely just straight-up propaganda, so we are not going to get any artistic flourishes along those lines. I mean, Peterson was gaga over a clip of Joseph Smith running while carrying the Gold Plates. We are talking about an *awfully* low bar if this is the thing that's getting him all excited.

[Guest]

Hey, now: for the record, I very much like the Witnesses Film! I doubt there is another film slated for 2020 that I am looking forward to more that the Witnesses film! I mean, it has already paid off so richly in dividends... Could this be a case where the hype actually winds up doing damage to the film--i.e., that the hype will build up so much that the movie cannot help but be an enormous let-down?

I’m with you on this one, Doctor. I love the idea of Witnesses, and everything I have seen about it, thanks to Professor P, looks very promising. I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict that this will make a real splash. I am not at all worried that this is overhyped. I foresee this being shown at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for many years to come. I may even invest in my very own DVD!

Not only that, but this is inspiring me to drum up support for a Martin Harris film! Can you imagine a modestly budgeted bio-pic of Martin Harris, the man Joseph saw coming from a mile away, talking to Jesus deer, happy to lend his witness to each and every latest discovery of the Lord’s word? That larger context is exactly what is missing from the awareness of most Mormons. Such a film could also humanize Martin by showing him “correct” his wife Lucy or step out on her to carry on with a neighbor lady. Think of the possibilities!

[_Kishkumen]

Joseph, my son, we have a work for you to do after we finish prancing in the woods .....

Suddenly, the magic mushroom angle has more weight.

I want this for my new avatar!

[_Kishkumen]

It would be awesome if the movie featured something like that--it's like something out of Inland Empire, or pretty much any of David Lynch's other work. But like Reverend Kishkumen said earlier (correctly, I fear), the movie is likely just straight-up propaganda, so we are not going to get any artistic flourishes along those lines. I mean, Peterson was gaga over a clip of Joseph Smith running while carrying the Gold Plates. We are talking about an *awfully* low bar if this is the thing that's getting him all excited.

I would give just about anything to see a Lynch rendering of Joseph Smith and the early years of visions and gold Bibles, especially one featuring this elaphophany!

[_MsJack]

They also don’t like the Interpreter Foundation’s Witnesses film at all, having (of course) never seen it but pronouncing it, among other things, stupid, annoying, and dishonest.

This was pretty much the reaction of everyone at MADB to September Dawn when it came out.

And, If I recall correctly, I was compared to a Nazi (I think by Dan himself, but my memory here is extremely fuzzy and unreliable) for saying it was a bit silly of them to have such strong opinions about a film they hadn't even bothered to see.

[_Dr Exiled]

Joseph, my son, we have a work for you to do after we finish prancing in the woods .....

Suddenly, the magic mushroom angle has more weight.

I want this for my new avatar!

Here is the link:

http://featured-cdn.9gag.com/images/thumbnail-facebook/9741161_1394158681.172_WYRyMa_n.jpg

I was laughing pretty hard after I found it.