Melodie Moench Charles

MELODIE MOENCH CHARLES lives in San Antonio, Texas, with her husband Bob and their five children, none of whom show any interest in being dominated by their parents in heaven or anywhere else. An earlier version of this paper was delivered at the Sunstone Symposium in 1987

Nineteenth-Century Mormons: The New Israel

Articles/Essays – Volume 12, No. 1

The Mormons of the nineteenth century saw themselves as a new Israel very much like the old. They appropriated ancient Israel’s sentiments and traditions, and its special status as God’s covenant people. For a Christian…

A Mormon Perspective — Cockeyed | Glenn L. Pearson, The Old Testament: A Mormon Perspective

Articles/Essays – Volume 15, No. 3

Glenn Pearson begins his book by denning good LDS scholars as “scholars in the best priesthood sense” (p. 1). Because he doesn’t explain this term, I’m not certain what he means, but because I am…

LDS Women and Priesthood: Scriptural Precedents for Priesthood

Articles/Essays – Volume 18, No. 3

Dialogue 18.3 (Fall 1985): 15–20
I have heard many LDS women approach the issue of women and the priesthood by protesting that they do not want to hold the priesthood because they have no interest in passing the sacrament or performing some other ecclesiastical duty. I will venture a guess that many men who have the priesthood do not particularly want to hold it either, and that some of them also have no interest in passing the sacrament. But the reluctance of some men would hardly be a good reason to prevent all men from holding the priesthood.

The Need for a New Mormon Heaven

Articles/Essays – Volume 21, No. 3

Dialogue 21.3 (Fall 1988): 73–85
I used to love this description because my Mormon heaven seemed far superior to this standard Christian heaven that Twain’s Satan describes. Sexual intercourse does have a place in Mormon heaven, though not as an end in itself. Heavenly residents are busy with activities. Those righteous individuals who become gods in Mormon heaven will certainly be using their intellects as they create worlds and keep them running, and they will undoubtedly be learning continuously. Mormonism never suggested there would be continual music, nor continual church or Sabbath days in heaven.

Drowning in Excess | Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, Book of Mormon Critical Text: A Tool for Scholarly Reference

Articles/Essays – Volume 22, No. 2

Praise to the mostly anonymous team from F.A.R.M.S. who produced this massive work. They deserve praise first for dedicating so much time and effort to careful research through manuscripts, computer indexes, and printed material. Second,…