Winter 1992
The Winter 1992 Issue addresses various historical and social aspects of Mormonism, with a focus on diverse experiences and perspectives. Douglas F. Tobler examines the experiences of Mormons in the German Democratic Republic from 1945 to 1989. Mark Edward Koliko critiques common myths surrounding counseling and psychotherapy within the Latter-day Saint community. Linda Thatcher highlights the economic and emotional struggles faced by early LDS women. Dian Saderup and William Cottam present selected biographies from the Manhattan First Ward, showcasing individual stories within the community. Jessie L. Embry explores the roles of ethnic groups within the LDS Church and emphasizes the importance of an oral history project that captures these voices. Lastly, Chester Lee Hawkins provides a selective bibliography focusing on African Americans and their interactions with Mormonism from 1830 to 1990.
On 9 November 1989 the world stood transfixed as television sets around the globe transmitted the fall of the Berlin Wall. Hundreds of thousands of East Germans streamed into Berlin to mount the wall or…
John[1] was deeply depressed and believed there was no chance that he would get better. He felt worthless, unworthy, and vile and was certain that the world would be better off without him. Occasionally the…
Even under the best of circumstances, life in the mid-nineteenth century was not easy for Mormon women. Often repeatedly uprooted from their homes, they left behind family, friends, neighbors, and community to pursue their new…
Two years ago the Manhattan First Ward published a small collection of biographies chronicling the lives of nine senior ward members. Impetus for the project came when news reached Bill Cottam during his initial year as First Ward bishop that several older members had died.
Dialogue 25.4 (Winter 1992): 81–96
A history of ethnic wards and branches as the church struggled with integration vs. segregation of immigrant communities.
Dialogue 25.4 (Winter 1992): 113–131
Bibliography of African Americans role in the church from 1830-1990.
She rarely blew her cool and never ever swore, but—”Dammit! Hell!” The metal stirring spoon rebounded off the sink and took a bite out of the kitchen wall. The real Tracy Sequaptewa? She glared at…
My humble plan for the financial salvation and exaltation of every soul who has the sense to sign up I have seen a vision. I have become a new man. And boy, am I excited! Not…
I was in a school bus with fifty other adults headed down to Harlem. At the time, we didn’t know our destination. The invitation had read only, “April Fool’s Day Party.” Our host, the former bishop, was known for his generosity and love of good times, so the turnout had been high. The mysteriousness of the affair, combined with the capacity of a yellow school bus to bring out the fifth grader in anyone, succeeded in creating a festive atmosphere. There we were, all dressed up in our sacrament meeting clothes, giggling, flirting, talking too loud.
While growing up on the Blackfoot Reservation near Gleichen, Alberta, Canada, I lived with my grandparents. On Sundays around noon, two well-dressed white men would drive up to our home. For some unknown reason, I…
19 JANUARY: Belgrade must be the smoggiest of all cities. If you look closely, you can see farmers through the haze plowing fields between runways. President told us in Vienna that if it ever does…
I started drinking in high school. I love to push the limits, and hearing that something was prohibited enticed me to go after it. Being both devious and smart, I indulged in forbidden behavior without…
My cousin Charles chomped down handfuls of the red honey suckle berries that my parents said were poison. And he didn’t die. No, sir—e. He grinned, the little seeds clinging to his gums, and said,…
I have got a blond, it’s true.
The others comment,
laugh behind their hands:
where did that one come from?
It is a last bastion,
The pulpit. Prominent
Among muscular box shapes;
Fenced off and jutting skyward
Already cold and stiff by the time I arrived,
It was a shallow shadow, gray against black;
A collar of blood fringed its matted coat.
When no one was faking sick, we were nine —
just enough to cover the routes if someone
doubled up. We argued over the packets,
weighing thickness against distance,
Wanting to be one of twelve princesses
to disappear down a trap door
underneath her bed each night
and dance to weariness in a haunted place
I have written this letter to you before
and I will write this letter to you again.
In it I tell you that the days are starkly blue
and unbearably warm, that the cooling storms
“The satisfaction brought by morning dew
is more than human stomachs can endure,”
the men insist, hoping that they will die.
“The satisfaction brought by morning dew
Over the terra cotta earth
your truck like a cleft-foot goat
grazes homeward.
The down of trees in the hills
While a hummingbird scans it for wires
the red rosebud explodes in slow motion,
the two velocities firing simultaneously.
Riddled with inconsistencies, the rose is
In Women, Family, and Utopia, Lawrence Foster, an associate professor of Ameri can history at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, establishes two goals: to expand on his research regarding “relations between men and…
D. Michael Quinn, one of the foremost practitioners of the type of work distinguished as the “New Mormon History,” certainly thinks so. He has assembled in this volume a set of fifteen previously published essays…
Media accounts of sexual abuse of children regularly remind us that children continue to be sexually assaulted by adults and juveniles in their communities. Almost always, the perpetrator is someone known and trusted by the child,…
Change is an inevitable though variable process in human societies and natural environments. Each generation perceives changes in their cultural universe, laments what is being lost, and wonders what will persist. They leave behind various…
Even with the explosion of scholarly interest in Mormonism over the past fifteen years, students of American religion still wait for a systematic and synthetic treatment of the development of Mormon theology. Central to such…
This anthology is designed for people with a professional interest in Mormon historiography as well as for the much larger number of men and women who have been intrigued or alarmed by the rhetoric about…
