Volume 27, No. 4
Winter 1994
The Winter 1994 Issue examines themes of ethnicity, diversity, and conflict within the context of Mormonism and its global interactions. Helen Papanikolas discusses the complexities of ethnicity and diversity within the church. Neila C. Seshachari shares her experiences as an immigrant navigating life in Mormon Utah. Mark L. Grover explores the Relief Society and church welfare through the lens of Brazilian members, highlighting cultural nuances. Andrew Clark addresses the lingering impacts of the "Curse of Cain" in South Africa, while Richard Eliot Allen reflects on the cultural narrative in Taiwan. Eugene England emphasizes the importance of ethical considerations regarding diversity within the Mormon community. Jerald R. Izatt presents a critical examination of cultural legacies in the church, and B. J. Fogg discusses the benefits of communal harmony. The collection also includes scriptural studies, with Mark D. Thomas pursuing the historical Jesus, Daryl D. Schmidt contemplating the Sabbath's healing implications, and W. Barnes Tatum analyzing the significance of Jesus healing Simon's mother-in-law.
Contents
Articles/Essays
The Fading Curse of Cain: Mormonism in South Africa
Andrew ClarkDialogue 27.4 (Winter 1994): 41–56
White South African Church members’s perspectives on racial issues in the context of Apartheid.
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“No Respecter of Persons”: A Mormon Ethics of Diversity
Eugene EnglandDialogue 27.4 (Winter 1994): 79–100
Eugene England addresses issues of inclusion and exclusion reflecting on what it means that “God is no respector of persons.”
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Lucifer’s Legacy
Jerald R. IzattTwice now I’ve been told straight out and in so many words, “Don’t be too honest!” Both times this earnest counsel came from men whose friendship I cherish and whose priesthood callings command my respect.…
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The Continuing Quest for the Historical Jesus
Mark D. ThomasIn 1975 I enrolled in the divinity school at the University of Chicago, where I hoped to earn a Ph.D. under Norman Perrin, a distinguished British New Testament scholar. But a call I made at the same time to the head of the LDS Church Education System in Salt Lake City stopped me cold in my tracks. He told me that if I wanted to teach New Testament for the church I could do so with a Ph.D. in physics or family counseling— anything but a degree in New Testament studies. That attitude has created a vacuum in serious New Testament studies among Latter-day Saints. One way to fill this void is to become a member of the Westar Institute of Sonoma, California, whose goal, among others, is to expose the public to serious biblical scholarship.
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Fiction
Nei Wei
Daniel AustinKeith Larson spent the first year of his mission in the southern Taiwan port city of Kaoshiung. After a four-month stint in Tainan, central Taiwan, he was glad to be transferred south again to the…
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Dust to Dust: A Mormon Folktale
Phyllis BarberThe morning promised no bright sun. No blue sky. Only dust from the desert’s chalky red soil. “Lord in heaven,” Rosalinda said to herself. She stared out the window, worried about her garden. She couldn’t…
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Letters to the Editor
Notes
Chaotic Matter: Eugene England’s “The Dawning of a Brighter Day”
Brian EvensonMore than ten years after the original appearance of an essay might be too long to wait to respond to it, but the republication of Eugene En gland’s “Dawning of a Brighter Day: Mormon Literature after 150 years” as the inaugural essay of Wasatch Review International (vol. 1 [1992], no. 1) calls for a response.
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A Look at Ephesians 2:8-9
Allen W. LeighEphesians 2:8-9 (KJV) speaks of salvation coming through the grace of God: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:/ Not of works, lest any man should boast.” The interpretation of these verses is controversial.
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Poetry
The Time Traveler Comes to Cana
M. Shayne BellSo I went to Cana and spent Sabbath
in that house, their guest, before the wedding.
The daughter spoke with joy of her marriage;
the mother sat impatient—Sabbath’s end
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Snows
Marden J. ClarkThat snow falling out there, not in flakes
But in clusters of flake, little snow balls
Loosened by November’s sun still barely struggling
Through the harvest haze, snow falling
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1844
Philip WhiteSigns in the heavens. Great arcs of light
at midday. Drew it. Intend
to ask Joseph what it means …
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Cap Meets the Prophet Brigham
Derk KoldewynOn the third day he stopped for a deserved rest,
though not intentionally. The bishop, she explained,
was hunting pheasants and wouldn’t be back
for hours. So he collapsed into a straw bed
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Naked
Lance LarsenI was expecting ripened avocadoes, Michael,
or half-used spices—the usual throwaways before
a move. Not a grocery bag of garments, unopened,
each slippery package a skin you never tied on.
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The Violent Woman
Joseph FisherSarah your clarinet
body squeaks at the valves, moans
off key, and lying still
and flat as a paper doll
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Bathing a Child
Marilyn Bushman-Carlton Elbow-deep in shallow water
with porcelain pressed against my breast
I dragged the sudsy washcloth
over your squirming body
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Reviews
The Divine Transmutation | John L. Brooke, The Refiner’s Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844
Lance S. OwensJoseph Smith’s place in western religious history is on the verge of creative reevaluation. Two years ago American literary critic Harold Bloom’s casting of Smith as a Gnostic prophet linked by vision to the occult…
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Mormon Angels in America: Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes
David G. Pace
1994: David Pace, “Mormon Angels in America ,” Dialogue 27.4 (Winter 1994): 194–196. For Mormons, the co-option of our most sacred story for the purposes of theater might at first seem blasphemous. In fact, Eugene England in his regular This People round-up of recent LDS-related books and plays tagged part one of Angels,...
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