Volume 42, No. 4
Winter 2009
The Winter 2009 issue begins with Keith J. Allred examining exactly who "second Nephi" could be and what it meant for the Nephite peoples. This is followed by "What is Mormon Cinema? Defining the Genre," by Randy Astle who takes a look at the history of Mormon movies and Mormons in movies, and the cultural impact they have had on those both in and out of the church. This issue also features a fascinating and timely interview between Gregory Prince and Brent Rushforth about the use of torture on enemy combatants in the war on terror. To end this issue there are many personal voices, several beautiful works of poetry, and a work of fiction titled "Body and Blood" by Michael Palmer.
Contents
Articles/Essays
Fiction
Body and Blood
Michael PalmerIt’s six o’clock, time for dinner and Little House on the Prairie reruns. I walk up the stairs as my mom is pulling some string beans out of the microwave. She asks me if I’ll…
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Interview
Letters to the Editor
Personal Voices
Poetry
Reviews
Roundtable
Six Voices on Proposition 8: A Roundtable
Russell Arben FoxDialogue 42.4 (Winter 2009): 106–141
After Prop 22 passed, it was overturned by the courts as a violation of the equal protection clause of the CA constitution. Opponents of same-sex marriage devised a new proposition to amenda the CA constitution to ban same-sex marriage and the LDS church announced its public support and activism for the measure in the summer of 2008 before the november election. It was a deeply contentious issue bringing national attention to the church whose members provided the bulk of the funding for its passage, nearly $40m. The issue was a breaking point for many in the church and the above roundtable attempts to offer a variety of legal and religious arguments for and against the measure.
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Two Modes of Political Engagement
David WatkinsThe hard-fought campaign over Proposition 8, which in November 2008 rescinded the legal right to marriage for same-sex couples in California, is evidence of an important political success for religious conservative political groups who support…
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The Church’s Use of Secular Arguments
Kaimipono WengerOne fascinating development in the Proposition 8 debate in California was the extent to which secular arguments-involving legal, political, and sociological claims-came to take center stage, even in announcements from the Church itself. The Church’s…
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How We Talk about Marriage (and Why It Matters)
Robert K. VischerA decade from now, same-sex marriage will likely be the law in a majority of states. Given the domino effect of legislatures embracing a cause that has successfully claimed the mantle of equality, coupled with…
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An Evangelical Perspective
Lindsey ChambersAs an evangelical Christian living in California, I had mixed feelings about the Christian community’s involvement in Proposition 8. I had just started attending a new church during election time. One Sunday, I was handed…
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The Political Is Personal
Mary Ellen RobertsonAs a California native, I have a stake in my home state’s politics, especially on social issues such as same-sex marriage. I was living in Pasadena, California, in 2000 when Proposition 22, defining marriage as…
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Four Reasons for Voting Yes
Russell Arben FoxI don’t live in California, and so the questions of what I thought of Proposition 8 and of my Church’s involvement in it were never presented to me with any more force than that of…
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