In A Believing People, Richard Cracroft and Neal Lambert lament that the essay “has not been as vital a literary force in Mormondom as might be expected.” Early Mormons, they note, kept forceful diaries, […]
[…] your main sources? Kimball: We had interviews or letters from dozens of people who had known Dad —schoolmates; neighbors and friends from the Arizona years; and missionaries, stake presidents and church members who had […]
[…] is written the text for his sermon. The audience titters as the green preacher opens the paper —only to find it blank! Without pausing or showing concern, the Mormonite circuit rider begins to speak: […]
[…] soothes my body and clears my mind so that I can examine dilemmas with a lucidity unmatched —except in the sauna. So over the years I have written dozens of personal essays (and hundreds […]
With the exception of a handful of standouts, such as Donna Hill’s work on Joseph Smith, biographies by Mormons of Mormons have been scarcely worth the title. Often reminiscent of mimeographed Christmas letters, these […]
We Mormons put a lot of stock in the Local Boy Makes Good syndrome: we’re proud of our Osmonds, our Marriotts, our Jack Andersons, and we’re anxious to let people out there know that we […]
That last bastion of privacy —our personal diaries—has now been turned into a “program.” From the pulpit, we are admonished to keep diaries; we are treated to snatches of personal diaries in sacrament meeting, […]
[…] the medieval monks were reminded by the skulls they carried around. Yet despite good evidence we find it hard to believe that death will come to us. Surely we should prepare for the end […]
[…] the great explorers, orators, and missionaries of the Mormons.” His Voice of Warning and Key to Theology —suitably edited—are reprinted more as memorabilia than as important pieces of gospel exposition. Forgotten is the fact […]
[…] of historians located in the Church Office Building under the direction of Leonard J. Arrington. It was a golden decade —a brief period of excitement and optimism—that someone has likened to Camelot. But it […]