Dialogue 8.3/4 (1973): 43–73
Ever since his great synthesis, Darwin’s name has been a source of discomfort to the religious world. Too sweeping to be fully fathomed, too revolutionary to be easily accepted, but too well documented to be ignored, his concepts of evolution1 by natural selection have been hotly debated now for well over a century.
For most of us, there is little doubt that science was victorious in its centuries-long warfare with theology. From Galileo—kneeling in the robes of a penitent criminal before his Inquisitors, pleading for mercy on the grounds of age and infirmity— we have come full circle, to William Jennings Bryan in the dock at the Scopes “Monkey Trial”—trying desperately to demonstrate the Bible as the infallible guide to the story of Creation, then succumbing without dignity to the pitiless goad of Clarence Darrow.
A few months ago, the First Presidency issued a letter to be read in Sacrament Meetings encouraging Church members to tidy up their homes and yards. It is an old story. Brigham Young preached the…
My Grandpa Thatcher told two kinds of stories—real life tales of the Old West and Bible stories. I sat politely through the latter so as not to hurt his feelings, but what I really wanted…
When Greg woke up he lay on his stomach. The shaft of sunlight coming through the window hit his gold tennis trophy, Kellie’s gold-framed picture and his clock on top of the dresser. Priesthood meeting…
Dialogue 10.2 (Summer 1977): 12–46
The extensive national attention had a demonstrable impact in Utah. In 1876 the territory’s first anti-abortion law was enacted, carrying a penalty of two to ten years for performing an abortion; a woman convicted of having an abortion received one to five years “unless the same is necessary to preserve her life.” It was also during this period that one finds the first real discussion of fertility control by leading Mormons.
Kieth Merrill, who created the Great American Cowboy, has done it again. This time the movie is Indian, a beautiful, kaleidoscopic montage dramatized through the odyssey of a young Navajo (Raymond Tracey), who has left…
Small wonder that churches use the mass media as a broad-based platform for information and persuasion. The communications marvels of our century make it possible for the LDS Church to reach a wide audience indeed,…
From Quaker to Latter-day Saint is an unfortunate title. Neither interesting nor particularly descriptive, it combines with the design and size of the volume to suggest one of those wearying biographies of a minor figure…
Jousting with windmills is a bit out of fashion nowadays, insanity even more so. But every now and then some glittering-eyed individual comes by with an idea most people do best to ignore.