Mormon Culture
Recommended
From the Pulpit: Why I Stay
John Gustav-WrathallDialogue 50.2 (Summer 2017): 209–213
“I was excommunicated from the Church in 1986. I am a gay man in a twenty-five-year-long relationship with my husband Göran Gustav-Wrathall. We were legally married in July 2008. Over the years, people have asked me how it is that I could consider myself Mormon if I’m not a member of the Church. What covenants are there for me to renew on Sunday morning, sitting in the pews, as I pass, without partaking, the sacrament tray to the person sitting next to me? To the extent that there is a relationship between me and God that has the Church as a context, real as it is to me, it is invisible to outside observers. That’s okay. I stay because I cannot deny what I know.”
What the Church Means to People Like Me
Richard D. PollA natural reaction to my title—since this is not a testimony meeting in which each speaker is his own subject—might be, “Who cares?” For who in this congregation, with the possible exception of my brother,…
A Translation of the Apparent Source of the Book of Abraham
Klaus BaerThe speed with which photographs of the Joseph Smith Egyptian Papyri were published once they came into the possession of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a gratifying contrast to the secrecy with which their previous custodians surrounded them. The definitive edition of the documents will take time, but in the meantime the Egyptologist can show his appreciation by taking advantage of the opportunity to make preliminary studies.
Mormons in the Executive Suite
Mark W. CannonOnly in a city can a full cast of characters for the human drama be assembled; hence only in the city is there sufficient diversity and competition to enliven the plot and bring the performers up to the highest pitch…
Art and the Church
Maida WithersIt is through the performance of creative arts, in art, in thought in personal relationships that the city can be identified as something more than a purely functional organization . . . Lewis Mumford Perhaps it is presumptuous to…
Manhattan Faces
Mary AllenIf you like fresh air, 25¢ hamburgers, and security, New York may not be the place for you. If you want a Rinso-clean wash you can hang in the backyard, where crickets sound at night, and neighbors who are people much like you, the city probably isn’t your bag.
Mormons as City Planners
Charles L. Sellers. . . one key to urban development should be plain—it lies in the widening of the circle of those capable of participating in it, till in the end all men will take part in the conversation. Lewis Mumford…
The Challenge of Secularism
James L. ClaytonBelief in the eternal and the infinite, the omniscient and the omnipotent succeeded, over the milleniums, in exalting the very possibilities of human existence . . . Lewis Mumford One of the most pressing theological questions of our time…
Villa Mae
Vivian H. OlsenWhen I saw Villa Mae Ferguson for the first time, standing gaunt and forlorn in the wind, my impulse was to keep on driving. I recognized her from Louise’s description: tall, plain, grayheaded. But she…
Elongated Time Phyllis Barber, The Precarious Walk: Essays from Sand and Sky
Michael PalmerPhyllis Barber’s new work, The Precarious Walk: Essays from Sand and Sky, spans immense time. The book carries the reader from Barber’s childhood in post–World War II Nevada through adolescence, multiple marriages, children, relocation, ecological…
The Garden Atonement and the Mormon Cross Taboo
Jeremy M. ChristiansenListen to the Out Loud Interview about this article here. Michael Reed’s 2012 book Banishing the Cross: The Emergence of a Mormon Taboo sets out an excellent account of the uncomfortable relationship between the Church…
The Great Zucchini War
Lisa Bolin HawkinsMischief and Ethnography Keith Norman. BUC: A Boy among the Saints
Linda Hoffman KimballBUC: A Boy among the Saints spans a “year in the life of an unregenerate 10 year old”—the endearing young rascal Wilford Bushman. Wilf, like most in his rural Utah community of Anti-Nephi-Lehi, is “BUC”—“born…
The Dark Side of Devotion Robert Hodgson Van Wagoner, The Contortionists
Shayla FrandsenWhen a five-year-old boy tragically disappears from a quiet LDS neighborhood, grief-stricken family members, detectives, ward members, and suspects all struggle to find their footing in the agonizing aftermath. In The Contortionists, the new novel…
Mormonism and the Possibility of a Materialist Apostasy
Zachary GublerThe notion of apostasy is central to the identity of the Mormon people.[1] One might even say it is the raison d’être of Mormonism. It is the thing that explains why there needed to be…
Archive of the Covenant: Reflections on Mormon Interactions with State and Body
Kit HermansonDialogue 53.4 (Winter 2020): 79–107
In the logic of Mormon theology, an internal lack of faith is in part a result of the mismanagement of my mortal embodiment. Part of the reason that the “born this way” language of the marriage equality movement has had so little effect on the Mormon population compared to others is that it directly contradicts very recent and revered theological claims.
A Mormon Boy Meets a King
Henry Landon MilesPost Mormon Past
Ronald WilcoxStill You
Kalani TongaWhat’s a Mormon Expert to Do?
Mette Ivie Harrison“Mormon”: A Journalist’s Dilemma
Peggy Fletcher StackOn “Mormon” in Mormon Studies Publishing
Loyd Isao EricsonWhy I’m So Bad at Not Using “Mormon”
Rebbie BrassfieldThe Mormon Church and the Language of My Faith
Michael AustinSweater
Theric JepsonMinistering
Kristine HaglundReview: Can Faith Survive Choice and Circumstance? Jack Harrell. Caldera Ridge.
Heidi NaylorThe Possessive Investment in Rightness: White Supremacy and the Mormon Movement
Joanna BrooksDialogue 51.3 (Fall 2018): 45–81
Brooks explains that “Mormons will have to choose to acknowledge the pivotal and pervasive role of white supremacy in the founding of LDS institutions and the growth of the Mormon movement.”
Review: The Empty Space between the Walls Joseph M. Spencer. The Vision of All: Twenty-five Lectures on Isaiah in Nephi’s Record
Mark D. ThomasReview: Not Alone Stephen Carter, ed. Moth and Rust: Mormon Encounters with Death
Cristina RosettiReview: Envisioning Mormon Art Laura Allred Hurtado. Immediate Present
Sarah C. ReedReview: Horror Becomes Banal Under Scrutiny but Loss is Lasting in The Apocalypse of Morgan Turner Jennifer Quist. The Apocalypse of Morgan Turner
Rachel HelpsReview: Helping Us Think and Be in the World Linda Sillitoe. Owning the Moon
Lisa Orme BickmoreReview: The Gift of Language Heidi Naylor. Revolver
Michael Andrew EllisReview: A Life Worth Living George B. Handley. Learning to Like Life: A Tribute to Lowell Bennion
Zach HutchinsReview: Traveling “the undiscovered country” Stephen Carter, ed. Moth and Rust: Mormon Encounters with Death
Susan Elizabeth HoweRemember Me: Discursive Needlework and the Sewing Sampler of Patty Bartlett Sessions
Stacey DearingThere’s No Such Thing as a Gospel Culture
Gina ColvinCan Mormons be White in America?
Robert A. GoldbergFrom the Pulpit: Why I Stay
John Gustav-WrathallDialogue 50.2 (Summer 2017): 209–213
“I was excommunicated from the Church in 1986. I am a gay man in a twenty-five-year-long relationship with my husband Göran Gustav-Wrathall. We were legally married in July 2008. Over the years, people have asked me how it is that I could consider myself Mormon if I’m not a member of the Church. What covenants are there for me to renew on Sunday morning, sitting in the pews, as I pass, without partaking, the sacrament tray to the person sitting next to me? To the extent that there is a relationship between me and God that has the Church as a context, real as it is to me, it is invisible to outside observers. That’s okay. I stay because I cannot deny what I know.”
To the Single Men of the Church
Derk KoldewynWhat the Church Means to People Like Me
Richard D. PollA natural reaction to my title—since this is not a testimony meeting in which each speaker is his own subject—might be, “Who cares?” For who in this congregation, with the possible exception of my brother,…
A Translation of the Apparent Source of the Book of Abraham
Klaus BaerThe speed with which photographs of the Joseph Smith Egyptian Papyri were published once they came into the possession of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a gratifying contrast to the secrecy with which their previous custodians surrounded them. The definitive edition of the documents will take time, but in the meantime the Egyptologist can show his appreciation by taking advantage of the opportunity to make preliminary studies.
Mormons in the Executive Suite
Mark W. CannonOnly in a city can a full cast of characters for the human drama be assembled; hence only in the city is there sufficient diversity and competition to enliven the plot and bring the performers up to the highest pitch…
Art and the Church
Maida WithersIt is through the performance of creative arts, in art, in thought in personal relationships that the city can be identified as something more than a purely functional organization . . . Lewis Mumford Perhaps it is presumptuous to…
Manhattan Faces
Mary AllenIf you like fresh air, 25¢ hamburgers, and security, New York may not be the place for you. If you want a Rinso-clean wash you can hang in the backyard, where crickets sound at night, and neighbors who are people much like you, the city probably isn’t your bag.
Mormons as City Planners
Charles L. Sellers. . . one key to urban development should be plain—it lies in the widening of the circle of those capable of participating in it, till in the end all men will take part in the conversation. Lewis Mumford…
The Challenge of Secularism
James L. ClaytonBelief in the eternal and the infinite, the omniscient and the omnipotent succeeded, over the milleniums, in exalting the very possibilities of human existence . . . Lewis Mumford One of the most pressing theological questions of our time…
Villa Mae
Vivian H. OlsenWhen I saw Villa Mae Ferguson for the first time, standing gaunt and forlorn in the wind, my impulse was to keep on driving. I recognized her from Louise’s description: tall, plain, grayheaded. But she…
A Time of Transition
Renee P. CarlsonOur home is in the Alexandria (Va.) Ward and we live within eight blocks of the chapel. The school district was recently redistricted to dip into the “close to downtown” areas and therefore includes many…
A Personal Commitment to Civil Equality
Daniel H. GagonWe call upon all men, everywhere, both within and outside the Church, to commit themselves to the establishment of full civil equality for all of God’s children. Anything less than this defeats our high ideal…
Reflections at Hopkins House
Belle Cluff“What’s your name?”
“Are you coming back?”
“I love you.”
These are the words of a Hopkins House child. Being young, very young, living in a poverty-ridden neighborhood . . .
Mormons in the Urban Community
William H. RobinsonUnless you consult particulars, you cannot see. William Blake The average L.D.S. Church member finds many societal forces buffered or muted for him by the Church. Among other factors, our focus on the eternal nature of…
Mormons in the Secular City: An Introduction
Garth L. MangumMormons, whether they know it or not, whether they like it or not, have entered the Secular City. This term, coined by Harvey Cox, expresses (in “secular”) a “this worldness”—meaning that the work of the world must be done by man himself, and (in “city”) all historical and Utopian dreams for the model community. Dialogue magazine stands at that intersection between the religious and the secular worlds.
Why the Coleville Tabernacle Had to be Razed: Principles Governing Mormon Architecture
Mark P. LeoneMormonism has been subject to rapid renovation since its founding. The Prophet Joseph made it quite clear that God’s revelations were continual and that if things were withheld for the moment, it was because His…
Mormon World View and American Culture
John L. SorensonNeither the scholars nor the Mormons themselves have been able to come to agreement about the relationship between the life of the LDS people in this country and American lifeways. The views of outside observers…
The Gospel, Mormonism and American Culture
Robert A. ReesThis issue of Dialogue emphasizes the relationship between Mormonism and American culture. John Sorenson’s lead article on “Mormon World View and American Culture” sets the stage by attempting to make a distinction between the gospel…
Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature
Ralph W. HansenUtah has achieved the dubious distinction of making the pages of the prestigious organ of America’s publication industry, Publishers’ Weekly. To some the publicity achieved in the article “Bookstore Perishes in Wake of Utah Obscenity Legislation” represents a disheartening step into further denial of free agency. To others it represents a heartening step in the direction of rooting out the devil all around us.
Phrenology Among the Mormons
Gary L. BunkerOn 2 July 1842 the Nauvoo Wasp contained a letter from A. Crane, M.S., professor of phrenology, alluding to the “large number of persons in different places” who wished to know “the phrenological development of…
Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature
Ralph W. HansenIf we accept the value Ms. Arbuthnot places upon books, the Mormon community is indeed rich. The editor of this column never ceases to be amazed by the quantity (and increasingly the quality) of books and periodicals directed at the Mormon audience. Among the new entrants, of which most of Dialogue’s subscribers should have received a sample issue, is Exponent II, published by Mormon Sister, Inc. of Arlington, Massachusetts. Exponent II is “A quarterly newspaper concerning Mormon women, published by Mormon Women, and of interest to Mormon women and others.”
Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature
Ralph W. HansenThe materials reviewed in this bibliography are books—new and reprint—published since the last book list appeared in the Autumn/Winter 1973 issue of Dialogue. This is a selected listing excluding some of the publications well advertised in Church publications or available through ward “bookstores.” The selection is made solely upon the editor’s discretion and subject to his foibles.
Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature
Ralph W. HansenProgress implies change and for this writer the call to explore new opportunities has become more insistent in recent years. It will soon be ten years since this column appeared in the first issue of Dialogue. Ten years seems sufficient to insure a sound beginning. If there are any among our readers who wish to take up the challenge of editing this column now is the time to step forward.
Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature
Ralph W. HansenJust over ten years ago I was approached by four young Mormons who were affiliated with Stanford University in one capacity or another. They wanted to know if there was a library market for a…
Birth Control Among the Mormons: Introduction to an Insistent Question
Lester E. Bush Jr.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.
Mormonism in the Nineteen-Seventies: The Popular Perception
Stephen W. StathisPerhaps more than the members of any other religious sect, Mormons are preoccupied with their public image. It may be argued that such preoccupation is a form of narcissism unworthy of the Restored Gospel, but…
Illustrated Periodical Images of Mormons, 1850-1860
Gary L. BunkerImage history—how the Mormons were viewed by others—has been a fruitful approach used by several historians during the past decade.
My Fifty Years in Journalism
Merlo J. PuseyCan a Mormon boy from the cow country of the West reasonably aspire to a writing career in the mainstream of our national life? What roads are open to him? Must he sacrifice his faith…
From Antagonism to Acceptance: Mormons and the Silver Screen
Richard Alan NelsonMormons have been involved in films ever since Hollywood became a magic word. Church members first tried to influence the Hollywood establishment, then went on to create their own film industries; finally, today a corps…
Nostrums in the Newsroom
Paul SwensonNineteen Hundred and Seventy-Six was not a dull year for the 127-year-old Deseret News. Melvin Dummar, a Box Elder County service station operator, was named, along with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,…
The Church as Broadcaster
Fred C. EsplinThe Mormon Church is a formidable broadcast institution. Through subsidiary corporations and institutions it owns sixteen radio and television stations, a sophisticated international broadcast distribution system, a Washington news bureau, a cable TV system and production and consulting divisions.
The Church as Media Proprietor
Milton HollsteinSmall 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,…
Equality and Plain Living | Leonard J. Arrington, Feramorz Y. Fox, and Dean L. May, Building the City of God, Community and Cooperation Among the Mormons
James L. ClaytonIn 1831 Joseph Smith announced the Law of Consecration and Stewardship. This law was revealed, according to the Prophet, to establish the social and economic basis of the Restoration on the same scriptural foundations as…
Among the Mormons
Stephen W. StathisEleven years ago, Dialogue and Ralph W. Hansen began an association which would last a decade and produce nearly forty Among the Mormons columns. His painstaking contribution stands as a monument to dedication and diligence.…
Gambit in the Throbs of a Ten-Year-Old Swamp: Confessions of a Dialogue Intern
Karen Marguerite MoloneyHow does an English graduate student who wants a visit to the East Coast, instruction in the American political system and an introduction into the Mormon publishing world satisfy these three ambitions in one two-month…
The Rise and Fall of Courage, an Independent RLDS Journal
William D. RussellDialogue 11.1 (Spring 1978): 115–119
Although Courage struck a responsive chord in quite a few hearts, its readers did not support it to the extent the editors had expected. Appealing only to a minority in a small church, and without either sufficient subscribers or a financial “angel/ Courage died after its eleventh number (Winter/Spring 1973).
Windmill Jousting and Other Madness: Century 2
Randy JohnsonJousting 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.
The New Messenger & Advocate
Kevin BarnhurstA magazine is supposed to be one of the easiest businesses to start. It requires no office, no equipment (printing and even mailing can be farmed out to local businesses), no staff as long as…
Sunstone
Scott Kenney“Oh,” lamented Job, “that mine adversary had written a book.” Logic and syntax—even basic facts—which are unmistakably clear and irrefutable in manuscript form have a way of breaking down when committed to print. And when…
A Wider Sisterhood: Exponent II
Claudia L. BushmanMany readers were surprised and delighted when Exponent II burst upon the scene. “You have lifted my thoughts from the mundane and sweetened my dreams of fulfillment,” wrote one. Another commented, “A newspaper for Mormon…
BYU Studies, How She Is
Laura WadleyPeople are always asking me how I like working at BYU Studies. I say . . .
Gospel by the Month: Ensign
David BriscoeIn 1971, all official church magazines were literally swept away and replaced by three colorful, professional, slick publications, each aimed at a different age group—the Ensign for adults, the New Era for young people and…
Among the Mormons: A Selected Bibliography of Recent Works on Mormons and Mormonism
Stephen W. StathisMormonism throughout much of its rather brief, history has stirred emotional responses from a large portion of the American populace. What began in the 1830’s as persecution and a forced flight to the West has…
Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature
Stephen W. StathisBiographies and family histories, have been by far the most popular subject of Mormon-related books during the past year. These works stem in large part from the ingenuity of family organizations and the ever increasing…
Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature
Stephen W. StathisThe vast majority of the books considered in the accompanying compilation are of a biographical, fictional, doctrinal or inspirational nature. While the biographies and works on local history are generally intended for a rather limited…
Contraceptive Use Among Mormons, 1965-75
Tim B. HeatonDialogue 16.3 (Fall 1984): 108–113
For some families, delaying birth control until after the arrival of the first or second child is undoubtedly consistent with a desire to begin a family soon after marriage. In other cases, however, failure to practice birth control during the first and/or second birth intervals may be based on a belief that to do so would be contrary to Church teachings.
“Among the Mormons”
Kenneth E. EbleThoreau wrote in the beginning of Walden, “I have lived some thirty years on this planet, and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors.” I can roughly paraphrase Thoreau and say, “I have lived some thirty years among the Mormons and have yet to record the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice about how I have managed to do it.”
Move Over, Fortune “500” | John Heinerman and Anson Shupe, The Mormon Corporate Empire
William P. MacKinnonWhen it comes to explaining economic matters, Americans have difficulty resisting conspiracy theories and are even more fascinated with their second cousin, the expose. Small wonder, then, that in a single week last July Fortune…
Jack-Mormons
Edward A. GearyAunt Ella used to say that a man who doesn’t live his principles is a poor specimen. This observation, like her other nuggets of conventional wisdom, was ostensibly directed at me, but she always cast…
I Married a Mormon and Lived to Tell This Tale: East Meets West
Wilma OdellI have enthusiastically accepted the invitation to share my experiences as a “cultural Jew” married to a “cultural Mormon.” Kenneth and I have been married almost twenty-three years. I have lived in Salt Lake City since 1971 and before that for nine months when we were first married.
I Married a Mormon and Lived to Tell This Tale: Through a Stained-Glass Window
Juliana Boerio-GoatesLet me start by saying that I did not pick the title for this panel —I am not yet convinced that I have survived the experience intact. How ever, after more than fifteen years of…
I Married a Mormon and Lived to Tell This Tale: “To Celebrate the Marriage Feast Which Has No End”
Wendy S. LeeFriends often ask me what it is like to be an active Lutheran layperson married to an active Latter-day Saint. I think I can best describe my marriage experience by addressing my comments to my…
I Married a Mormon and Lived to Tell This Tale: Introductory Remarks
Karen Marguerite MoloneyMembers of other religions, or persons with no religious affiliation, take on special challenges when they marry Latter-day Saints. In addition to the same problems any inter-faith marriage might encounter—conflicts over church attendance, child-rearing, value…
A Jew Among Mormons
Steve SiporinMormonism Becomes a Mainline Religion: The Challenges: Ethnicity, Diversity, and Conflict
Helen PapanikolasMormonism Becomes a Mainline Religion: The Challenges: A Reorganized Church Perspective
Richard P. HowardMormonism Becomes a Mainline Religion: The Challenges: An Australian Viewpoint
Marjorie NewtonMormonism Becomes a Mainline Religion: The Challenges: Mormonism and the Challenge of the Mainline
Marie CornwallMormonism Becomes a Mainline Religion: The Challenges: Viewing Mormonism as Mainline
Mario S. De PillisTwentieth-Century Polygamy and Fundamentalist Mormons in Southern Utah
Ken DriggsDialogue 24.4 (Winter 1991): 44–58
Driggs shares the story of how in between the First and Second Manifestos, polygamy was still happening in secret.
In Their Own Behalf: The Politicization of Mormon Women and the 1870 Franchise
Lola Van WagenenDialogue 24.4 (Winter 1991): 75–96
IMMEDIATELY UPON THE PASSAGE of territorial legislation enfranchising Utah’s women in 1870, almost fifty years before the Nineteenth Amendment extended the vote to American women, arguments erupted between the Mormon and non-Mormon community over the reasons behind this legislation.
Book of Mormon Stories That My Teachers Kept From Me
Neal ChandlerDialogue 24.4 (Winter 1993):15–50
n fact, it may be no more than a kind of perversity that brings me to admit what I will tell you now, namely, that when it comes to the Book of Mormon, that most correct of books, whose pedigree we love passionately to debate and whose very namesakes we have, all of us, become, I stand mostly with Mark Twain.
Glimmers and Glitches in Zion
B. J. FoggSelective Bibliography on African-American and Mormons 1830-1990
Chester Lee HawkinsDialogue 25.4 (Winter 1992): 113–131
Bibliography of African Americans role in the church from 1830-1990.
Speaking for Themselves: LDS Ethnic Groups Oral History Project
Jessie L. EmbryDialogue 25.4 (Winter 1992): 99–110
An oral history project on ethnic wards and branches.
Ethnic Groups and the LDS Church
Jessie L. EmbryDialogue 25.4 (Winter 1992): 81–96
A history of ethnic wards and branches as the church struggled with integration vs. segregation of immigrant communities.
Living Histories: Selected Biographies from the Manhattan First Ward
Dian SaderupWomen Alone: The Economic and Emotional Plight of Early LDS Women
Linda ThatcherLatter-day Myths About Counseling and Psychotherapy
Mark Koltko-RiveraBefore the Wall Fell: Mormons in the German Democratic Republic, 1945-89
Douglas F. ToblerA New Kind of Abuse: The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse
J. Frederic Voros Jr.Liberal Spirituality: A Personal Odyssey
L. Jackson NewellDialogue Toward Forgiveness: A Supporting View
Richard D. PollThe LDS Intellectual Community and Church Leadership: A Contemporary Chronology
Lavina Fielding AndersonDialogue 26.1 (Spring 1993): 23–82
THE CLASH BETWEEN OBEDIENCE to ecclesiastical authority and the integrity
of individual conscience is certainly not one upon which Mormonism has
a monopoly. But the past two decades have seen accelerating tensions in
the relationship between the institutional church and the two overlapping
subcommunities I claim—intellectuals and feminists.
Male-Male Intimacy among Nineteenth-century Mormons: A Case Study
D. Michael QuinnDialogue 28.4 (Winter 1995): 105–119
This was a prelude to his book-length treatment Same-Sex Dynamics in 19th C. America: A Mormon Example, that looked at “intimacy” broadly defined, before the rise of homophobia in the post-WWII period. It is a fascinating study of changing norms and practices that once allowed for a huge range of bonding practices between people of the same-sex. Quinn himself had come out in the course of researching this article and the book a few years before, and this work remains influential.
Did Christ Pay for Our Sins?
Dennis R. PotterMormonism and Determinism
Blake T. OstlerSocial Forces that Imperil the Family
Tim B. HeatonWas Jesus a Feminist?
Todd M. ComptonSojourner in the Promised Land: Forty Years Among the Mormons by Jan Shipps
Bradley D. WoodworthThoughts on Mormonism, Evolution, and Brigham Young University
Keith E. NormanDialogue 34.4 (Winter 2002): 1–18
Well, I was raised in a rather unscientific environment , a little farming community.
The Long Honeymoon: Jan Shipps among the Mormons
Klaus J. HansenYou Can Count on the Fingers of Your One Hand the Reasons
Darrell SpencerWhether you were driving in from the east or the west you got to our mother’s from Canal Street here in southern Ohio. There at the big Mc Donald’s in Nelsonville you took the crossroad…
The Divine-Infusion Theory: Rethinking the Atonement
Jacob MorganPremortal Spirits: Implications for Cloning, Abortion, Evolution, and Extinction
Kent C. CondieDialogue 39.1 (Spring 2006): 1–18
Perhaps no other moral issue divides the American public more than abortion. In part, the controversy hinges on the question of when the spirit enters the body. If a spirit were predestined for a given mortalbody and that body is aborted before birth, the spirit would, technically,never be able to have a mortal existence.
Clyde Forsberg’s Equal Rites and the Exoticizing of Mormonism
John-Charles DuffyChanging Faiths Gave My Sons Hope
Ann M. JohnsonMy Mission Decision
Henry Landon MilesMore Musings on Motherhood
Tracie A. LambOnce upon July
David Clark KnowltonTrial of Faith
John Gustav-WrathallIn 2007 there is an essay by John Gustav Wrathal, a man who was excommunicated in 1986 and remains in a relationship, now married to his long-time partner. But he is also deeply committed to…
Seeds of Faith in City Soil: Growing Up Mormon in New York City
Neylan McBaineBuildings
Tona J. HangenMay Many Phoenixes Rise
Allison PingreeA Deep Reverence in My Heart; Part of Our Family
Clayton ChristensenLooked like a Church, Sounded like a Church; How Beautiful Our Waters of Mormon
Molly BennionMove Back in a Heartbeat
Marilyn Lee BrownThe Bonds Endure; Freudian Analysis of Lehi’s Dream
Jim JohnstonTribute to a Building; Giving Church a Try
Arthur ShekNot Different from My Home
Katsu FunaiEqually Warm, Whether Empty or Full
Aja Fegert EyreNot the Building
Erin L. CrowleyAn Anchor for Me
Paula Kelly CaryotakisMatzoh for Sacrament
Steve RowleyPreserves
Carrol FirmageLight in Darkness: Embracing the Opportunity of Climate Change
Edwin Firmage Jr.An Excuse I’ve Been Working on for a While
Joey FranklinNo Longer as Strangers
Chase KimballTo the 78 Percent
Heidi HarrisFierce Joy and Proof That It Happened
Libby Potter BossMormon Scholars in the Humanities Conference: Overcoming Technology: The Grace of Stuff
James E. Faulconer“Shake Off the Dust of Thy Feet”: The Rise and Fall of Mormon Ritual Cursing
Samuel R. WeberWhy the True Church Cannot Be Perfect
Roger TerryBones Heal Faster: Spousal Abuse in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Terence L. DayReview: Brock Cheney. Plain but Wholesome: Foodways of the Mormon Pioneers
Christy SpackmanReview: Armand L. Mauss. Shifting Borders and a Tattered Passport: Intellectual Journeys of a Mormon Academic
Brayden KingSinners Welcome Here (2002)
Phyllis BarberManly Virtue: Defining Male Sexuality in Nineteenth-Century Mormonism
Russell StevensonWhat Shall We Do with Thou? Modern Mormonism’s Unruly Usage of Archaic English Pronouns
Roger TerryThe Postum Table
David G. PaceThe family had been in the dream house about three months. It was October, and they were gathered for Family Night. A box of See’s chocolates, wrapped in glossy white paper, sat like the fruit…
A company man on his day off
Ronald WilcoxDenying, Leap, Someone I Used to Know
Mark D. BennionReview: E-mails with a Young Mormon about Adam Miller’s Letters to a Young Mormon Adam S. Miller. Letters to a Young Mormon
Russell Arben FoxBibliography Bring ‘Em Young
R. A. ChristmasDeveloping Integrity in an Uncertain World: An Interview with Dr. Jennifer Finlayson-Fife
Kristine HaglundReview: The Mormon Murder Mystery Grows Up Mette Ivie Harrison. The Bishop’s Wife Tim Wirkus. City of Brick and Shadow
Michael AustinReview: Mormons Are a Different Country Mette Ivie Harrison. The Bishop’s Wife
Scott AbbottOn the Existential Impossibility of a Religious Identity: I’m a Mormon
David MasonFast Offering
William MorrisWelden Shumway wasn’t so much scandalized when Brother B left his wife and took up with a young gentile woman as he was confused. Why would a priesthood holder ignore his covenants like that? Welden…
Elongated Time Phyllis Barber, The Precarious Walk: Essays from Sand and Sky
Michael PalmerPhyllis Barber’s new work, The Precarious Walk: Essays from Sand and Sky, spans immense time. The book carries the reader from Barber’s childhood in post–World War II Nevada through adolescence, multiple marriages, children, relocation, ecological…
The Garden Atonement and the Mormon Cross Taboo
Jeremy M. ChristiansenListen to the Out Loud Interview about this article here. Michael Reed’s 2012 book Banishing the Cross: The Emergence of a Mormon Taboo sets out an excellent account of the uncomfortable relationship between the Church…
The Great Zucchini War
Lisa Bolin HawkinsMischief and Ethnography Keith Norman. BUC: A Boy among the Saints
Linda Hoffman KimballBUC: A Boy among the Saints spans a “year in the life of an unregenerate 10 year old”—the endearing young rascal Wilford Bushman. Wilf, like most in his rural Utah community of Anti-Nephi-Lehi, is “BUC”—“born…
The Dark Side of Devotion Robert Hodgson Van Wagoner, The Contortionists
Shayla FrandsenWhen a five-year-old boy tragically disappears from a quiet LDS neighborhood, grief-stricken family members, detectives, ward members, and suspects all struggle to find their footing in the agonizing aftermath. In The Contortionists, the new novel…
Mormonism and the Possibility of a Materialist Apostasy
Zachary GublerThe notion of apostasy is central to the identity of the Mormon people.[1] One might even say it is the raison d’être of Mormonism. It is the thing that explains why there needed to be…
Archive of the Covenant: Reflections on Mormon Interactions with State and Body
Kit HermansonDialogue 53.4 (Winter 2020): 79–107
In the logic of Mormon theology, an internal lack of faith is in part a result of the mismanagement of my mortal embodiment. Part of the reason that the “born this way” language of the marriage equality movement has had so little effect on the Mormon population compared to others is that it directly contradicts very recent and revered theological claims.
A Mormon Boy Meets a King
Henry Landon MilesPost Mormon Past
Ronald WilcoxStill You
Kalani TongaWhat’s a Mormon Expert to Do?
Mette Ivie Harrison“Mormon”: A Journalist’s Dilemma
Peggy Fletcher StackOn “Mormon” in Mormon Studies Publishing
Loyd Isao EricsonWhy I’m So Bad at Not Using “Mormon”
Rebbie BrassfieldThe Mormon Church and the Language of My Faith
Michael AustinSweater
Theric JepsonMinistering
Kristine HaglundReview: Can Faith Survive Choice and Circumstance? Jack Harrell. Caldera Ridge.
Heidi NaylorThe Possessive Investment in Rightness: White Supremacy and the Mormon Movement
Joanna BrooksDialogue 51.3 (Fall 2018): 45–81
Brooks explains that “Mormons will have to choose to acknowledge the pivotal and pervasive role of white supremacy in the founding of LDS institutions and the growth of the Mormon movement.”
Review: The Empty Space between the Walls Joseph M. Spencer. The Vision of All: Twenty-five Lectures on Isaiah in Nephi’s Record
Mark D. ThomasReview: Not Alone Stephen Carter, ed. Moth and Rust: Mormon Encounters with Death
Cristina RosettiReview: Envisioning Mormon Art Laura Allred Hurtado. Immediate Present
Sarah C. ReedReview: Horror Becomes Banal Under Scrutiny but Loss is Lasting in The Apocalypse of Morgan Turner Jennifer Quist. The Apocalypse of Morgan Turner
Rachel HelpsReview: Helping Us Think and Be in the World Linda Sillitoe. Owning the Moon
Lisa Orme BickmoreReview: The Gift of Language Heidi Naylor. Revolver
Michael Andrew EllisReview: A Life Worth Living George B. Handley. Learning to Like Life: A Tribute to Lowell Bennion
Zach HutchinsReview: Traveling “the undiscovered country” Stephen Carter, ed. Moth and Rust: Mormon Encounters with Death
Susan Elizabeth HoweRemember Me: Discursive Needlework and the Sewing Sampler of Patty Bartlett Sessions
Stacey DearingThere’s No Such Thing as a Gospel Culture
Gina ColvinCan Mormons be White in America?
Robert A. GoldbergFrom the Pulpit: Why I Stay
John Gustav-WrathallDialogue 50.2 (Summer 2017): 209–213
“I was excommunicated from the Church in 1986. I am a gay man in a twenty-five-year-long relationship with my husband Göran Gustav-Wrathall. We were legally married in July 2008. Over the years, people have asked me how it is that I could consider myself Mormon if I’m not a member of the Church. What covenants are there for me to renew on Sunday morning, sitting in the pews, as I pass, without partaking, the sacrament tray to the person sitting next to me? To the extent that there is a relationship between me and God that has the Church as a context, real as it is to me, it is invisible to outside observers. That’s okay. I stay because I cannot deny what I know.”
To the Single Men of the Church
Derk KoldewynWhat the Church Means to People Like Me
Richard D. PollA natural reaction to my title—since this is not a testimony meeting in which each speaker is his own subject—might be, “Who cares?” For who in this congregation, with the possible exception of my brother,…
A Translation of the Apparent Source of the Book of Abraham
Klaus BaerThe speed with which photographs of the Joseph Smith Egyptian Papyri were published once they came into the possession of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a gratifying contrast to the secrecy with which their previous custodians surrounded them. The definitive edition of the documents will take time, but in the meantime the Egyptologist can show his appreciation by taking advantage of the opportunity to make preliminary studies.
Mormons in the Executive Suite
Mark W. CannonOnly in a city can a full cast of characters for the human drama be assembled; hence only in the city is there sufficient diversity and competition to enliven the plot and bring the performers up to the highest pitch…
Art and the Church
Maida WithersIt is through the performance of creative arts, in art, in thought in personal relationships that the city can be identified as something more than a purely functional organization . . . Lewis Mumford Perhaps it is presumptuous to…
Manhattan Faces
Mary AllenIf you like fresh air, 25¢ hamburgers, and security, New York may not be the place for you. If you want a Rinso-clean wash you can hang in the backyard, where crickets sound at night, and neighbors who are people much like you, the city probably isn’t your bag.
Mormons as City Planners
Charles L. Sellers. . . one key to urban development should be plain—it lies in the widening of the circle of those capable of participating in it, till in the end all men will take part in the conversation. Lewis Mumford…
The Challenge of Secularism
James L. ClaytonBelief in the eternal and the infinite, the omniscient and the omnipotent succeeded, over the milleniums, in exalting the very possibilities of human existence . . . Lewis Mumford One of the most pressing theological questions of our time…
Villa Mae
Vivian H. OlsenWhen I saw Villa Mae Ferguson for the first time, standing gaunt and forlorn in the wind, my impulse was to keep on driving. I recognized her from Louise’s description: tall, plain, grayheaded. But she…
A Time of Transition
Renee P. CarlsonOur home is in the Alexandria (Va.) Ward and we live within eight blocks of the chapel. The school district was recently redistricted to dip into the “close to downtown” areas and therefore includes many…
A Personal Commitment to Civil Equality
Daniel H. GagonWe call upon all men, everywhere, both within and outside the Church, to commit themselves to the establishment of full civil equality for all of God’s children. Anything less than this defeats our high ideal…
Reflections at Hopkins House
Belle Cluff“What’s your name?”
“Are you coming back?”
“I love you.”
These are the words of a Hopkins House child. Being young, very young, living in a poverty-ridden neighborhood . . .
Mormons in the Urban Community
William H. RobinsonUnless you consult particulars, you cannot see. William Blake The average L.D.S. Church member finds many societal forces buffered or muted for him by the Church. Among other factors, our focus on the eternal nature of…
Mormons in the Secular City: An Introduction
Garth L. MangumMormons, whether they know it or not, whether they like it or not, have entered the Secular City. This term, coined by Harvey Cox, expresses (in “secular”) a “this worldness”—meaning that the work of the world must be done by man himself, and (in “city”) all historical and Utopian dreams for the model community. Dialogue magazine stands at that intersection between the religious and the secular worlds.
Why the Coleville Tabernacle Had to be Razed: Principles Governing Mormon Architecture
Mark P. LeoneMormonism has been subject to rapid renovation since its founding. The Prophet Joseph made it quite clear that God’s revelations were continual and that if things were withheld for the moment, it was because His…
Mormon World View and American Culture
John L. SorensonNeither the scholars nor the Mormons themselves have been able to come to agreement about the relationship between the life of the LDS people in this country and American lifeways. The views of outside observers…
The Gospel, Mormonism and American Culture
Robert A. ReesThis issue of Dialogue emphasizes the relationship between Mormonism and American culture. John Sorenson’s lead article on “Mormon World View and American Culture” sets the stage by attempting to make a distinction between the gospel…
Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature
Ralph W. HansenUtah has achieved the dubious distinction of making the pages of the prestigious organ of America’s publication industry, Publishers’ Weekly. To some the publicity achieved in the article “Bookstore Perishes in Wake of Utah Obscenity Legislation” represents a disheartening step into further denial of free agency. To others it represents a heartening step in the direction of rooting out the devil all around us.
Phrenology Among the Mormons
Gary L. BunkerOn 2 July 1842 the Nauvoo Wasp contained a letter from A. Crane, M.S., professor of phrenology, alluding to the “large number of persons in different places” who wished to know “the phrenological development of…
Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature
Ralph W. HansenIf we accept the value Ms. Arbuthnot places upon books, the Mormon community is indeed rich. The editor of this column never ceases to be amazed by the quantity (and increasingly the quality) of books and periodicals directed at the Mormon audience. Among the new entrants, of which most of Dialogue’s subscribers should have received a sample issue, is Exponent II, published by Mormon Sister, Inc. of Arlington, Massachusetts. Exponent II is “A quarterly newspaper concerning Mormon women, published by Mormon Women, and of interest to Mormon women and others.”
Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature
Ralph W. HansenThe materials reviewed in this bibliography are books—new and reprint—published since the last book list appeared in the Autumn/Winter 1973 issue of Dialogue. This is a selected listing excluding some of the publications well advertised in Church publications or available through ward “bookstores.” The selection is made solely upon the editor’s discretion and subject to his foibles.
Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature
Ralph W. HansenProgress implies change and for this writer the call to explore new opportunities has become more insistent in recent years. It will soon be ten years since this column appeared in the first issue of Dialogue. Ten years seems sufficient to insure a sound beginning. If there are any among our readers who wish to take up the challenge of editing this column now is the time to step forward.
Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature
Ralph W. HansenJust over ten years ago I was approached by four young Mormons who were affiliated with Stanford University in one capacity or another. They wanted to know if there was a library market for a…
Birth Control Among the Mormons: Introduction to an Insistent Question
Lester E. Bush Jr.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.
Mormonism in the Nineteen-Seventies: The Popular Perception
Stephen W. StathisPerhaps more than the members of any other religious sect, Mormons are preoccupied with their public image. It may be argued that such preoccupation is a form of narcissism unworthy of the Restored Gospel, but…
Illustrated Periodical Images of Mormons, 1850-1860
Gary L. BunkerImage history—how the Mormons were viewed by others—has been a fruitful approach used by several historians during the past decade.
My Fifty Years in Journalism
Merlo J. PuseyCan a Mormon boy from the cow country of the West reasonably aspire to a writing career in the mainstream of our national life? What roads are open to him? Must he sacrifice his faith…
From Antagonism to Acceptance: Mormons and the Silver Screen
Richard Alan NelsonMormons have been involved in films ever since Hollywood became a magic word. Church members first tried to influence the Hollywood establishment, then went on to create their own film industries; finally, today a corps…
Nostrums in the Newsroom
Paul SwensonNineteen Hundred and Seventy-Six was not a dull year for the 127-year-old Deseret News. Melvin Dummar, a Box Elder County service station operator, was named, along with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,…
The Church as Broadcaster
Fred C. EsplinThe Mormon Church is a formidable broadcast institution. Through subsidiary corporations and institutions it owns sixteen radio and television stations, a sophisticated international broadcast distribution system, a Washington news bureau, a cable TV system and production and consulting divisions.
The Church as Media Proprietor
Milton HollsteinSmall 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,…
Equality and Plain Living | Leonard J. Arrington, Feramorz Y. Fox, and Dean L. May, Building the City of God, Community and Cooperation Among the Mormons
James L. ClaytonIn 1831 Joseph Smith announced the Law of Consecration and Stewardship. This law was revealed, according to the Prophet, to establish the social and economic basis of the Restoration on the same scriptural foundations as…
Among the Mormons
Stephen W. StathisEleven years ago, Dialogue and Ralph W. Hansen began an association which would last a decade and produce nearly forty Among the Mormons columns. His painstaking contribution stands as a monument to dedication and diligence.…
Gambit in the Throbs of a Ten-Year-Old Swamp: Confessions of a Dialogue Intern
Karen Marguerite MoloneyHow does an English graduate student who wants a visit to the East Coast, instruction in the American political system and an introduction into the Mormon publishing world satisfy these three ambitions in one two-month…
The Rise and Fall of Courage, an Independent RLDS Journal
William D. RussellDialogue 11.1 (Spring 1978): 115–119
Although Courage struck a responsive chord in quite a few hearts, its readers did not support it to the extent the editors had expected. Appealing only to a minority in a small church, and without either sufficient subscribers or a financial “angel/ Courage died after its eleventh number (Winter/Spring 1973).
Windmill Jousting and Other Madness: Century 2
Randy JohnsonJousting 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.
The New Messenger & Advocate
Kevin BarnhurstA magazine is supposed to be one of the easiest businesses to start. It requires no office, no equipment (printing and even mailing can be farmed out to local businesses), no staff as long as…
Sunstone
Scott Kenney“Oh,” lamented Job, “that mine adversary had written a book.” Logic and syntax—even basic facts—which are unmistakably clear and irrefutable in manuscript form have a way of breaking down when committed to print. And when…
A Wider Sisterhood: Exponent II
Claudia L. BushmanMany readers were surprised and delighted when Exponent II burst upon the scene. “You have lifted my thoughts from the mundane and sweetened my dreams of fulfillment,” wrote one. Another commented, “A newspaper for Mormon…
BYU Studies, How She Is
Laura WadleyPeople are always asking me how I like working at BYU Studies. I say . . .
Gospel by the Month: Ensign
David BriscoeIn 1971, all official church magazines were literally swept away and replaced by three colorful, professional, slick publications, each aimed at a different age group—the Ensign for adults, the New Era for young people and…
Among the Mormons: A Selected Bibliography of Recent Works on Mormons and Mormonism
Stephen W. StathisMormonism throughout much of its rather brief, history has stirred emotional responses from a large portion of the American populace. What began in the 1830’s as persecution and a forced flight to the West has…
Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature
Stephen W. StathisBiographies and family histories, have been by far the most popular subject of Mormon-related books during the past year. These works stem in large part from the ingenuity of family organizations and the ever increasing…
Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature
Stephen W. StathisThe vast majority of the books considered in the accompanying compilation are of a biographical, fictional, doctrinal or inspirational nature. While the biographies and works on local history are generally intended for a rather limited…
Contraceptive Use Among Mormons, 1965-75
Tim B. HeatonDialogue 16.3 (Fall 1984): 108–113
For some families, delaying birth control until after the arrival of the first or second child is undoubtedly consistent with a desire to begin a family soon after marriage. In other cases, however, failure to practice birth control during the first and/or second birth intervals may be based on a belief that to do so would be contrary to Church teachings.
“Among the Mormons”
Kenneth E. EbleThoreau wrote in the beginning of Walden, “I have lived some thirty years on this planet, and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors.” I can roughly paraphrase Thoreau and say, “I have lived some thirty years among the Mormons and have yet to record the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice about how I have managed to do it.”
Move Over, Fortune “500” | John Heinerman and Anson Shupe, The Mormon Corporate Empire
William P. MacKinnonWhen it comes to explaining economic matters, Americans have difficulty resisting conspiracy theories and are even more fascinated with their second cousin, the expose. Small wonder, then, that in a single week last July Fortune…
Jack-Mormons
Edward A. GearyAunt Ella used to say that a man who doesn’t live his principles is a poor specimen. This observation, like her other nuggets of conventional wisdom, was ostensibly directed at me, but she always cast…
I Married a Mormon and Lived to Tell This Tale: East Meets West
Wilma OdellI have enthusiastically accepted the invitation to share my experiences as a “cultural Jew” married to a “cultural Mormon.” Kenneth and I have been married almost twenty-three years. I have lived in Salt Lake City since 1971 and before that for nine months when we were first married.
I Married a Mormon and Lived to Tell This Tale: Through a Stained-Glass Window
Juliana Boerio-GoatesLet me start by saying that I did not pick the title for this panel —I am not yet convinced that I have survived the experience intact. How ever, after more than fifteen years of…
I Married a Mormon and Lived to Tell This Tale: “To Celebrate the Marriage Feast Which Has No End”
Wendy S. LeeFriends often ask me what it is like to be an active Lutheran layperson married to an active Latter-day Saint. I think I can best describe my marriage experience by addressing my comments to my…
I Married a Mormon and Lived to Tell This Tale: Introductory Remarks
Karen Marguerite MoloneyMembers of other religions, or persons with no religious affiliation, take on special challenges when they marry Latter-day Saints. In addition to the same problems any inter-faith marriage might encounter—conflicts over church attendance, child-rearing, value…
A Jew Among Mormons
Steve SiporinMormonism Becomes a Mainline Religion: The Challenges: Ethnicity, Diversity, and Conflict
Helen PapanikolasMormonism Becomes a Mainline Religion: The Challenges: A Reorganized Church Perspective
Richard P. HowardMormonism Becomes a Mainline Religion: The Challenges: An Australian Viewpoint
Marjorie NewtonMormonism Becomes a Mainline Religion: The Challenges: Mormonism and the Challenge of the Mainline
Marie CornwallMormonism Becomes a Mainline Religion: The Challenges: Viewing Mormonism as Mainline
Mario S. De PillisTwentieth-Century Polygamy and Fundamentalist Mormons in Southern Utah
Ken DriggsDialogue 24.4 (Winter 1991): 44–58
Driggs shares the story of how in between the First and Second Manifestos, polygamy was still happening in secret.
In Their Own Behalf: The Politicization of Mormon Women and the 1870 Franchise
Lola Van WagenenDialogue 24.4 (Winter 1991): 75–96
IMMEDIATELY UPON THE PASSAGE of territorial legislation enfranchising Utah’s women in 1870, almost fifty years before the Nineteenth Amendment extended the vote to American women, arguments erupted between the Mormon and non-Mormon community over the reasons behind this legislation.
Book of Mormon Stories That My Teachers Kept From Me
Neal ChandlerDialogue 24.4 (Winter 1993):15–50
n fact, it may be no more than a kind of perversity that brings me to admit what I will tell you now, namely, that when it comes to the Book of Mormon, that most correct of books, whose pedigree we love passionately to debate and whose very namesakes we have, all of us, become, I stand mostly with Mark Twain.
Glimmers and Glitches in Zion
B. J. FoggSelective Bibliography on African-American and Mormons 1830-1990
Chester Lee HawkinsDialogue 25.4 (Winter 1992): 113–131
Bibliography of African Americans role in the church from 1830-1990.
Speaking for Themselves: LDS Ethnic Groups Oral History Project
Jessie L. EmbryDialogue 25.4 (Winter 1992): 99–110
An oral history project on ethnic wards and branches.
Ethnic Groups and the LDS Church
Jessie L. EmbryDialogue 25.4 (Winter 1992): 81–96
A history of ethnic wards and branches as the church struggled with integration vs. segregation of immigrant communities.
Living Histories: Selected Biographies from the Manhattan First Ward
Dian SaderupWomen Alone: The Economic and Emotional Plight of Early LDS Women
Linda ThatcherLatter-day Myths About Counseling and Psychotherapy
Mark Koltko-RiveraBefore the Wall Fell: Mormons in the German Democratic Republic, 1945-89
Douglas F. ToblerA New Kind of Abuse: The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse
J. Frederic Voros Jr.Liberal Spirituality: A Personal Odyssey
L. Jackson NewellDialogue Toward Forgiveness: A Supporting View
Richard D. PollThe LDS Intellectual Community and Church Leadership: A Contemporary Chronology
Lavina Fielding AndersonDialogue 26.1 (Spring 1993): 23–82
THE CLASH BETWEEN OBEDIENCE to ecclesiastical authority and the integrity
of individual conscience is certainly not one upon which Mormonism has
a monopoly. But the past two decades have seen accelerating tensions in
the relationship between the institutional church and the two overlapping
subcommunities I claim—intellectuals and feminists.
Male-Male Intimacy among Nineteenth-century Mormons: A Case Study
D. Michael QuinnDialogue 28.4 (Winter 1995): 105–119
This was a prelude to his book-length treatment Same-Sex Dynamics in 19th C. America: A Mormon Example, that looked at “intimacy” broadly defined, before the rise of homophobia in the post-WWII period. It is a fascinating study of changing norms and practices that once allowed for a huge range of bonding practices between people of the same-sex. Quinn himself had come out in the course of researching this article and the book a few years before, and this work remains influential.
Did Christ Pay for Our Sins?
Dennis R. PotterMormonism and Determinism
Blake T. OstlerSocial Forces that Imperil the Family
Tim B. HeatonWas Jesus a Feminist?
Todd M. ComptonSojourner in the Promised Land: Forty Years Among the Mormons by Jan Shipps
Bradley D. WoodworthThoughts on Mormonism, Evolution, and Brigham Young University
Keith E. NormanDialogue 34.4 (Winter 2002): 1–18
Well, I was raised in a rather unscientific environment , a little farming community.
The Long Honeymoon: Jan Shipps among the Mormons
Klaus J. HansenYou Can Count on the Fingers of Your One Hand the Reasons
Darrell SpencerWhether you were driving in from the east or the west you got to our mother’s from Canal Street here in southern Ohio. There at the big Mc Donald’s in Nelsonville you took the crossroad…
The Divine-Infusion Theory: Rethinking the Atonement
Jacob MorganPremortal Spirits: Implications for Cloning, Abortion, Evolution, and Extinction
Kent C. CondieDialogue 39.1 (Spring 2006): 1–18
Perhaps no other moral issue divides the American public more than abortion. In part, the controversy hinges on the question of when the spirit enters the body. If a spirit were predestined for a given mortalbody and that body is aborted before birth, the spirit would, technically,never be able to have a mortal existence.
Clyde Forsberg’s Equal Rites and the Exoticizing of Mormonism
John-Charles DuffyChanging Faiths Gave My Sons Hope
Ann M. JohnsonMy Mission Decision
Henry Landon MilesMore Musings on Motherhood
Tracie A. LambOnce upon July
David Clark KnowltonTrial of Faith
John Gustav-WrathallIn 2007 there is an essay by John Gustav Wrathal, a man who was excommunicated in 1986 and remains in a relationship, now married to his long-time partner. But he is also deeply committed to…
Seeds of Faith in City Soil: Growing Up Mormon in New York City
Neylan McBaineBuildings
Tona J. HangenMay Many Phoenixes Rise
Allison PingreeA Deep Reverence in My Heart; Part of Our Family
Clayton ChristensenLooked like a Church, Sounded like a Church; How Beautiful Our Waters of Mormon
Molly BennionMove Back in a Heartbeat
Marilyn Lee BrownThe Bonds Endure; Freudian Analysis of Lehi’s Dream
Jim JohnstonTribute to a Building; Giving Church a Try
Arthur ShekNot Different from My Home
Katsu FunaiEqually Warm, Whether Empty or Full
Aja Fegert EyreNot the Building
Erin L. CrowleyAn Anchor for Me
Paula Kelly CaryotakisMatzoh for Sacrament
Steve RowleyPreserves
Carrol FirmageLight in Darkness: Embracing the Opportunity of Climate Change
Edwin Firmage Jr.An Excuse I’ve Been Working on for a While
Joey FranklinNo Longer as Strangers
Chase KimballTo the 78 Percent
Heidi HarrisFierce Joy and Proof That It Happened
Libby Potter BossMormon Scholars in the Humanities Conference: Overcoming Technology: The Grace of Stuff
James E. Faulconer“Shake Off the Dust of Thy Feet”: The Rise and Fall of Mormon Ritual Cursing
Samuel R. WeberWhy the True Church Cannot Be Perfect
Roger TerryBones Heal Faster: Spousal Abuse in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Terence L. DayReview: Brock Cheney. Plain but Wholesome: Foodways of the Mormon Pioneers
Christy SpackmanReview: Armand L. Mauss. Shifting Borders and a Tattered Passport: Intellectual Journeys of a Mormon Academic
Brayden KingSinners Welcome Here (2002)
Phyllis BarberManly Virtue: Defining Male Sexuality in Nineteenth-Century Mormonism
Russell StevensonWhat Shall We Do with Thou? Modern Mormonism’s Unruly Usage of Archaic English Pronouns
Roger TerryThe Postum Table
David G. PaceThe family had been in the dream house about three months. It was October, and they were gathered for Family Night. A box of See’s chocolates, wrapped in glossy white paper, sat like the fruit…
A company man on his day off
Ronald WilcoxDenying, Leap, Someone I Used to Know
Mark D. BennionReview: E-mails with a Young Mormon about Adam Miller’s Letters to a Young Mormon Adam S. Miller. Letters to a Young Mormon
Russell Arben FoxBibliography Bring ‘Em Young
R. A. ChristmasDeveloping Integrity in an Uncertain World: An Interview with Dr. Jennifer Finlayson-Fife
Kristine HaglundReview: The Mormon Murder Mystery Grows Up Mette Ivie Harrison. The Bishop’s Wife Tim Wirkus. City of Brick and Shadow
Michael AustinReview: Mormons Are a Different Country Mette Ivie Harrison. The Bishop’s Wife
Scott AbbottOn the Existential Impossibility of a Religious Identity: I’m a Mormon
David MasonFast Offering
William MorrisWelden Shumway wasn’t so much scandalized when Brother B left his wife and took up with a young gentile woman as he was confused. Why would a priesthood holder ignore his covenants like that? Welden…