DOCSLIB.ORG

Letters to the Editor

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Letters to the Editor Letters to the Editor song of glory the Lord to Abraham recorded in Abra- Robert Rees (in his letter in the Spring, ham 3:22-23 indicates that among the 1977 issue) finds it "hard to imagine a pre-existent spirits there were some who celestial world filled with more heavenly were "noble and great" and the Lord said strains or deep spiritual joy than one of such, "these I will make my rulers." finds in the great Christian music of The entire doctrine of foreordination im- Western civilization." Having been to plies some pre-existent worthiness for Israel, I don't find it hard at all to imag- the ordination. Alma (Alma 13:3) stated, ine, because I have heard The Song of "And this is the manner after which they Glory (Shir ha-Kavod, or Anim zmirot) were ordained—being called and pre- and can testify that this is as beautiful a pared from the foundation of the world piece of religious music as anything pro- according to the foreknowledge of God, duced in the West. After all, Hebrew on account of their exceeding faith and music is what Jesus himself as well as good works. " This concept of the Isaiah, Nephi, Paul and all the prophets Lord having a deliberate part in the pre- of Israel used to sing. existence in determining a man's respon- sibilities, "bounds and inheritances" is Benjamin Urrutia further substantiated in Romans 8:28-30 Guayaquil, Ecuador and Deuteronomy 32:7-8. A danger exists in dogmatically as- serting that the good and noble ones of the narrow way the pre-existence will always have the I believe Karl Keller (See Letters Section, most favorable and comfortable circum- Vol. 11, No. 1) is right in many ways. But stances in this life. Is it not possible that I think his view of Dialogue and its func- a loving Father would send some of His tion may be a little restrictive. It doesn't, weakest spirits to those situations where for example, count the purely informa- they would have the greatest opportunity tive material—like that in the current to hear and accept the gospel, and some issues on RLDS/LDS, Eliza Snow and of His more "valiant" children to less O'Dea. Besides, even though some mat- favorable areas of the earth? To those ters may have been resolved in the Mid- who subscribe to the theory that little dle Ages, it doesn't mean they have been children who die are guaranteed salva- resolved in Saskatoon or, I suspect, in tion because of premortal worthiness, Arizona—and perhaps elsewhere. As for does not the fact that nearly half the the contradiction of the Mormon intel- population of some underprivileged lectual—well, maybe so ... countries die as small children indicate Lewis Home that larger proportion of the best spirits Saskatoon, Canada are going to those locales? It would seem to be a dangerous misapplication of the the gilbert challenge premortal worthiness concept to feel In the Autumn 1977 issue Cecil A. Gil- smug or superior because of having been bert issued a challenge to provide "any born in this country or within the scriptural evidence that a person's pre- Church. Perhaps one is born into favor- mortal life determines his place in the able circumstances because a loving Fa- present mortal life." If premortal consid- ther wanted to give an unstable spirit a erations played no such role, then it fighting chance to return to him. would seem to be purely a matter of Certainly all the information is not in, chance. Yet the Lord has said, "Behold, and dogmatism on either side is fraught mine house is a house of order . and with danger, but one seldom goes wrong not a house of confusion. And will I in listening closely to the brethren. Re- appoint unto you, saith the Lord, except garding scripture Hugh Nibley wrote, "to it be by law, even as I and my Father read is by very definition to unriddle, to ordained unto you, before the world expound to one's self, to interpret. In the was?" (D&C 132:8,11). The revelation of reading of the scripture we must always Letters to the Editor / 5 have an interpreter. But who qualifies for ERA again the task of interpreting God's work to I thin k many political and social liberals men?" His answer is the Lord and con- in the Church live in apprehension of a tinues, "without a living prophet, the day when they will be trapped between scripture is indeed what the Medieval the conflicting pressures of personal con- Church called it: a mystery. " (The World science and existing or new church doc- and the Prophets, pp. 185, 188). One trine or policy. This choice became pain- would indeed have difficulty in finding ful and real for me during the Florida a prophet who interprets the scripture as legislature's debate on the ERA in their excluding any effect of the pre-existence 1977 session. on our mortal situations. From 1974 to 1977 I was an Executive Lee Smith Assistant to Florida's Speaker of the Salt Lake City, Utah House of Representatives, Donald L. Tucker. He is a six-term Democrat, a fan mail moderate and a considerable power in I have so enjoyed all the issues and par- Florida politics. He is also an active Lat- ticularly the Media and Sexuality issues. ter-day Saint. The article "Passive Aggression and the On three previous occasions Tucker Believer" by K-Lynn Paul was very in- voted for ratification of the ERA in the teresting. As I sat in Sacrament Meeting Florida House. He had campaigned for last night with the last speaker rambling reelection in support of the ERA and in well over his time and thus undoing all 1977 was one of 62 co sponsors of the that the previous speakers had done, I House bill. All of this occurred before recalled the article "Speaking in Church" the Church took a formal position on the by Nels Nelson and took heart! Amendment. In 1977, even in the face of newly announced church opposition he Olga M. Caddick was regarded as a solid supporter. One Manchester, England of the Speaker's hallmarks in the legis- lature was that he always honored his As always, your latest edition is a sleep word once it was given, and he had given robber. Keep up the good work and my it many times on the ERA. subscripiton active. Fortune Magazine This time the main battle would be in came in the same day's mail and, by way the Senate, which had defeated the ERA of contrast, despite face lifting, it on three previous occasions. They would promptly put me to sleep. consider it first this year, a defeat mean- Marc Sessions ing that it would never reach the House. Los Angeles, California The House had ratified the amendment in two previous sessions, and both sides 6 / DIALOGUE: A Journal of Mormon Thought conceded that the pro-ERA coalition had became so intense that it stifled almost a large and comfortable margin in the all other legislative matters, and the bit- 1977 House (in no small part due to terness spilled over into the House. Tucker's steadfast support). Chartered buses brought hundreds of On March 27, 1977, a little over a "Stoppies" to the Capitol where they week before the Legislature convened, I filled the halls. They dressed in red, wrote in my journal that the Bishop was many wearing aprons in the shape of a instructed to read an article from the stop sign, and the pro-ERA lobbyists, Ensign by Boyd Packer denouncing the fewer in number, adopted green as their ERA. This was especially difficult for the identifying color. A great many young Bishop to do because of his very long girls and baby strollers added to the and close friendship with the Speaker. props employed by both sides. To the surprise and discomfort of a great Phyllis Schafley brought her traveling many faithful Saints the Church had now anti-ERA revival to the Capitol steps, taken a hard, official position in opposi- and for several days prior to her visit, tion. there were persistent rumors that she Two days later I had a long conver- would be joined by a General Authority sation with a committed member of the of the Church to denounce the ERA pub- Church who was deeply troubled by the licly in Florida. No General Authority new position. He was an individual ever arrived. whose profession required a public po- A large part of the crowd was com- sition on the ERA, and he had voiced posed of familiar faces from two wards strong support. He was considering with- in Tallahassee and from other units in drawing from that position, a move the Tallahassee Florida Stake. They came which would result in enormous profes- down to the Speaker's suite in little clus- sional injury to him. Like myself, he was ters but he was able to schedule only a especially troubled at the five-year lag few of them. Some of them, spilling over between the arrival of the ERA as a major into my office, would smile and make national issue and the Church's tardy small talk, hardly mentioning the ERA. decision to oppose. The few who did try to lobby were so On Sunday lobbying on the Speaker ill-informed that it was obvious they had by other Saints became so great that the done no serious study on the issues and Bishop made a plea in Sacrament Meet- were simply mouthing platitudes.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • CHAPTER SIX Work and Worship C C
    88 C c CHAPTER SIX Work and Worship C c Construction of the tabernacle on Temple Square, 1866. ineteenth-century Mormons differentiated little between “Ten Acre Survey” and all the land lying east of it. Westward temporal and spiritual concerns. The physical act of gath- it extended to the Jordan River. According to some historians, ering to Zion showed their faithfulness more than atten- the ward for several years had the largest membership in the Ndance at Sunday meetings;1 discouraging Gentile influence church.4 by participating in community production efforts and shopping Attendance at ward meetings was probably small, typical of at church cooperative stores seemed nearly as essential as the attendance throughout the territory. In 1851 Brigham Young payment of tithes. Living some distance from Salt Lake City complained, merchants, the Birch and Morgan families undoubtedly relied Suppose I should appoint a meeting for tonight, about more than townsfolk on bartering with neighbors. Similarly, ru- a dozen [members] would come, [and] without any ral conditions and distance from church headquarters probably candles. [But] if I were to say—level this stand for the influenced ward activities and the structure of meetings2—but band that we may have a dance, they would bring the not essential ordinances or the importance of community wor- stoves from their wives’ bedsides, and would dance all ship and community work. night, and the house would be filled to overflowing.5 Millcreek Ward Historian Ronald Walker cites the ten to fifteen percent
    [Show full text]
  • REVIEWS Forgeries, Bombs, and Salamanders
    REVIEWS Forgeries, Bombs, and Salamanders Salamander: The Story of the Mormon style worked very well in this case. The Forgery Murders by Linda Sillitoe and lack of documentation could be seen as a Allen D. Roberts, with a forensic analysis weakness, but I assume that several sources by George J. Throckmorton (Salt Lake did not want to be quoted and the popular City: Signature Books, 1988), xiii+556 pp., format did not lend itself to footnotes. It $17.95. could also be argued that the book would be too expensive if the extra documenta- Reviewed by Jeffery Ogden Johnson, tion were published. I hope future re- Utah State Archivist, Salt Lake City, Utah. searchers will have access to the research notes, including the many interviews. EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE you will see an The book opens with an account of the image that stays with you for years. On two murders. It details the cold-blooded 16 October 1985 I saw an image that will way Hofmann went about the business of be with me a lifetime: a burned out sports killing his friend Steve Christensen and by- car and yellow ribbons cordoning off the stander Kathy Sheets on 15 October 1985. street behind Deseret Gym. The yellow It was the bomb that went off the next day ribbons had been put there by the police and destroyed Hofmann's sports car that to keep the curious back. The burned out connected Hofmann with the mystery. This sports car belonged to Mark Hofmann. As book cannot ascertain with surety the target I drove by the scene on my way home from of the third bomb, but the authors argue work, I did not realize how the bomb would that it was not a suicide attempt as Hof- affect the Mormon scholarly community.
    [Show full text]
  • I UTAH Discouraged at Being So Little Able to 1760 S
    A WORD FROM THE PUBLISHER Daniel Rector 3 MY BURDEN IS LIGHT Elbert Eugene Peck OF GODS, MORTALS, AND DEVILS Boyd Kirkland 6 As Satan Is, Man may yet become SUNSWATH Levi Peterson 13 First Place Story in the 1986 D.K. Brown Fiction Contest PERCEPTIONS OF LIFE Louis A. Moench 30 Four Paths on Our Journey through Life THE MORMON DOCUMENTS’ Linda Sillitoe ~3 DAY IN COURT A Closer Look at Some Historical Documents RECORD TURNOUT AT SYMPOSIUM EIGHT 4O NEW DIRECTOR FOR SMITH INSTITUTE 41 LDS POET MEG MUNK DEAD AT 42 PROPHET IN THE PROMISED LAND Richard W. Sadler 44 Brigham Young: American Moses by Leonard J. Arrington SIN OR BORE? Kerry William Bate Mormon Polygamy: A History by Richard Van Wagoner READERS FORUM PUBLISHER Daniel H. Rector ALL-TIME LOW breakdowns, poor health anc! low EDITOR Elbert Eu,¢;ene Peck grades. It is not the reason gifted ASSOCIATE EDITOR Ron t~:itton In publishing the vicious LDS artists and scholars DESIGN DIRFCTOR Connie Disney personal attack on Linda Newell underachieve. GRAPHICS Robyn Smith Winchester (SUNSTONE, 10:11), SUNSTONE ART EDITOR Patrick Baxley reached an all-time low. It should Seminary is not a Primary class CIRCU~TION MANAGER Hden E. Wright be beneath the dignity of a that meets daily. It is a high school OPERATIONS MANAGER Charlotte Hamblin respectable journal to disseminate level course in theology. One EOITING INTERN Mdissa Sillitoe such a scurrilous statement. cannot become a good pianisl: through a correspondence school. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENTS Irene Bates, Bonnie Sterling M. McMur~m The best way to teach M.
    [Show full text]
  • Clyde Archive Finding
    Aileen H. Clyde 20th Century Women's Legacy Archive Collections that are particularly extensive are marked as “important.” Collections on a particular topic (ie. business) are marked. Abstracts are drawn from Archives West summaries and student examination of collections. Small Collections These collections are small, less than one box. Check entry in Archives West for full description. Ruth Rogers Altman Photograph Collection Patrice M. Arent papers info on 21st century ​ Genevieve Atwood papers (1 folder) ​ Nellie Harper Curtis and Myrtle Goddard Browning travel scrapbook, 1931 Vervene “Vee” Carlisle photograph Collection 1970s-2002 Marjorie Chan papers, 1921-1943 ​ Dolores Chase papers (1 box, mostly professional material) ​ Klancy Clark De Nevers papers, 1900-2015 (all professional material) ​ Albert and Vera Cuglietta papers, 1935-2016 Jo-Anne Ely papers, 1949-1977 (only professional materials) ​ Frances Farley photograph collection Anne Marie Fox Felt photograph collection, 1888-1969 Garden Club of Cottonwood records, 1923-2006 ​ Judith D. Hallet papers, 1926-2017 (only professional materials) ​ Barbara J. Hamblin papers, 1913-2003 (only professional materials) ​ Elizabeth R. Hayes papers, 1881-2020 ​ Alberta Henry photograph collection Hope A. Hilton photograph collection Julianne Hinz papers, 1969 (contains only invitations to the Nixon inauguration) ​ Rosemary Holt papers, 1980-1997 Karl and Vicki Beck Jacobson papers, 1978-1995 Judith F. Jarrow papers, 1865-1965 (contains 135 cookbooks) ​ Rosalie Jones research paper, 1967 Esther Landa photograph collection, 1930-1990 [94 photographs] ​ Janet Quinney Lawson photograph collection Jerilyn S. McIntyre papers, 1845-2014 Natalie C. McMurrin papers, 1922-1995 Doris S Melich Papers, 1930-2007 Marsha Ballif Midgley papers, 1950-1953 Neighborhood House records, 1894-1996 Stu and Greta O’Brien papers, 1980-1997 Geraldine Palmer-Jones papers, 1922-1988 George Peterson Papers (in transition) 1 Ann Pingree Collection, 2011 Charlotte A.
    [Show full text]
  • Linda Sillitoe in Memoriam
    50-53_Sillitoe_memorial:Feature TEMPLATE 12/2/2010 11:27 PM Page 50 SUNSTONE Journalist, novelist, poet LINDA SILLITOE IN MEMORIAM A Tribute to Linda Sillitoe to three thousand women of various religions. To their aston- by Levi S. Peterson ishment, the convention was pre-empted by nearly 14,000 Mormon women, who had been marshaled by their male priesthood leaders. This horde of angry, poorly-informed LEVI S. PETERSON is a former editor of Dialogue and author of Mormon women interpreted the prepared agenda “as an at- novels The Backslider and Aspen Marooney, short-story collections tack on the family and vigorously voted down such resolu- Canyons of Grace and Night Soil, and autobiography A Rascal by tions as equal pay for equal work” according to a report in the Nature, A Christian by Yearning. He lives in Washington with his Spring 1998 issue of the Mormon Women’s Forum. wife Althea. A year later, Linda reported on another eye-opening event, the excommunication of Sonia Johnson for having criticized HE FIRST THING TO SAY IS THAT LINDA WAS the Church for its opposition to the Equal Rights competent, and the next thing is that she was deter- Amendment. In state after state, Mormon women lobbied T mined. Whatever she did, she did well, and she could their respective legislatures, urging the defeat of the amend- drive herself with a relentless will. There was a personal mag- ment. Linda refused to believe that the top leadership of the netism about her, a quiet drawing power that elicited atten- Church endorsed the lobbying efforts of local leaders until a tion and respect.
    [Show full text]
  • Of Contemporary Mormon Short Stories
    Toward a "Marriage Group" of Contemporary Mormon Short Stories B. W. Jorgensen "The truth is that marriage is difficult to imagine." —Carolyn Heilbrun1 IN A NOW-CANONICAL ARTICLE in 1912, "Chaucer's Discussion of Mar- riage," George Lyman Kittredge applied the term "marriage group" to a subset among Chaucer's Canterbury Tales: the Wife of Bath (and her po- lemic and confessional prologue), the Clerk, the Merchant, and the Frank- BRUCE W. JORGENSEN lives in Provo and teaches English at Brigham Young University. He is a lifetime member and past president (1990) of the Asso- ciation for Mormon Letters, which recently awarded him an honorary lifetime membership. He recently published in Dialogue an essay, "Scriptural Chastity Lessons: Joseph and Potiphar's Wife; Corianton and the Harlot Isabel," 32, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 7-34, and a short story, "Measures of Music," 32, no. 3 (Fall 1999): 133-40. He presented an earlier form of this essay at the Association for Mormon Letters conference, February 24, 2001, Salt Lake City, published under the title, "Imagining Mormon Marriage, Part 2: Toward a 'Marriage Group' of Contemporary Mormon Short Stories," in the AML Annual 2002 (Provo, Utah: Association for Mormon Letters, 2002), 37-52. 1. Carolyn Heilbrun, Writing a Woman's Life (1988; reprinted, New York: Ballantine, 1989), 91. Her remark provoked an intermittent ongoing project that I call "imagining marriage," a branch of which became "imagining Mormon mar- riage." A twig from that branch is a 1996 essay called "Imagining Mormon Mar- riage, Part 1: The Mythic, the Novelistic, and Jack Weyland's Charly," Mormon Letters Annual, 1997, edited by Lavina Fielding Anderson (Salt Lake City: Associ- ation for Mormon Letters, 1997), 128-37.
    [Show full text]
  • Madame Chair
    Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU All USU Press Publications USU Press 2007 Madame Chair Jean Miles Westwood Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/usupress_pubs Part of the American Politics Commons Recommended Citation Westwood, J. (2007). Madame chair: The political autobiography of an unintentional pioneer. Logan: Utah State University Press. This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the USU Press at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in All USU Press Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Madame Chair Special Collections Dept., J. Willard Marriott University of Utah Library, Chase LTD. photo, Washington, D.C. Offi cial photo of Jean Westwood after her appointment as chair of the Democratic National Committee in 1972. Madame Chair The Political Autobiography of an Unintentional Pioneer Jean Miles Westwood Edited by Linda Sillitoe With a Foreword by Floyd A. O’Neil Utah State University Press Logan, Utah Copyright ©2007 Utah State University Press All rights reserved Utah State University Press Logan, Utah 84322-7200 Manufactured in the United States of America Printed on recycled, acid-free paper ISBN: 978-0-87421-661-5 (cloth) ISBN: 978-0-87421-666-0 (e-book) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Westwood, Jean. Madame chair : the political autobiography of an unintentional pioneer / Jean Miles Westwood. p. cm. ISBN 978-0-87421-661-5 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Westwood, Jean. 2. Women political consultants--United States--Biography. 3. Political consultants--United States--Biography. 4. Democratic Party (U.S.)- -Biography.
    [Show full text]
  • Mormon Feminism and Prospects for Change in the LDS Church Holly Theresa Bignall Iowa State University
    Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Graduate Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2010 Hope deferred: Mormon feminism and prospects for change in the LDS church Holly Theresa Bignall Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd Part of the Mormon Studies Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Bignall, Holly Theresa, "Hope deferred: Mormon feminism and prospects for change in the LDS church" (2010). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 11699. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/11699 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Hope deferred: Mormon feminism and prospects for change in the LDS church by Holly Theresa Bignall A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Major: Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies (Arts and Humanities) Program of Study Committee: Nikki Bado, Major Professor Heimir Geirsson Chrisy Moutsatsos Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2010 Copyright © Holly Theresa Bignall, 2010. All rights reserved. ii What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore-- And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over-- like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode? Langston Hughes, Montage of a Dream Deferred iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v ABSTRACT vi CHAPTER 1 – REFLEXIVITY AND THE LATTER-DAY SAINT TRADITION 1 1.a.
    [Show full text]
  • From the God Makers to the Myth Maker: Simultaneous— and Lasting—Challenges to Mormonism’S Reputation in the 1980S
    Haws: Challenges to Mormonism’s Reputation in the 1980s 31 From The God Makers to the Myth Maker: Simultaneous— and Lasting—Challenges to Mormonism’s Reputation in the 1980s J. B. Haws What a difference two decades can make. In 1973, on the heels of the presidency of David O. McKay, a time retired LDS Public Affairs managing director Bruce Olsen called the “golden era of Mormonism,” the Church commissioned an opinion survey.1 Respondents to that survey ranked the LDS Church relatively low in comparison to other de- nominations when it came to perceptions of secrecy and suspicion, and even lower in terms of public influence. In line with those survey results, in 1981 Martin Marty, one of the country’s most eminent historians of religion, wrote that “by 1980, the Mormons had grown to be so much like everyone else or, perhaps, had so successfully gotten other Americans to be like them, that they no longer inspired curiosity for wayward ways.”2 In retrospect, there is significant irony in that pronouncement. Marty could hardly have guessed the extent to which curiosity, consternation, and even contempt for the wayward ways of Mormonism would experience a re- birth after 1980 and spawn what LDS Apostle Dallin H. Oaks called “some of J. B. Haw S ([email protected]) received a BA from Weber State University, an MA from Brigham Young University, and a PhD in American History from the University of Utah. He recently accepted an appointment as an assistant professor of Church History and Doc- trine at Brigham Young University.
    [Show full text]
  • Contributors
    CONTRIBUTORS MARY LYTHGOE BRADFORD is author of Lowell L. Bennion: Teacher, Counselor, Humanitarian (Dialogue Foundation, 1995). She lives in Arlington, Vir- ginia. BRANDT D. COOPER is a pseudonym. BRADFORD FILLMORE lives in Orem, Utah. EDWIN B. FIRMAGE is Samuel D. Thurman Professor of Law, College of Law, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, and the author, with Collin Man- grum, of Zion in the Courts: A Legal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (University of Illinois Press, 1988). "Reflections on Mor- mon History: Zion and the Anti-Legal Tradition" was originally deliv- ered to the J. Reuben Clark Law Society on 18 February 1998. LAWRENCE FOSTER is a professor of American history at Georgia Tech in Atlanta and author of Religion and Sexuality, which won the Mormon His- tory Association's "Best Book Award." His second book, Women, Family, and Utopia, discusses Mormon women's reactions to plural marriage and explores the changing role of Mormon women. KATHRYN KIMBALL teaches English at Seton Hall University and is cur- rently completing a dissertation at Drew University on Samuel Col- eridge. She, her husband, and last child-at-home live in Maplewood, New Jersey. JOHN FARRELL LINES is a medical student living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. CAROL CLARK OTTESEN lives in Mapleton, Utah. BRENT PACE, a Utah native, currently counsels troubled youth. He lives in Salt Lake City with his partner, Ralph Martinez. BOYD PAYNE is employed by Signature Books of Salt Lake City, Utah. He is the author of Utah Celebrities: A Guide to the Stars (Telestial Books, 1995) and was project manager of the New Mormon Studies CD-ROM: A Compre- hensive Resource Library (Smith Research Associates, 1998).
    [Show full text]
  • Mormon Forgery: Past and Present
    The April 2021 issue of the Journal of Mormon History will feature a 5- essay forum on Forgery in Mormon history. That forum will include fascinating essays from Clair Barrus, Benjamin E. Park, Cheryl L. Bruno, John S. Dinger, and Ryan T. Roos. Because we expect a great deal of attention on this subject with the release of the Netflix documentary, Murder among the Mormons, we are releasing Roos’s article covering forgeries and their impact on the Latter-day Saint tradition from the nineteenth century, to Hofmann, and beyond. Mormon Forgery: Past and Present Ryan T. Roos In 1996, Thomas Hoving, the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, stunned historians by claiming that 40 percent of all museum art was likely forged.1 Experts since have come to hold Hoving’s once unbelievable assessment as highly conservative.2 In all fields of history, the plague of forgery shows only signs of acceleration as experts struggle to keep pace with technological advances and an unprecedented volume of materials entering the marketplace. Religious art, documents, and artifacts are traditionally fertile grounds for manufactured fraud. Mormon history has proven to be no exception. With its unique blend of modernity, dispersion, and commitment to material culture, the Mormon story has situated both its adherents and faith traditions as easy prey within the ecosystem of religious forgery. In this essay, I speak to three primary periods in the history of Latter-day Saint forgery. In the earliest period, a heavy emphasis was placed upon archaeological finds, such as plates, stones, or other familiar elements of Mormonism’s founding story.
    [Show full text]
  • Dialogue: a Journal of Mormon Thought
    DIALOGUE A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT EDITORS: F. ROSS Peterson Mary Kay Peterson ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Susette Fletcher Green EDITORIAL ASSISTANT: Marilyn Damron White EDITORIAL ASSOCIATES: Helen B. Cannon, Lawrence 0. Cannon, G. Kevin Jones, Ray G. Minkler BOOK REVIEW EDITOR: M. Guy Bishop POETRY EDITOR: Linda Sillitoe DESIGNER: Warren Archer II ART EDITOR: Elaine S. Harding BUSINESS MANAGER: Bradly A. Oldroyd LEGAL COUNSEL: Rogers, Mackey & Price OFFICE STAFF: Lisa P. Watson, Marilyn B. Hone, Laura Chamberlain STAFF: Dawn Hall Anderson, Lavina Fielding Anderson, Karl Best, Anne Clark, Sandra Cordon, Elaine England, Paula Fowler, David Handy, Ann Hobson, Clarann Jacobs, Matthew Jeffers, Brent Johns, Robin Johnson, Drew L. Jones, Jill Bradberry Keeley, Daniel C. Maryon, Sheila Merrill, Jean Bergen Ohai, Kirk Ottley, Catherine Passey, Enid Magnuson Smith, Susan B. Taber, Terry Tilton, Jenlyn Wakejield, Carla Western EDITORIAL BOARD Douglas D. Alder, Dixie College, St. George, Utah Thomas G. Alexander, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah Irene M. Bates, Pacific Palisades, California Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah Lester E. Bush, Gaithersburg, Maryland Claudia L. Bushman, Newark, Delaware Melodie Moench Charles, Ft. Meade, Maryland Richard J. Cummings, University of Utah, Salt Lake City Paul M. Edwards, Temple School, Independence, Missouri Lawrence Foster, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Marvin J. Hill, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah William Clayton Kimball, Bentley College, Waltham, Massachusetts Armand L. Mauss, Washington State University, Pullman Sterling M. McMurrin, University of Utah, Salt Lake City Levi S. Peterson, Weber State College, Ogden, Utah Jan Shipps, Indiana University —Purdue University, Indianapolis ADVISORY COUNCIL Lowell L. Bennion, Salt Lake City, Utah Mary L.
    [Show full text]