Excommunicated Man Sues Church
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
ON THE MORMON/UTAH SCENE JOSEPH SMITH A ND THE IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE, MORMONS & GENTILES, BEGlNNlNGS OF MORMONISM. An Autobiography. A History of Salt Lake City. Richard L. Bushman Dorothy Allred Solomon Thomas G. Alexander & James B. Allen $17.95 $17.95 $19.95 Published by the University of Illinois The author, a daughter of slain poly- Volume 5 in the Pruett Publishing Press, Bushman analyzes the emer- gamous leader Dr. Rulon Allred, offers Western Urban History Series takes a gence of Mormonism in the early a revealing inside view into the lifestyle candidand well-researched look at the nineteenth century and argues that of present-day polygamous families. unique city of "Mormons & Gentiles." Mormonism must be seen not only as Told with sensitivity and sometimes This first general history of Salt Lake the product of this culture, but also as painful honesty, this manuscript was City presents the community as a dis- an independent creation based on the winner of two Utah Arts Council writ- tinctive religious capital and signifi- ~evelationsof its charismatic leader. ing awards. I cant regional center. AMERICA'S SAIN TS, The Rise of Mormon Power. APOSTASY FROM Robert Gottlieb & Peter Wiley THE DIVINE CHURCH. $16.95 James L. Barker $15.95 A behind-the-scenes look at the Mormons, their extensive economic empire, their enormous spiri- A reprint of the 1964 classic, back by tual appeal, the mechanisms of their spreading popular demand. Originally used as bureaucracy, the little-known men at the top who Melchizedek Priesthood Manuals, this exercise tremendous political influence. a volume outlines the apostasy of the compelling and controversial look at America's early Church, and the contemporary fast growing and increasingly powerful Mormon restoration from a Mormon point of church. view. SEARCH FOR SANCTUARY, Brigham Young & the White Mountain Expedition. Clifford L. Stott. Documented journals and letters of exploring expedition sent by Young into the White Mountain ranges of Western Utah and Nevada to find a suitable sanctuary for the Mormons if the U.S. Army marched on the Utah Territory-Utah War of 1857-78. I MORMON & UTAH COIN p61M 8 CURRENCY. Alvin E. Rust ION BOOK STORE $9600 With over 300 photos, this book details the Mormon coinage and explains each variety of money, scrip, and token. A price guide for all coins and currency in the book is included. A valuable addition to the libraries of collectors and history buffs. SUNSTONE SAINT FOR ALL SEASONS An Interview with Lowell L. Bennion THAT OLDER BROTHER AGAIN! Arthur Basseft 18 Have we missed the point of this important parable? BISHOP TED Linda Sillito 28 CHURCH TRADITION NOW A POLICY VANCE LAW LEAVES WHITE SOX FOR EXPOS EXCOMMUNICATED MAN SUES CHURCH A FINE DRAMA Kerry Bate 58 Journals of John D. Lee, edited by Charles Kelly PURITY AND PASSION Sun~nlerFire by Douglas H. Thayer A Wonlnn of Desfiny by Orson Scott Card READERS FORUM 2 FROM THE EDITORS Peggy Fletcher 4 People of God LAW OF THE LAND Jay S. Bybee 28 The Lawyer's Conflict AESTHETICS AND NOETICS MirhaelHicks 29 The All-Hearing Ear ISSUES OF INTIMACY Marybeth Raynes 30 Retroactive Guilt WASHINGTON CORNER Michelle Marfarlane 34 Myth-Busting: Utahns in Washington VOICE FROM ABROAD Early Morning Seminary in Europe QUERIES AND COMMENTS David John Buerger 38 What Constitutes Official Doctrine? BOOKNOTES 44 RECENT TITLES Linda Thatcher 46 PUBLISHERIEDITOR Peggy Fletrher Mirhn~lStnrk written and double-spaced, and face mail. Airmail subscriptions in MANAGING EDITOR Scott C. Dunn STAFF Richnrd Hnz~bt,Susnn Piele, should not exceed six thousand the U.S. are $27 for one year plus ART DIRECTOR Mkhnel 0.Rognn Jennne Pugslq, Mnrrelyn Ritchie, Jnrkie words. For increased readability, airmail postage charges. Applica- NEWS MlTMl Crrtii~Wnrner Suonrinm, Lindn Turner SUNSTONE discourages manuscripts tion to mail at second-class pos- ASSK NEWS EDITOR Michelle Mncfnrlnne with footnoting. Manuscripts tage rates is pending at Salt Lake flCTION EDITOR Susnn Stnker SUNSTONE is published by the should conform to the Chirngo City, Utah. POSTMASTER: Send POETRY EDITOR Dnrnis Clnrk Sunstone Foundation, a non-profit Mnnunl of Style. Unsolicited manu- address changes to SUNSTONE, 59 BOOK REVIEW EDITOR John Sillito corporation with no official con- scripts should be accompanied by West 100 South, Salt Lake City, BUSINESS MANAGER Tonr Miner nection to The Church of Jesus sufficient return postage. Send all UT 84101-1507. DEElOPMENl DIRECTOR M.Mnrfnrlnne Christ of Latter-day Saints. Arti- correspondence and manuscripts AWUNTING Chnrlott~Hnnlhlin cles represent the attitudes of the to SUNSTONE, 59 West 100 South, Copyright 1985 by the Sunstone MVERTISIWG Christopher Allen writers only and not necessarily Salt Lake City, UT 84101-1507 Foundation. All rights reserved. PRODUCTION MANAGER Connie Disnq those of the editorlpublisher or United States subscriptions to SUN- Printed in the United States of TTPESET~NG K~rqWillinn1 Bnk, Brinn editorial board. STONE are $27 for one year (12 America. Burk~ Manuscripts for publication should issues). Outside the U.S. subscrip- CIRCUUTHlN/PROMOTION ]ospph H. Hnrris, be submitted in duplicate, type- tions are $35 for one year by sur- ON THE COVER: Photo Inj Mirhoel Stnck I AGONY IN THE ECSTASY the body enabled the atonement his own donation envelope to the The November-December 1983 for sin, and the mortality of the bishop, the proposal seems to con- issue of SUNSTONEcontained two body enabled the second stage of stitute classical tax evasion, shift- fine articles on the Atonement the Atonement which broke the ing a deduction from one person which in different ways focused bonds of death. However, the pro- to another who doesn't himself on the agony Christ endured. Each pitiation for sin so strained the qualify for it. asks penetrating questions, but I limits of mortality that Christ As to the progressive/regressive must suggest alternative answers. sweat blood from every pore. distinction of paragraph 15, Joyce M. Woodbury expresses We must not assume that the Bohn's characterization of the concern that Mormon emphasis requirements of the Atonement universal ten percent tithe as on the role of Gethsemane does included intense physical pain. The "proportional" would be more cor- injustice to the scriptural impor- agony endured was only a by- rect were it not for the income tax tance of the actual crucifixion. The product of the ecstasy achieved. deduction granted for charitable price of sin was paid in the Garden Brant Gardner contributions. Quite apart from and the wages of death were rec- Schenectady, New York the marginal utility arguments onciled at Christ's death. Each act Bohn acknowledges, the charitable is an indispensable part of the pas- deduction means that a person in a sion, but the ultimate sacrifice of ANESTHETIZED SACRIFICE higher tax bracket actually pays a Christ's life is such a powerful smaller effective percentage of his human image that it symbolically First of all, although I favor income as tithing than does his encompasses both facets of the your desire to represent a broader less affluent brother. spectrum of Mormon thought, the Atonement. It is therefore under- For example, a person with a Hiltons' "Lihyanite" article (SUN- standable for LDS authors to high- taxable income of $100,000 may STONE 9:1)would have been more light the role of Gethsemane, pay $10,000in tithing, but at which has been historically at home in the Church News. I cer- tainly agree that it looks like "the refund time hell receive a check underemphasized. from the U.S. treasury returning Mormons made it up themselves." While the scriptures clearly roughly $5,000 of his tithing to express the importance of the Robert Bohn's article on tithable him. In effect, the government Crucifixion, we must not infer income raises, perhaps intention- (i.e., other taxpayers) covers half that the pain on the cross accom- ally, far more questions than it his tithing liability-his actual plished any part of the Atone- resolves. A couple of comments: tithing rate is only 5%. On the ment. While I can understand the Bohn suggests in his paragraph other hand, the worker with suffering in Gethsemane as a 7 that a family might be paying $10,000 income who pays his result of the Atonement, I cannot too much tithing if children pay $1,000 share to the Church will imagine Christ under the Rbman tithing on money received from receive none of it back. He pays a whip or nailed to the Roman cross tithe-paying parents. He suggests full, unrefunded 10%. That's as an integral part of the expia- as a remedy that the parents lower regressive. In order to make the tion. The Garden reconciled spiri- their own donation to compensate system proportional (not to men- tual death; the cross merely sup- for the amount paid by their chil- tion progressive) those able to plied the means of Christ's death dren. Apart from the questionable deduct any part of a charitable as a necessary prelude to the assumption that the "family" is deduction for tithing would have Resurrection. It was a cruel world the tithepayer, rather than the to contribute their tax-saving which forced Christ to make his individual, this suggestion attributable to their gift. final sacrifice in so much pain. assumes that money once tithed is How to respond to that dis- Brother Batty is concerned with then somehow "clean," kosher, parity and how to evaluate how a loving Father could allow immune from further tithing. The methods of manipulating tithing the agony which was part of the theory that money, once tithed, gifts to maximize tax benefits Atonement. On this the scriptures can retain its tithed quality even turns on what ultimately we con- are silent.