]ULY-AUGUST /982 VOLUME SEVEN, NUMBER FOUR Publisher/Editor RELIGION 7 BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH: MORMON LA WRENCE FOSTER PEGGY FLETCHER THEOLOGY OF THE FAMILY IN Managing Editor COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE SUSAN STAKER OMAN The Shakers, the Oneida Perfectionists, the Mormons Associate Editor NICOLE HOFFMAN 12 A RESPONSE MARYBETH RAYNES Art Director BRIAN E. BEAN CONTEMPORARY 16 A LIGHT UNTO THE WORLD: ISSUES IN PEGGY FLETCHER MORMON IMAGE MAKING Poetry Editor DENNIS CLARK 24 A LIGHT UNTO THE WORLD: ISSUES IN BRUCE L. CHRISTENSEN MORMON IMAGE MAKING Fiction Editor B.H. Roberts Society lectures on Church MARY MONSON public relations Business Manager RENEE HEPWORTH LITERATURE 26 WE ARE ALL ENLISTED: WAR AS METAPHOR STEPHEN L, TANNER Advertising Should we feel uneasy about the martial ROBIN BARTLETT strain in our religion? CONNIE R. JONES Circulation/Promotion REBECCAH T. HARRIS HISTORY 32 FAWN M. BRODIE: THE WOMAN AND RICHARD S. DEBBIE DUPONT HER HISTORY VAN WAGONER MARK JARDINE A personal look at Mormonism’s JIM HEPWORTH best-known rebel Staff 43 SHEAVES, BUCKLERS, AND THE STATE: RONALD W. WALKER KERRY WILLIAM BATE MORMON LEADERS RESPOND TO GARY HOFFMAN THE DILEMMAS OF WAR JOHN SILLITO Do the Saints owe their loyalty to CHRIS THOMAS conscience, church, or nation? MARK THOMAS FICTION 38 MAKING SURE WARREN EUGENE ICKE Returning from Vietnam HUMOR $6 NEW POLICIES: TRIBUTE TO MANHOOD RICHARD K. CIRCUIT An appreciation for the unique contribution of fathers DEPARTMENTS 2 READERS’ FORUM 5 PARADOXES AND PERPLEXITIES MAR VIN RYTTING 61 LAW OF THE LAND JAY BYBEE 62 THE NOUMENONIST PAUL M. EDWARDS 64 GIVE AND TAKE SUSAN STAKER OMAN ~tlnnl’l ll~’n l~’ The’ (hutch td Iv+us (brim of Lallt.r-dav Manvs~r~pls tot pubh~ahon ~h~uld bu ~ubmHled dupht ah.. lypewnllvn and 3oubh.-spa~ed. and should vx~eed s~x Ihou~and w~rd~ For m~rva~ed read~bd~l~ ~mted State+ ~ub+~llpht+ns art’ $14 h+r t~nt. yt’ar. $27 lwo yt’ars, and $3850 for lhrt.~, years All t,tht,r +ubs~r~ptmn~ are $20 per year by ~urla~t+ mad A~rm,HI ~ub+~r~pht~n+ are $14 per year plu~ ,+~rm,ul +harge+ St ~It>M ~+ maded third ~las+ bulk m tht’ United Slale~ and ~s nol (urwardabh, Subst r~bers are re+pon~bh. h+ nohly the. magallne at It+aM t~ne mt~nlh in advan[e ld address ~hange~ StNslt+ml i~ not respon+lbh, undehvered issues Send all ~orre+ponden~v and manus~rlpl, to St P O Box 2272+ Sail Lake, (~ly. Utah 84110 IPht~ne 801- 355+5+2~1 Unsoh~lled manu+~r~pl+ should be a~companiedl~lenl return (opyri~hl ~ 1+82 by the Sun+lithe Foundahtm All rights reserved Prmled m the Umtt.d Slate~ o~ America Monotheism exists, of course, as a "local" (perhaps galactic) even. Spatialization and temporalization of God may reduce him to a "mere" Superman. But who says that the present, Orthodox, overly exalted, absolute God of unlimited, allpowerful, timeless, bodiless, expanse and power is the "correct" aders’ Forum concept of God? The latter is essentially Platonist; the former anthropomorphic. "’Spiritualizing" away God’s body does not make that concept any less an idol. (3) Worship can be a waste of time, a perversion of the gospel, if carried to excess. How much worship is proper? It is a matter of personal preference. "If ye love me, keep my commandments," not "if ye love me, worship me.’" I fear that the worship- ethic has erroneously supplanted the SUNSTONE welcomes letters from our readers and prints a representative sample of opinions. work-ethic. The true gospel is and All letters represent the attitudes of the writers and not necessarily those of the editors or always was a gospel of works. publisher. To be considered for publication, letters should not exceed 300 words. Any letter may be edited for reasons of space and clarity. A more lengthy letter will be treated like a Worship the absolute God, if you manuscript submission. must, but better to appreciate the Father for his past efforts (his past Worship Ethic or Work Ethic The concept of hubris and its opposite, mortality) at achieving godhood and McCall is correct, and Lindgren is not. "humility" (an Orthodox, not a recognize that we, too, are now part In Mormon theology "right and Mormon concept) is a religious idol if of the very same process--for good or wrong are essentially independent of it is allowed to distort reality, i.e. the ill, depending upon our free will divine will or decree." Lindgren co-equality of man’s free will with all choices--as he underwent (to his loathes the logical implications: (1) "If inestimable gain) in his (and her) the powers of God (the Father). achievement of godhood. we are ontologically independent of Lindgren’s fears are well-founded. (1) God, then God did not create us"; (2) How "worshipful" is it to admire "In making it possible for us to be like We are ontologically independent of God, and--at least in terms of our ecstatically from the sidelines when God and co-equal with God, Mormon individual free will--God did not you are supposed to be out on the thought has deprived God of that create us. This alone is the single playingfield? which makes him worthy of our most powerful doctrine in Mormon G.C. Ensley worship .... In essence, he has theology, absolving God from moral Los Hamitos, California become nothing more than complicity in cosmic evil and Superman" (my emphasis); (3) "More producing a first-rate Mormon conventional theists, such as myself, theodicy. Real individual freedom cannot worship a God who is simply a cannot be squared with absolute Reply to Smith reflection of the limitations found in Divine sovereignty, which Mr. Smith indicated that the silence of human experience." characterizes every "other gospel" of the readers of SUNSTONE disturbed him Items (1) and (1) above were expressly Orthodox and/or apostate extraction. because people with inquiring minds resolved by Joseph Smith’s "King By choosing individual free will above ought to be challenged by the questions Follett Discourse" (April, 1844). In divine grace, the process above the left unanswered in "Defending the making Man essentially "co-equal" person, King Follett correctly depicts Keystone." with God, King Follett revealed (in the proper relationship between God I cannot speak for others, only for Joseph’s words) the "grand secret" of and man--that of parent and child. As myself. I am hesitant about classifying the correct relationship between man with mortal infants, "there is no myself as a scholar for I am not sure and God (the Father). "Co-equal" is creation about it." They come from what constitutes a "scholar." My formal the very word (correctly) used by pre-existing cells. Nibley has education ended in 1936 when I Lindgren in his letter. Lindgren, devoted a lifetime to demonstrating graduated from high school. However, I therefore, has read (and correctly (from religious literatures) that am a voracious reader and thus consider understands) King Follett. (The word "creation" is but a metaphor; mortal myself fairly well educated. I left the "co-equal" was unofficially deleted by birth is a transposition in an on-going church of my childhood when, at the B.H. Roberts, or altered to read "co- process, a "rite of passage." age of 19, I was disappointed in answers eternal", a word of lesser hubris than to questions for which I needed more the unabashed "co-equal", in later (2) I find nothing whatever offensive than perfunctory replies. I searched-- publications of the discourse.) I in the concept of "God as Superman,’" rather diligently I believe--for a religion personally prefer the original "co- another way of saying that man can which could provide a logical equal" not only because it is progress to his individual Godhood. explanation for the existence of the historically more accurate but because Cosmic polytheism is not unchristian. earth and man’s presence thereon. In it correctly emphasizes the proper locus The cosmos is large enough to handle 1950 I joined the LDS church and must of salvation, i.e. man’s eternal free a multitude of gods without their confess that at the time I did not have a will. rubbing or chafing on each other. personal testimony of the spirit, only a 2/Sunstone sense that my search for logic had been and that it can stand against any time period in the Book of Mormon will rewarded. opposition. be an issue I shall take up with the The testimony of the spirit came later, If I feel, in all honesty, that the "true Prophet when I have an opportunity to as I continued my search for truth. For I facts" of any particular issue will have talk to him .... but it will come second never ceased to be challenged by no effect whatsoever on my testimony to my inquiries about pre-destination. unanswered questions. Each time I felt this becomes an important factor in Marie L. Sorenson troubled by "loose ends" I was never deciding whether or not I will continue Reno, Nevada satisfied until I had searched through all my research. Then the deciding factor material available to me, including would be whether or not I have access various translations of the Bible, books to the resource material which would be Reevaluate the Word of Wisdom written by LDS scholars and Church vital in trying to ascertain "true" facts. I was fascinated by Stan Kimball’s leaders, speeches, essays, commentaries, In the case of B.