DIALOGUE DIALOGUE PO Box 1094 Farmington, UT 84025 electronic service requested DIALOGUE a journal of mormon thought 50.4 winter 2017 50.4 EDITORS EDITOR Boyd Jay Petersen, Provo, UT ASSOCIATE EDITOR David W. Scott, Lehi, UT WEB EDITOR Emily W. Jensen, Farmington, UT DIALOGUE FICTION Julie Nichols, Orem, UT a journal of mormon thought POETRY Darlene Young, South Jordan, UT REVIEWS (non-fiction) John Hatch, Salt Lake City, UT REVIEWS (literature) Andrew Hall, Fukuoka, Japan INTERNATIONAL Gina Colvin, Christchurch, New Zealand POLITICAL Russell Arben Fox, Wichita, KS HISTORY Sheree Maxwell Bench, Pleasant Grove, UT SCIENCE Steven Peck, Provo, UT FILM & THEATRE Eric Samuelson, Provo, UT PHILOSOPHY/THEOLOGY Brian Birch, Draper, UT ART Andi Pitcher Davis, Orem, UT Brad Kramer, Murray, UT IN THE NEXT ISSUE BUSINESS & PRODUCTION STAFF Levi Checketts, “Thomas Aquinas Meets Joseph Smith: BUSINESS MANAGER Emily W. Jensen, Farmington, UT Toward a Mormon Ethics of Natural Law” PRODUCTION MANAGER Jenny Webb, Woodinville, WA COPY EDITORS Sarah Moore, Madison, AL Stacey Dearing, “Remember Me: Discursive Needlework Richelle Wilson, Madison, WI and the Sewing Sampler of Patty Bartlett Sessions” INTERNS Geoff Griffin, Orem, UT Nathan Tucker, Orem, UT Levi Peterson, “The Shyster” Christian Van Dyke, Provo, UT EDITORIAL BOARD Lavina Fielding Anderson, Salt Lake City, UT Becky Reid Linford, Leesburg, VA Mary L. Bradford, Landsdowne, VA William Morris, Minneapolis, MN Claudia Bushman, New York, NY Michael Nielsen, Statesboro, GA Daniel Dwyer, Albany, NY Nathan B. Oman, Williamsburg, VA Ignacio M. Garcia, Provo, UT Thomas Rogers, Bountiful, UT Brian M. Hauglid, Spanish Fork, UT Mathew Schmalz, Worcester, MA Gregory Jackson, Lehi, UT John Turner, Fairfax, VA G. Kevin Jones, Salt Lake City, UT Blair Van Dyke, Cedar Hills, UT Join our DIALOGUE! BOARD OF DIRECTORS Find us on Facebook at Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought Joanna Brooks, San Diego, CA—chair Russ Moorehead, Brooklyn, NY Follow us on Twitter @DialogueJournal Michael Austin, Newburgh, IN Boyd Petersen, Provo, UT Molly Bennion, Seattle, WA Brent Rushforth, Washington, DC SUBSCRIPTION OPTIONS Fiona Givens, Richmond, VA Karla Stirling, Bountiful, UT PRINT: 1 year (4 issues) $50 | international $70 | seniors/students $35 Bob Goldberg, Salt Lake City, UT Travis Stratford, New York, NY ELECTRONIC (PDF): 1 year (4 issues) $25 William Hickman, Lynnwood, WA Morris Thurston, Villa Park, CA DVD ARCHIVE: Volumes 1–44 (1966–2011) in PDF format, $40 Kyle Monson, New York, NY More titles and special offers available on our website: www.dialoguejournal.com On the cover: “Fruit and Thorns No. 3” by Tyler Swain, oil on panel, 20’’x16’’ DIALOGUE a journal of mormon thought is an independent quarterly established to express Mormon culture and to examine the relevance of religion to secular life. It is edited by Latter-day Saints who wish to bring their faith into dialogue with the larger stream of world religious thought and with human experience as a whole and to foster artistic and scholarly achieve- ment based on their cultural heritage. The journal encourages a variety of view- points; although every effort is made to en- sure accurate scholarship and responsible judgment, the views expressed are those of the individual authors and are not neces- sarily those of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or of the editors. ii Dialogue, Winter 2017 Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought is published quarterly by the Dialogue Foundation. Dialogue has no official connection with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Contents copyrighted by the Dialogue Foundation. ISSN 0012-2157. Dialogue is available in full text in electronic form at www.dialoguejournal.com and is archived by the University of Utah Marriott Library Special Collections, available online at www.lib.utah.edu/portal/site/marriottlibrary. Dialogue is also available on microforms through University Microfilms International, www.umi.com. Dialogue welcomes articles, essays, poetry, notes, fiction, letters to the editor, and art. Submissions should follow the current Chicago Manual of Style. All submissions should be in Word and may be submitted electronically at https://dialoguejournal.com/submissions/. For submissions of visual art, please contact [email protected]. Submissions published in the journal, including letters to the editor, are covered by our publications policy, https://dialoguejournal.com/ submissions/publication-policy/, under which the author retains the copyright of the work and grants Dialogue permission to publish. See www.dialoguejournal.com. EDITORS EMERITI Eugene England and G. Wesley Johnson Robert A. Rees Mary Lythgoe Bradford Linda King Newell and L. Jackson Newell F. Ross Peterson and Mary Kay Peterson Martha Sonntag Bradley and Allen D. Roberts Neal Chandler and Rebecca Worthen Chandler Karen Marguerite Moloney Levi S. Peterson Kristine Haglund Dialogue, Winter 2017 iii CONTENTS ARTICLES AND ESSAYS Thoughts on Latino Mormons, Their Afterlife, Ignacio M. García 1 and the Need for a New Historical Paradigm for Saints of Color Can Mormons be White in America? Robert A. Goldberg 31 There’s No Such Thing as a Gospel Culture Gina Colvin 57 Decolonizing the Blossoming: Indigenous Moroni Benally 71 People’s Faith in a Colonizing Church REVIEW ESSAY Mormon Poetry, 2012 to the Present Bert Fuller 79 PERSONAL VOICES To Be Young, Mormon, and Tongan Moana Uluave-Hafoka 99 POETRY At Least C Dylan Bassett 105 The Goodness of Created Things Susan Elizabeth Howe 108 Choose Your Own Belief: Of Sharks, Sherilyn Olsen 109 Art, & God FICTION Amen Johnny Townsend 115 REVIEWS That We May Be One: A Personal Journey Gerald S. Argetsinger 123 Tom Christofferson. That We May Be One: A Gay Mormon’s Perspective on Faith and Family iv Dialogue, Winter 2017 The Making of a Hard, Then Softened Laura Hilton Craner 128 Heart in The Book of Laman Mette Harrison. The Book of Laman Raw Hope and Kindness: The Burning Point Mel Henderson 131 Tracy McKay. The Burning Point: A Memoir of Addiction, Destruction, Love, Parenting, Survival, and Hope Thin Volume, Thick Questions Sandra Clark Jergensen 136 Luisa Perkins. Prayers in Bath The Life of a Spiritualist Saint Cristina Rosetti 139 Scott H. Partridge, ed. Thirteenth Apostle: The Diaries of Amasa M. Lyman, 1832–1877 On Apple Seeds, Rats, and the State of Shane R. Peterson 143 Mormon Literature Steven L. Peck. Gilda Trillim: Shepherdess of Rats ART ESSAY a time to believe abuse victims Beth Adams 149 IN MEMORIAM Elouise Bell (1935–2017) Michael Fillerup 169 Douglas Heal Thayer (1929–2017) Margaret Blair Young 176 FROM THE PULPIT I’ve Got a Feeling Megan Conley 181 CONTRIBUTORS 187 ARTICLES AND ESSAYS THOUGHTS ON LATINO MORMONS, THEIR AFTERLIFE, AND THE NEED FOR A NEW HISTORICAL PARADIGM FOR SAINTS OF COLOR Ignacio M. García The following thoughts come from my experience as a faithful and ortho- dox Latter-day Saint, as a Mormon bishop, as a critic of some aspects of institutionalized Mormonism, and as an activist and scholar of faith navigating what is and has been for most of my life a complicated envi- ronment where racial/ethnic issues are ever present but rarely discussed in ways that bring closure. My particular scholarship and activism on behalf of Mexicans and Latinos is encapsulated within this setting and I admit that I have not been freed from the complication that it brings to my faith except for those moments when I immerse myself in those Latino Mormon spaces that are my Spanish-language barrios (wards).1 These thoughts somewhat expanded formed the foundation of a presentation that I gave at Utah Valley University’s conference on “Multicultural Mormon- ism” sponsored by the Religious Studies program on March 29–30, 2017. 1. When I use the term “Latino” I refer to people from Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean who have made their home in the United States, though at times what I say is also applicable to people of those countries who do not make it here. These concepts and assumptions come from my understanding of scholarship on Latinos and over many years of congregat- ing and worshiping with them. I also use the term “Saints of color” to refer to all peoples of color within Mormonism, though my thoughts are more applicable to those peoples who have at one time or another been referred to as “Lamanites”: Native Americans, Latinos of indigenous origin, Polynesians, 1 2 Dialogue, Winter 2017 Even there, though, I am reminded that, along with my people and other Saints of color, I am part of a larger theologically white whole.2 Here, larger implies influence, dominance, and leadership rather than size. For the most part, however, it comes with the caveat that the white Church loves me—us—and most of us nonwhites have reciprocated, loving this Church, finding tranquility here, creating eternal friendships within, and often receiving answers to our heartfelt prayers regardless of where we fit in the body of Christ. I fully recognize that mine are not the feelings of everyone who studies Mormonism, but unless we understand and allow for that fun- damental notion of relationship between the Church and those of color, we cannot fully understand Mormonism and why it continues to grow among Latinos and other Saints of color. I would not have overcome my inferiority complex, lack of edu- cational direction, and social awkwardness without the fellowship of and other islanders. Some non-indigenous origin Latin American Saints have also socially constructed themselves into either “Latino” or “Lamanite” and thus can lay claim to similar experiences. Black Latino Saints sometimes also see themselves more Latino than black, but that is a complicated issue not within the purviews of this essay. Other Saints of color—Asian, African, African American, and Middle Eastern people, etc.—might find that some ideas and concepts here fit their circumstances within the Church, but they are unlikely to truly speak to their experiences.