The River Rerun
October 25, 2018Morning 3, Nankoweap Camp Across the river, she sees a big brown lump shamble over to the water’s edge. She wants it to be graceful, sleek, to glide through the water, not lumber like a…
DiaBLOGue
My Sadness
October 25, 2018My sadness eats sauerkraut because she’s allergic to sauerkraut.
My sadness roams heating ducts, shuffling through the lint. My sadness sharpens her teeth.
My sadness starts the avalanche she gets caught in. Then I can’t breathe.
The Skin of the Story
October 25, 2018Three of her children were taken:
one whispered
out of life by a flapping heart,
The Flock
October 25, 2018I had walked
a few steps
of chalk cold
asphalt toward
Words
October 25, 2018The young African boy stumbles over the Supper of the Lord’s words—
in the Promised Land: a new gospel.
The man in the dark suit signals, again.
Again. And yet again, while we in the pews squirm.
Eight Visions of the First
October 25, 2018Dialogue 49.3 (Fall 2016): 151–155
Shiffler-Olsen turns Joseph Smtih’s first-person First Vision accounts into poetry.
The Missing Mrs.
October 25, 2018Every afternoon when I pick my children up from school the teacher who acts as a crossing guard calls out, “Hello, Mrs. Harding!” I return his large, friendly smile and call back, “Hello, Mr.—!” Occasionally the encounter is elongated by a sentence or two about how brilliant my child is or how much she enjoys his English class. On the whole, it is a pleasant exchange. But my name is not Mrs. Harding. It never has been. Not even when I was married.
The Source of God’s Authority: One Argument for an Unambiguous Doctrine of Preexistence
October 25, 2018The famous couplet coined by Lorenzo Snow in 1840, “As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be,”rears its head every now and then, inspiring both awe and some confusion among rank-and-file Latter-day Saints while causing at least a degree of discomfort for Church leaders and spokespeople who are trying to make Mormonism more palatable for our mainstream Christian friends and critics. Some observers have even suggested that the Church is intentionally downplaying this doctrine.Nevertheless, the couplet found its way into the 2013 Melchizedek Priesthood/Relief Society manual Teaching of Presidents of the Church: Lorenzo Snow, and this distinctive doctrine also appeared prominently in previous manuals containing the teachings of Brigham Young and Joseph Smith.
Gerontocracy and the Future of Mormonism
October 25, 2018The sudden and unexpected resignation of Pope Benedict XVI in 2013 broke a centuries-old tradition within Roman Catholicism of service until-death of its top leader. If, as many expect, Pope Francis I eventually follows Benedict’s lead, it is likely that a new and enduring tradition will have been effected.The astounding transformation of the Roman Catholic Church under the younger and energized Francis underscores the importance of Benedict’s courageous decision.
Scared Sacred: How the Horrifying Story of Joseph Smith’s Polygamy Can Help Save Us
October 25, 2018Dialogue 49.3 (Fall 2016): 75–88
Probably the most destabilizing piece of historical information most Mormons come across is Joseph Smith’s polygamy.