Some may be surprised to learn that the stereotypical image of the hyper-virile nineteenth century Mormon male had a special appeal to the “lost manhood” sector of a thriving American patent medicine industry. There was…
This brief note summarizes findings from two surveys taken among Mormons during 1967-1969, one in Salt Lake City and one in “Coastal City,” northern California.[1] Among the questions asked was the following: Most of us…
To test the assumption that sexual behavior is socially rather than biologically controlled, and to see if Mormon emphasis on avoiding sexual activity out of wedlock has been effective, I have, on three occasions over…
This paper summarizes some of the major findings from an on-going, cross cultural study of premarital sex among college students begun in the late 1930s. Previous publications have developed theoretical propositions of interest to sociologists…
Parley P. Pratt once defined “union of the sexes” as “mutual comfort and assistance in this world of toil and sorrow.” In our day President Spencer W. Kimball has affirmed that an important function of…
In a recent essay on the Mormons, David Brion Davis observed that “their history, in relation to American history, is much like Hamlet’s play-within-the play.”[1] Although analogies have their limitations, this one may prove useful…
Dialogue 10.2 (Summer 1977): 12–46
The extensive national attention had a demonstrable impact in Utah. In 1876 the territory’s first anti-abortion law was enacted, carrying a penalty of two to ten years for performing an abortion; a woman convicted of having an abortion received one to five years “unless the same is necessary to preserve her life.” It was also during this period that one finds the first real discussion of fertility control by leading Mormons.
“Public relations” is the process by which an organization or institution re lates to any of the “publics” with which it deals. As open-ended as this may seem, in practice, the Church as an institution…
Kieth Merrill, who created the Great American Cowboy, has done it again. This time the movie is Indian, a beautiful, kaleidoscopic montage dramatized through the odyssey of a young Navajo (Raymond Tracey), who has left…
