Jesus the Peasant
April 11, 2018Scattered across the countryside one may observe certain wild animals , male and female, dark, livid and burnt by the sun, attached to the earth which they dig and turn over with invincible stubbornness. However,…
DiaBLOGue
What El Salvador Meant to a Three-year-old
April 11, 2018an iguana in our empty pool
his eyes jumping wild
a metal fence around the yard
where naked boys waited outside for food
On Spectral Evidence
April 11, 2018October 3, 1992, the first day of the 162d semiannual LDS general conference, was the 300th anniversary of the action that finally stopped the Salem witch trials. Those trials, perhaps the greatest blot on American religious devotion, had resulted in the deaths of twenty people, all of whom vigorously proclaimed their innocence to the end.
Dissent in the Church: Toward a Workable Definition
April 11, 2018There are many in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who believe we need a workable definition of religious dissent in order to help make way for more serious debate over its legitimacy…
Beth-lehem
April 11, 2018Jacob and Rachel
But a little way to come to Beth-lehem,
and the pains came hard upon her. She heard,
“Fear not; thou shalt have this son also.”
A Response to Paul Toscano’s “A Plea to the Leadership of the Church: Choose Love Not Power”
April 11, 2018When I first read Paul Toscano’s jeremiad I thought it was too harsh and angry. But on revisiting it three years later I say, “Yes!” to many of his points; for the ones I quibble…
A Plea to the Leadership of the Church: Choose Love Not Power
April 11, 2018One of the ironies of my life is that I decided in 1963 to leave the Catholic church as it was becoming more open to join the Mormon church as it was becoming more closed.…
Night Myths
April 11, 2018Sleepless with fever,
under one small lamp you stared
at a cherry wood cabinet, dark whorls
spiraled like galaxies and polished
Liberal Spirituality: A Personal Odyssey
April 11, 2018“Liberal spirituality” is the title and theme of this essay. A double entendre is intended—suggesting the interdependence of a free and abundant spiritual life. My aim is to explore the nature and possibilities of liberal spirituality by reflecting on some of the key experiences and major ideas that have shaped my philosophy. I am concerned here with the essential values at the core of religious experience, a state of mind and an approach to life. The Mormon church has been but one of the anvils against which I have forged my identity.
Notes for a Son, 19, Living Abroad
April 11, 2018Often when entering sleep
I start awake, your form having drifted
into vision, your name embedded
in the thickness of my tongue.