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When The Mormon Church Invested in Southern Nevada Gold Mines

March 28, 2018

During the worst economic depression in the history of the United States up to 1929, that of the 1890’s, the highest leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, along with several other church members, purchased a cluster of promising mines and claims in Nye County, Nevada. Desperate for funds after a decade-long judicial onslaught by the federal government, which included confiscation and misuse of church property, the church saw this gold mining enterprise as a good way to recoup church financial security.

Aspiration

March 28, 2018

Wind, shorn from the sky by glass 
and concrete, whistles down the face
of the casino tower, flings the naked
branches of a sidewalk tree, and pours

Wars of Preemption, Wars of Revenge

March 27, 2018

Americans may be on the eve of a preemptive attack on a foreign country, ostensibly to protect ourselves from potential future attacks. Our nemesis, Saddam Hussein, is known to be evil, having gassed his own…

Why I Can’t Write My Joseph Smith Play

March 27, 2018

In April of 2001 I directed ten of my students in an hour-and-fifteen minute workshop production of the rough beginnings of a play I’d writ ten. I’d been immersed in research and writing for eight…

Would Joseph Smith Attend the New York Stake Arts Festival?

March 27, 2018

Recently, Latter-day Saint artists and writers in New York City have been searching for ways to recognize one another. I don’t mean recognize in the sense of honoring, but recognize as in encountering one another’s…