DiaBLOGue

Spinning Gold: Mormonism and the Olympic Games

March 27, 2018

As in the lives of individuals, certain events in the lives of cities leave such a mark that time is thenceforth measured in terms of before and after. For example, following the Columbian Exposition that brought more than 27 million people to Chicago in 1893, that city would always be something more than “hog butcher to the world.” The dazzling Midway Plaisance, one of the fair’s high lights, soon disappeared. But an amazing stretch of parks and buildings along Chicago’s Lake Michigan waterfront continues to be a reminder that this Mid-western metropolis was once host to the world. 

The Empty Cistern

March 27, 2018

Silence and grace, 
the only words I know 
in either of their languages, 
so I don’t say much. 

Science and Religion: A Dialogue: Response

March 27, 2018

When I saw the title David Allred chose for his remarks, I wondered if he would directly address the issues I’d raised in my essay. I’m afraid I don’t think he did, and I will…

Disrobed

March 27, 2018

The moment that I cannot comprehend 
is when you took your garments off. 

I wonder (though I don’t quite want to know) 
whether, when the moment came, 
it was conscious or was incidental.

Short Creek: A Refuge for the Saints

March 27, 2018

Dialogue 36.3 (Spring 2003): 71–87
Watson shares why early fundamentalists broke off from the main church  and decided to leave Utah and settle Short Creek.

I Add Craig to My Prayers

March 27, 2018

All bones, nose, and trouble. 
It hasn’t been a year 
since he burned the tool shed down 
then crouched, crying, at the back 
of the garden while firemen watered 
the high whipping flames. 

One Hundred Eighteen Years of Attitude: The History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Free and Hanseatic City of Bremen

March 27, 2018

I believe the history of the Bremen Wards to be a good example of LDS history in Germany. The first branch was founded in January 1882 with seven members, and by the year 2000 there were 400 members in two wards. After a slow beginning there was in Bremen, as in all of Germany, a great deal of missionary success from the 1920’s to the Second World War and again in two periods after the Second World War (1946-1964, 1972-1987).

It Happens So Often

March 27, 2018

“Wow, where do you people come from? You’re the fourth one tonight!!!” quips the emergency room attendant as I am eased out of my car into the waiting wheelchair. I do not laugh at his…

Spreading Zion Southward, Part II: Sharing Our Loaves and Fishes

March 27, 2018

In a 1933 address, Elder Glenn L. Pace asked the question, “Faced with ever louder cries for help from the world, how do we determine where to focus our efforts?” This essay asks a related question: How efficient and equitable is the allocation of the church’s charitable resources? As we compare the distribution of these resources to the poorer, less-developed countries (LDCs) with the distribution to wealthy countries (WCs), could efficiency and equity be improved?