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Six Voices on Proposition 8: A Roundtable

March 17, 2018

Dialogue 42.4 (Winter 2009): 106–141
After Prop 22 passed, it was overturned by the courts as a violation of the equal protection clause of the CA constitution. Opponents of same-sex marriage devised a new proposition to amenda the CA constitution to ban same-sex marriage and the LDS church announced its public support and activism for the measure in the summer of 2008 before the november election. It was a deeply contentious issue bringing national attention to the church whose members provided the bulk of the funding for its passage, nearly $40m. The issue was a breaking point for many in the church and the above roundtable attempts to offer a variety of legal and religious arguments for and against the measure. 

A Failure of Moral Imagination: Guantanamo, Torture, the Constitution, and Mormons–An Interview with Brent N. Rushforth

March 17, 2018

Prince: You have been involved in Guantanamo for some time, and recently one of your cases was in the headlines. Give us the background of the ongoing legal battles there, and then tell us of your involvement in them. 

Rushforth: The process that is now unfolding in Guantanamo grew out of our panicked response to 9/11. A friend of mine, a lawyer in Washington, very shortly after 9/11—within a year or so—had gone to Guantanamo to represent a prisoner there.

What is Mormon Cinema? Defining the Genre

March 17, 2018

Latter-day Saints made their first known cinematic appearance in 1898 in Salt Lake City Company of Rocky Mountain Riders, part of a series of very short motion pictures depicting American troops in the Spanish-American War. Since then thousands of films and television programs have dealt with Mormonism; at present the Mormon Literature and Creative Arts database lists 4,591 such items.

Brattle Street Elegy: Matzoh for Sacrament

March 17, 2018

I first entered the Longfellow Park chapel on September 4, 1977. It was fast Sunday. I was a new physics grad student at MIT and a convert, baptized only about six months previously. This pair…

Brattle Street Elegy: Especially the Friends

March 17, 2018

So many memories! It would take a book to record them all.

I was there from 1976 to 1983 and returned many times, including a three-and-a-half month visit in 1997.

Brattle Street Elegy: Homeless Memories

March 17, 2018

The Longfellow Park building was as quirky and original as its congregants. I hope the church will use this fire as an opportunity to build a more orthodox, rectangular, “Mormon” building in Cambridge and hopefully…

Who was Second Nephi?

March 17, 2018

The story of Nephi occupies a prominent place in the hearts of the Latter-day Saint people. As a young man, he was singularly affected by his father’s teachings and, despite his relative youth, became the de facto leader of the extended families of Lehi and Ishmael even before his father’s death. Later, as a prophet in his own right, he led a people who called themselves “Nephites” in his honor; and nine centuries after his death, hundreds of thousands of Nephites still honored his name and legacy. He belongs to the ages as the namesake of an ancient nation. 

Brattle Street Elegy: So Many Firsts

March 17, 2018

I feel really sad about this, but also a little bittersweet. I’ve never been one to feel sentimental about buildings, but this news today has prompted a sweet little trip down memory lane. As is…

Brattle Street Elegy: In a Magical Place

March 17, 2018

Today I live in Seattle, but my heart is (and always has been) in Boston. When I got the text, in between Sunday meetings, that the Longfellow Park chapel had burned, the tears sprang rapidly.…