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Volume 48, No. 3

Fall 2015

The Fall 2015 issue begins with Steven Taysom providing a fascinating look at Joseph F. Smith near the end of his life and how Mormons viewed themselves in the late nineteenth century. Gary Ettari provides insight into the Mormon aesthetic and the role and style of artwork in the church, followed by Jack Harrell's "The Thirteenth Article of Faith as a Standard for Literature" and "A Mormon Ethic of Food" by Rachel Steenblik. If that's not enough, there is a myriad of poems available in this issue by both Doug Talley and Ronald Wilcox, a work of fiction titled "The Righteous Road," and several book reviews including a compelling review titled "Guilty as Charged? Mormonism in Nazi Germany."

  • Topics
  • memory, prophet

Contents

Articles

The Last Memory: Joseph F. Smith and Lieux de Mémoire in Late Nineteenth-Century Mormonism



On the day after Christmas in 1915, Joseph F. Smith (JFS), then president of the LDS Church and less than three years away from his own death, spoke to a group of people in the Eleventh Ward meetinghouse in Salt Lake City. The past was always important to JFS and as he got older he found himself, usually at the behest of other Latter-day Saints, giving voice to his memories with increasing frequency. JFS accepted the invitation to speak on this day because “[s]ome of the good folks present are anxious to hear something about my early experiences.”Although few things are more common than an old man telling stories about his youth, this event, and the dozens like it that JFS participated in during the last years of his life, was about far more than personal memory.



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“After the Body of My Spirit”: Embodiment, Empathy, and Mormon Aesthetics



Nearly thirty-five years ago, Merrill Bradshaw wrote: “It seems almost unbelievable that after all these years of the development of Mormon thought we still have no genuine Mormon aesthetic theory.”Such a statement might initially strike the reader as a bit out of date considering the abundance of writing on Mormon aesthetics since Bradshaw penned those words.However, that very abundance illustrates the existence of an ongoing conversation about Mormon aesthetics that reflects the difficulty Bradshaw mentions.



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The Thirteenth Article of Faith as a Standard for Literature



In 1842, Joseph Smith wrote a letter to John Wentworth, editor of the Chicago Democrat, outlining “the rise, progress, persecution, and faith of the Latter-day Saints.”That letter concluded with thirteen “Articles of Faith” that were later published in the Nauvoo Times and Seasons. In a general conference of the Church in Salt Lake City in 1880, these articles of faith were canonized as scripture for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.



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A Mormon Ethic of Food



In his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Michael Pollan identifies major problems caused by the recently emergent food industry and the negative effects they have on the health and wellbeing of individuals, communities, and the environments. Pollan’s observations mirror those of American poet-prophet Wendell Berry. Both highlight losses associated with the demise of independent, small-farm agricultures. Here, I suggest that the Mormon ethic of food in its ideal (if not lived) form beautifully, simply, and powerfully restores what is lost.



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Classic Articles

The Last Memory: Joseph F. Smith and Lieux de Mémoire in Late Nineteenth-Century Mormonism



On the day after Christmas in 1915, Joseph F. Smith (JFS), then president of the LDS Church and less than three years away from his own death, spoke to a group of people in the Eleventh Ward meetinghouse in Salt Lake City. The past was always important to JFS and as he got older he found himself, usually at the behest of other Latter-day Saints, giving voice to his memories with increasing frequency. JFS accepted the invitation to speak on this day because “[s]ome of the good folks present are anxious to hear something about my early experiences.”Although few things are more common than an old man telling stories about his youth, this event, and the dozens like it that JFS participated in during the last years of his life, was about far more than personal memory.



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Fiction

The Righteous Road



My mom held her hand over the phone. “It’s Reed,” she whispered. I took the phone and leaned against the countertop. “Hello,” I said. “Hello.” “What, Derrick? No call?” Reed asked. “I didn’t know you…



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Personal Voices

Poetry

One Glory of the Moon



Wild raspberry leaves had turned deep crimson and the stalks black.
For prayer I bowed in the field like one of the stalks, no less resigned.
Leaves of silver maple were shed and their underside had surrendered
to autumn mauve. In the eastern acre of the woods a sheet of yellow 



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Canto 12



Lightning’s no easy light to see alive reflecting  
Joseph’s mind : No magic bottle holds it nor do I
Believe it possible, try as I will to engage in mirrors
As images : how can I imagine what ignited flashing glass 



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Tao Song



We create ourselves as we go: 
            memories folding inward 
                        like bread dough kneaded, 
                                    brain convolutions, or 
                                                tangible patterns on the shore. 



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Reviews

Confident Interpretations of Silence | David Conley Nelson, Moroni and the Swastika: Mormons in Nazi Germany



David Conley Nelson’s Moroni and the Swastika, although based on the author’s doctoral dissertation, is not at heart a scholarly book. It is, rather, a polemical work dressed up in academic regalia. While its footnotes and bibliography give it the appearance of scholarly earnest, its primary commitment is not to placing events in historical context, or to giving a balanced account of primary sources and secondary literature, or to weighing the evidence for or against a given proposition, but to launching accusations against Mormons in Nazi Germany and LDS Church leaders in the United States. 



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Guilty as Charged? | Mormonism in Nazi Germany David Conley Nelson, Moroni and the Swastika: Mormons in Nazi Germany



Moroni and the Swastika arose, in part, as a response to a query put to the author about the persecution of Mormons in the Third Reich. David Conley Nelson describes how his stepson, raised on the stories of Mormon persecution and Latter-day Saints’ willingness to endure much for the sake of the gospel, made the inference that Mormons must have been among the victims of Nazi Germany. This query led to a research paper, a presentation at the Mormon History Association’s annual meeting, and ultimately a doctoral dissertation and a book. 



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Families are Forever and Ever and Ever | Vivian Kleiman, dir., Families Are Forever



Families Are Forever is a short film about a Latter-day Saint family, the Montgomerys, living in central California who have a gay son who came of age during Proposition 8, the California initiative to affirm the definition of marriage as being between one woman and one man. Explaining their active involvement in supporting the initiative, the mother, Wendy, says, “If the Church asks you to do something, you do it.” Her son Jordan, whose homosexuality was unknown to his parents at the time, overheard them talking about the “disgusting” and “horrible” people who opposed Prop 8.



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Sermon

Trajectory and Momentum



It is a privilege to speak to you today as your bishop, but also a responsibility that deeply humbles me. I pray that the Spirit will be with me. 

First, let me address one of the most important groups in our congregation today—the Primary children. This meeting is going to be a little longer than normal, so all of you in the Primary please feel free to stand up and shake your arms for a few seconds.



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