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Volume 44, No. 1

Spring 2011

The Spring 2011 issue begins with Samuel Brown looking at the concept of a "Great Chain of Being" and relates that to Mormon theology, morphing the concept into a "Great Chain of Meaning." This is followed by Alan Michael Williams and "Mormon and Queer at the Crossroads," which explores the future of Mormon and LGBT+ relations, as well as how to reconcile membership to both groups. Finally David Scott writes of a virtual world called Second Life, and explains how virtual reality and religion could become intertwined in the future, while looking at the future of both industries and new and exciting ways to worship as the century progresses. This issue also features a great deal of poetry and reviews, as well as a sermon from W. Paul Reeve.

  • Topics
  • theology,queer,funeral,sermon

Contents

Articles

The Early Mormon Chain of Belonging



On March 10, 1844, Mormon founder Joseph Smith preached a sermon after the burial of his friend King Follett, killed by accidental rock-fall while building a well. To an assembled crowd of his followers, Smith proclaimed, “If you have power to seal on earth & in heaven then we should be crafty. . . . Go & seal on earth your sons & daughters unto yourself & yourself unto your fathers in eternal glory . . . use a little Craftiness & seal all you can & when you get to heaven tell your father that what you seal on earth should be sealed in heaven. I will walk through the gate of heaven and Claim what I seal & those that follow me & my Council.” 



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Mormon and Queer at the Crossroads



Dialogue 44.1 (Spring 2011): 53–84
This essay explores conflicting messages within LDS teaching on LGBT rights, when it both opposed same-sex marriage and in the wake of Prop 8 also came out in support of other LGBT rights that display both wrath and mercy. It explores a theory of LDS teachings on homosexuality along these lines, as well as the context of shifting norms around sexual identity.



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The Discursive Construct of Virtual Angels, Temples, and Religious Worship: Mormon Theology and Culture in Second Life



Cyberspace is changing the way religion is practiced in contemporary society. A 2004 Pew Internet and American Life project estimated that 64 percent of American internet users go online for spiritual or religious purposes.Religious organizations large and small are increasingly participating in cyberspace; and according to Peter Horsfield, the influence of digital media is producing major consequences for religious institutions and ideologies. 



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Fiction

The Dream



Niles awoke from a strange dream to find that his snoring had once again driven his wife from their bed. On his way to the bathroom, he peered into the darkened living room and, as…



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Richard Golightly: A Novel



Conception  “They’re up there now,” Bishop Gray croons from the pulpit. His eyes move to the chapel ceiling. “Billions and billions of spirits waiting to inhabit mortal bodies, warriors saved for these last days, ready…



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Interview

“An American Enterprise”: An Interview with Massimo Introvigne

and

Ronan: How did you become interested in New Religious Movements? 

Massimo: I am from a Roman Catholic background but started being interested in other religions at a very early age. I think it was by reading novels from authors like Emilio Salgari who talked about the Middle East and Far East. He wrote a couple of Western novels, but most were in Hindu or Muslim settings. Also Kipling. Of course, I now realize that neither of these authors can be taken as good guides about the real East; but at the age of about seven or eight, I didn’t understand that they were not reliable sources.



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Letters to the Editor

Personal Voices

“Take No Thought”



You’re going to miss it. You’re distracted. Sit up straight. You’re not paying attention. 

God does not come and go—your attention does. 

All sins are just variations on that same desire to do something else when you’re already doing something. Multitaskers are children of the devil. You can’t serve two masters. Divided attention is just dressed-up inattention.



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Poetry

Marginalia



Does the margin ail you? Scary edge of things,
where fools barely cling to normal, fail
to hug the middle. Do they bug you—out there
on the ledge beyond the pale? Ugly, 



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Romance



Belly flop off a high board the closest I ever got.

Nothing like that couple we saw. 

Hand-in-hand freefalling off the Towers.



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Turncoat



On line at Rite-Aid where a woman cuts in front of me, says: He
was saving my place. There’s no saving places, I say. She says to
him, Did I not ask you to save my place? He says nothing. She
prods. She goads. He relents: There’s no saving places. Then I’ll



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Flannel Board



I’ve been inured to violence, so understand, 
I’ve no sensation for nails smashing through feet:
Instead, show the tale of footprints on the beach,
because I know how sore feet get in sand. 



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Reviews

Short Shrift to the Facts | Douglas A. Abbott and A. Dean Byrd, Encouraging Heterosexuality: Helping Children Develop a Traditional Sexual Orientation



The title of this book may elicit wry smiles. Even casual consideration suggests that heterosexuality is doing just fine on its own, without the need for outside encouragement. The authors’ purpose, of course, is not to encourage heterosexuality so much as it is to discourage and disparage homosexuality based on their belief that it is a learned and chosen condition that can and must be changed because of its negative consequences for individuals, families, and society at large. The book is targeted primarily at a Mormon audience, although citations of LDS scriptural passages and statements by LDS authorities are presented as the words of “Christian prophets” or generic “church leaders.” Its pages provide self-help advice to parents about how to prevent or alter the unwanted same-sex attractions of their homosexual children.



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Mormonism Goes Mainstream | Mark T. Decker and Michael Austin, eds., Peculiar Portrayals: Mormons on the Page, Stage, and Screen



In an article posted in September 2010 on Patheos.com, a website devoted to the discussion of religion and spirituality, Michael Otterson, managing director of Public Affairs for the LDS Church, wrote: “During the past few years, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has navigated a period of intense public attention and scrutiny rarely seen during any other time in its history.” He buttressed this claim with the fact that for over a year “media attention far exceeded even the considerable interest generated during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.” While Peculiar Portrayals: Mormons on the Page, Stage, and Screen looks at artistic productions rather than traditional journalism, its editors Mark T. Decker and Michael Austin agree with Otter son, stating that “Mormons and Mormonism have seen increasing scrutiny during the previous decade” (1). They even cite many of the same causes. 



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LDS Youth in an Age of Transition | Bruce A. Chadwick, Brent L. Top, and Richard J. McClendon, Shield of Faith: The Power of Religion in the Lives of LDS Youth and Young Adults, and Christian Smith with Patricia Snell, Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults



One of the most difficult and perilous times in a life is the transition from childhood to adulthood. Moving into the freedoms of adult life while still relying on parents to pay the bills creates tensions within the adolescent even as it brings frustrations for the parents. How does one make the leap from dependent to depend able, from reactionary to responsible? And will religious faith survive, go stagnant, or flourish through these changing roles and identities? 



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Sermon

That the Glory of God Might Be Manifest



Roene Reeve was born December 21, 1946, in Hurricane, Utah, to Ora and Leo Reeve. She was welcomed into the family by her two older brothers, Stephen and David. Unknown to the doctor who delivered her, Roene was born with Rh disease. A postnatal blood transfusion prevents the disease from having negative consequences, but the doctor in Roene’s case was unaware of these procedures, and she went undiagnosed. By the time Ora and Leo took her to a specialist in Salt Lake City, it was too late. She was severely handicapped, both mentally and physically. When Roene was older, doctors recommended that she be institutionalized at the Utah State Hospital in American Fork. After only one month, Ora could not stand to be away from Roene and brought her home. 



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