By Larry Menlove A MAN STOOD at the traffic light at the corner of East Bay Boulevard and University Avenue. He was holding a sign: Tired Need food Willing to Work Brianna stopped in the right-turn lane onto University Avenue and leaned across the seat to get a good look at his face. Behind …
Category: Issue 169
Ancient Fairy Tales: Written for this Generation
By H. Parker Blount Or, right-click here to download the audio file: Ancient Fairytales Written for This Generation I HAVE BEEN reading fairy tales lately. They are generally thought of as stories meant to entertain and teach the young, but that is selling fairy tales short. They have the capacity …
One Glass Ball
By Brett Wilcox SO WHAT BRINGS you to Sitka, Ben?” Pete asks as he loads my backpack onto his thirty-foot aluminum boat. I release the bow mooring line from the cleat, but can’t shake the image of Amber from my mind: She’s crying again. “This job opened up. Me and my wife decided it …
Religion is Art: Mormonism after Morals
By David V. Mason IN HIS RECENT work, The Good Book, philosopher A. C. Grayling has challenged us to consider life without god. After all, it is a fact that no two human cultures have imagined god(s) in the same way, and yet have consistently comported themselves in such a way as not to …
How They Get You
By Josh Allen THIS ALL STARTED because of Hal Jenkins. That’s the first thing I want to say. Hal’s a Mormon bishop, and he lives around the corner from me on Silver Sage Drive. He’s like fifty, and he wears a suit and a tie all the time. And a white shirt. Always a …
The Opposite of Sound
By Courtney Miller Santo WHEN IT BECAME known how close her son had come to dying, Janie’s friends brought food. The believers looked up and told her how blessed her family had been. Looking sideways, the nonbelievers invoked luck. Her friend Sarah was among the last to come. Sarah had caught Janie as she …
Making Meaning as a Mormon Writer
By Jack Harrell THERE SEEM TO be two forces battling for the soul of Mormon literature. Both originated outside of Mormonism, and both tempt us to work below our station. If we take Mormon theology seriously, however, I think we’ll find an important wellspring that can push our writers and thinkers in substantive and innovative …
The Crisis of Doubt in the Church
By Michael Vinson Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him . . . —Mormon 9:21 JUST THIS WEEK, a very active high priest sat in my office and confessed that his …
Of Caffeine and Covenants
By Alan Hurst At the Peculiar People blog, Alan Hurst wrote one of the more perceptive blog posts on the recent clarification that the Word of Wisdom does not contain a prohibition against caffeine. With permission, we share an excerpted version of his 19 September 2012 post. RECENTLY THE CHURCH Newsroom said in response …