By Rachel Mabey Whipple We live in a consumer society—all about spending, acquiring, cluttering, and replacing rather than about maintaining, repairing, renewing, and protecting. It is cheaper to buy the new than to repair the old. We live in a disposable country: everything is trash—if not now then soon. How did we get here? …
Category: Issue 167
Update: Issue 167
As Romney Clinches Nomination, Focus Moves Away from His Peculiar Faith After a winter of discontent in which the media focused on the most controversial aspects of Mormonism and Romney’s unpopularity among Evangelicals, media coverage is now shifting the focus from Romney the Mormon to Romney the Candidate. Observers agree that Romney’s Mormonism actually …
The Last Palm Tree: Mormonism and Sustainability
By Mark Thomas Soon after her second child was born, in 2005, journalist Florence Williams decided to have her breast milk chemically analyzed. To her surprise and consternation, she found that though she was eating a healthy diet, her milk contained trace amounts of pesticides, dioxin, and a jet-fuel ingredient, as well as high-to-average …
Roundtable: Confronting Racism in Mormonism
The following is excerpted from Mormon Matters podcast episodes 79 and 80, “How Can We Truly Confront Racism within Mormon Thought and Culture?,” which can be heard in its entirety or downloaded by visiting www.mormonmatters.org. The podcast conversation took place in early March 2012, within days of the publication of a Washington Post article on …
People: Issue 167
Deceased. Poet, reporter, and Sunstone friend PAUL SWENSON, 76, of causes related to diabetes. After working at the Desert News, Paul became the editor of the now-defunct Utah Holiday, which published important stories about the LDS Church’s finances and the relation between the Church and the Utah state legislature. Paul will be remembered for writing …
Reverencing Creation
By Steven L. Peck As a BYU student in the early eighties, I earmarked part of my meager paycheck to help protect endangered whales. Since then, “Save the Whales” has become so hackneyed that even unswerving environmentalists smile at its kitschiness. But at the time, I really was concerned with saving the whales (and …
“With Reverence and Care!”
Hugh W. Nibley, one of Mormonism’s most prominent social critics, was a wonderful model for how to walk the fine line of openly challenging attitudes and practices in LDS culture while still being influential among most segments of the community. He accomplished this through clear demonstrations of his own personal loyalty to the gospel and …
Bush Men: Poetry
By Bradley McIlwain (for R.D.) river rushes north along aged Indian trails cupping hands with scout guides and ghosts of foreign navigators once lost among mosquito marsh and dense brush, asking sustenance from unforgiving earth plucking berries you picked in autumn before she turned gold to silver and …
Since He Was Weaned: Poetry
By James Goldberg Since he was weaned, my son’s been hungry for the open sky— so that now, at eighteen months, he’s a seeker and a maker of signs. A simple knock at the air comes first. It means: open this door and let me ascend the concrete steps to that greater bliss …
Thorns and Thistles and Briars (An Easter Poem)
By Jonathon Penny This is a rather wretched place, All things considered: More paradox than paradise; A poky little patch of dust and scrub Now parched, now drowned, Shaken and, as often, stirred; A heaven gone to ground, Ground gone to seed, Thorn- and thistle-crowned And for the very birds— The …