June 2007 Sunstone Issue
By Dan on Jul 3, 2007
I’m posting to alert everyone that the June 2007 issue of Sunstone is now in the mail. We’ve also posted two pieces from it online. They are:
“Loving a Killer Whale,” by Joanie Ellis Tidwell. This is a beautiful, very emotional but ultimately triumphant story of the author’s coming to terms with her son’s diagnosis with Asperger Syndrome. It is one of the winning essays in this year’s Eugene England Memorial Essay Contest.
The other piece we’ve made available online is Margaret Toscano’s article, “‘Are Boys More Important than Girls’: The Continuing Conflict of Gender Difference and Equality in Mormonism.” I believe this article is the first major thing published on this topic in a couple of years. And, as I wrote in a brief editor’s note at the beginning of the article, I’m very interested in receiving short essays and other kinds of responses for possible publication in the next Sunstone issue. We’ve also timed this article to cross-fertilize with a series of podcasts and blog discussions on Mormonism and women’s issues going on right now at Mormon Stories. I hope you’ll check all of these things out. I believe it’s high time to revisit these issues.
This issue also contains a really amazing article, “The Yoga of Christ,” by Phil McLemore. It brings eastern perspectives into conversation with Jesus’ teachings, and I believe what emerges in the interpretations is right on. There is so much depth and insight in this article that I consider it one of the most profound articles Sunstone has published in the past six-plus years of my editorship. It’s worth the cover price alone! Even the price for a full subscription! (Hint, hint)
There is much more to recommend in this issue (see Table of Contents), including a terrific column by Jana Riess about swearing, a very insightful review of the Helen Whitney film, The Mormons, by Matthew Bowman, and a sophisticated exploration of Book of Mormon teachings on the question of “Does God Understand Our Fears?” by G. St. John Stott. The author (who goes by Graham) is one of the very few members of the Community of Christ who writes about the Book of Mormon, and his background in literature and knowing how to carefully read texts leads him to see a great deal that I’ve never really considered. Anyway, it blew me seeing the kind of depth of scriptural exploration that is possible when one puts in the effort.
The issue has a fun short story, “Voluptuous,” by Helen Walker Jones, another group of personal experiences by “Borderlanders” in Jeff Burton’s ongoing column series, a review of Long After Dark, Todd Robert Petersen’s new book of short shorties and novella, many excellent cartoons (far more than usual), a great Cornucopia section, and two extra pages of news than in a typical Sunstone.
Can you tell I like this issue? I think you will, too. And I very much hope you’ll feel like commenting here on what you find in its pages.
Best,
Dan Wothespoon
Editor, Sunstone
Dan, I am really surprised that you gave Margaret a chance to continue her biased diatribes after her totally distorted and melodramatic performance on the PBS specials. I must admit that I lost much respect for her after she presented such an inaccurate view of the Church to the nation.
Comment # 1 by Michael | Jul 3, 2007 | Reply
I have read a copy of Phil McLemore’s “The Yoga of Christ,” and as Dan says,it is profound. I just sent a copy to a Presbyterian minister friend of mine and I have several other non-member friends on my list to send copies. Good work Dan, and Sunstone.
And, by the way, Michael # 1, not encouraging a diatribe, but could you give an example of one of M. T.’s “biased diatribes,” and “distorted and melodramatic performance?” Thanks.
Parker
Comment # 2 by Parker | Jul 4, 2007 | Reply
Parker,
With all due respect, my example would be her performance on the special itself. Her viewpoints were overly dramatic and stretched what really happens in a disciplinary council. She distorted church teachings on the role of women and men and she carries a well-defined grudge that clouds any objective observations she may make. It was the first time that I saw her in person after having read many of her writings and it allowed me to get a better perspective of her “whining” without offering legitimate alternatives based upon scripture and revelation. Her story of not being able to dress her sister seemed an artificial attempt for sympathy. Why did she expect that her brother-in-law would allow her to dress her sister when Margaret is so openly hostile to church teachings and doctrine. I was surprised that she felt she was wronged. If you don’t believe in the temple endowment, why have expectations to participate in it.
Maybe my perspective is influenced by being a convert but why is it that so many life-long members who go onto rejecting the doctrine or teachings still feel entitled to participate in the cultural traditions of the church? I don’t do that with my Catholic upbringing so why do Mormons do that with their LDS upbringing. If you reject the teachings and doctrine then you don’t have an entitlement to the cutural traditions. Period. I don’t buy into this halfway no-mans land of rejecting the gospel in one’s mind but still feeling like a mormon in one’s heart. It is BS.
Comment # 3 by Michael | Jul 5, 2007 | Reply
Hi Michael,
Thanks for posting and sharing your perspectives. Clearly we see Margaret and her work and persona very differently. I’ve known her for ten-plus years and worked with her several times on Sunstone articles, and I’ve always found her to be very fair in her analyses and very respectful of LDS members’ beliefs, practices, and the way they find meaning and hopefulness in gospel contexts. She is also very much a believer in many, perhaps most, Restoration teachings, and whatever critiques she offers through her applications of gender theory and various arguments are intended to call us, and the Church (I like to think they are the same) to its highest self, to the ideals set forth in the revelations. She had no desire to be excommunicated, and I’m quite certain never would have been called to a disciplinary council in 99 percent of LDS stakes.
As for the way she came across in the documentary, I again didn’t see her through the same lenses you did. I also think you are overestimating the amount of control an interviewee has over what is put into the final film–what portion of longer answers are used, with what visual images interspersed, etc.
Best,
Dan Wotherspoon
Editor, Sunstone
Comment # 4 by Dan | Jul 5, 2007 | Reply
Michael, I’m of the same opinion as Dan re Margaret and her contributions to the PBS special, though I know others who responded to Margaret the same as you. If you get a chance, check out the full transcript of the interview that Margaret did for PBS/Frontline. It sheds more light, balance, and context on everything she said that appeared in the special, including the pain she felt from not being able to participate in dressing her sister for the funeral.
http://www.pbs.org/mormons/interviews/toscano.html
Comment # 5 by Matt Thurston | Jul 5, 2007 | Reply
Michael for what its worth I understand your hesitancy – having someone out there who seems to be critical for the sake of criticism can be difficult to take. Last semester I was teaching a class on the American West and one of the students wanted to bring in and show the South Park episode showing the Church origins. I let them go ahead providing that he also prepared a second piece, which showed some of the factual errors (available online). It provided a great discussion. And discussion and debate and even dissention are what make for greater insight – reading the full transcript from PBS I also see that she says “Mormonism has a lot of truth in it” and that is for me a great place to start any discussion.
Comment # 6 by Catherine | Jul 5, 2007 | Reply
Thanks you guys. I will read the full transcript.
Comment # 7 by Michael | Jul 5, 2007 | Reply
Michael, I thought the part about disciplinary councils was bad, too, but I think it was less Margaret’s words than the overdone visuals with the empty chairs, an editorial decision over which Margaret certainly had no control.
Also, not all expressions of pain are “whining.” Check out the Psalms…
Comment # 8 by Kristine | Jul 5, 2007 | Reply
Thanks to Parker, Dan, Matt, Catherine and Kristine for their gentle, compassionate response to your complaint, Michael. I doubt I would have been so restrained, having been privileged to know Margaret personally and to have felt her spirit, passion and care for the past 14 years. I’m emcouraged that you are willing to dig deeper into the full transcript of the PBS broadcast. Perhaps, too, you will get to know our sister as some of the rest of us do, by interacting with her personally at the upcoming symposium? This is the beauty of Sunstone, which has finally achieved stage IV in Scott Peck’s model of true community. If I manage to make it to this year’s symposium, I hope you and I can meet.
Comment # 9 by Eugene | Jul 5, 2007 | Reply
Michael, thanks for being willing to dig deeper and re-evaluation your impressions. That shows a ton of character.
“I don’t buy into this halfway no-mans land of rejecting the gospel in one’s mind but still feeling like a mormon in one’s heart.”
I would have said the same thing 10 years ago, to tell you the thruth. Yet….here I am. : )
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Eugene,
If you make it to Sunstone this August, you’ll have to let me buy you lunch. I’ve gotten swamped a lot lately and not been able to keep following up on our wrestling conversations. Love to meet you.
–Rick
Comment # 10 by Rick Jepson | Jul 6, 2007 | Reply
Rick,
I’ve been wondering how you are doing. I’d like very much to make it to the symposium and take you up on lunch, but it doesn’t look likely. I’ve just returned from Ukraine and am still buried with more than I can dig out of between Symposium time and now. Let’s keep a look out on other options. I’m planning to offer three radical papers to Sunstone for next year. Want to know their tentative titles?
Comment # 11 by Eugene Kovalenko | Jul 6, 2007 | Reply
Love to.
If we don’t catch up then, I promise I’ll pick back up our conversations.
Finishing a BIG (2-year) project this week. Ahhhhhh.
Comment # 12 by Rick Jepson | Jul 6, 2007 | Reply
Here they are: 1) Dialogues with Joseph, Encountering and Transcending an Earth Bound Spirit; 2) Orthodox Odyssey, Embracing My Father’s Lost Tradition; and 3) On Beloving, Reflections on a Sunstone Dream Workshop. I’m confident that when you get back to our conversations they will affect both the structure and content of all three of these tentative titles. May your BIG project be satisfying to your soul. Looking forward to picking up where we left off.
Comment # 13 by Eugene Kovalenko | Jul 7, 2007 | Reply
Dan,
The June issue of Sunstone Magazine came just yesterday (12 July) and your extraordinary essay From the Editor caught my eye at once. This was because of its one word title “Namaste”. I learned this word from my good friend Joseph Dillard years ago and we generally use it in our correspondence sign-offs. It is a wonderful word!
I was excited by how cleverly and well you addressed the fundamental issue of regaining “the secret of who we really are.”
Because of simultaneous and independent recommendations from both you and Dillard two years ago, I became aware of Ken Wilber and his Integral Institute, beginning with his book “A Brief History of Everything“. That book was a launch pad for me into wondrous new levels of awareness.
Last year, concurrent with and subsequent to my symposium presentation on Annealing and Healing“Dream Yoga” enabled me to understand and transcend a life-long preoccupation with Joseph Smith and an awareness of “spiritual attachments”. With Dillard’s permission I am sending you a first draft of the first chapter of his new book, which I hope you will agree is seminal. Hopefully, before his growing reputation preempts his availability, Sunstone can manage to invite him to present a symposium workshop. In a private communication I am sending you his report of a teaching trip to Germany from which he has just returned.
Namaste.
Eugene
Comment # 14 by Eugene Kovalenko | Jul 13, 2007 | Reply
Oops! In the last paragraph of #14, there should be a comma after Annealing and Healing followed by “Dillard’s ‘Dream Yoga’…”
Comment # 15 by Eugene Kovalenko | Jul 15, 2007 | Reply