From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #748 Reply-To: aml-list Sender: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk aml-list-digest Tuesday, June 18 2002 Volume 01 : Number 748 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 15 Jun 2002 03:03:02 -0600 From: "D. Michael Martindale" Subject: Re: [AML] Change Names or Not? Bill Willson wrote: > I feel strongly that the story needs to be told, but the names and places as > well as the exact details of the situation should be altered so as to > protect innocent people, and also protect the author. We have enough rich > lawyers lying in wait to ensnare the unwary without giving them such a rich > treasure to fight over. The people who have the most potential to be offended are the same people who will recognize their own story when they read it, even with fictionalized names and places and a pseudonymed author. So will that approach provide that much protection? Won't the fundamentalist angel of destruction come down upon the infidel anyway, if it would have with all the facts? - -- D. Michael Martindale dmichael@wwno.com ================================== Check out Worldsmiths, the new online LDS writers group, at http://www.wwno.com/worldsmiths Sponsored by Worlds Without Number http://www.wwno.com ================================== - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Jun 2002 18:26:28 -0700 From: Julie Kirk Subject: Re: [AML] Models for Mormon Art Linda wrote: >Julie, >I'm curious; did you ask the man who critiqued your painting why he had that >reaction, why he equated Mormon and Nazi propaganda? You say he seemed to >like it. I don't believe people in general would have that reaction. >However, I think there is not harm in "generalizing" one's subjects. >Linda Hyde > > and Robert wrote: > >So, did he mean your boys looked too Aryan? Or did he mean that your painting >got a message across very strongly? Does he think LDS flyers are as false and >propagandistic (is that a word?) as Nazi propaganda? Or does he think they're >equally effective in getting their message across? You know, I didn't outright ask him about whether he liked them - I know that sounds silly, but I was in a crit with about 15 other people, and other people would start talking and then the subject would eventually change - so I never got back to it. But the basics of what he seemed to be trying to get across is this - that he associated the look of Nazi propoganda posters as trying to show young, virile aryan men - "we can conquer anything and are meant to be the chosen race". Then he also brought up the Mormon flyers as being this same type of view - "we can conquer anything and we are the chosen race". Yes, I did get a bit of a feeling that he didn't mean that in the nicest of terms. But I also think he was trying to convey part of what you are saying also - that act of conversion and the "promise" being offered of something greater. Yes, he brought up the flyers as the ones that you see in the pamphlets and so on that are handed out to nonmembers, but I also kind of got the feeling that he was talking about manuals and magazines also - so I'm not sure if he had some personal connection with Mormonism, and I never got a chance to ask as it was the final day of the class and I had to leave a bit early for something for my kids. For the most part, people in the class made sounds of agreement, but also gave me alot of positive feedback on the paintings and the emotional content of them. whether they knew it or not, they gave me a broad range of responses that were all in the directions I was trying to hit, so to me that is successful. In thinking more and more about it, and having now put it into words, and reading responses from both you and Linda, I think I have come to the conclusion that we need to paint what we know and what moves us. Using my kids as models fits for me and what I am doing as part of my exploration is on the level of an open religious discussion, but part of it is a personal journey also and (tying into the "Baby Exhaustion" subject) a discovery of how my observation of my children's personalities, mistakes and successes, and the relative guilt or joy I feel over those actions play into my painting. I think I am more working on the guilt phase right now, but am hoping to hit the joy phase sometimes this decade ;o) One thing I will say is that, seperate from my painting, it really bothers me to hear someone equate those two things together - Nazi posters and Mormon flyers. The qualifier being that I do see a much greater attempt to show the diversity of people who try to follow the gospel - but I still have a hard time with it and struggle with whether it is my personal mission to deliberately try and change that view. and how do I go about that with honesty, trying to put genuine feeling into what I'm painting. I see too many people over the years who almost seem to be "cashing in" on the growth in popularity of ethnic art - such as the massive amounts of artists who want to replay "Dances with Wolves". There is alot of gray area there as to when we are being genuine and when we are commenting on something we really have no right to lay claim to. Julie - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 02:44:53 +0000 From: "Andrew Hall" Subject: [AML] LEONARD, _Nauvoo: A Place of Peace, A People of Promise_ (Deseret= News) Deseret News Sunday, June 16, 2002 Impressive 'Nauvoo' captures an era By Dennis Lythgoe Deseret News book editor NAUVOO: A PLACE OF PEACE, A PEOPLE OF PROMISE; by Glen M. Leonard; Deseret Book and BYU Press, 828 pages; $39.95. This remarkable new book has actually been in the works since 1978, the year Glen Leonard assumed authorship of what was scheduled to be the Nauvoo volume of a 16-volume history of the LDS Church commissioned by Leonard J. Arrington, then LDS Church historian. T. Edgar Lyon, historian for Nauvoo Restoration Inc., had spent about 10 years researching the history of Nauvoo for both restoration and scholarly purposes. But in 1978, Lyon lost a battle with cancer, and Glen Leonard took over the project. It is gratifying to see it reach fruition with the publication of what is sure to be the definitive history of Nauvoo for years to come. Leonard, a mature, careful, insightful historian, has applied all of his impressive narrative and interpretive talents to this work in a successful effort to write a frank and open history of one of the most important periods in LDS history. The book tells the story of the development of Nauvoo, Ill., established by industrious, determined religious pioneers who not only created a beautiful, prosperous city on the banks of the Mississippi but built a temple as the center of worship. The story of Nauvoo is political, social and economic, but it is primarily a religious story, and Leonard understands that. Nauvoo represented not only a peak period in the establishment of Joseph Smith's teachings but also a crisis based on persecutions and the eventual assassination of the Mormon prophet. It represented a major transition from Smith's leadership to Brigham Young's more pragmatic approach, and in Leonard's opinion it set the stage for the entire, lengthy administration of Brigham Young during the Utah years. Leonard has told the story in a creative way, being careful to include all the relevant threads from the Missouri and Ohio years so that the reader never loses perspective. He effectively illustrates the importance of place to the Latter- day Saints as they struggled to develop a kingdom dedicated to their faith. Joseph Smith played the starring role in this fascinating story, demonstrating unusually diverse and charismatic talents in governing both the Church and the city. But Leonard is determined to tell the whole story, and so he never glosses over problems. He frankly treats the major issues of plural marriage and succession in the presidency of the church after Smith's death. Leonard traces the beginnings of plural marriage in the culture as a religious precedent begun by and participated in by Joseph Smith and continued by Brigham Young. In addition, Emma Smith's opposition to the practice is documented. Leonard also treats the crisis of succession in detail. The major issue, as Leonard sees it, is that Smith determined at the time of his death that the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles assumed the authority to govern the church when the prophet was no longer with them. Therefore, the individual claims of Joseph Smith III, James J. Strang, Oliver Cowdery or Sidney Rigdon were placed secondary to the authority of the Twelve. That is why Brigham Young, as president of the Twelve, eventually succeeded Joseph Smith. Leonard treats persecution with equal frankness. This is not a story in which Mormon pioneers appear to be perfect. They made mistakes, and Leonard documents them, believing that accurate history is also faithful history. He also deconstructs a number of myths that have been passed down through generations. For example, those who killed Joseph Smith did not have horrible things happen to them: "They lived out their lives as respected citizens=20 with successful careers in their communities." Copyright 2002 Deseret News Publishing Company Well-seasoned historian has a gift for language to tell story of Nauvoo By Dennis Lythgoe Deseret News book editor The author of "Nauvoo: A Place of Peace, A People of Promise" is perhaps the ideal historian to produce an interesting and accurate volume about one of the most important periods in LDS history. Although he has spent the past 24 years as director of the Museum of LDS Church History and Art, Glen M. Leonard holds a doctorate in history and American Studies from the University of Utah, has written extensively about LDS history and is known for his gift for language. In a far-ranging interview with the Deseret News in his museum office, Leonard reflected on a project that has taken a huge chunk of his personal time since 1978, when he took over the research T. Edgar Lyon had been doing on Nauvoo after the highly respected historian passed away. "I had just been named museum director, and we had just moved into a new home in Farmington, and I was too busy to do anything on Nauvoo for 10 years," Leonard said. Elder Loren Dunn, who at the time was the director of the board of Nauvoo Restoration Inc., arranged for Leonard to have two leaves of absence to work on the book. By 1996, Leonard had finished a 1,000-page manuscript (later cut to 664 pages) that he considered "open and honest" and designed "to appeal to a broad, general audience." Because of a prior commitment with the Utah Historical Society to write a history of Farmington, Leonard left his Nauvoo manuscript while he spent 3 1/2 years completing the Farmington volume, which was finished in 1999. Then he spent two years cutting the first half of the Nauvoo book by a third. Leonard actually logged the hours he spent on the Nauvoo book, mostly evenings, weekends, holidays and vacation time. "I had a full-time job, 40 hours a week, and my church callings took 15-20 hours. From 1988-1996, then from 1999-2001, I squeezed out 25 months of full-time work. It's a two-year project spanning 10 years. I love research and writing. I love to massage the writing, and it was hard to let go, but the book needed to get on the shelves." It was published just this month. It was important to Leonard to give the reader a sense of place. "Nauvoo was a special place, because it was a city of distinction," he said. "It had a prophet. . . . Nauvoo was the place where he lived and where the people gathered. Nauvoo was laid out in a four-square pattern like other cities of the time. The difference Joseph Smith made was that in the place of the courthouse on= =20 the central square, he built a temple. It was geographically centered =97 on= a=20 prominence on top of a bluff. . . It became the geographical and spiritual center of this religious city." Leonard did not hesitate to tackle controversial issues, such as plural marriage and succession to the presidency of the church. "Plural marriage was a confidential practice. It was not publicly announced and only introduced privately to very few. You have a lack of information, because very few people were writing anything about it. To find out who knew and what they thought about it was a real challenge. I did what I could to tell the story of plural marriage honestly and openly," he said. When Smith was killed, the crucial question for the church was who would succeed him. "It became an issue of the right of the Twelve Apostles to govern. Most people living in Nauvoo who had known the Twelve in England felt that was the natural way to go. But those who opposed it opposed Smith's later teachings on the temple and plural marriage. Some supported Joseph Smith III, who was not old enough to lead the church," he said. One myth Leonard has corrected is the common tendency for Mormons today to believe that Gov. Thomas Ford of Illinois "was a bad guy." In the book, Leonard considers Ford to be "a good guy," who was perceived by Smith and Brigham Young as "helpful, neutral - a law and order person. Ford was a former Illinois state supreme court justice. He was a Democrat, and the Mormons trusted the Democratic point of view more than the Whig." Leonard believes Ford wanted to prevent civil war. "He could see brewing two peoples who had political ambitions that were basically similar. But the issue became so complicated that the anti-Mormon people said 'We were here first, so YOU should leave.' Gov. Ford saw that. Ford tried to keep the peace. When the martyrdom took place, he was as shocked as everyone else. He trusted the military people guarding Joseph Smith to do their duty. He was a bit naive, but he took their word, and they violated it." It is Leonard's academic training as an historian, perhaps, that causes him to react with humility when asked if this is the definitive history of Nauvoo. "I didn't finish the Nauvoo history =97 I let go of it. Histories are written, then time passes, then new ways of asking the questions develop. I took a fresh approach and tried to give a comprehensive treatment. But in a few years, I suppose someone will try again." He is grateful to both Deseret Book and BYU Press for being "very supportive" of his frank and open approach. "We didn't have any battles. The manuscript didn't have to go through the general authorities of the church for approval. Elder Loren Dunn, an early supporter, read the manuscript, and he was helpful in raising a few questions, but he did not challenge my subject, my historical approach or my interpretations." Leonard sees Nauvoo as "the culmination of Joseph Smith's period and the beginning of Brigham Young's, and you see the transition in the book. The peaceful interlude is truly an unfolding of a new perspective on how to govern the church and how to implement the programs. Joseph Smith and his teachings became the core of how Brigham Young managed his whole administration. The concept of a covenant community continued in an ecclesiastical way instead of a community sense, but the principles are still with us." Copyright 2002 Deseret News Publishing Company _________________________________________________________________ Join the world=92s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail.=20 http://www.hotmail.com - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Jun 2002 18:51:50 -0600 From: Barbara Hume Subject: Re: [AML] Mormons and Topaz At 03:01 PM 6/13/02, you wrote: >I'm planning several novels that would use this research, one intended for a >Mormon audience and one for a national audience, and I am quite interested >in understanding the authentic mindsets of people on all sides of that >issue. Your assistance is greatly appreciated. George Takei, who played Sulu on Star Trek, was interned at the age of four when his family was sent to a camp. He writes about it in his autobiography. I have a copy of the book if you'd like to borrow it. Barbara R. Hume Provo, Utah - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Jun 2002 09:44:05 -0600 From: "Sharlee Glenn" Subject: Re: [AML] Baby Exhaustion Marianne wrote: > And this thread isn't helping, my friends. Because I know I want to have > kids and y'all are scaring the heck out of me. Man, alive! Sometimes I > think we have way too much childbirth/child rearing full disclosure. The > pendulum has swung with a vengeance. LOL. You may have a point here, Marianne! Sometimes it's better not to know too much beforehand. I wonder how many of us in the preexistence would have jumped for joy had we *really* understood what we were getting into. :-) But the thing is, childbirth and child rearing, like life, is as much about joy and grace and a kind of transcendent holiness as it is about pain and drudgery and exhaustion. Sharlee Glenn glennsj@inet-1.com - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Jun 2002 16:32:15 EDT From: DiannRead@aol.com Subject: [AML] Re: Doctrine Versus Culture Hmmmm, interesting theory. I'm going to start paying more attention to that here in San Antonio, TX, where wards and stakes are a mix of Spanish- and English-speaking members. (Our bishopric currently is all Anglos, but we have Hispanic members in our High Council.) Also, the ordinance workers at the Houston temple are a mix of English- and Spanish-speakers. At least one of the sealers is Hispanic, and another--a good friend of my husband--is Dutch and has a different accent altogether. But this is Texas, not Utah . . . . Diann T. Read - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Jun 2002 18:34:56 -0700 From: Julie Kirk Subject: [AML] Provo Street Painting Fest Just a general announcment for those interested - Labor Day weekend of this year there is going to be a street painting festival held in Provo at the Riverwoods mall. I'll be there doing some workshops before hand and the featured painting which will be a large figurative piece, but more than that, I wanted to make the announcement so that anyone who might be interested in completing a painting knows and can keep the dates free. Anyone with any interest in doing a street painting is welcome to apply to do a square - if it is a first time I'd recommend doing one of the smaller ones, somewhere around 6'x4' to get the feel of it without being overwhelmed. I'll post some follow up info on who to get hold of in a few weeks for applications. Feel free to keep my email address and get hold of me though if you don't see the info come up. Also, if you haven't seen this type of work in person before, you might want to try and make it by that weekend - later in the weekend being better as the paintings are nearing completion. The work is way more impressive and monumental in person than photos can ever get across. It is a pretty unique type of performance art - the festival should be getting a number of the better California artists out there so there should be some nice paintings to view. Julie Kirk - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 02:33:11 +0000 From: "Andrew Hall" Subject: [AML] Homefront Ads (SL Tribune) LDS Ads The Message: Family First Salt Lake Tribune Saturday, June 15, 2002 BY CHRISTOPHER SMITH THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE One of the most successful broadcast advertising campaigns has never paid for a minute of commercial airtime. It's never used celebrity pitchmen, sexy models, catchy jingles or bawdy humor. No Madison Avenue ad agencies, focus groups or test markets. Yet since 1972, a series of sentimental vignettes promoting family togetherness produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has defied programmers' inherent reluctance to give a religious group free airtime as part of television and radio stations' public service obligation. The campaign has beat out such powerhouses as Coke and Nike for national advertising awards and become a model for subtly marketing religion in mass media. "The goodness of the message stands on its own," said Curt Dahl, who has written and produced hundreds of the so- called "Homefront" public service announcements for the LDS Church through church-owned Bonneville Communications in Salt Lake City. "Our quest has always been to give people a little reminder to take a closer look at their relationship with their families." With storylines and imagery that sometimes evoke Norman Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post covers, the ads have become a public touchstone to the modern image of Mormonism, a staple of overnight commercial breaks and the electronic medium equivalent of a Gideon Bible in a hotel room nightstand. "We thought, well, advertising can sell products like soap and sodas and sedans, and was very successful at doing that, can it do something to promote an ideology?" said Richard D. Alsop, recently retired president and general manager of Bonneville, who hatched the Homefront concept with colleague M. Gordon Johnson in 1971. The initial 1972 campaign lacked the production quality that would be the campaign's hallmark. But the tone was set the next year with an ad showing a father in a recliner watching TV as his son waits outside the window, baseball and glove in hand, eyes pleading for Dad to play catch. "Remember last week when you said next week you were going to spend more time with your children?" the announcer asks the potato chip-chomping father. "It's next week." Others were poignant. A popular ad featured a pigtailed little girl returning home from a birthday party, eager to report what happened, only to be ignored by busy parents and siblings. She finally finds an interested ear -- the family pooch. "Children can go to the dogs when families don't listen," intones the voice-over. Storylines are often mawkish -- in a 1978 spot, a feuding husband and wife reflect on happier times in a mini "Love Story" sequence as the announcer says, "Think of the times you pulled together instead of apart, and then, think again." Other plots became classics: 1985's "Water Fight," where carousing muddy kids are caught by their stern father, who warns "Don't anybody move. I'll be right back," only to return with a camera and join in the mess. "Water Fight" took the American Advertising Federation's top national award that year -- Apple's legendary 1984 Macintosh Superbowl spot was the previous winner -- and was included in The 100 Best TV Commercials by Bernice Kanner. This summer, a popular Homefront ad from early in the campaign will be re-made and re-issued for the first time. "Kidnapped" was a 1974 commercial featuring a son who persuades his father to take a break from the pile of work he has brought home to see something in the camper. When Dad gets inside the camper, his son shuts the door and hops into the pickup cab where Mom is waiting behind the wheel and they drive off with Dad locked in the camper. "What does it take to get you back into the lives of your children?" asks the announcer. "Give them everything, give them your time." The venerable ad campaign represents a "masterful job of branding," according to one scholar who studies how effectively churches use mass media. "These ads have remade the public image of the Mormon church without ever addressing Mormon theology or Mormon understandings of God," said Jeffrey H. Mahan, professor of ministry, media and culture at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, and author of Religion and Popular Culture in America. "They have played a major role in repositioning the Mormon church in the wider society," said Mahan, an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. "The church was largely seen as an alternative religion, always a little strange anyplace but Utah. What the advertising campaign did was to help make them mainstream." With the 83rd set of Homefront spots going to broadcasters this month (new spots are mailed to 1,200 TV stations and 4,000 radio stations every three months), Homefront is marking its 30th anniversary. Bonneville officials contend it is the "longest running, most broadcast, most highly awarded public service campaign in the world," racking up Clios, Emmys and Cannes Film Festival honors, as well as airing on thousands of local stations and most major broadcast networks in North America, Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific, Latin America, Brazil, the United Kingdom, the Philippines and Europe, creating millions of impressions. Still, many Utah viewers may have never seen the ads, which seldom air on commercial television stations in Salt Lake City -- world headquarters of the LDS Church. "My guess is because [LDS Church-owned Brigham Young University public television station] KBYU runs them all the time, the other stations figure there's enough exposure in this market," said Dahl, Bonneville's creative director. "Honestly, I can't tell you the last time I've even seen one on [LDS Church- owned commercial television station] KSL." By design, the ads are a soft sell, with messages that are as universal as a Hallmark greeting card. Only a video logo or tagline mention at the end indicates sponsorship, such as "a thought from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." Bonneville also produces a separate series of advertisements that the LDS Church pays to air on some cable networks and TV stations nationally that include an offer of a free Book of Mormon for those who call a toll-free phone number. "There are some similarities in the feel of those paid ads compared to Homefront, but there is usually a deeper emotion at work in the paid ads since not everyone is ready for that message at all times in their life," said Dahl. "But Homefront is our flagship, and there's never been anything said to me that the church wants it to do more than it already is doing." While the immortality of the family is a central cornerstone of Mormon doctrine, the low-key style of Homefront's message has allowed broadcasters to overcome hesitation of airing religious public service announcements (PSAs) from among the thousands of spots sent by non-profit groups. Studies have shown spots with religious or political messages are routinely trash-canned by programmers, whose stations no longer must fill a federally mandated "quota" of PSAs but are under a "public service obligation" by broadcast licensing agencies. "A church-produced PSA getting on the air is an aberration to a certain degree," said Dennis Wharton, senior vice president of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). "But this is one of the more highly run PSA campaigns because it isn't saying, 'Go to church Sunday or you'll go to hell.' It's a non-proselytizing, universal appeal for family support, and the pro-family message is a safe message to run in every market in America." A survey of broadcast public service directors by the Kaiser Family Foundation released in February found a 57 percent majority cited PSAs about family, children or teen topics as their station's top priority for filling donated airtime. A soon- to-be-released NAB survey found TV stations average 73 minutes per week airing PSAs while radio stations average 100 minutes per week. In 2001, the NAB says American broadcasters donated $6.6 billion worth of airtime for PSAs. It's free advertising that has prompted other faiths to cast a sometimes-envious eye toward the LDS Church. The United Presbyterian Church actually produced and offered PSAs before the advent of Homefront, but no religion has managed to match the global branding of such slogans as "Family: Isn't it about time?" as has modern Mormonism. And some faiths would never consider trying, reflecting an age-old debate whether mass media are an appropriate vessel for the gospel. "The United Methodist Church has made some real efforts to have a stronger media presence, and while no one involved would acknowledge it, they are clearly informed by the Mormon model," said Mahan. " But in my own denomination there are those who believe we should trust people to come to us for the rightness of our message rather than watering down the truth into a 30- or 60-second commercial." Dahl, like many Bonneville veterans, is convinced of the propriety of the Homefront approach through hundreds of letters and anecdotes collected from viewers or listeners, or by LDS missionaries who regularly report people they contact recognize the faith through the ads. His own experiences, which have become the basis for innumerable Homefront storylines, lead him to believe spending time with family is a message that can never be repeated enough. "A few years ago I was working at home at night, trying to get a new series of Homefront spots written and my young daughter kept calling me to her bedroom to get her a drink of water, a blanket, her doll, on and on," he said. "I was thinking, 'Doesn't she understand I have to work on these ads about spending time with family?' And she called me to her bedroom again, and I went in and said, 'Now what do you want?' And she said, 'Dad, I love you.'" Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 02:54:05 +0000 From: "Andrew Hall" Subject: [AML] More Nauvoo Books (Deseret News) Deseret News Sunday, June 16, 2002 Books welcome readers to Nauvoo By Dennis Lythgoe Deseret News book editor THE GATHERING TO NAUVOO, by Fred E. Woods, Covenant, 261 pages, $19.95; NAUVOO: THE CITY BEAUTIFUL, by John Telford, Deseret Book (Eagle Gate), 53 pages, $19.95; THE NAUVOO TEMPLE STONE, by Timothy Robinson, illustrated by Robert Barrett, Bookcraft, 32 pages, $16.95. The release of several new books coincides with the dedication of the LDS Church's Nauvoo Illinois Temple this month. Fred Woods, a professor of LDS Church history at BYU, has written "The Gathering to Nauvoo," a collection of stirring personal narratives of some of the hundreds of LDS converts who traveled thousands of miles to "gather" in the "City of the Saints." Woods used several archives to assemble interesting accounts of these peoples' experiences crossing the ocean, including disease, winds and waves, dancing and singing and sea burials. Some of the converts came from the Pacific Islands, the result of the missionary work of such powerful personalities as Addison Pratt, Benjamin Groudard, Noah Rogers and Knowlton Hanks. Robert Pexton was a British convert who brought his family to Nauvoo in the fall of 1841. He wrote, "I spoke to my wife about it and she was willing that I should go and leave her behind until I could send for her as we had not sufficient means for both to go . . . This was a sad parting but I was reconciled to go." Twenty-one-year-old Thomas Callister left his home on the Isle of Man in January, 1842, for Nauvoo. He wrote, "I left all my relatives and friends for the Gospel sake." His brother, John, offered him half of all he owned if he would not go. When Thomas refused, his brother said "he would be happier if he could lay him away on the hill with his parents." Prescilla Staines, who took a voyage on the "Fanny" in 1844, wrote, "I left the home of my birth to gather to Nauvoo. I was alone. It was a dreary winter day on which I went to Liverpool. The company with which I was to sail were all strangers to me. When I arrived at Liverpool and saw the ocean that would soon roll between me and all I loved, my heart almost failed me." John Telford took the full-color photos and Susan Easton Black and Kim C. Averett wrote the text for "Nauvoo: The City Beautiful," a book for the armchair traveler or for the traveler who plans to visit Nauvoo this summer. First published in 1997, it has been re-released with updated photos of the new Nauvoo temple from construction to its completed state. The book includes 50 photographs, including pioneer homes and businesses. The text is a minimal contribution compared to the lush photos. Finally, "The Nauvoo Temple Stone," by Timothy Robinson, is a children's picture book in which the author imagines what those who worked on the construction of the new temple would have said when they discovered the foundation stones of the original temple. People comment on the different stones as if one were symbolic of a testament, one a prayer, another a monument, another a sentinel, another a seed and another a bridge. The book, simple and straightforward, is enhanced by the paintings of Robert Barrett. Robinson is director of electronic publishing at Deseret Book, and Barrett is a professor of illustration at BYU. An accomplished=20 painter and illustrator, his work has been included in LDS Church magazines and in art exhibits across the country and in Germany. Copyright 2002 Deseret News Publishing Company 'Sacred Stone' =97 a story of faith By Carma Wadley Deseret News senior writer SACRED STONE: The Temple at Nauvoo, Heidi S. Swinton, Covenant, $29.95, 166 pp. Nauvoo, the swamp. Nauvoo, the beautiful. Nauvoo, the troubled, the persecuted, the abandoned. Nauvoo, the city built on the banks of the Mississippi River by Mormon pioneers in the early 1840s, was all that and more. But above all else, says Heidi Swinton, it was Nauvoo, the city of Joseph's temple. "The real story of Nauvoo is the story of building a temple. Saints gathered to Nauvoo by divine command to build the temple. The economic structure of the town embraced the practice of tithing one day in 10 to temple labor . . . . Nauvoo was a Mormon town; and the centerpiece of Mormon worship =97 as taught by the Prophet Joseph Smith and elaborated by President Brigham Young =97 was clearly the temple." The story of that remarkable building is told in "Sacred Stone: The Temple at Nauvoo," which is a companion piece to a documentary,= =20 "Sacred Stone: Temple on the Mississippi," by Lee Groberg, which will be shown on PBS this fall. The book was released to coincide with the open house and dedication of the rebuilt temple (footage of which will be included in the film). Swinton does an excellent job of putting the Nauvoo temple in context =97 in world religious history, in Mormon history and in American history. With the temple as a central focus, she discusses the events that unfolded in and around Nauvoo during the construction period =97 from the gathering of the saints, to the= persecution,=20 to the death of Joseph Smith and the forced evacuation of the city. She details the methods and processes of construction. And in a series of well-placed sidebars contrasts that with modern construction. Throughout, she quotes diaries and writings of Nauvoo citizens. From their words, you get a clear sense of what the building meant to the saints, how it was worth any sacrifice. And she quotes a variety of historians - both LDS and non - -LDS - to show how historical perspective has strengthened that meaning. "It was both the project of building the temple and the experiences=20 spiritually within it that was the glue of the community and that also took them across the plains," notes BYU professor=20 emeritus Truman G. Madsen. As Brigham Young said: "We completed the temple, used it a short time, and were done with it. On the 5th and 6th of February, 1846, we committed the building into the hands of the Lord, and left it." The question most asked by historians of the period, says Swinton, is:= =20 Why would they finish the temple knowing they were going to leave it. Loren Horton, senior historian with the State Historical= =20 Society of Iowa, suggests: "The answer is in their religious faith. They needed the temple for what was going to be done for them in the temple." "Sacred Stone" is written as a popular history, meant to be read quickly and enjoyed on many levels. Drawings, photographs, pull-out quotes are used liberally to enhance the text and please the eye. In the end, it is a beautiful book, not only for that design, but also for the spirit it evokes. As you read, you get a deep appreciation for the Nauvoo Temple =97 both old and new. And you come to realize that its story is not the story of a building, as remarkable as that building was, but a story of faith, obedience and love. It is the story of a people's relationship with their God. Copyright 2002 Deseret News Publishing Company _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Jun 2002 21:40:35 -0600 From: "Alan Rex Mitchell" Subject: Re: [AML] Setting Goals I would like to chime in with Jacob's well reasoned response to the goal setting mentality. As usual, he has hit it on the head. If goals are part of the gospel, why aren't they explicitly in the scriptures? (Set ye therefore goals, that ye may achieve the success of perfection.) And if most of religious life is helping others, how can we set goals for that? I went on a mission in what must have been the height of goal-setting mentality. A ward leader at the MTC told us it is all about goal setting--that he only needed a home teacher to check up on his goals. Even the prophet at the time (whom I love deeply) was tell missionaries to set baptism goals (1000 per missionary per mission, but 500 per mission for German missions). Reality was about three orders of magnitude less. We had a general authority come to the mission and chastise us for not having companionship baptism goals. I put a personal story in my novel *Angel of the Danube* where the main character tells how zero was a good prediction, but not a goal. Goals must be whole numbers greater than zero. The number one is a good goal. I've since found out that any goal mulitplication greater than one is merely showing off. First, you have to finish the one thing, whether it is getting out of bed in the morning or finding someone to baptize or saving souls or getting married or having children or about anything. Selling cars, houses, cows, etc. There were two zone leaders in our mission who decided to set a zone goal of 2000 baptisms for the last four months of the year (or a decade's worth). When they went around to the districts, there was a great discerning between the faithful who accepted goals of 100 plus baptisms per companionship, and the unfaithful who wondered whose grip on reality was failing. P.S. Baptism rate was unchanged. Do I have goals? No, just projects. And I've accomplished a few things in my life that some would consider noteworthy, although I've done it without the satisfaction that it was sheer will that made things come to pass. I've had to settle for the attitude that it was the result of many people working and helping and giving and thanking the Lord for giving me the means and time and patience I've needed. Now I need someone to tell me I could have done more if I used goals ;) Alan Mitchell - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ End of aml-list-digest V1 #748 ******************************