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Good reading, free, online

Last updated on: December 6, 2020 at 4:41 pm by Dan Peterson

Good reading, free, online 2020-12-06T16:41:50-07:00 Dan Peterson

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One of the libraries of Texas A&M University, where Valerie Hudson Cassler teaches.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)

I received this note yesterday from Valerie Hudson Cassler — see her 2010 testimony here — and I don’t think that she will be opposed at all to my sharing it:

Welcome, dear readers, to the Fall 2020 issue of SquareTwo! What a year it has been! It’s hard not to hope that 2021 will bring better days for all.

We have a wonderful new issue for you, the largest we have had in years! We are grateful for such excellent submissions by our readers, and hope we will receive many more. First, our own V.H. Cassler pens an essay about troubling evidence that those with views not in accord with the mainstream are easily picked out for economic “de-personing.” Bank accounts summarily closed, credit card cancelled abruptly, refusals by platforms to be allowed to buy and sell, with obvious implications for obtaining essential business, auto, and home mortgage loans. If one day espousing Church beliefs is deemed as uncivilized, how will members avoid this same de-personing? Cassler has a suggestion.

Second, Alice Quan documents what she and her husband have learned about building Zion—in a very practical way. Compassion is not enough; in fact, compassion without wisdom is often destructive of the soul it has compassion upon. Alice and her husband have worked extensively with refugees within the setting of the Church: what she has learned is of great value, and we recommend this article to you highly.

Third, Krystal Walker write movingly about how she has had to place a moat around her testimony as a member of the Church who is Black. Walker offers six specific steps to help others facing the same or similar situations. Walker raises the question for us of how the Church’s founding in America has affected the path it has taken in the last 190 years with regard to race.

Fourth, Susan Madsen, Wendy Fox-Kirk, Sara McPhee Lafkas, and Robbyn T. Scribner examine the leadership skills women develop while serving missions for the Church, using a survey instrument having 687 female returned missionary respondents. Reading their responses, the authors suggest that perhaps the Church is missing an opportunity, and they make some interesting recommendations based on their research.

Fifth, Cheryl Preston asks a very important question: what has COVID lockdown revealed about how mediated women’s relationship is with the Church? And is that really the experience we want for women? Are there steps that could be taken to help this situation?

Sixth, artist Kamron Coleman asks if there is not something in the scriptures that is fairly plain if we have eyes to see it. He asks if the male godhead do not have companions. We know that the Father has the Mother as his companion and equal. Does the Bridegroom have a Bride? Does the Holy Ghost have a Shekhina? And what are the ramifications if this was true?

Seventh, we are publishing the third installment of Charles Randall Paul’s book reviewof Stephen H. Webb’s book Jesus Christ, Eternal God: Heavenly Flesh and the Metaphysics of Matter. Here’s a taste: “How does an eternal being win the heart and make a friend of another eternal free soul? Immortal souls embodied in mortality can be moved to love by the painful mortal suffering of another for them. . . . LDS say out loud what the rest of the human family senses silently: If God did not desire to yield to the influence of others, then he never should have desired to engage in love. Love is experienced at its best as intense mutual influence—freely gifted—aiming for mutual joy.”

Eighth, V.H. Cassler pauses to consider the passing of Diana Rigg, who played the incomparable Mrs. Peel. Mrs. Peel and John Steed of The Avengers, a TV show in the 1960s, played a formative role in her views on the equal partnership of men and women. Come with Cassler on a trip down memory lane, if you are old enough to remember Mrs. Peel.

Ninth, we have several excellent responses from our editorial board members on the Summer 2020 Readers’ Puzzle: exhorted as we have been to pray for our nation, what exactly are you praying for? The responses are thought-provoking.

And last but not least, we have a new Readers’ Puzzle for Fall 2020. Given the election of a new administration, what are your feelings on what you hope to see it accomplish in 2021? Do you have any specific policies or legislation that you would like to see advanced?

Enjoy this new issue!

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

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