The story explores the crazy rules of homo-vs-hetero public displays of affection among missionaries — and it was written by one of the stars of the last Sunstone Symposium! check it out!
It was May of 1993. I was 7 months pregnant with my second daughter, and it was my most dreaded of days: Mother’s Day. I scrambled to get my three year old daughter ready for church, and my then husband, Jeff, gave me his usual Mother’s Day gift: nothing. He…
Latter-day Saints—Mormons—members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—have been accused through the years of belonging to a cult, being non-Christian, being fanatics. They’ve even been accused of being devil worshippers. I used to laugh at such claims, but now I see there might be some merit to…
Growing up Mormon, I was always taught to be a good example. Now I’m trying to teach myself to find exemplars. Last month, I walked into the Episcopal Church of St. John’s the Evangelist in the San Francisco’s Mission district. I was attending a service, but not a worship service….
My guess is that this good sister’s plight was probably exacerbated by the realities of serving (i.e., living) in Asia.
I’m a fairly standard-issue American male and can count the number of times I’ve shed tears on one hand. One was when I returned home from Brazil and realized how cold and uncommunicative the people of my country of birth suddenly seemed to me. The other was after about six months into my first stay in Taiwan. I love my life here, but it is a much less expressive culture than even that of the US. Adapting takes time and, unlike the easy adaptation to the greater warmth of a Latin culture, finding one’s place in a colder society like Taiwan’s can often feel like compromising one’s humanity.
Thank God for my Taiwanese wife, her intellectual curiosity, and her dedication to living a polyglot lifestyle.
Looks like a good book!
The coldness of that relationship where someone who “loved her best” would only allow her to touch his sleeve when he clearly knew she was in real distress is stunning!
Visitor — right, but you have to understand that in that culture, he would see his refusal to comfort her as being a noble sacrifice.
Loved this article, well-written (congrats holly). Thanks for the tip chanson.