Silas Marner Reader Responses
by Marilyn Green Faulkner

It has been six months since we started the Best Books Club at Meridian Magazine, and many people have written to ask what is involved in joining the club. We simply read a great book together each month and share comments about it via email. A few hundred of you have signed up for the club, and many of you have written to say how much you enjoy reading together. If you would like to participate in the discussion, join us by clicking on [email protected], then read along with us and watch for articles on the book of the month in Meridian. Share your comments via email and I’ll publish them in the final article each month.

Here is the reading list for May through September:

May: The Chosen, by Chaim Potok

June: A Room with a View, by E.M. Forster

The following is taken from Chapter 31 of Mother Smith’s history and recounts the terrible events of the night of March 24, 1832 when the Prophet Joseph and Sidney Rigdon were mobbed, beaten, tarred and feathered. Please note and carefully read the footnotes as that is where the insights and enhancements are located.

“I shall now return to the month of September, 1831. Joseph, at this time, was engaged in translating the Bible, and Sidney Rigdon was writing for him. About the first of this month, Joseph came to the conclusion to remove himself and clerk, as well as their families, ⁽¹⁾ to Hiram, ⁽²⁾ in order to expedite the work. They moved to the house of Father John Johnson ⁽³⁾ and lived with him in peace until the following March, when a circumstance occurred which I shall relate in his own words:

“‘On the twenty-fourth of March [1832], the …

“The Herb, and the Good Things Which Come of the Earth”
by Julie Badger Jensen

Perhaps you have already discovered the joy of herbs and the way they enhance foods in a subtle yet exquisite way. If not, you may wish to begin an exciting journey of discovery. They have through generations called to us with their scents and textures.

From simple to exotic, herbs are certain to take you on a culinary adventure. Whether growing your own or purchasing from the nursery or supermarket, they are bound to be rewarding. Used alone or in infinite combinations, they offer a nutritious, low calorie approach “to please the eye and to gladden the heart.” (D&C 59, verse 18.) As more and more people wish to cut down on fats in the diet and eat more fruits and vegetables “in the season thereof”, (D&C 59, verse 18) the role of herbs can

Latter-day Saint Architecture: Designing the Buildings that Draw Us to God

Editors’ Note: The BYU Museum of Art has launched a special exhibit, Mormon Moderne: New Directions in Latter-day Saint Architecture, 1890-1955 featuring original drawings, woodwork, art glass, windows carved stonework and historical and contemporary photographs from this period. The exhibit, which is free, runs through September 15.

Click for Enlargement

Alberta Temple, Cardston Alberta, Canada, 1912;
Hyrum C. Pope and Harold W. Burton, architects; courtesy of LDS Church Archives.

Every day the sun rises on at least one and sometimes two new church buildings constructed by the Latter-day Saints. In the last years we have built the Conference Center that could house a Boeing 747, accelerated the idea of dotting the land with temples and toiled meticulously to re-create the Nauvoo Temple. On April 5, 1998, President Hinckley announced the building of 30 more temples, and then added another

The Art of Life is to Get the Message
by Darla Isackson

Recently, grieved by a grown son’s choices, I was caught in the useless “what could I have done differently” mind-set. One day I was looking for ideas for a current writing project in a past one: a Mother’s Day booklet I co-authored in 1996 with Emma Lou Thayne called, “To Be a Mother, the Agonies and the Ecstasies.” I was drawn into the piece I had contributed called “The Savior Makes Up the Difference for Mothers, Too.” As I read, I found myself in tears to find the exact

Pro-Abortion Groups Mobilize to Overturn US/Mexico City Policy
by Austin Ruse
Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute

Editors’ Note: Austin Ruse writes a weekly column which watchdogs international policy that impacts the family. This week he highlights the massive campaign being mounted by pro-abortion groups to fight President Bush’s denying use of US money to fund abortions overseas.

Radical non-governmental organizations are mounting a united and concentrated attack on President George Bush for denying use of US money for their international efforts to spread abortion. By reenacting the Mexico City policy with his first executive order, Bush has so enraged pro-abortion groups that they are mounting an offensive aimed at discrediting his presidency and promoting their own pro-abortion agenda. The Mexico City policy ends US support for family planning programs overseas if they promote or perform abortions.

The Center for Reproductive Law and Policy (CRLP) complains in its monthly column

REXBURG, ID — A new academic building to be named in honor of Ricks College founder Thomas E. Ricks was announced Saturday during commencement exercises at the Rexburg college.

During the final April commencement at Ricks College before it becomes known as Brigham Young University-Idaho, President David A. Bednar announced the new classroom building will be constructed on the southeast side of campus near the demonstration gardens. The exact location of the building has not yet been determined.

The entire area will be called the Thomas E. Ricks Building and Gardens. “It is most appropriate that this new academic building and beautiful garden area bear the name of Thomas E. Ricks as a lasting tribute to his valiant and pioneering educational efforts,” Bednar said. Ricks lived from 1828 to 1901 and was the founder of the Latter-day Saint settlement in 1883 that was named Rexburg and the stake president when …

A Letter from the Highlands, May 2001
by Anne Perry

This is going to be a different sort of letter because it is written in stages from different places. I am beginning in the middle of the month, Easter Sunday, sitting in my cabin on the Queen Elizabeth 2, crossing from Southampton to New York, first day at sea.

It has been an odd month so far, full of ups and downs, and I suppose if this is to the least bit honest, it must include the down as well, or the ups would be of no value. If we have not truth, have we anything real at all? We do not need every thought or feeling, because sometimes the moment after they are expressed we feel differently, and wish we had not burdened other people with them. Perhaps it was only a cry of pain or doubt, anger or

TEMPLE SQUARE – Two hundred years after Brigham Young’s birth, a celebration of his life and accomplishments will be held 1 June at 7:30 p.m. in the Tabernacle on Temple Square. President Gordon B. Hinckley will host the event and speak. A descendant of Brigham Young also will speak during the program. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir will perform several musical numbers.

Friends and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are invited to the event. Free tickets will be available at 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, 1 May, at the Conference Center ticket office, door #4. Because the Tabernacle has limited seating, tickets will be given on a first-come, first-served basis for persons eight years and older. The ticket office will provide a maximum of four tickets per person in line.

Ticket holders are encouraged to be seated no later than 6:45 p.m. A small number of people from …

I’m Going on a Mission!
edited by Peggy Proctor

Most young men in the church, plan and dream all their lives for the time to come when they can go on a full time mission. They watch “boys” go out into the field and they see strong, confident young men return home. Paul Christian was not unlike the others. He was a sensitive and obedient boy; he wanted to go on a mission, his two older siblings had gone, but Paul didn’t want to go off to some exotic far flung corner of the globe. He preferred to go somewhere state side [closer to home]. Going across the ocean would be like going to another planet. I don’t know if he thought the umbilical cord wouldn’t reach that far or just that his tender heart would break if he knew that he couldn’t see our chimney from his rooftop.

Paul’s