I'm the great-great-great-grandson of a Mormon apostle who had more than forty wives. I served an LDS mission in Melbourne, Australia, and worked as an editor at the LDS Church’s official Ensign magazine. A graduate of Emerson College and Brigham Young University, I cofounded and edited the Mormon literary magazine Irreantum and the satirical Mormon newspaper The Sugar Beet. I'm the author of five books on Mormonism. A Hodgkin’s disease survivor and the oldest of ten siblings, I live with my wife and five children in Provo, Utah. Author Profile: Christopher Bigelow
I'm the great-great-great-grandson of a Mormon apostle who had more than forty wives. I served an LDS mission in Melbourne, Australia, and worked as an editor at the LDS Church’s official Ensign magazine. A graduate of Emerson College and Brigham Young University, I cofounded and edited the Mormon literary magazine Irreantum and the satirical Mormon newspaper The Sugar Beet. I'm the author of five books on Mormonism. A Hodgkin’s disease survivor and the oldest of ten siblings, I live with my wife and five children in Provo, Utah. Author Archive for Christopher Bigelow
When I look at the mortal religious scene here on earth, I think one of the adversary’s masterstrokes has been to split apart two key streams of understanding of God’s full truth. These two streams are 1) humankind’s divine origins and potential and (2) the need for a Savior and his atonement.
If you look at most pagan religions, the pagans often have very interesting, true-ish ideas about where humans came from and where we are going, but they totally lack knowledge of the need for a Savior to get us out of our current mortal dilemma. Continue reading…
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I work with a publisher in Great Britain who is keen to do some lavish, glossy, full-color coffee-table-type books on Mormon themes (or hot-chocolate table, if that’s how you prefer it).
This fine gent has asked me to shake some trees and see what topics Mormons would like to see given this kind of treatment, whether historical, cultural, or whatever. He prints ‘em cheap in China and stacks ‘em deep in places like Costco and Barnes & Noble.
So take a moment to sit down on your sofa and stare down at your coffee table and try to picture what kind of Mormon-themed coffee-table book you’d like to see there, something that hasn’t already been done (or, if it has been done in some form, hasn’t received the glossy full-color illustrated treatment it deserves yet).
Thanks in advance for any suggestions! (And I’m sure none of them will be tongue-in-cheek…)
Most of you probably heard that Sunstone recently hired two new employees to carry out the “open forum” Sunstone mission through the magazine and symposia. I applied for the jobs and made it to the final four, which caused me to do some reflecting on Sunstone and what it means to me.
Instead of posting my idiosyncratic reflections and opinions here, I will refer you to my essay “Trying Again to Get Sunstoned” at my personal blog, if you’re interested. What I wanted to do here on Mormon Matters is start a conversation on what people think about Sunstone, its character, its mission, its future prospects, etc. I’m sure the new employees and the board members would love to hear any additional frank feedback they can get.
I know that our guru John Dehlin has been involved in Sunstone in some capacity in the recent past, so I’d particularly like to invite him to tell us about his experience and what he thinks of Sunstone.
Not too long ago I went to “maturation training” in Lehi, Utah, with my 11-year-old fifth grader, who was definitely already showing signs of puberty (pimples and hair, mostly). He’s a big, somewhat chubby guy, so he’s ahead of the curve as far as physical development goes.
I grew up in the Los Angeles area, and I remember getting my training at this same age. What a time warp! In 1977 they showed us well-produced films and went into a lot more detail. Thirty years later in Utah, an old guy got up in front of the white board and laughably sketched a few biological details, but he never really connected the dots or made it clear that tab A goes into slot B. By the conclusion, I felt so much had been left out that I raised my hand and said, “Uh, does part two come next year, or what?” Continue reading…
Here’s something that gives me pause: people making up creative names or nontraditional spellings of traditional names for their children. This seems to be a growing trend, with a sizable minority of new children being subjected to this, perhaps even a majority in some Utah Mormon suburbs. I know that certain black U.S. cultural groups have long done this, but I don’t know if the newer trend is just a white Utah/Idaho Mormon thing or bigger.
For example, here is a list of REAL names my wife and I recently collected from a photo site for new-born Utah babies. As you go through this list, stop and savor each one, seeing how it feels as you say it aloud or marvel at the breathtaking spelling:
Abbigayle
Alexandrial
Ashtyn
Austynn Continue reading…
If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to let Mormon Matters readers know about a recent interesting development in Mormon literature that I’m involved in as a publisher (definitely on a nonprofit basis):
“The news that Coke Newell’s novel On the Road to Heaven won Best Novel at the new Whitney Awards could have interesting implications for the LDS market,” writes literary reporter Kent Larsen at Mormon culture blog A Motley Vision. “Since the novel also won the Association for Mormon Letters Best Novel award earlier this year, Newell’s work is clearly the consensus novel of the year.”
I don’t necessarily disagree with the points made by BYU law professor Lynn D. Wardle in his Salt Lake Tribune editorial regarding the Elliott Spitzer affair (“Infidelity by elected officials rightfully is a public issue,” March 21). However, I think it’s important to step back and acknowledge that it is within the realm of possibility for a political leader to be both a good leader and an immoral person in his private life. Continue reading…
I was recently asked by a journalist for my observations on the new Mormon prophet, Thomas S. Monson, and I thought I’d share my responses here and inquire what others would say in answer to the same questions:
1. Have you ever met President Monson and, if so, do you have any lasting impressions from that meeting? What’s he like in person? Continue reading…
I always thought the midlife crisis was just a cliché. But now I’m 41, and I’m finding myself in the midst of an all-too-real midlife phase of questioning myself, my identity, and my place in life, with accompanying feelings of anxiety, dissatisfaction, and disillusionment.
Nearly all these feelings focus on my career situation. I’m ten years into a wonderful second marriage, so that’s not affected. But I sense the crisis spilling over somewhat into my religion/faith. For this post, I thought I would do a bit of self-inventory in the spirit of “I’ll show you mine if you’ll show me yours.” Continue reading…
I’m the oldest of ten kids. I spent my teen years (1979–1986) living across the street in Bountiful, Utah, from a family with eleven kids. Two of my aunts and uncles have nine and ten kids, respectively.
Even after living through it myself, I still can’t imagine how this was done! How could these super-parents keep going through all those pregnancies and babies and all those expenses, not to mention the drain on their personal time and energy? You just don’t see families that big anymore, even in Mormonism. For my Generation X and perhaps many younger Baby Boomers too, a gigantic family is six or seven kids as opposed to ten or eleven, while most of us just have three or four kids, maybe slightly more than the secular average but not by much. Continue reading…
By about 325 A.D. the Nephites had reached this point: “And it came to pass that there were sorceries, and witchcrafts, and magics; and the power of the evil one was wrought upon all the face of the land” (Mormon 1:19). On the scale of depravity, this condition seems to be worse than having the land overrun by robbers and secret combinations, though not as bad as the human sacrifice and cannibalism that later arose among the people.
So, what does this mean? Something along the lines of our modern-day astrology, Ouija boards, and Wiccanism, or something deeper and darker? Were there Nephite wizards and witches walking around actually casting spells on people? Continue reading…
