Welcome, dear readers, to the Fall 2014 issue of SquareTwo! The full table of contents can be found on our archives page here.
First up, we have a thoughtful and moving essay by George Handley on the concept of ecological repentance through restoration. He asks whether we love the land too much, in a way that elides into control and possession, and asks how the LDS doctrine of repentance can be applied to heal the land--and ourselves.
Second, we have a fascinating essay by Benjamin Knoll and Natalie Pope which adumbrates how the Book of Mormon can be read as a neo-conservative text! While acknowledging that many interpretations of the text are possible, we think you will find their detailed analysis very thought-provoking, accompanied as it is by an examination of polling data on LDS foreign policy views.
Third, we have an important essay announcing The Mothers' Monument Project by S. Matthew Stearmer. Why aren't there any monuments to the ultimate sacrifice given by American mothers in pregnancy and childbirth, while we are surrounded by monuments to the ultimate sacrifice given by soldiers in war? What does this say about our society, and how might public art begin to change the national conversation on the meaning of maternal mortality in our nation?
Fourth, Valerie Hudson examines an essay written by another member of our editorial board, Ralph Hancock, on the perils of using terms such as "freedom," "fairness," and "equality" in our LDS discourse. Should we abandon terms that have been hijacked for others for their own purposes, or should we fight to reclaim those terms for our faith community? And what does Confucius have to do with all of this?
Fifth, we have an excellent review of the book (and subsequent film) of Lois Lowry's The Giver by Rachel Fairclough Zirkle. Now read by an entire generation of American schoolchildren, what lessons does this text have for the LDS community? And how might we avoid the pitfalls in our own culture of the temptation posed by Sameness?
And last but not least, we have two excellent comments by readers on the Summer 2014 Readers' Puzzle on LDS member Cliven Bundy's stand against the federal government over land rights.
In addition, we have some excellent new comments on one of our articles from 2013 on the construction of sexual needs, more particularly to be found in the Comments section of the article here.
And as always, we offer a new Readers' Puzzle for the Fall 2014 issue: You'd have to have been living under a rock not to know about the Senate Select Intelligence Committee's damning report on US torture practices from 2001-2009, and its findings that two LDS psychologists were not only deeply involved, but profited by over $80 million by conducting over 80% of the enhanced interrogations performed under the auspices of the CIA. What do our readers think about the report and its findings?
Full Citation for this Article: Editorial Board (2014) "Editors' Introduction to the Summer 2014 Issue," SquareTwo, Vol. 7 No. 2 (Summer), http://squaretwo.org/EditorsIntroSummer2014.html, [give access date]
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