What Happened when Mormons Came to Mine and Build Peru?

Daffodils and forsythia bloomed with abandon as April conference ended. Soon will come lilacs and high spring, and the Church just released its membership statistics. Growth and eternal progress are the stories people love, but in Mormonism there are many others, like the gaps in the garden of bulbs planted that did not come up, the missing blooms in a field of sunshine yellow. 

As the Brethren spoke in their dry, yet captivating, voices retelling their versions of the gospel one more time, always old and yet ever new, I was poking around documents from more than 100 years ago and stumbled on one of those fields with missing blooms. 

Black and White and Authority, a Breaking Mormon Mood

More than two decades ago, now, I spent some time with my Stake President, Kerry Heinz, discussing the articles I had published in Mormon scholarly venues and the transcripts of talks I had given. President Heinz was very concerned that my work would damage people’s testimonies.  

I felt the opposite. We argued strongly, because I felt that Heinz’ approach built people’s testimonies on sand.