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***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Today, a new article by\u00a0Loren Blake Spendlove<\/a> has appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMine House is a House of Zion and not a House of Babylon!\u201d<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Abstract:\u00a0<\/strong>In Doctrine and Covenants\u00a0132:8 we read: \u201cBehold, mine house is a\u00a0house of order, saith the Lord God, and not a\u00a0house of confusion.\u201d I\u00a0propose that the words \u201corder\u201d and \u201cconfusion\u201d in this passage are literary allusions to the ideals, constructs, and outcomes that embody Zion and Babylon, respectively. In other words, God\u2019s house is a\u00a0house of Zion and not a\u00a0house of Babylon.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I hope that you will enjoy it.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And, as I\u2019ve lately been doing, I offer here a few links to some earlier<\/em> articles in Interpreter<\/em>:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Daniel C. Peterson, \u201cVariety and Complexity in the Witnesses to the Book of Mormon\u201d<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Abstract:\u00a0<\/strong>This paper examines the testimonies of the witnesses of the Book\u00a0of\u00a0Mormon\u2014 not only the Three Witnesses and the Eight Witnesses, but many others who experienced and testified of the reality of the Book\u00a0of\u00a0Mormon plates. Together, these testimonies offer impressive support for the claims of Joseph\u00a0Smith regarding the Book\u00a0of\u00a0Mormon and, thus, the Restoration. The variety and complexity of their collective testimony makes finding a\u00a0single, alternative, non-divine explanation for the witness experiences challenging, indeed.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n [Editor\u2019s Note:<\/strong> A\u00a0very similar version of this essay was delivered as an address at the annual FairMormon Conference in August\u00a02020.]<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Clifford P. Jones, \u201cThat Which You Have Translated, Which You Have Retained\u201d<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Abstract:<\/strong>\u00a0I\u00a0propose that our current Words of Mormon in the Book\u00a0of\u00a0Mormon was originally a\u00a0second chapter of the book of Mosiah following an initial chapter that was part of the lost 116 pages. When Joseph\u00a0Smith gave the first 116 pages to Martin Harris, he may have retained a\u00a0segment of the original manuscript that contained our Words of Mormon, consistent with the Lord\u2019s reference \u201cthat which you have translated, which you have retained\u201d (D&C 10:41). A\u00a0comprehensive review of contextual information indicates that the chapter we call Words of Mormon may actually be the first part of this retained segment.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Robert Joseph, \u201cThe Lord Will Not Forget Them! M\u0101ori Seers and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> in Nineteenth-Century New Zealand\u201d<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Abstract:\u00a0<\/strong>This essay demonstrates that the key prophetic matakite dreams and visions of at least the nine nineteenth-century East Coast M\u0101ori seers appear to have been (and should continue to be) fulfilled surprisingly by the coming of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to New Zealand. There are lessons for current and future Latter-day Saint leaders and missionaries to reflect on this little-known history on the nineteenth-century M\u0101ori conversions to the restored Church.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n [Editor\u2019s Note:<\/strong> Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article is reprinted here as a service to the LDS community. Original pagination and page numbers have necessarily changed, otherwise the reprint has the same content as the original.<\/span><\/p>\n See Robert Joseph, \u201cThe Lord Will Not Forget Them! M\u0101ori Seers and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Nineteenth-Century New Zealand,\u201d in\u00a0Remembrance and Return: Essays in Honor of Louis C. Midgley<\/em>, ed. Ted Vaggalis and Daniel C. Peterson (Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2021), 323\u201368. Further information at\u00a0https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/books\/remembrance-and-return\/<\/a>.]<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Gregory L. Smith, \u201cFeet of Clay: Queer Theory and the Church of Jesus Christ\u201d<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Review of Taylor\u00a0G.\u00a0Petrey,\u00a0Tabernacles of Clay: Sexuality and Gender in Modern Mormonism<\/em>\u00a0(Chapel Hill, NC The University of North Carolina Press, 2020). 288 pages. $29.95 (paperback).<\/span><\/p>\n Abstract:\u00a0<\/strong>Tabernacles of Clay\u00a0examines the discourse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through a\u00a0\u201cqueer theory\u201d lens. This review examines its first two chapters\u2019 use of sources regarding Church teachings about eternal biological sex and homosexual behavior. These chapters claim that the Church treated homosexual sin leniently and said little about such acts until the more \u201chomophobic\u201d 1950s. There are, in fact, many examples of homosexual behavior being condemned by Church leaders in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.\u00a0Tabernacles\u00a0further claims that in the 1950s\u20131970s, some in the Church saw biological sex as \u201ccreated and contingent\u201d \u2014 rather than eternal and unchanging \u2014 thus permitting a\u00a0view of theological \u201cgender fluidity.\u201d The authors used to support these claims have been misrepresented and important information omitted.\u00a0Tabernacles\u00a0also fails to properly contextualize the sources and language of the 1950\u20131970s, and it thereby misrepresents Church discourse on homosexual sin. A\u00a0thorough review of the Church\u2019s official documents from this period reveals an almost exclusive focus on homosexual behavior, not homosexual temptation or identity. Aspects of present-day Church teaching or policy which are said to be novel are shown to be otherwise. The above errors lead to mischaracterization of Spencer\u00a0W.\u00a0Kimball\u2019s book,\u00a0The Miracle of Forgiveness.\u00a0Tabernacles\u00a0has not adequately or fairly characterized its sources, rendering its conclusions suspect.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n David R. Seely and Jo Ann Seely, \u201cThe Crown of Creation\u201d<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n