Sunstone vs. Dialogue

[lunaverse]

I am thinking of getting my sister and maybe my brother a gift subscription to Sunstone OR Dialoge.

My sister is an intellectual Mormon, at least as intellectual as she can be while reading only Church approved and Church-neutral material (like non-Church books on prophecy, etc). She reads a lot, and I think she might enjoy one of these more open-minded yet Church sympathetic magazines. My goal is to get her to think a little more out of the box, but not get the magazine thrown into the trash right away. I know she used to teach Gospel Doctrine in a class where much of the Stake leadership attended, including the Stake Pres, and they were always impressed with the depth of research she did. Her husband (multi-generational Idaho Mormon) is more likely to throw things out than she is.

My brother and SIL are also smart, but I don't know them as well. My brother is a Doctor, and my SIL is a convert who tends to be a little less controlled and more flexible, if only slightly. They have a lot of kids still living at home, and I'd really really like to NOT get myself banned from contact from their children, one of which has similar interests to me, and I'd like to be friends with her someday. (She's 17 and just starting college, I think there's hope for her!)

I've never read either of these magazines, so my question is, which of these magazines would be best for each of these households? My ultimate goal is to NOT turn them off, shut them down, and make them hate me. I'd like to be subtle, yet still plant the seeds and get them to thinking. My goal isn't necessarily to get them to leave the Church, but at least to know more about it from different perspectives. For example, I'd love for my sister to know about the feminist history of the early women in Utah.

Luna

[peter_mary]

I am thinking of getting my sister and maybe my brother a gift subscription to Sunstone OR Dialoge.

Luna
I currently have a subscription to Dialogue, and I find that it is quite academic, well written, and though obviously liberal, it still tends to be fairly open to the possibility that the Church is true.

Sunstone, on the other hand, is about to launch 800 words of Sugar Beet material in every edition. The Sugar Beet is the original Mormon Satire, with some hysterical stuff, and it is from this mold that the Peep Stone was largely cast (I was then and remain a staff writer for the "Beet"). And so the choice is obvious to me. Peter_Mary will likely be published in Sunstone, but not Dialogue. Case closed.

:D

Peter_Mary

[Jeff_Ricks]

I currently have a subscription to Dialogue, and I find that it is quite academic, well written, and though obviously liberal, it still tends to be fairly open to the possibility that the Church is true.

Sunstone, on the other hand, is about to launch 800 words of Sugar Beet material in every edition. The Sugar Beet is the original Mormon Satire, with some hysterical stuff, and it is from this mold that the Peep Stone was largely cast (I was then and remain a staff writer for the "Beet"). And so the choice is obvious to me. Peter_Mary will likely be published in Sunstone, but not Dialogue. Case closed.

:D

Peter_Mary
Let us know when you're in print P-M!

Jeff

[free thinker]

You may not realize that flotsam contributes to Dialogue. He posted one story here and it was really good.


Frankly if I was going to give any mormon something to read it would be "Peepstone" . They might throw it out but at least they will get a laugh first. :D


free thinker

[peter_mary]

You may not realize that flotsam contributes to Dialogue. He posted one story here and it was really good.


Frankly if I was going to give any mormon something to read it would be "Peepstone" . They might throw it out but at least they will get a laugh first. :D


free thinker
Free thinker, you make me blush! And my head swell! And my spleen leak! And my arches fall!

:D

And I'm SURE I speak for flotsam, too!

Peter_Mary

[lunaverse]

*ponder* Well this is tricky, because Dialogue's last articles included topics of Polygamy and Homosexuality... The later is a definite turn-off, and polygamy partially so.

This is all so complicated.

And my mom called last night and wants to have lunch this weekend. Someday she wants to be "friends" with me. I don't even know where to start to tell her why our relationship will *always* be tense, if not outright guarded. Nothing I could tell her will make any sense. :/

She still thinks there was nothing wrong with suing me for custody of my son.

All the intricacies of that breech of trust PLUS everything I know about the Church and mind control. It's like explaining quantum physics to a 3 year old.

Luna

[flotsam]

There are a few other magazines too that might be better. For example, Exponent II, which is dedicated to women's issues in the Church. Also there is Irreantum, which is run by the Association for Mormon Letters. That's more for the literature-type folks though.

Dialogue is probably the safest to send, if only because it didn't get the reputation Sunstone got during the early 90s when the September Six stuff was going on. it is pretty academic, but on the whole, pro-church. Meaning that most of the articles aren't interested in whether the church is true or not, rather in studying some aspect of it, like church demographics in Guatemala during the 1960's etc.

The last issue was pretty good (if I do say so myself). The homosexuality articles were interesting. The first was a personal essay by a guy who is gay who decided to marry heterosexually. Then two scholars and counselors wrote about how they view his decision.

However, Sunstone is much more palatable. Written more to the lay reader. And Dan Wotherspoon, the editor is very dedicated to responsible writing. But, like I said, its reputation from the 90s still hangs on. I was reading a copy a year or so ago, and one of my ward members caught me. "Should you be reading that?" she asked? "I write for it," I replied. "THere are some people who frown on it," she said enigmatically.

Anyway, those are other choices.

If you want to get her just one interesting book to open the way, try "Personal Voices: A Celebration of Dialogue." It's a collection of the best personal essays from Dialogue. Really good reading. Unfortunately out of print. But you can probably find it used online.

[flotsam]

And my mom called last night and wants to have lunch this weekend. Someday she wants to be "friends" with me. I don't even know where to start to tell her why our relationship will *always* be tense, if not outright guarded. Nothing I could tell her will make any sense. :/
Luna

I[shameless plug]

I'm actually publishing a personal essay on that very topic in the next Sunstone. It will be coming out in December. Pick it up.

[hamar]

I[shameless plug]

I'm actually publishing a personal essay on that very topic in the next Sunstone. It will be coming out in December. Pick it up.

Dang, I feel so puny amongst all you literary giants. I'll have to look for the next Sunstone and Dialogue, although I don't think they will be to easy to locate in the mountains of NC.
Lunaverse, why don't you just get them started on something more middle of the road like Utne Reader, then ease them into the hardcore stuff like Sunstone and Dialogue.
Do TBMs really read those magazines? I always thought they were more for NOMs.

[noodle]

I subscribed to both Dialogue and Sunstone during my 10 or so "active" years of moism, then continued to subscribe after I quit going. I had a bishop that turned me on to Dialogue (a Stanford grad, where I believe that Dialogue was started). I recently dropped Dialogue only because I never found time to read them. Articles are quite long and academic, as stated in a previous post - although they are really good. I seem to do much better these days with the short and sweet stuff.

mamajama