Table of Contents

Articles

Dixie Dillon Lane’s article discusses Alexander von Wendt, “a Russiaon baron with business interests in Arizona” who becomes close friends with James Henry Martineau and eventually asks the hand of Martineau’s daughter Gertrude. The problem, for Martineau, is that von Wendt is agnostic, and the prospect of seeing his daughter marry out of the faith troubled Martineau and his wife Susan. Martineau received revelations that indicated to Martineau that the union would be acceptable to the Lord. Martineau consented, with trepidation, to the engagement, which lasted two years until von Wendt’s unexpected death. “I have attempted to show in this article that a commitment to the Latter-day Saint family ideal was the firm base of everyday Mormon interfaith interactions for men like James Martineau in the late 1800s.”

Jiro Numano’s article tackles hasty baptisms in Japan in the late 70s and early 80s “which some Japanese members still remember negatively.” He argues that despite the retention of some strong LDS members from that period that  “the manner and consequences of proselytizing at that period cannot be justified as positive.” He places the blame[?]/responsibility on local leaders who desired to fulfill President Kimball’s injunction to increase proselyting efforts. The pattern of these hasty baptisms will be familiar to those acquainted with the “baseball” baptism phenomenon. I found interesting the use of interviews and print outs from list servs as well as local memorandum to flesh out the process of forming and carrying out these policies. Feels a bit polemical for my taste.

To be continued…