Those who believe that all those questions have been settled or are being answered by church leaders may wonder what remains to be discussed. Quite a lot, as it turns out. There is Lawrence Foster's contemplation of the sentimentalized family life in LDS culture ("Between Heaven and Earth: Mormon Theology of the Family in Comparative Perspective"); Eugene England's ponderings on polygamy in heaven; and Lester Bush's probe of "Ethical Issues in Reproductive Medicine," including artificial insemination and gender determination.

While scholarship and history help put current Mormon sex and family issues in context, the most powerful essays here are enlivened by personal points of view. Levi Peterson's "In Defense of a Mormon Erotica" slyly notes that "Although I am overawed in argument by those who have the Holy Ghost as their immediate second, I have some faith in my intuitions about God's attitude toward human sexuality."

Professor of English at Weber State University, he posits that "If God's people are sexual creatures and if they are sometimes angry and scornful, and if their anger and scorn sometimes well up in obscenities, the literature which expresses God's people should reflect those facts. Literature should reflect life. Ultimately it should reflect all of life. Nothing that people feel, nothing they do should be denied in literature."

Rocky O'Donovan's "The Abominable and Detestable Crime Against Nature: A Brief History of Homosexuality and Mormonism, 1840-1980," uses the floridly excessive language of the 19th century as an ironic comment on his research that chronicles the prevalence of gay and lesbian relationships among early Mormons. At the outset, O'Donovan concedes that while academically trained as a historian, he "[does] not subscribe to the theory of academic objectivity." Once a returned Mormon missionary, "I was later officially excommunicated . . . for my stance in opposing the oppression of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual people." For gays, O'Donovan understates, to heterosexuality "multiply and replenish" is "not a realistic imperative."

Editor Brent Corcoran notes that "Mormonism's profane conceptualizations of reproductive and family issues is evidenced by the persistence of conservative sexual behavior and values."

Essays by Marvin Rytting ("Exhortations for Chastity: A Content Analysis of Church Literature"), Harold Christensen ("The Persistence of Chastity: Built-in Resistance in Mormon Culture to Secular Trends") and Tim Heaton ("The Demography of Utah Mormons") document this persistence into the past decade. This book's depth and diversity of research and opinion on such issues demonstrates, Corcoran observes, the need of individuals "to interpret these forms within the context of their own experience."

The Ogden Standard Examiner, Tim Gurrister
The staff at Signature Books isn't expecting too much controversy with one of its latest offerings, Multiply and Replenish: Mormon Essays on Sex and Family. The only controversial treatise in the anthology as far as they can tell may be one covering homosexuality. "Temples, missionary work and BYU are really the three taboos when it comes to the LDS Church, so we're not too worried about the reaction to this," said Ron Priddis, Signature publicist. While Priddis' press release bills the book as "Mormons Talk About Sex," Brent Corcoran, the Signature editorial researcher who compiled the book's 14 essays over the last two years, downplays the sexual discussion. "We thought it would be nice if we could find essays on Mormon family life," Corcoran said. "So we went out looking for essays. But surprisingly there's not that much out there.

"There's a lot of dabbling about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, but not much examination of family life."

The work in the book Corcoran first points to is a piece by BYU professor Eugene England written 10 years ago. It argues for monogamy against polygamy. "It's something of a Mormon folk belief that polygamy will be restored in Heaven," Corcoran said. "But England argues that monogamy is the ideal, that in Heaven people are monogamous."

Corcoran said the historical perspective Multiply and Replenish provides "is an oddity. Mormons may be shocked to find that in the 1800s they were viewed almost like a 1960s free love sect. "But they were not sexually promiscuous, it was just old Bible patriarchy. Polygamy wasn't about promiscuity, despite the outside view about the supposed fantastic sexual orgies out West." The church's current "prudery" regarding sex is a reaction to the former stigma carried from the polygamous days of the Old West, when church leaders were depicted with harems.

"There's been a transformation and accommodation that now has the church at the center in defending the nuclear family from threats of the outside world. The church is now seen as the bulwark of family life, with reproducing itself the primary function."

"Everybody likes to read about sex," Priddis said. "There's a lot of valuable research there. We pretty much published every study that has been done about sex among Mormons in this century and it only fills one volume." The book has been out for two months, shipped to a distributor who then stocks book orders.

Among area bookstores contacted who are stocking, Multiply and Replenish, Waldenbooks in the Ogden City Mall reported it "selling well" while the Waldenbooks in the Layton Hills Mall, didn't stock it. At The Bookshelf in downtown Ogden, the book just came in last week but is expected to do well. Manager Tim Chase said because of the subject matter, "It will probably have a run of several years."

The church-owned Deseret Book is not stocking the book, but will order it on request. "I'm disappointed at Deseret Book's decision," Priddis said. "That perpetuates the whole silence that the book is trying to solve relating to homosexuality. That piece is especially sensitive I suppose." The piece is by gay activist Rocky O'Donovan, a founder of the Lesbian and Gay Historical Society. Corcoran said the man once was a married, active Mormon and member of his LDS elders quorum before leaving the church over its stance toward homosexuality.

"Rocky talks about it, to show the reaction of people to it in the church today, compared to the past," he said. "Instead of just hush-hush, in the 1950s the church started going out and looking for homosexuals, like they did with dissidents last year. Isolating homosexuals came with assignments to [then General Authority and later church President] Spencer Kimball and Mark Peterson, another General Authority." With detailed footnotes including references to past church leaders' diaries, O'Donovan wrote of cases like that of Joseph Fielding Smith III, who was released as a general authority in 1946 after a homosexual encounter with a young man.

According to O'Donovan's research, Smith was "quietly released" from his position as a general authority in the church and "exiled" to Hawaii, although not excommunicated or disfellowshipped. Eleven years later he was "restored" and allowed to take part in church ceremonies again after apologizing to his wife and church leadership, according to the book.

Church spokesman Don LeFevre said church officials wouldn't comment on the book's individual accounts about Smith or Evan Stephens, an early Mormon Tabernacle Choir conductor, or Louie Felt, a major early figure in the church's Primary program for children who O'Donovan said were openly gay and lesbian, respectively, but unsanctioned by the church.

Utah Historical Quarterly
The thirteen essays in this anthology are certain to provoke controversy, addressing as they do such topics as homosexuality, erotica, the probable monogamous standard in heaven, and reproductive ethics, among others. The entries represent a mixture of styles from the scholarly format to the personal essay. All but one have been previously published. It is useful to read them together, for themes only alluded to in one piece may be given full treatment in another. Thus they are linked together and present a multifaceted, but by no means exhaustive, look at a challenging subject.