In Baring Witness, Holly Welker and thirty-six Mormon women write about devotion and love and luck, about the wonder of discovery, and about the journeys, both thorny and magical, to humor, grace, and contentment. They speak to a diversity of life experiences: what happens when one partner rejects Church teachings; marrying outside one's faith; the pain of divorce and widowhood; the horrors of spousal abuse; the hard journey from visions of an idealized marriage to the everyday truth; sexuality within Mormon marriage; how the pressure to find a husband shapes young women's actions and sense of self; and the ways Mormon belief and culture can influence second marriages and same-sex unions. The result is an unflinching look at the earthly realities of an institution central to Mormon life.
Introduction by: Holly Welker
Contributions by: Heather K Olson Beal, Heidi Bernhard-Bubb, Amy Sorensen, Marilyn Bushman-Carlton, Melissa G, Stephanie Lauritzen, Kira Olson, Tiffany Moss, Naomi Watkins, Christmas Jones, Marie Brian, Katherine Taylor Allred, Lia Hadley, Mary Ellen Robertson, Katrina Barker Anderson, Erin Hill, Bernadette Echols, Nancy Ellsworth, Michelle Weeks, Brittny Goodsell, Kate Porter, Amy Williams, Viv B, Anita Tanner, Lynne Burnett, Jari Carlton Cannon, C. L Hanson, Margaret M Toscano, Gina Colvin, Joanna Brooks, Jamie Davis, Rebekah Orton, Alisa Curtis Bolander, Deja Earley, Rachel Whipple, Dayna Patterson