Final Essay: Should Latter-day Saint Authors Write for an Outside Audience?

Ultimately I believe that Latter-day Saint authors have a responsibility to write works with a non-LDS audience in mind. As time has passed and we have seen more representations of minority groups (women, African Americans, the LGBT community, etc.) in art, readers have rejoiced because these works give a taste of perspectives that have been hidden or oppressed for as long as literature has been around. We don’t dismiss their pieces of literature as something that should remain only within their communities. 

As a minority group, Latter-day Saints bear the same responsibility to let their voices be heard. In Davey Morrison’s introduction to Out of the Mount, he describes art as a proxy experience that “cultivates empathy, and empathy is perhaps the most profoundly godlike of attributes” (loc. 81, Kindle). 

In our quest for godhood, we want to develop that Christlike empathy, both in ourselves and others. And creativity is so embedded within our beliefs that we should feel a call to action to produce art. God himself is a creator; when we exercise creativity, we are exercising one of his greatest powers.

Despite this, there are disadvantages to targeting an outside audience. Orson Whitney instructed youth of the Church to produce a literature that gave glory to God, not to the authors themselves. He told them that literature needed to preach the gospel. Nephi Anderson’s novel Added Upon does this, and it sacrifices smooth characterization and plot in order to preach the plan of salvation. 

The LDS authors who do write for outsider audiences, such as Brandon Sanderson and Orson Scott Card, make only subtle, obscure references to Mormon beliefs. And if we targeted exclusively outside audiences,  there would be LDS literature that has value but would be dismissed because it is widely irrelevant; many of the quality poems in the Relief Society magazine or in the anthology Fire in the Pasture would leave outside readers baffled.

At the same time, however, there are messages in LDS literature that are relevant to and need to be shared with the world at large. One of the best ways to do this is through essays. Eugene England’s essay “Healing and Making Peace, in the Church and in the World” carries a profound message of our need to make peace with each other as fellow children of God. 

As a minority group, we have experiences we need to share so that the world can understand our perspective. James Goldberg’s play “Prodigal Son” portrays the grief that a son experiences when he converts to the LDS faith and earns the resentment of his father. Tessa Santiago’s essay “Take, Eat” is written from the perspective of a mother who watches her body go through the changes of childbearing; because she does this, she generates empathy even from audiences who are foreign to the experience of motherhood.

Overall, while it is difficult to write literature that targets both an LDS and non-LDS audience, it is essential for LDS authors to do so. When we do this, we raise awareness for ourselves and our community, create proxy experiences through which outside readers feel empathy for us, exercise our power as future Creators, and share messages of love and compassion that are relevant to all humanity. Through the gifts of art and writing, we can share our unique perspective.