Welcome to Gospel Tangents Trips! We’re going to take you on a tour of some interesting trips. The first is Gilgal Sculpture Garden in Salt Lake City. It’s a little known park just east of Trolley Square and is best known for its Joseph Smith Sphinix? Why a sphinx with Joseph Smith’s head? Why not? Clair Barrus will help us learn more about Bishop Thomas Child’s creations and his mixing scripture with art. Check out our conversation…
The music is called Travel Light by Audionautix & is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Gilgal Garden
Gilgal Sculpture Garden is unique sculpture garden in Salt Lake City with biblical references. Rick B and Clair Barris visited the garden earlier in May. It’s in Salt Lake City, just east of Trolley Square. The gardens are inspired by the Old Testament and feature intricate stone carvings. It was created by Thomas Child, a former bishop in SLC in the late 1940s. The first sculpure is titled “Captain of the Lord’s Host” & is inspired by the biblical story of Joshua crossing the River Jordan. The garden features a monument of 12 stones, one from each of the 12 tribes of Israel, representing the successful crossing of the river and the recreation of the Moses story. It includes an inscription on one of the stones, which includes the name Queen Victoria, which Thomas dedicated the monument to.
Adam’s Altar
The garden features 18 stone formations, including a sacrificial altar recreation, citing Joseph Smith’s description of Adam’s altar where he performed the first sacrifice. Joseph Smith said some animal sacrifices might return someday, and Rick quoted D&C 13, discussing the priesthood of Aaron and its connection to sacrifice, repentance, and baptism. The garden represents Latter-day Saint history and symbolism in a garden. The monument discusses various places where sacrifices were offered, including Adam-ondi-Ahman, Mount Moriah, and Mount Carmel.
The Joseph Smith Sphinx
the Joseph Smith Spinx is probably the most famous sculpture in the garden. Why a Sphinx? Why not? Clair noticed a symbol on the Sphinx’s chest representing truth and faith on the Salt Lake Temple. Brigham Young quotes Joseph Smith as saying he brought heaven to earth.
Masonic Symbols
Child built a monument with Masonic symbols and references to religion. Rick & Clair discuss possible meanings of symbols on monument to priesthood, including letters and shapes. There is another monument with the biblical reference to “beating swords into plowshares” and its interpretation in various religious contexts.
Other Scriptural verses and their interpretations.
Other sculptures reference Daniel 2 and Job’s worms destroying his flesh. Child used torches to mark rocks. An unusual monument shows hearts & hands, referencing a scriptural verse Malachi with the hands turning hearts for the living and dead towards each other.
Have you been to Gilgal Garden? What do you think of the strange sculptures?
A Polygamous Temple Visit and History of Christ’s Church
Rick visit a polygamous temple in Nevada, a 7 hour drive from Utah County. He was eager to see the baptistry, since he heard that they allow non-members to view that part of the temple as Cristina Rosetti (a Catholic) had visited previously.
Dan and Ann Hatch are the temple president and matron of Christ’s Church, a fundamentalist group founded April 6, 1978. Dan Hatch also serves as an apostle and member of the Presiding Bishopric.
Christ Church’s Beliefs and Temple Work
Anna and Dan Hatch share their beliefs and practices with Rick, including their strict adherence to the Word of Wisdom. While most fundamentalist Mormons are less strict than LDS with regards to Word of Wisdom, Rick was surprised that Christ’s Church was more strict. They avoid not only coffee, tea, and alcohol, but pork and chocolate as well!
The Nevada Temple is one of 2 temples operated by the Church. There is a second temple about 20 miles from Modena, Utah, called the Paquin Temple. It is pyramid-shaped, and is more well-known than the Nevada Temple. Rick reflects on this group as modern-day pioneers. Just like Joseph selecting Nauvoo due to its remote location, there are parallels with Joseph Smith’s era and the remoteness of this Nevada location. The closest town is Tonapah, Nevada, some 30 miles away.
Rick was happy to film the interview from inside the temple and will post that video later this week. Are you familiar with Christ’s Church?
Wheat & Tares 
I love going to Gilgal Gardens. I’ve been there many times since it is only (a half?) block from Trolley Square where there are a few places my wife and I like to eat, so we’ll often go for a stroll through the garden while we’re waiting for a table–or even if we don’t have to wait for a table. It’s so close to Trolley Square, yet it is located down this little “alley” off of 500 S, so it’s impossible to have any idea it’s there by just driving by–you have to know what you’re looking for.
I like looking at the unusual Church related sculptures in the garden. In most cases, I don’t know what the sculptor intended, but it makes me wonder if he found a welcoming home in the Church in the first half of the 1900s (he was a bishop after all), despite some possibly unorthodox beliefs, and makes me fantasize about a bigger tent Church in the future where I and many other people who don’t feel very welcome today might feel more at home.