Does the BYU ‘Honor Code’ Honor Mormon Values? BYU is the production house of next-generation Mormonism. Perhaps feeling the pressure of this expectation, the university places great emphasis on the standards and principles that distinguish it from other universities. The Honor Code is often cited as a document that safeguards the values of both the …
Meaningful Approaches to Scripture
Meaningful Approaches to Scripture As Gospel Doctrine teachers know, Latter-day Saints approach scripture in a wide variety of ways. Some cherry-pick the verses or interpretations that support their views. Others seem to still rely on long-ago ‘reads’ of certain scriptural stories. Still others imbue stand-alone verses with vastly different meanings than the real scriptural context …
The San Luis Shrine Missionary Desecration: Juvenile Recklessness or Criminal Acts?
The San Luis Shrine Missionary Desecration: Juvenile Recklessness or Criminal Acts? In March 2008, Catholics of San Luis, Colorado, were outraged when they found photos online that depicted LDS missionaries vandalizing-and allegedly desecrating- their shrine. Forgiven, but not forgotten, the act evokes a 1972 public relations debacle when two LDS missionaries served six months in …
In the News: The Texas/FLDS Raids
In the News: The Texas/FLDS Raids Much of the nation has been fascinated (and many horrified) by recent events in which the Texas Child Protective Services agency, acting on an anonymous tip now seen as dubious in origin, initiated the removal of more than four hundred children from the Yearning for Zion ranch founded by …
Digital Dutch Saints
Digital Dutch Saints This session will explore the digital, progressive, multi-lingual, multi-cultural, ecumenical dialogue facilitated by the English/Dutch Restorations/ Herstellingen weblogs at www.mvgcontact.org/Restorations.htm on the independent Dutch Mormonen voor Vrede en Gerechtigheid (Mormons for Peace and Justice) website. Its two bloggers include a Dutch LDS member living in the U.S. and an American Community of …
The Mormon Feminist Poet Mitt Romney for President Road Show Farewell Tour
The Mormon Feminist Poet Mitt Romney for President Road Show Farewell Tour This session is a performance-reading of Joanna Brooks’s Mitt Romney for President Road Show Farewell Tour, a seven-poem cycle commemorating the primaries and examining Mitt in all his humanity as a personification of our Mormon moment. These unforgettable poems explore Mormon politics, identity, …
Grappling with Theodicy in Mormonism: Why Does an All-Knowing, All-Loving, and All-Powerful God Permit Evil and other Bad Things to Happen?
Grappling with Theodicy in Mormonism: Why Does an All-Knowing, All-Loving, and All-Powerful God Permit Evil and other Bad Things to Happen? Come flex your intellectual and spiritual muscles in response to one of the most vexing issues in all theological discourse: the problem of evil. Guided by the presenter, this session will be based largely …
Written by the Finger of God?: The Book of Mormon Translation Debate
Written by the Finger of God?: The Book of Mormon Translation Debate A crowd of witnesses to the translation of the Book of Mormon report that Joseph Smith literally read the translation through his seerstone. But a century of scholarship has identified language errors and anachronisms inconsistent with a supernaturally perfect translation. Who is right-the …
Mormon Heaven: Everything the Prophets Didn’t Tell You
Mormon Heaven: Everything the Prophets Didn’t Tell You Joseph Smith said that if we knew how great heaven is going to be, we’d kill ourselves to get there. Then he cautiously told us almost nothing about it. Later prophets have been even less help, unwilling to venture even so far as an opinion of whether …
The Challenge of Building a Religious Learning Community
The Challenge of Building a Religious Learning Community Genuine communication rests on acceptance of the peer principle. We each possess equal privilege to speak and share equal and reciprocal obligation to listen. This peer principle can lead to meaningful dialogue, deliberation, and ultimately to a place of mutual trust. Then, even if consensus cannot be …