In September 1993, six scholars—called the September Six—were disciplined by the LDS Church. Lynne Kanavel Whitesides was the first. For the next ten years, she went on an extraordinary spiritual journey. Sadly, she passed away July 7, 2025. In her memory, this episode features a recording of the speech she gave about her spiritual journey …
Episode 152: FIELD TRIP: Coffin Canes
What do you get when you combine martyrdom, relic worship, secret reburials, and a healing cane made from a coffin? Mormon history at its weirdest and most fascinating. In this special on-site episode of the Sunstone Mormon History Podcast, Lindsay and Bryan take you on a field trip into the curious afterlife of Joseph Smith’s …
The Broken Chord
I’ve heard there was a secret chord That David played and it pleased the Lord But you don’t really care for music, do ya? It goes like this The fourth, the fifth The minor fall, the major lift The baffled king composing Hallelujah —Leonard Cohen “Hallelujah” Today I arrive a little early so I …
James E. Talmage: Documentarian
The LDS Church’s mammoth audiovisual infrastructure stems largely from the early efforts of one man. James E. Talmage. Ninety years after his death, Elder James E. Talmage of the Quorum of the Twelve is primarily remembered as an intellectual defender of his faith and the author of several lengthy theological books like The Articles of …
Episode 151: The 1886 Revelation Validated
In a surprising turn, the LDS Church has quietly validated the long-disputed 1886 Revelation given to John Taylor, a document that fundamentalists have clung to for over a century as divine proof that plural marriage was never meant to end. In this episode, Lindsay and Bryan dig into the origins of the revelation, the secret …
Sunstone 50-year Time Capsule: Part VII
Do you not feel guilty enough? Does the terror of hell not hang over you every hour? Do you not obsessively search your memory for past sins that could keep you out of heaven? Fear not! Spencer Kimball has a book for you. Yes, my friends. Sunstone advertised the Miracle of Forgiveness. (Can you spot …
Ice Cream, Siestas, and Tied Quilts
Part VII of the Sunstone Classics series. Dorothy Black was a member of the staff of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought during the 1980s. This is excerpted from a Sunstone article published in 1984, starting on page 30 of issue 43. You don’t grow up a Mormon without feeling guilt. Like right now, I …
A Lynched Apostle’s Son is Haunting Us … Again
One of the darkest episodes in Utah history, an 1873 lynching and subsequent coverup in the Mormon settlement of Logan, has resurfaced with the unearthing of bones in a remote corner of the Logan city cemetery. It’s interesting that this stark case of frontier justice would come back to light right now when our nation is …
Episode 150: The Steptoe Expedition
In this episode, Lindsay and Bryan unravel the Steptoe Expedition, a moment of uneasy calm before the storm of the Utah War and Mountain Meadows Massacre. What began as a military survey spiraled into scandal, seduction, and cultural collision, as Lieutenant Sylvester Mowry set his sights on Mary Ann Ayers Young (Brigham’s daughter-in-law!) and ignited …
A History of Sunstone Cartoons—Part VII
As I asked in the previous post, can we make an argument that there should be such a thing as “solid ground” in a culture—unjustified, but immovable points? Interestingly, I think there is. For two reasons. One is cultural, and one is humorous. First, from a cultural standpoint, the reason that a culture is coherent …