By Frances Lee Menlove RECENTLY, BLOGGERS, PODCASTERS, and newspapers—even the New York Times—have been taking note of prominent figures being excommunicated from the Mormon Church, of the debate around the ordination of women, and the acceptance and inclusion of our lesbian, gay, and transgender sisters and brothers. The big disputes of today seem …
Category: Mormon Thought
Roundtable: The 2013 LDS Scriptures
With Gina Colvin, Charles Harrell, and Dan Wotherspoon The following discussion is drawn from ideas shared leading up to and in a March 2013 Mormon Matters podcast (Episode 164) about the release of the new version of the LDS scriptures. This edit is approved by all participants. The updates to the LDS scriptures include …
The Persistent Impermanence of Memory
By Scot Denhalter Sculptures by Lia Hadley The traditional model for human memory pictured the mind as something like a filing cabinet or an internal disk drive. To remember was akin to retrieving a stored file, a record of a past experience. To forget was merely to misplace a file or find its code …
2012 SLC Sunstone Call for Papers Deadline Extended
If you’re thinking about submitting a proposal for the 2012 Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium, the deadline has been extended! April 15, 2012 is the revised deadline for first round consideration. Proposals received after the deadline will be considered on a time/space available basis. Proposals addressing this year’s theme, Mormons and Mormonism as a Political Force, …
Roundtable: How Does the Atonement “Work”?
The following excerpt from the Mormon Matters podcast episode, “The Atonement in Mormon Thought and Experience” (Episode 54), focuses on a presentation and discussion of the four main theories in Christian thought about how Christ’s Atonement “works.” What are the mechanisms by which humans are rescued from the consequences of sin? And is a Savior …
Homosexual Spirituality and the Redemption of Pleasure: An Epistle of Paul to the Romans–Part I
By Paul Toscano I have come to believe that sexuality is a spiritual gift, be it heterosexuality or homosexuality. This belief is based in large measure on the explicit and implicit teachings of Jesus and the writings of his most influential and immediate evangelist, Paul of Tarsus. I assert this knowing that the conservative …
Homosexual Spirituality and the Redemption of Pleasure–Part II
Continued from Part I Nowhere in the Epistle to the Romans or anywhere else in the Pauline canon, nor in the Gospels (which were written later), nor in any New Testament text is same-sex attraction or homosexual sex specifically condemned. What is condemned is rejecting the love of God, since such rejection, Paul argues, …
Leaderlore
A two-sentence version of this piece appeared as Aaron C. Brown’s 9 February 2011 Facebook status update. Nothing drives me crazier than hearing a well-meaning Latter-day Saint earnestly explain how some popular Mormon teaching doesn’t count as official—or as a “doctrine”—because it belongs to some other—supposedly inferior—category of teaching: “Culture.” “Policy.” “Speculation.” “Folklore.” It’s …
How Much Does Jesus Care about Doctrinal Purity?
In this regular column, Michael Vinson, a master’s graduate of the Divinity School of the University of Cambridge and a frequent devotional speaker at Sunstone symposiums, delves into personal and scholarly aspects of scripture . . . And I shall bring to light the true points of my doctrine, yea, and the only doctrine which …