During the Spanish-American War, Mormons made up almost an entire company of the famous Rough Riders. But they never made an appearance with Theodore Roosevelt in Cuba. Why was that? When the United States declared war on Spain in 1898, Mormons were still villainized as a cloistered, theocratic, patriarchal sect—anti-democratic and opposed to the fundamental …
Steve Mayfield began his decades-long connection with Sunstone in the 1980s when he volunteered as an audio recorder at Washington DC Sunstone symposia. When he moved to Utah to become a crime scene photographer for the Salt Lake Police Department, he began documenting numerous Salt Lake symposia and other conferences, creating a valuable picture archive …
The communist government of East Germany had really grown to like the Mormons in 1982. Which was strange considering apostle Ezra Taft Benson’s relentless condemnation of communism or anything he thought was connected to it (like the Civil Rights movement). But, as the November 1982 issue of the Sunstone Review reported, “Our preaching of good …
Why would the April 1982 Sunstone Review print an obituary for a Catholic nun? Lurlene Romney Cheney had plenty of Mormon roots. She was born in Colonia Juarez, Mexico, a colony established by Mormon polygamists to escape the wrath of U.S. federal laws. She was married in the Salt Lake Temple and had two children. …
The filming of General Conference began humbly, with one man sitting in a hole he’d carved out beneath the Tabernacle floor. Frank Wise was a young British convert to the Church who grew up wandering the film studios around London. When he emigrated to Utah and joined the Church in 1939, he was immediately hired …
Today, the answer is “No!” But that was not always the case. The current missionary handbook reads: “Do not flirt or associate inappropriately with anyone. Limit physical contact with someone of the opposite gender to a handshake.” But in 1887, missionaries had a lot more freedom. Edward Davis, who was a missionary in England at …
Just before Joseph Smith made a brief escape from Nauvoo over the Mississippi River into Iowa, he made a strange request. He asked his followers to take up their glue guns, their knitting needles, and their macrame rings to make a giant craft project—namely a sixteen-foot-long flag. He wanted to carry this “flag for the …
The Sunstone Review reviewed what may be the earliest instance of gay Mormon theater, “Emmett: A One-Mormon Show,” written and performed by Emmett Foster, which was staged in 1983 at The Public House in New York City. Emmett’s mother has been married nine times. His sister tries to hide her smoking habit while she ogles missionaries. …
Imagine that your name is Lovina Gibson Andrus. You’re five years old, and you live in Salt Lake Valley. The year is 1849, so, naturally, you spend your summer days smashing crickets with a wooden mallet. Yes, this is the infamous year when the sky turned black as swarms of crickets flew in to eat …
“Every member a missionary.” You’ve probably heard this phrase more times than you can count. But what you probably don’t know is that it has its roots in the silent films Trapped by the Mormons and Married to a Mormon. Winifred Graham was one of the most ardent anti-Mormons in Britain. She had written two …
