Roadshows, Boy Scouts, MIA, basketball leagues, potlucks—the LDS Church was once buzzing with community activities. But most of that has disappeared. How did it happen? In this episode, Mithryn (a.k.a. Kenneth Lines) presents a fast-paced history of the rise and fall of community activities in the Church.
Category: Sunstone
E211: The Apostle Who Tried to Retire.
What if apostles were given emeritus status at 70 years of age? This was the question apostle Hugh B. Brown proposed to the Quorum of the Twelve as President David O. McKay descended into senility. Would the Quorum go for it? After all, Hugh would be the first to go! In this episode, Matt Harris …
E120: What’s in the Sacred Sauce?
What do Latter-day Saints mean when they say temples are sacred? Intrepid reporter Stephen Carter braves three tours of the Lindon Temple to find out. (Hint: It’s definitely not the symbolism.)
E209: From Villains to Heroes: Mormons in Italy’s “Tex” Comics
Polygamists, Danites, and guns! The Italian cowboy hero Tex has met with them all over the course of more than 75 years of comic book stories. But the portrayal of Mormons in the series has changed significantly, as presented by Michael Homer in this episode.
E208: Religion Is Dangerous. You Should Try It!
New York Times columnist Ross Douthat thinks that believing in the divine and joining a religion is not only a rational thing to do, it’s the best way to interact with reality. But what happens when you come out the other side of belief? Stephen Carter analyzes Douthat’s book “Believe: Why Everyone Should be Religious,” …
E207: Joseph Smith: Not Boring.
As a non-Mormon scholar, John G. Turner spent years researching Joseph Smith’s life as he wrote a biography of Smith. He found out that nothing about Joseph Smith’s life was boring; for better or for worse. In this episode, Turner compares the young Joseph Smith as he produced the golden plates with the older Joseph …
Arnold Lobel and Me
When Matt was young, we often read Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad stories together. His head would rest against my arm as he followed these simple but wise stories about the difficulties and joys of relating with a loved one. I thought the stories were only for him, but many years later I found out that they …
Apologia Pro Mea Via
Part X of the Sunstone Classics series. D. Michael Quinn was the author of such classic books of Mormon history as Early Mormonism and the Magic Worldview and The Mormon Hierarchy series. He was excommunicated in September 1993, thus becoming a member of the September Six. This is excerpted from a Sunstone article published in …
E206: How Sunstone Cartoons Saved the LDS Church from Itself.
Is it blasphemous to publish a cartoon about Angel Moroni? How about Jesus? How about God? Sunstone has been exploring the limits of what LDS culture is willing to laugh at for decades. Using many hilarious (and possibly blasphemous) examples, Stephen Carter talks about the times when Sunstone ran afoul of sacred sensibilities, and also …
E205: Perfectionism: Mormon Style.
Is your life a sermon? Do you imagine your every action being narrated by a general authority? In this episode, Stephen Carter dives into perfectionism, showing how it manifests in people’s lives, and proposing a few odd ways to escape it. (Hint: Not through fasting and prayer.)