In 1954, California LDS bishop Devere Baker set out to prove that Lehi could have sailed from the Persian Gulf to Guatemala—by sailing his own raft, which he called the Lehi. Samuel Taylor tells about Baker’s 25-year endeavor—and how he went through six Lehis in the process.
Category: Sunstone
E196: You Can Go Home Again. But Do You Want To?
How much can we heal from the wounds our religious community gave us? Stephen Carter explores the “hero cycle” story structure to find out.
E195: An Insider’s Look at the Baseball Baptisms in Britain.
The Baseball Baptism era is a controversial one in LDS history. Richard Mavin gives a first-hand account of how it all happened in Britain and how his mission experience both thrilled and haunted him for the rest of his life.
E194: The Baseball Baptism Era.
Probably the most controversial period of Mormon missionary history was from about 1960–1962 when more than 100,000 boys were baptized into the LDS Church worldwide—sometimes without realizing it. They were on a baseball field one moment and being baptized the next. In this episode, D. Michael Quinn tells the story of the Baseball Baptism era …
Building an LDS-Compatible Personal Religious Model
This column expands on a much earlier column that introduced the idea of creating an LDS-compatible personal religious model, something many seasoned and successful Borderlanders have found useful. At the time, I was exchanging emails with a Borderlander I called “Jack.” He was a closet doubter but his emails could just as easily have come …
E193: Should We Toss Testimony Meeting?
LDS testimony meetings are usually tedious affairs. Yet we have them every month. Why? Anthropologist David Knowlton compares testimony meeting with similar rituals worldwide to see if it’s doing its job—or if we should toss it.
E192: Annalee Skarin: Excommunicated then Translated—Yes, Like Enoch.
In 1948, Annalee Skarin had just published a book she said was written by the power of God. She was very soon excommunicated from the LDS Church. But then a few days later, eyewitnesses said she was translated. She wrote eight more books after that, becoming nationally famous. In this episode, Samuel W. Taylor and …
E191: How to Spot an Unorthodox BYU Professor.
Clark Gilbert is tightening the orthodoxy clamps at BYU, just like Ernest Wilkinson did in the 1950s and 60s. Is this the best way to make BYU students into lifelong Latter-day Saints? Stephen Carter compares Wilkinson’s BYU with Gilbert’s and then talks about his own experience with two BYU professors who kept him engaged with …
E190: Camping at the Edge of Excommunication.
Sterling M. McMurrin had only been a seminary teacher for two years before the president of the Church, Heber J. Grant, wanted to fire him. And he camped at the edge of excommunication for the rest of his life. McMurrin recalls these turbulent, and comic, years in this episode.
E189: Three Kinds of Believers.
Much is made in the LDS Church about how David Whitmer, one of the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, never recanted his testimony, even though he left the Church. What they don’t tell you is that it was precisely his testimony of the Book of Mormon that drove him out. In this episode, …