When does life begin? Is it at fertilization (penetration of sperm into ovum)? Implantation (of previous free-floating embryo into uterine lining)? Individuation (cell specialization around day fourteen)? Ability to live outside the womb (around twenty-four weeks)? First breath? This question is just one of many issues which animate the current debate about the ethics of …
Event: Northwest Symposium 2004
Taking Out the Trash: Eliminating Racial Folk Teachings Within Today’s Church
New linguistic and historical scholarship sheds significant light on how and when the stories of Cain and Ham were first used to justify enslavement and then segregation of blacks. The resultant racial speculations of nineteenth-century American Protestants continue to be prominently distributed among Latter-day Saints today. Why is that, especially given our emphasis on continuing …
What To Do when ‘Plan B’ Fails
No life task is more difficult than when were forced to redefine ourselves when our life doesnt follow the planthat idealistic blueprint destined to take us to happily ever after. And even if we manage to work our way through the dissapointments and struggle with self-worth once, theres still no guarantee that our plan B …
History’s Apprentice: Personal Reflections On B. H. Roberts
Though he has been dead for seventy years, B. H. Roberts remains a significant Mormon historian and theologian, and is considered one of the Church’s premier intellectuals. Though best known for his writings, Roberts was also a member of the First Council of Seventy and a stalwart of Utah’s Democratic Party. This presentation draws on …
Discussion, Making Sense of Today’s Book of Mormon Debates
Book of Mormon studies have shifted in recent decades, leading to many new, and widely different theories about its historicity, origins, theology, and function. What are the new approaches? How and to what extent are they affecting official Church rhetoric as well as chapel discussions? What issues are crying for the most attention? What positive …
Pillars Of My Faith
Pillars is traditionally one of the most popular sessions at Sunstone symposiums. Join engaging speakers as they reflect on their faith journeys and the way they have ordered their spiritual lives. What gospel principles have been especially animating for them? What people have helped guide their way? What have been the most powerful or defining …