The Financial Exhaustion of Wilford Woodruff: An Explanation of Why the Church Divested itself of Promoting Southern Nevada Gold Mining and Milling Properties in the 1890’s The 1890 Manifesto had removed the main cause of the Church’s conflict with the federal government–polygamy. But it couldn’t erase the Church’s 300,000 debt and its toll on President …
Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2001
The Supremacy that Controls Punishment
The Supremacy that Controls Punishment Historically, Latter-day Saints have found it difficult to live under two supreme powers competing to control their behavior. One is politics (secular); the other religious (the Church). Both rely on punishment to control, and both claim to supersede wisdom, truth, and justice. Both claim ultimate authority. What is the latest …
Contemporary Mormon Filmmaking: Does Johnny Lingo Live in Brigham City?
Contemporary Mormon Filmmaking: Does Johnny Lingo Live in Brigham City? Using the recent Brigham City as a springboard, we will discuss pertinent aspects of contemporary Mormon filmmaking. Our focus will be on several questions: Can Mormon filmmaking survive the Mormon community? To what does ‘Mormon” in Mormon filmmaking refer–culturally Mormon, Utah Mormon, small town Mormon? …
‘Missionary Position’
‘Missionary Position’ ‘Missionary Position” is a full-length comedy about Mormon missionaries. It touches on many things, including faith, integrity ambition, sexuality, and community. Earnest at times, and slightly irreverent at others, it explores, reflects, and celebrates some of the interesting (and peculiar) aspects of Mormon culture. Synopsis: Full of anticipation, Elder Robert Wood packs for …
What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been: The Seventh East Press–Twenty Years Later
What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been: The Seventh East Press–Twenty Years Later It has been twenty years since Ron Priddis, Anthony Schmidt, Elbert Peck, and Maxine Hanks stayed up all night to produce the first issue of the Seventh East Press, Independent Student Newspaper. But the images are still as vivid as the lessons …
Multiplicities in our Mormon Multitude: Toward Keeping a Unified (but Untidy) Household of God
Multiplicities in our Mormon Multitude: Toward Keeping a Unified (but Untidy) Household of God Although among many Mormons there often exists an assumption that working toward unity means working toward reading and applying the scriptures in nearly similar (if not identical) ways, a closer look at the scriptures and how they produce multiple, righteous lifestyle …
Committed Same-sex Unions: Is a Theological Accommodation Possible?
Committed Same-sex Unions: Is a Theological Accommodation Possible? This paper explores a theological argument for legitimizing committed same-sex unions. It asks if there are scriptural and theological warrants for such a step by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other churches, especially if the bible is read holistically. I offer thoughts on …
Mormon Criminal Element in Nauvoo: The Multi-Faceted Tragedy of the Hodge Brothers
Mormon Criminal Element in Nauvoo: The Multi-Faceted Tragedy of the Hodge Brothers There is a strong tendency to idealize “the Nauvoo period” of Mormon history. What is often overlooked is that Nauvoo was still a frontier town, prone to many of the same struggles facing all settlements of this period. One of these struggles was …
Fundamentalist Mormons in the News
Fundamentalist Mormons in the News Avowed polygamist Tom Green’s trial burst into the international spotlight as more than one hundred reporters traveled to Provo, Utah, from a wide variety of locales, ranging from Europe to Australia to Japan. The world watched the legal conflict that questioned the very essence of what constitutes wedlock and raised …
The Goodness of God
The Goodness of God In recent years my shoulders have bent under near-deadly blood clots, diagnosis with terminal tumors, a divorce, a sellout of my business, and the sight of my first gray hairs! Yet, sixteen years ago, this lifelong cautious believer had an experience that greatly comforted myself and my wife during the hell …