The Domestic Life of Brigham Young During Brigham Young’s lifetime, visitors wanted to peek into his home to see how his family life worked. On one occasion, he complained: ‘Ladies who come into my office very frequently say, ‘I wonder if it would hurt his feelings if I ask him how many wives he has?. …
Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2001
Defending Magic: Explaining The Necessity of Ordinances
Defending Magic: Explaining The Necessity of Ordinances On their face, ordinances seem to be morally insignificant gestures that have meaning only insofar as they are symbolic. But, then, why would they be necessary for salvation? We will explore at least four separate theories, but I will argue that these theories are either (1) quite plausible, …
Confessions of a Mormon Boy: Eagle Scout, Missionary, Husband, Father, Homosexual . . . Human
Confessions of a Mormon Boy: Eagle Scout, Missionary, Husband, Father, Homosexual . . . Human In a reading of his one-person show currently in development, New York actor Steven Fales shares the story of his failed attempt to overcome his same-sex attractions, which ultimately resulted in his divorce and his excommunication from the Church. Told …
Voices in Harmony: Contemporary Women Celebrate Plural Marriage
Voices in Harmony: Contemporary Women Celebrate Plural Marriage The panelists in this session have recently co-authored a groundbreaking book, Voices in Harmony: Contemporary Women Celebrate Plural Marriage, which collects personal essays from one hundred women who currently live, have lived, or support the principle of plural marriage. One of the reasons the book is significant …
Seeking a Truce with the Mormon Deity: Remaking Myself as a Mormon during the Early 1980s
Seeking a Truce with the Mormon Deity: Remaking Myself as a Mormon during the Early 1980s The protagonist of my story, ‘The Canyons of Grace,” published in 1982, symbolically kills the Christian God and steps forward into a mortal world full of wild grace. The price of traditional faith, she says, is your integrity. The …
The Experiences of LDS Women and How Their Culture Influences Manifestations of Their Sexuality
The Experiences of LDS Women and How Their Culture Influences Manifestations of Their Sexuality This presentation is a progress report on the data I have collected so far in my research on the sexuality of Mormon women, ages thirty through fifty. It contains both quantitative and qualitative analyses, and I will include several findings that …
Mormon Publishing in the 1990’s: From the Silly to the Sublime
Mormon Publishing in the 90’s: From the Silly to the Sublime This paper and slide presentation will show some of the oddities, absurdities, trends, and triumphs of the Mormon publishing world of the 1990s. Some of the items are rare and obscure and have been seen by only a handful of people. Brian Romriell, Curt …
Trailing Clouds of Glory and Lifting the Veil: A Pre-mortal/Past-life Primer
Trailing Clouds of Glory and Lifting the Veil: A Pre-mortal/Past-life Primer The LDS church is one of the few Christian religions that teaches the doctrine of premortal learning experiences (D&C 138:56). Anecdotal evidence for pre-birth learning experiences is increasing in the fields of psychology and psychiatry. Remarkably, many of these learning experiences are reported to …
Does an ‘Open Forum’ Mean an ‘Open Microphone’?: The Controversy at Sunstone West
Does an ‘Open Forum’ Mean an ‘Open Microphone’?: The Controversy at Sunstone West This April, a controversy erupted surrounding the program for the 2001 Sunstone West Symposium. The event involved the paper proposal, ‘The Hidden Nazi Mentality in the Proclamation on the Family,” by Cindy LeFevre, which was first accepted but then removed from the …
Pursuing the Historical Roots of Mormon Black Priesthood Denial: Personal Reflections and a Progress Report
Pursuing the Historical Roots of Mormon Black Priesthood Denial: Personal Reflections and a Progress Report Involved in this panel discussion are three scholars, each of whom has written and published extensively on the issue of blacks of African ancestry and their changing place within Mormonism over the past 170 years. They will focus on two …