This presentation highlights gender boundaries within today’s Mormondom through a study of Sheri Dew, the first female president of Deseret Book and a staunch defender of traditional gender roles. Is Dew’s defense of a traditional “woman” subverted by her prominent position and rhetoric? In her speech and actions, does she transgress traditional gender boundaries and …
Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2005
Mormons, Movies, And Romantic Eschatology
Drawing from insights in the Wizard of Oz, Groundhog Day, and other great movies, this presentation highlights differences between Mormon eschatology (the understanding of last things or the end and purpose of the world) and how LDS approaches to the relation of the divine and the human, atonement, and grace differ from those offered by …
Is The Rational Man An Enemy To God? The Role Of Reason In Living The Gospel
Does faith seek understanding? Does understanding support faith? The scriptures contain many affirmations of the value of the intellect, yet there is a strong anti-intellectual strain in Mormonism. This paper argues that reason plays an essential role in living the gospel. Janice Allred, Bill Hansen
Worship Service. Prejudice: A Clash Between Christ And Culture
This session is a worship service in keeping with the Community of Christ’s emphasis on peace and justice. It features a sermon dealing with racism, sexism, anti-Catholicism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, and the inhuman treatment of children born out of wedlock, along with prayers and congregational singing from the Community of Christ peace hymn William D. Russell, …
Love, Sex, And Transgression: Approaching The Unapproachable In Mormon Biography
Treating episodes of sexual transgression in the lives of Church leaders is necessary if we harbor any hope of realizing truthful, hence faithful, biographies. This presentation explores reasons for approaching such unapproachable subjects with examples from the lives of four Church officials, including Albert Carrington and Richard R. Lyman. Gary James Bergera
Reading Lolita In Tehran, Reading Pride And Prejudice In Taichung: Literature As Resistance To Spiritual And Political Oppression And As An Aid To Spiritual Growth
Reading Lolita in Tehran explores how reading forbidden works of literature can be a soul-saving act of resistance to spiritual and political oppression. Latter-day Saints are advised to seek knowledge out of the best books and encouraged to believe that the church will one day have its Shakespeare’s and Miltons. Panelists will explore the relationship …
Leaders Of The Restoration And Their Subsequent Fates: Examples From Scandinavia And Mexico.
Gary Horlacher will present a theoretical model of leadership and illustrate it with examples of key persons who established Mormonism in Scandinavia. Esteban Obregón will focus on Plotino Rhodakanaty, the first member and branch president in central Mexico. The Scandinavian and Mexican examples illustrate the characteristics of charismatic leaders in the establishment of the gospel …
Depicting The Afterlife: New Evidence That Supports And Challenges LDS Understandings Of Eternal Life
Hypnotherapist Michael Newton has written three books describing the afterlife that have excited many Latter-day Saints who note striking similarities in attitudes toward such things as eternal progression and the purpose of mortality. But Newton’s reports also problemetize other aspects of Mormonism’s detailed description of the afterlife. Tom L. Davies, Lisa Tensmeyer Hansen
Mormon Mantras
In Eastern spiritual traditions, mantras are practiced to assist persons in overcoming mindless, conditioned behavior and to align themselves with the divine. Do some Mormon cultural “mantras”, repetitive phrases and ideas that organize the internal lives of many Latter-day Saints, serve the same liberating function, or do they, at times, inhibit individual spiritual growth? Are …
Joseph Smith And The Plurality Of Gods: ‘I Can Show It From The Bible.’
‘I Can Show It From The Bible.’ In one of Joseph Smith’s two most famous discourses on polytheism, he insisted he could “show it from the Bible.” Can a plurality of Gods be shown from the so-claimed monotheistic Bible? If it can be shown from the Bible, should the doctrine become scripture? What could an …