Community of Christ: Identity, Message, and Mission In the 1850’s and 1860’s, some dissenters from the Latter Day Saint movement banded together in the midwest to form the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. More than a hundred and fifty years of growth, change, and re-examination has occurred since then, leading to …
Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2008
Autobiography, Trauma, Testimony, and Confession
Autobiography, Trauma, Testimony, and Confession Although the Christian gospel is supposed to be a message of redemption, compassion, hope, and love, Western spiritual autobiography is rife with trauma. Christian conversion requires, many claim, destruction of the ego so the soul is open to grace, arguably a traumatic experience, however redemptive its ultimate effects. Narratives recounting …
A Paradox of Moral Courage: The Tragic Story of Helmuth Huebener
A Paradox of Moral Courage: The Tragic Story of Helmuth Huebener This session explores the moral courage that caused the young German Latter-day Saint Helmuth Huebener to put copies of BBC broadcasts in Hamburg telephone booths and city lamp posts-acts for which the Nazis eventually executed him. Huebener’s story is full of paradoxes-many of them …
Is the Mormon Church Still Racist?: Methodological Approaches to the Problem of Race and Mormonism
Is the Mormon Church Still Racist?: Methodological Approaches to the Problem of Race and Mormonism Despite its having been thirty years since the Mormon Church rescinded the priesthood ban on members of African ancestry, the controversy remains whether Mormonism is still racist. That is, just because a particular practice has ended, it does not mean …
The Search for the Divine
The Search for the Divine Engaged in the process of writing a collection of essays on her travels to visit shamans in Peru and Ecuador, Tibetan Buddhist monks in Sikkim, North India, Baptist preachers in Arkansas and South Carolina, Goddess worshippers in the Yucatan, among others, Phyllis Barber will discuss her search for the Spirit, …
Generations and Religion: Subtle Changes and Unresolved Challenges
Generations and Religion: Subtle Changes and Unresolved Challenges Professor of Religion and Society, and the director of the Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life at University of California, Santa Barbara. He is a consultant on religion and society issues for PBS, NBC, and Religion and Ethics Newsweekly and …
Is a Rameumptom Just a Rameumptom? A Freudian Approach to The Sugar Beet
Is a Rameumptom Just a Rameumptom? A Freudian Approach to The Sugar Beet Latter-day Saints are conventionally and stereotypically portrayed as inhabiting a G-rated culture that valorizes domesticity, obedience, and chastity. For this reason, and the fact that many Mormons enthusiastically embrace the stereotypes, the humor of The Sugar Beet is particularly interesting. In its …
Christian Interfaith Conversation Series
Christian Interfaith Conversation Series The Christian Interfaith Conversation (CIC) Series is a grass-roots initiative that facilitates theological conversations among Mormons and members of other Christian faiths. The purpose of these encounters is to achieve understanding, reduce religious apartheid in Utah, and ultimately come to a unity of faith. The mission of the CIC series is: …
Sexuality in Joseph Smith’s Plurality
Sexuality in Joseph Smith’s Plurality In an 1844 publication, Joseph H. Jackson, a non-LDS visitor to Nauvoo, wrote: ‘Joe Smith boasted to me that he … from the commencement of his career had seduced 400 women.’ If this is true, that would mean there would be 400 victims of Smith’s debauchery. Ironically, the historical record …
Still Among the Mormons: The Legacy of William Mulder
Still Among the Mormons: The Legacy of William Mulder Karen Rosenbaum, Phyllis Barber, Fred Buchanan, Mary Lythgoe Bradford, Emma Lou Thayne