The San Luis Shrine Missionary Desecration: Juvenile Recklessness or Criminal Acts? In March 2008, Catholics of San Luis, Colorado, were outraged when they found photos online that depicted LDS missionaries vandalizing-and allegedly desecrating- their shrine. Forgiven, but not forgotten, the act evokes a 1972 public relations debacle when two LDS missionaries served six months in …
Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2008
Rejecting the Stone. Why Christ Must Be the Prism through Which All War Scripture and Theology is Interpreted
Rejecting the Stone. Why Christ Must Be the Prism through Which All War Scripture and Theology is Interpreted The two presenters are currently working on a book discussing a Christ-centric approach towards issues of war and peace in scripture and LDS theology. Throughout our tradition’s existence, Latter-day Saints have selectively drawn upon war narratives from …
Knowing Enough to Know That We Don’t Know Enough
Knowing Enough to Know That We Don’t Know Enough The Lord’s servants have prophesied that great changes will take place in all forms of knowledge and information which comes to mankind. A challenge for the rising generation will be to prepare themselves to integrate this knowledge and information in ways that give meaning to their …
Seeing Joseph through Jesus’s Eyes
Seeing Joseph through Jesus’s Eyes As the Community of Christ has dropped its traditional claims regarding exclusive authority and moved toward seeing their church as part of the body of Christ rather than as the body of Christ, there has been a greater emphasis on elements of faith members hold in common with the rest …
Joseph Smith in Hermeneutical Crisis
Joseph Smith in Hermeneutical Crisis Marvin Hill argued that early Mormonism was a flight from American religious pluralism. This presentation puts a finer point on Hill’s thesis by arguing that Joseph Smith felt that American religious pluralism resulted from a breakdown in the perspicuity (or clarity) of the Bible. I suggest that Smith regarded hermeneutical …
An Old Liberal Mormon Takes Stock
An Old Liberal Mormon Takes Stock Granting that liberal Mormonism long ago lost its respectability, I will nonetheless argue that it can serve to promote a friendly irreverence among the Latter-day Saints, who otherwise seem determined that God, though often angry, never laughs. I will pay my respects to Sunstone and reiterate my conviction that …
Meaningful Approaches to Scripture
Meaningful Approaches to Scripture As Gospel Doctrine teachers know, Latter-day Saints approach scripture in a wide variety of ways. Some cherry-pick the verses or interpretations that support their views. Others seem to still rely on long-ago ‘reads’ of certain scriptural stories. Still others imbue stand-alone verses with vastly different meanings than the real scriptural context …
The Sixteenth-Note Panic, or Afraid of My Own Shadow
The Sixteenth-Note Panic, or Afraid of My Own Shadow Fear and its accompanying anxiety have been my life-long companions. Fear to speak up; fear that I’m not good enough; fear of failure; fear of being honest; fear of non-acceptance; fear of identifying and facing my fears; and fear of my shadow side. These were vague …
Crisis of Faith Experiences among Faithful Mormon Intellectuals
Crisis of Faith Experiences among Faithful Mormon Intellectuals Do I still believe in God? Is the Mormon understanding of God and the universe something I can continue to embrace? Is it possible to keep my intellectual integrity and still be a deeply committed Mormon? What would happen if I abandoned my faith? A crisis of …
The Word of God: Scripture, Revelation, and Authority
The Word of God: Scripture, Revelation, and Authority In the introduction to his book, Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why, Bart Ehrman tells how his scholarly studies of early New Testament manuscripts caused him to question the authority of the Bible as the word of God. Because contentious disagreements of …