The Challenge of Building a Religious Learning Community Genuine communication rests on acceptance of the peer principle. We each possess equal privilege to speak and share equal and reciprocal obligation to listen. This peer principle can lead to meaningful dialogue, deliberation, and ultimately to a place of mutual trust. Then, even if consensus cannot be …
Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2008
Negotiating Religious Conflict through Dream Analysis: The CREEI Process of Becoming and Beloving
Negotiating Religious Conflict through Dream Analysis: The CREEI Process of Becoming and Beloving Part 1: LDS members are increasingly exposed to historical information to which their parents did not have access. College students in particular often experience intense conflict when they encounter challenges to official church narratives. How do members deal with such conflict? Carl …
LDS Church Media Coverage and Image
LDS Church Media Coverage and Image Growing media coverage of the LDS Church, its members and practices, creates some interesting situations for the Church and its image. Church leaders frame political issues as moral causes and call for support. Church public relations must explain the distinctions between mainstream Mormonism and splinter groups making headlines. Church …
Learning to Speak and Listen Past Generational Boundaries
Learning to Speak and Listen Past Generational Boundaries Many Mormons of the younger generation feel isolated or frustrated when their conception of Mormonism clashes with that of their parents or leaders. This frustration is often compounded by a feeling of voicelessness, as youth find it difficult to express their views at home or in church. …
Is Mormonism Too American? The LDS Church beyond the United States
Is Mormonism Too American? The LDS Church beyond the United States Recent scholarship-some of it written by Latter-day Saints residing in Europe and Asia-suggests that an inappropriate intrusion of American culture into LDS church life inhibits the growth of Mormonism in many other countries. The panelists will evaluate this proposition, relying on their personal experience …
California’s Continuing Battle over Same-Sex Marriage
California’s Continuing Battle over Same-Sex Marriage In May 2008, the California Supreme Court held unconstitutional a state ban on same-sex marriages, making California the second state to officially permit same-sex marriage. The court’s decision has drawn criticism from various quarters, including a 20 June letter from the LDS First Presidency urging California Church members to …
Mormon Heaven: Everything the Prophets Didn’t Tell You
Mormon Heaven: Everything the Prophets Didn’t Tell You Joseph Smith said that if we knew how great heaven is going to be, we’d kill ourselves to get there. Then he cautiously told us almost nothing about it. Later prophets have been even less help, unwilling to venture even so far as an opinion of whether …
A New Faithful History That Is Faithful to History?
A New Faithful History That Is Faithful to History? Over the past century, as more Mormons have acquired professional training, they have applied their skills to Mormonism’s foundational narratives. This experience has left our understanding of Mormon history much enriched, but it has inevitably led to the revision (and even unraveling) of many traditional stories. …
What Makes an Issue ‘Moral’?
What Makes an Issue ‘Moral’? One of the primary roles of religion is to address moral issues and ameliorate social problems. But in a politically and economically globalized world, religion must revisit what counts as moral and expand the scope of its obligations to address contemporary problems. In many ways, Mormonism has restricted its moral …
Author Meets Critics. The Mormon Quest for the Presidency
Author Meets Critics. The Mormon Quest for the Presidency This panel is a critical discussion of a just-published book, The Mormon Quest for the Presidency, co-authored by Newell G. Bringhurst and Craig L. Foster, which examines ten individuals with Mormon connections who ran for president of the United States. The first of these candidates was …