In recent years, women have been “leading the charge” in educating and serving the polygamous community. However, both men and women, and even teenagers, from inside the polygamous culture have spoken out publicly in order to dispel stereotypes and to educate Fundamentalist Mormon families. Several from outside the polygamous culture have made a special effort …
Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2009
SL09101 Devotional: The Sanctity of Doubt [Partial]
Toscano will read a selection from his book The Sacrament of Doubt which explores the relationship of faith and doubt as necessary elements of genuine spirituality. Paul Toscano
SL09163 Study Aids for Bible Lovers
This session will expand on the 7th Article of Faith: “We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly.” To understand the Bible requires considerable study, not only because of translation issues but because books of the Bible were written by people who lived as many as …
SL09232 Power to the Purple: The Poetry of Mary Bradford and Friends [Partial]
Since adolescence, I have squirreled away poems in drawers, files, journals, sometimes even publishing some. Susan Elizabeth Howe and Robert Rees read and criticized my entire oeuvre and helped me choose those poems worthy of inclusion in a published collection. Then I took the poems to Anam Cara, Sue Booth Forbes paradisiacal writers and artists …
SL09275 Panel: Bridging Stereotypes Through Blogging
Picture a Mormon woman. Many specific traits come to mind, some profound, some superficial. Even if many of the stereotypical traits fit, they don’t fit everyone, and sometimes they fit in unexpected ways. Blogging helps to break down stereotypes because superficial barriers like age, race, economic class, and geographic location are stripped away, and people …
SL09333 Panel: The Gay Mormon Literature Project
The Gay Mormon Literature Project is an examination of how the Mormon Church is portrayed in narrative fiction, drama, and film, and includes all instances located to date which contain gay Mormon characters and/or address gay Mormon themes (excluding erotica). Beginning with Drury’s Paul Tinker, Gerald S. Argetsinger, Melissa Leilani Larson, Johnny Townsend, Jonathan Langford
SL09373 Panel: Choose the Write: LDS Authors Discuss Mormonism’s Impact on Their Writing
The panel will explore how much (or if) an author’s LDS background plays into his or her writing. Is anything penned by an LDS author automatically Mormon literature? Do some authors aim to stir up interest in the Church through their writing? Can one create art if there’s an underlying agenda to convert or enlighten? …
SL09111 “Raked”: Feminist Creative Nonfiction and the Evolution of Consciousness, LDS Feminist and Otherwise
Whitney Nelson reads excerpts from her feminist nonfiction piece “Raked,” which tells the story of her experience as a young female athlete finding herself on the fringes of LDS beliefs and culture both before and after her parents’ divorce. Nichols analyzes “Raked” as both nonfiction and individual narrative using Owen Barfield’s argument that in the …
SL09164 A Prospectus for Women: Comparing Church History of the Blacks and the Priesthood to Priesthood Authority for Women
This paper argues that Church history demonstrates that policies and procedures related to priesthood authority have evolved in the past and will continue to evolve in the future. By comparing official Church rhetoric about the priesthood both before and after the removal of the ban, one can analyze the rhetoric about women’s place within both …
SL09233 Panel: Supporting Special Needs Children and Young Adults in the Church [Partial]
This panel brings parents, leaders, and advocates together to discuss the challenges and joys of bringing up special needs children and young adults in the Church. Given the lay nature of LDS leadership, teachers and advisors in a church setting may not have previous experience working with special needs children. What can leaders and individual …