There is no Primary song that starts out, “I’m so glad that Daddy stays home,” probably because both the culture and teachings of the LDS Church overwhelmingly encourage the father to earn the living and the mother to raise the family at home. What happens when that arrangement doesn’t work out? Panelists talk about their …
Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2010
SL10252: In Memoriam: Linda Sillitoe
Writer and poet Linda Sillitoe’s death in April 2010 left a hole in the heart of Sunstone. Join us for remembrances from family and friends. JOHN SILLITO, PAUL SWENSON, PHYLLIS BARBER, ALLEN ROBERTS
SL10312: The Descent of Dissent: or On the Origin of Speciousness
”In the Olden Days before Blogs: A Message to Maggie.” This paper will explore some of the developments in dissent over the past two decades, including what constituted dissent then and now. Is dissent praying privately to Mother in Heaven? Is it not putting up a lawn sign supporting Prop 8? Is it splitting your …
SL10351: Panel: Mobilizing the Saints: Behind-the-Scenes Strategies on Same-sex Marriage
”Toeing the Line: Is the LDS Church a Moral Agent or a Political Machine?” The LDS Church identifies its involvement in same-sex marriage issues as a moral cooperative with other religions. Yet participation by both members and general leaders appears to have outweighed participation by other religious adherents. Has the Church crossed the line from …
SL10374: Panel: Where is Your Faulkner? Mormon Fiction and America
As a non-Mormon writer for the PBS film, The Mormons, Jane Barnes found no novels about the Saints’ place in America. Her paper “Notes Toward a New Mormon Fiction,” asks questions about this absence, starting with the whereabouts of a Mormon Sound and Fury or My Antonia. How can Mormon writers look at their experience …
SL10133: Peculiar Portrayals: Mormons on the Page, Stage, and Screen
Published this spring by Utah State University Press, Peculiar Portrayals is a collection of new scholarly articles examining depictions of Mormon characters in mass market venues. The panelists, who are editors of and/or contributors to the project, will discuss the personal and professional reasons behind the book’s creation. Michael Austin will read a part of …
SL10174: Panel: The Book of Job
The Book of Job has been labeled the ur-text of both tragedy and the practical joke; it has inspired such interpretations and responses as Answer to Job by Carl Jung and A Serious Man by the Coen Brothers. Often considered a tale of mature spirituality, it both elicits and demands thoughtful consideration. This panel will …
SL10253: What was Responsible for the Willie and Martin Handcart Disaster? One Small Cow
When any disaster occurs, people look somewhere to place blame. In a maturing society, the better approach is to examine the data objectively. When this approach is applied to the Willie and Martin handcart disaster, two major problems emerge for the companies: one was the late start, and the other was inadequate food supplies. The …
SL10313: Church, Priesthood, and the Gay/Lesbian Journey Toward Spiritual Maturity
The gay Mormon population is bifurcated between a majority who have left the Church via inactivity, excommunication, or suicide, and a minority who have subordinated their need for satisfying relational intimacy to Church law. This bifurcation persists because of the intensity of the tension gay and lesbian Mormons experience between Church authority and personal experience …
SL10352: The Epistle of Paul: Homosexual Spirituality and the Redemption of Pleasure
Christians often use a single passage from Paul’s epistle to the Romans to scripturally justify their condemnation of same-sex orientation, attraction, and marriage. I critique a recent speech by Elder Bruce Hafen to Evergreen International, an organization that allegedly reclaims Church members from their same-sex orientation, and argue that Paul’s epistle can be read to …