How can Mormon women who care about gender issues transcend cultural tensions that hamper positive change? In January 2011, The Round Table launched a conversation about Mormon women’s identity among representatives of various organizations. In their panel presentation, participants will highlight the tangible and intangible products of their separate and combined projects and discuss what …
Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2011
Embodying Gender: How Mormon Material Culture Reflects And Shapes Gender Perceptions
Mormonism defines both gender and embodiment as fundamental. Beliefs about gender are embodied in the physical objects, resources, spaces, and structures which Mormons create and use to carry out the work and life of the Church. Mormon material culture not only reflects gender beliefs but also influences the ways in which gender is perceived. This …
Was The
The consensus of many lDS scholars now is that the land described in the Book of Mormon is largely confined to Mesoamerica. However, an examination of internal clues from the book itself and non-Mormon scientific evidence for pre-Columbian sea voyages to the New World together with South american geological changes suggest that ecuador and nearby …
Exploring The Book Of Mormon In America’s Heartland: A Visual Journey Of Discovery
Exhaustive new research has led to a reexamination of evidence supporting the Book of Mormon’s historicity in the “Heartland” of North America rather than Mesoamerica. The evidence is robust and based upon a hierarchical pattern of evidence beginning with scriptural prophecies and promises, followed by statements of Joseph Smith, geographic passages, and evidence from modern-day …
Basketball Under The Steeple: The Strange Design Of Mormon Chapels
Mormon chapels create sacred space and, through their design and composition, communicate subtle messages about what and whom the Church values. The influence of Mormon chapels on the worship experience will be compared with architecturally created sacred spaces from other religious traditions. The design of Mormon church buildings and the size, placement, and furnishings of …
Success In The Borderlands
All of us in the Borderlands of the Church must eventually face the issues of: when, to whom, and how to disclose our situation. Past studies suggest that almost all Borderlanders are in the closet to some extent and that a large share have not told their spouses the whole story. A panel of D. …
Do They Still Teach That?
The song “I Believe” from the Tony award-winning musical The Book of Mormon mentions familiar, obscure, and even contested Mormon doctrines. This panel is a riff of sorts on ideas enumerated in the song, from the foundational belief that God created the universe and sent his son to die for our sins to the idea …
The Changing Message Of Kirtland Temple Tours 1830-2011
This paper will look at how the tour message delivered at the Kirtland Temple has changed over the past 175 years. Detailing the early tours led by Joseph Smith Sr. and Warren Parrish as well as the Kirtland Temple guides of today, the presentation will show how often the message shared at the Kirtland Temple …
Insights Toward Understanding Homosexuality: A Father’s Journey
In a discussion with my college-aged son during the 2004 election debates on gay marriage, I was shocked when he expressed sympathy for gay marriage, and I argued against it. Six months later, our family learned that our oldest son is gay. This sent us on a journey to understand the complexity of homosexuality. “Insights …
The Significance Of Martin Luther King For The Saints Today
We all know Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as the leading civil rights activist in America in the 1960s—a man who offered a prophetic voice to the major domestic issue of his time. But he should also be seen as one whose thought, as reflected in a significant body of public writings, reveals a man …