Standing at the intersection is a shabby woman holding a cardboard sign begging for help. She stares straight at you in despair. On the street, a scruffy man pushing a loaded shopping cart asks for your spare change. What do you do? Do you give? Do you ignore? Do you reflect, ‘I donated at Christmas …
Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2011
Community Of Christ’s Journey In The National Council Of Churches
In November 2010, the delegates to the General Assembly of the National Council of Churches of Christ (NCC), a leading force for ecumenical cooperation and witness among US Christian denominations, accepted the Community of Christ as a member, making it the 37th communion [denomination] in the NCC. This paper will explore the impulses, initiatives, and …
What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Can Mormons talk, write, and read candidly and nabashedly about sex? Is there a Mormon literature open to appreciation of sensuality in the daily living of a rich and fulfilling existence? Can the erotic be accommodated in the weave and texture of LDS understanding, culture, and theology, while maintaining a recognizably essential Mormon core? This …
Mormons And Masonry
In the early nineteenth century, many prominent Freemasons sought to “Christianize” Freemasonry. Distinguished European Masonic writers promoted interpretations of Masonic rituals that were almost clusively Christian. Reverend Salem Town of New york also promoted this Christian application in his widely circulated A System of Speculative Masonry (1818), claiming that the initiate’s progression out of darkness …
The Forbidden Fruit Is Meat: An Interpretation Of The Tree Of The Knowledge Of Good And Evil
The China Study provides convincing scientific evidence that animal protein is detrimental to human health, and others have proven that meat consumption wastes land, water, and energy. Thanks to progress in nutritional research, more people now turn to living foods diets. ancient scriptures, modern revelations, and varied religious traditions suggest that Divinity has consistently urged …
Smith-Pettit Lecture: Material Christianity: Creating A Religious World Of Things
This illustrated lecture demonstrates how the study of things and spaces sheds light on the religious experiences of the people in the pew. During the past half-century, an important shift occurred in the study of history. Influenced by the Civil Rights and the Women’s Liberation movements, scholars moved beyond simply studying the written documents of …
Theologizing In The Presence Of Burning Children: Mormon Theology And The Absurd
Alma 14 in the Book of Mormon narrates a tale that appears patently absurd if not utterly atrocious: a prophet has power from God to stop the burning of defenseless women and children but is explicitly told by God not to intervene to save them. Mormons normally offer trite explanations for this story or dismiss …
The Contested Meaning Of Democracy In Early Mormonism And Methodism
In The Democratization of American Christianity, Nathan O. Hatch documents the rise of an array of populist religious sects, including the Mormons and the Methodists. However, it is a mistake to equate all democratic religion with populist religion, as Hatch does. Dissenters from the Mormons and Methodists used the populists’ own democratic rhetoric against them, …
Something Wiki This Way Comes: An Analysis Of The Mormon Content On Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a web-based encyclopedia project offering free access to more than 18 million articles in a variety of languages written and edited collaboratively by volunteers world-wide. With 365 million readers, it is arguably the largest and most popular internet reference site. Perhaps its most significant feature is that new entries can be added and/or …
From Diversity To Unity: The Transition Of LDS Meetinghouses From Beautiful To Functional
The fate of LDS meetinghouses has followed the fate of design and construction in America with a move to the suburbs and standardization. Cost and functional requirements now trump aesthetic and spatial concerns in these packaged products sent to wards and stakes worldwide. The presentation will show distinctive features of LDS meetinghouses around the world, …