This is an excerpt from the original Sunstone 2015 presentation, Four View of Joseph Smith: Historians Debate the Prophet Puzzle.
Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2015
Mormon Matters Overlooked Similarities Between Mormons And Other Christians
Instead of focusing on the well-known places where LDS theology diverges from Christianity at large, this presentation offers a broad overview of our common Christian heritage. Every faith community develops its own vocabulary, and that vocabulary is heavily influenced by the culture it emerges from, meaning that it develops what may seem to be contradictions …
Sunstone The Next Generation
Since the 1960s, unorthodox Mormons coalesced around print publications like Sunstone and Dialogue to engage in independent thought about Mormonism. Many of those people are now parents and grandparents. This panel will discuss the challenges of raising children in the Mormon faith, but outside the mainstream. Parents will discuss “inoculation,” navigating the politics of church …
Battle On The Brain Mormons And War
This session compares and contrast the Protestant “Just War” doctrine with historic Mormon attitudes. How did the Saints go from an essentially pacifist worldview to accepting war-time service in place of a mission and writing torture laws for the president? Brooke Swallow, Kenneth Lines
Role Of Dissent In The Christian Community
The tension between authority and personal conscience can be seen in the citizen’s relation to political authority, the scholar’s relation to academic authorities, and the believer’s relation to the church. The relationship between authority and personal conscience is dialectic: the two are neither identical nor separable, and each is constantly informing the other. Dissent sometimes …
This Is Your Brain On Polygamy
My husband and I didn’t just wake up one sunny morning and say, “Let’s join a polygamist cult.” Over time, a convergence of psychological and social factors ripened us for the picking. Insecurities played a part. So did classic, cultish appeals. So did mainstream Mormonism, not just by laying a doctrinal foundation, but by training …
Supporting The Family Cash Incentivized Larcs Long Acting Reversible Contraceptives
Many children are being born without the benefit of married parents. Remedy? Family studies economist Isabel V. Sawhill extols highly reliable LARCs (long-acting reversible contraceptives) as being pro-children, pro-life, pro-marriage, and pro-income-equality. Accordingly, why not have the federal government pay female participants enough to make implanted LARCs the norm? Despite its public interest virtures, religious …
Saving Faith The Relationship Of Faith To Knowledge Belief And Works
Atheist Richard Dawkins sees faith in God as belief without evidence, while Christian theologians defend faith as both reasonable and empirically justified. Although they grant that the evidence for faith is incomplete, they also hold that knowledge of God is not attainable simply through empirical methods. Faith also plays a role in the Christian doctrine …
Mormon Food 2 Electric Boogaloo
Last year’s popular food panel has been updated with information on jello, funeral potatoes, caffeinated beverages and more jokes. Jerilyn Hassell Pool
Mormon Genome Project And Critique Of Sexual Polyandry Apologetics
The Mormon Genome Project was founded to test for Joseph Smith’s progeny through DNA analysis. Specifically, MGP is testing descendants of Josephine Rosetta Lyon to prove whether she was Joseph Smith’s biological daughter. This presentation includes an analysis and critique of apologetics relating to Smith’s relationship with the Lyon family. Scott Rowley