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
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 …
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 …
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
From Not White Enough To Too White The Historical Evolution Of A Mormon Race
Drawing upon scholarship from his recent book, Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness, Paul Reeve explores the ways in which outside observers racialized Mormons as not white enough in the nineteenth century. Mormons responded by trying to claim whiteness for themselves, even at the expense of their own black …
New Thinking For Mormons Involved With Foster Care A Forward Look
The Church’s history with adoption and foster care is gray area. Efforts like the Indian Placement Program and sometimes-coercive and secretive practices of LDS Social/Family Services were guided by wrong-headed ideas about the superiority of some familiesÑwhite families, wealthy families, temple-sealed familiesÑover others. Mormons who become foster parents are vulnerable to some of the same …
The Conflicting Identities Of Lgbt Mormons
In 2015, Amber Whiteley was a contributing author for a book chapter for the American Psychological Association. Titled Conflicting Identities: Sexual Minority, Transgender, and Gender Nonconforming Individuals Navigating Between Religion and Gender/Sexual Orientation Identity, the chapter discusses various religious identities. Whiteley advocated for Mormons to be included in the chapter. This presentation will discuss the …
Does The Concept Of Zion Still Energize Mormon Hearts And Minds Today
In the early church, talk of building Zion and becoming a Zion people was everywhere. Then, twenty-five years ago, following the publishing of Hugh Nibley’s essay collection, Approaching Zion, and then an iconic “Plotting Zion” conference co-sponsored by Sunstone the following year, “Zion” seemed poised to once again rise up as a vital and energizing …
Life After Church Discipline
What happens after the church court? What is the fallout for the excommunicated and his or her family and friends? Panelists will discuss how they came to terms with their excommunication. Have they found peace? Carlene George, Maxine Hanks , Don Bradley
Data Analysis Of 30 Years Of Sunstone Talks
After migrating all the Sunstone symposium audio to WordPress and creating the podcast feed, Jake was struck at how many themes had been recycled over the years. This presentation will discuss how the Mormon Studies playing field has been discussing similar issues for over 30 years. Jake Spurlock