The A Mother Here Art and Poetry Contest (2014) aimed to counter Mormonism’s cultural silence about Heavenly Mother, to inspire thinking about the Divine Feminine, and to show that Heavenly Mother is a valued part of the Mormon religious tradition by encouraging artistic and literary portrayals of Her. In my presentation, I will read and …
Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2016
Love And Gender Equality At Home A Model Of Family Transformation
Early relationship patterns lay the framework for our identity development, social interactions, and assumptions about others. If gender equality is to be achieved within Mormon culture and theology it must first be modeled in family relationships. Cultural Transformation Theory provides a framework for moving from a domination model that values “masculine” over “feminine” to a …
Broadcast Q A With Reza Aslan Judith Freeman Memories Of A Mormon Girlhood
Join Sunstone for a unique plenary session, featuring two highly acclaimed authors. There will be a 35 minute Q&A with Reza Aslan, broadcasting from his home in California. He will be discussing religious reform and fundamentalism. After his broadcast Q&A, Judith Freeman wil ltalk about her latest memoir, “The Latter Days,” followed by a Q&A. …
Latinidad Afro Latinidad And Mormon Activism Open Borders As A Spiritual Imperitave
Members of #TogetherWithoutBorders call out racist and nativist elements in Mormon discourse, and seek a voice and representation in Mormon white progressive activist community. All the while, remaining active members of the faith. Individuals in this organization will share how they perform and frame their activism as people of color with a new kind of …
Wearing Purple Pants To Church Mormon Feminist Activism In A Global Religion
Campaigns like ‘Wear Pants to Church’ has raised the profile of Mormon feminist movements, but is it, as Claudia Bushman contends, ‘too American to sway an international church’? This presentation will discuss how a global Mormon feminist movement is being stymied by an interdependency and cultural exclusivity between Mormon feminism and American exceptionalism. As a …
Mapping Many Mormonisms
John has created hundreds of maps and diagrams which outline the relationships—geographical, historical, and conceptual—between the many expressions of Mormonism. This presentation will visually map the schisms and connections between the many branches of Mormonism using dozens of original maps and diagrams. John Hamer
Mormon Spotlight The Problem Of Child Sex Abuse In The Lds Church
Attorney Matt Long (of Infants on Thrones) and board members of Restore our Humanity (a human rights advocacy group) will discussion reasons why sexual abuse is so pervasive in the LDS Church, how Church doctrine and policy contribute to the abuse, why that abuse is underreported, and what is being done to give past victims …
Text Mining 30 Years Of Sunstone Talks
Two Jakes unite in a follow-up to Spurlock’s presentation at last year’s symposium (Data Analysis of 30+ Years of Sunstone Talks). Applying various text-mining methods to the archive of talks Spurlock created, the two will discuss the trends in themes and topics they’ve discovered in the data. Jake Spurlock, Jake Frost
Smith Pettit Lecture Jesus Christ Marriage And Mormon Christianities
Marriage has divided Mormons and Christians, and marriage has contributed to divisions among not only Mormons but among many other Christian churches as well. Because marriage occupies such a central place in Mormon history and doctrine, though, changes in marital practices and debates about marriage have proved unusually fraught for Latter-day Saints. Indeed, from scholarly …
Faith And Doubt In Contemporary American Mormonism A Quantitative Empirical Perspective
Much has recently been made about the intersection of faith and doubt in contemporary American Mormon culture. While discussion of this topic often relies on anecdotes and supposition, this presentation will take a quantitative approach, giving an overview of the 2012 Pew “Mormons in America” survey. Specific topics will include which types of Mormons are …