After decades of feeling alone, I’d almost given up seeking a place for myself at church. When I accepted the calling to teach in a new ward, I wasn’t sure what I believed but I felt inspired to try building the space I needed into my lessons. I knew what I had found lacking, and …
Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2019
Church for the Unchurched Revisited
For the past three years, John Hamer has built up a new community at Toronto Centre Place committed to a five-point mission: (1) invite everyone into community, (2) continually learn and grow, (3) abolish poverty and end needless suffering, (4) pursue peace and justice, and (5) live life meaningfully together. Regular participants at Centre Place …
Radiant Mormonism
Richard Bushman coined the term “Radiant Mormonism,” which suggests that certain Latter-day Saints radiate their influence “like rays of light and beams of energy from the sun.” He adds, “They are not official, but a part of each of them originates in the church and in core Mormonism. They are part of a great Mormon …
Healing After Sexual Abuse: A Research Study With LDS/Mormon/Latter-day Saint Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse
This presentation will review the results of Amber’s doctoral dissertation, which was a qualitative research study with adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. The research was conducted with diverse participants including varying gender and sexual identities. Results include a gender analysis to show the differing experiences participants experienced across their gender identities. A theoretical model …
Protect Every Child
In 2018, thousands in the Mormon community rallied to protect LDS children from ecclesiastical abuse. In 2019, Mormons have formed a coalition to protect children of all religions. Sam Young, Rebecca Smyrniotopoulos
Naturalistic Explanations for the Origin of the Book of Mormon: 1829 to 2018
Even before it was published, alternate stories were issued to compete with Joseph Smith’s explanation of the Book of Mormon’s origin. Five will be introduced and tracked chronologically: 1. The original manuscript of the Book of Mormon was written by Solomon Spaulding. 2. Collaborators helped Joseph Smith create the text. 3. Joseph Smith’s mental illness …
Post-Mormonism and the Witchy World View
Zina Bennion and Sara Hanks are two Utah-based, post-Mormon tarot readers. In the spring of 2019, they launched “Roots, Seeds, and Weeds,” an online course for post-Mormon women and femmes seeking spiritual reclamation on their own terms. Join Zina and Sara for a discussion of mystical, sovereign, earth-based spirituality, the unique challenge facing those who …
Fostering and Maintaining Healthy Boundaries within a Mormon Construct
Boundaries are the simple declaration of what you are comfortable with and what you are not comfortable with. Yet, fostering and maintaining healthy boundaries can be anything but simple, especially within a religious construct. This session brings together a panel of mental health professionals and wellness coaches from Symmetry Solutions, LLC to provide suggestions on …
Post-Mormons with Carpal Tunnel: Writing the Way Out
Leaving Mormonism can be an excruciating process with heaps of emotional, social, and psychological backlash. In this session, a distinguished group of post-Mormon writers will share excerpts of their exit narratives and poetry. They will discuss the role writing has played, and continues to play, in their faith transitions. Mette Harrison, Timothy Liu, Dayna Patterson, …
Mormon Theology and the Game of Thrones: Discerning the Difference between King-men and the Kingdom of God
Both the Book of Mormon and the Game of Thrones present personal struggle against the backdrop of violent war narratives, differing only in level of explicit graphic detail. Both use the symbol of the steel sword as that which enforced good. Both are tragedies. The true heroes in both are those who are internally transformed …