Who do we belong to and how does identification motivate and shape our lives? Identification with our ego and our groups is inevitable and yet presents sticky problems. This session proposses that perpetual loss of identity is congruent with both spiritual and secular frameworks. A radical reading of Christ’s identity points us toward identifying with …
Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2020
Nauvoo Polygamy and the RLDS Church
Community of Christ (a.k.a. the RLDS Church) has a long and complicated relationship with Nauvoo polygamy. Although consistent in its opposition to the practice, the understandings of members and leaders regarding the introduction of plural marriage have evolved in surprising ways through the years, and the response to that evolution mirrors the Kübler-Ross model of …
Mormon Women in Art: Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going
Mormon art sometimes places women in submissive, peripheral, secondary roles. The explosion of art by Mormon women in the last decade has changed that. This session will address how social media has made space for women without traditional representation or financial backing to form successful careers in the arts. We will discuss how Mormon women …
Conversations with Charlotte England
In honor of Gene England’s 88th birthday on the 22nd of this month, this session will honor Gene’s life and teachings with interviews between his widow, Charlotte England, and several of her close friends and longtime peers of Gene’s. One conversation will discuss an evening Jim McConkie spent with Charlotte when he apologized for his …
A Faith Journey through the Music of Mumford and Sons
Come experience the highs and lows of a faith journey through the music and lyrics of Mumford and Sons. Some songs capture the feelings of a relationship that works for a time, as you purely hold on to your truth. Others talk about something that calls you away from this first truth, and you become …
The Making of a Modern Day Prophet
In this session I will explore the Life and Testimony of Gerald W. Peterson, Sr. The details of his life and how he became a modern day Prophet have mostly been known by his family and followers. I will explore his faith transition from Christian to Latter-Day Saint to Prophet. This session will provide rare …
How Evangelical Critics View Mormon Origins
Continuing Ryan Wimmer’s theme from the 2018 Sunstone Symposium of why Evangelicals fail to convert Mormons, we turn to how Joseph Smith and Mormon origins compare to fundamentalist Christianity historically. Evangelicals frequently use dichotomies such as Mormonism vs. Biblical Christianity, Joseph Smith vs. the Bible, etc., highlighting the inconsistencies between the two. This presentation argues …
“They have lost their love”: Grief and Tragedy in the Book of Mormon
This paper examines the grief Moroni expresses at the conclusion of the Book of Mormon and argues that it renders the work as a whole a tragedy, as the term is defined by the philosopher Stanley Cavell. Cavell suggests in several works that tragedy is closely associated with both alienation and skepticism, that it is …
To the Mother in Heaven in Grief and Gratitude
In 1994 I published my first essay on the Mother in Heaven, “Toward a Mormon Theology of God the Mother,” which led to my excommunication from the LDS Church in 1Although this continues to be a source of grief in my life, I am grateful for the scriptures revealed by Joseph Smith. They have been …
The Metaphysics of Suffering
Everyone, no matter how privileged or poor, will inevitably come face-to-face with tragedy. How can we make sense of all the pain and suffering in our world, especially when so much of it seems random or unfair? As a hospice chaplain, the presenter has ministered to people asking these same questions, and as someone whose …