Event: Southwest Symposium 2010

SW10014: Book Preview/Panel: Persistence of Polygamy: A Mormon Anthology

Co-editor Newell G. Bringhurst presents an overview of this forthcoming anthology of 20 never-before-published articles about polygamy. Essays cover Joseph Smith and the beginnings of polygamy, polygamy in Utah after Joseph Smith and reactions to the practice from other restoration groups, and the perpetuation of polygamy among Mormon fundamentalists that emerged in the late nineteenth …

Read more

SW10015: The Liahona Children’s Foundation: Working to Alleviate Malnutrition in LDS Children in Developing Countries

Worldwide, an estimated 70,000 LDS children are chronically malnourished. Working in cooperation with local stake presidencies in developing countries, the Liahona Children’s Foundation is attempting to alleviate malnutrition and illiteracy among LDS children. Malnourished children suffer life-long cognitive and physical impairment and are much more likely to be dependent on both their government and the …

Read more

SW10016: All Hell is Boiling Over: The Utah War’s California History

This presentation examines neglected aspects of the Utah War, when in early 1858, the Buchanan administration sought to reinforce Col. Albert Sidney Johnston’s Utah expedition–then snowbound at Fort Bridger–with a massive infusion of troops into Utah from the Pacific Coast, especially California. The paper tells the story of this plan’s origins, its sometimes bizarre development, …

Read more

SW10017: The Return of the Antis: A Comparative Study of the Rhetoric of Early Christian and Mormon Polemicists

Since the days of antiquity, people have consulted Aristotle’s work, Rhetoric, and used its theories to overcome political enemies. Rhetorical scrutiny was directed particularly at new religious movements that paved new paths to Rod. Separated by nearly two millennia, early Christianity and Mormonism both struggled against a tide of polemicists’ criticisms. This presentation compares the …

Read more

SW10018: Personal Iconography: Expressions of One Artist’s

A given supposition of logic and philosophy states that the intangible inner dialogue an individual engages in must needs find tangible expression—song, story, art, cooking, acts of service, play acting—in the material world if the inner dialogue is to advance the individual’s understanding of self in day-to-day living. Often people accomplish this by adopting or …

Read more

SW10003:

Some women attempting to escape polygamy have complained that LDS bishops they consulted advised them to return to their husbands because “We are all going to have to live polygamy someday.” LDS theology distinguishes between “higher” laws—what god really wants us to do—and “lower” laws we settle for because the higher law cannot be practiced …

Read more