With his call as official LDS Church Historian in 1972, Leonard J. Arrington was given a mandate to professionalize its historical publications. Arrington’s team was prolific and its output impressive, but before long, they encountered opposition from a few members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and church bureaucrats. Signature Books’s long awaited, 2,600-page …
Speaker: Lavina Fielding Anderson
Resurgent Mormon Feminism Ordain Women The Mormon Gender Issues Survey And Contemporary Lds Women
In order to analyze recent developments in contemporary Mormon feminism, a number of Mormon feminist writers, scholars, and activists have collaborated in producing Voices for Equality: Ordain Women and Resurgent Mormon Feminism, published by Kofford Books. Contributing authors will speak about Kate Kelly’s excommunication; current Ordain Women strategic planning; historical and theological underpinnings of female …
J. GOLDEN KIMBALL: MISSIONARY FATHER
Almost weekly between 1926 and 1928, J. Golden Kimball of the First Council of the Seventy would sit down at the office typewriter and tap out a letter to his missionary son, Max, then serving in France. These letters have never been published and only occasionally quoted. in contrast to J. Golden’s fame as a …
Very Careless In His Utterances: Editing, Correcting, And Censoring Conference Addresses
At the Sunday morning session of the October 2010 General Conference, President Boyd K.Packer gave a talk titled “Cleansing the Inner Vessel.” a few sentences and several words were changed from the spoken talk in the published talk posted on the Church’s website, LDS.org. Almost instantly, these changes and their significance were analyzed in the …
SL10175: Eternal Perdition? Bureaucratic Limbo? The Theological Ramifications of Excommunication
The Church Handbook of Instructions explains in detail the mechanics of excommunication but says little about its theological import. Our panelists, several of whom have been excommunicated, will explore the theological and spiritual ramifications of this ultimate Church sanction. Why does excommunication not require a ritual? If blessings are “restored” to an excommunicated person who …
SL09212 Women in the LDS Church Handbook of Instructions
The Church Handbook of Instructions is supposedly off-limits to all members of the Church (especially Vol. 1, which is reserved for priesthood leaders), but women are less likely than men to be able to consult it. Still, it impacts their lives in numerous ways, especially in terms of policies and procedures about which they are …
SL09273 Panel: Community of Christ Principles of Church History: A Turning Point and a Good Example?
Unlike the Community of Christ, the LDS Church has no formally defined history principles, but it does have fairly clear positions enunciated by officials on various levels toward various historical events and attitudes. This panel discusses the origins and implementation of these nine principles in the Community of Christ with particular attention to the questions: …
Why We Stay
Why We Stay This perennially well-received session features the stories of those who have chosen to remain active, dedicated Latter-day Saints even in the face of many difficult challenges to traditional faith. How have these members wrestled with their faith and yet emerged more determined than ever to be a part of the Latter-day Saint …
Women In The Ministry
Women In The Ministry Panelists in this session will share their reflections on the ministry of women, offering a variety of their own personal life-experiences with regard to their opportunity (sometimes lack thereof) to minister to human needs. Each panelist will speak about her own journey with this issue, reflecting on it as it has …
TRUE TO THE FAITH, THE NEW MORMON DOCTRINE – & – A DECADE OF THE PROCLAMATION ON THE FAMILY
With the publication in July 2004 of True to the Faith: A Gospel Reference, the Church has taken another step toward a unified body of authoritative doctrine. This concise 190-page document, organized alphabetically from A (Aaronic Priesthood) to Z (Zion) thus joins the missionary “white book” of behavioral rules, the newest revision of For the …