The purpose of this presentation is to provide a cogent, coherent, and internally consistent interpretation of the Mormon temple endowment ceremony as a Christian sacrament while avoiding its rejection either as a mere fiction plagiarized from Royal Arch Masonry or as a random cluster of symbols open to private interpretation by free-association. The presentation focuses …
Speaker: Paul Toscano
Leadershift: The Slurge from Love to Power
Leadershift is the final essay in my “Shift Happens” series. In part 1, I revisit the theme of my 1989 Sunstone speech “A Plea to the Leadership of the Church: Choose Love Not Power” and examine why church and state leaders tend to shift steadily from compassion to control, from ethics to self-preservation, from love …
Deep Shift Reassessing The Restoration
This session presents an overview of the LDS Church’s 186-year mythical and historical narrative arc, from its promising 19th-century origins to its defaulting 21st-century decomposition. Where will the Church head from here? Paul Toscano
HOLY SHIFT!
This presentation concerns the LDS Church Public Relations Department’s attempt to shift the blame for the Church’s past racism onto the Lord. The presenter critiques Elder Todd Christofferson’s recent attempt to shift onto Church members the responsibility of distinguishing Church leaders’ opinions from binding doctrine; Toscano claims that he was excommunicated almost 19 years ago …
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 …
SL10312: The Descent of Dissent: or On the Origin of Speciousness
”In the Olden Days before Blogs: A Message to Maggie.” This paper will explore some of the developments in dissent over the past two decades, including what constituted dissent then and now. Is dissent praying privately to Mother in Heaven? Is it not putting up a lawn sign supporting Prop 8? Is it splitting your …
SL10352: The Epistle of Paul: Homosexual Spirituality and the Redemption of Pleasure
Christians often use a single passage from Paul’s epistle to the Romans to scripturally justify their condemnation of same-sex orientation, attraction, and marriage. I critique a recent speech by Elder Bruce Hafen to Evergreen International, an organization that allegedly reclaims Church members from their same-sex orientation, and argue that Paul’s epistle can be read to …
SL10375: No More Fellow Citizens but Still Strangers: Twenty Years of “Strangers in Paradox”: Explorations in Mormon Theology
Twenty years ago, Margaret and Paul Toscano published Strangers in Paradox: Explorations in Mormon Theology. Fascinated by the richness of Mormon texts and ritual, they had been working out a complex theology for twenty years and were eager to share their insights. The book immediately became a feminist sensation and an official scandal, resulting—at least …
SL09101 Devotional: The Sanctity of Doubt [Partial]
Toscano will read a selection from his book The Sacrament of Doubt which explores the relationship of faith and doubt as necessary elements of genuine spirituality. Paul Toscano
Whether There Be One God or Many: A Unified Interpretation of Joseph Smith’s God Concepts
Whether There Be One God or Many: A Unified Interpretation of Joseph Smith’s God Concepts During his lifetime, Joseph Smith asserted contradictory godhead concepts. Conservative scholars downplay these contradictions by asserting that the Mormon god-concept has never changed while others argue that Joseph abandoned his earlier orthodox Trinitarianism in favor of a heterodox polytheism. Neither …