A recent Pew Research Center poll reported that Americans tend to view members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints more negatively than they view Catholics, Jews, evangelicals, atheists, and Muslims. It seems odd that a religion born and raised in the United States should be so distrusted by Americans. While I was …
Tag: BYU
BYU in Playboy
BYU’s Wilkinson Center bowling alley comes in dead last according to the October Playboy’s ranking of “sex on campus” among 20 American universities. BYU’s sexual temperature was a frigid 4 degrees while the “frontier free-for-all” University of Texas (Austin) boiled at a libidinous 212. In fourteen categories the “haloed pioneer’s” alma mater was described as …
Wilkinson the Man
By Gary James Bergera “I never aspired to be a popular president. I did aspire to get things done, and the two were not always compatible.” Click here to download the audio file: Wilkinson the Man Read the original article here.
The Continuing Effects of the Priesthood Ban
By Mica McGriggs Mica McGriggs is a PhD candidate in counseling psychology at BYU. Her academic research is primarily in the area of multicultural sensitivity in psychology. I don’t remember the first time I learned about the priesthood ban, but I do have several vivid memories of my encounters with the issue. At my …
Does it Matter What We Are Called?
By Elouise Bell Scene: BYU. Time: A while back. A dozen English faculty are officed in cubicles off a central hallway. Sound carries with great clarity. A student is ending his conference with a professor. “Thank you very much, Sister Highstreet.” After his footsteps die away, the professor calls passionately to anyone within the sound …
The BYU Meme-ery
Every college and university has its quirks and inside jokes. BYU, with its mix of super smart, Intenet-savvy students immersed in both campus and very visible LDS culture, is perhaps among the quirkiest/insideriest. It is no surprise, then, to find that one of the biggest campus hits (both in terms of phenomena and Facebook page …
Eugene England’s Calculated Risk: The Struggle for Academic Freedom and Religious Dialogue
By Charlotte Hansen In a recent lecture at the University of Utah, Krista Tippett, host of the NPR radio show, Speaking of Faith, argued that religion needs a place in the public university. During the twentieth century, most people practiced their religions privately, she said, not imagining that intelligent public religious discussion could occur without …
Braving the Borderlands: Strange Tales from the Borderlands
By D. Jeff Burton D. Jeff Burton is an author and a former member of the Sunstone Board of Directors. In this column, I share some unusual—and sometimes troubling—experiences and observations from four Borderlanders. I’ve changed the names of the first three. To respond, please send an email to jeff@eburton.com. I will forward your messages …
The Monitoring of BYU Faculty Tithing Payments: 1957–1963–Part II
Continued from Part I “A Matter of Free Will Giving” As BYU opened that September 1959, Wilkinson delivered his second “forthright statement” (his term) on tithing. “Promotions should not be granted those who did not believe in and adhere to the principles and teachings of the Gospel,” especially tithing, he announced at a special faculty …
The Monitoring of BYU Faculty Tithing Payments: 1957–1963–Part I
By Gary James Bergera Art by Jeanette Atwood Or, right-click here to download the audio file: The Monitoring of BYU Faculty Tithing Payments: 1957–1963 Gary James Bergera is the managing director of the Smith-Pettit Foundation. From 1985 to 2000, he was Director of Publishing at Signature Books; from 1992 to 1998, he …