On December 18, 2003, we lost Jay Bell, a Sunstone friend and independent researcher who spent the last years of life working for the preservation of gay Mormon history. Jay helped start a collection of gay Mormon materials at the archives of the University of Utah and created a GLBT Studies CD-ROM that he shared …
Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2004
‘BLESSED ARE YOU WHO ARE POOR’: RICH AND POOR IN THE GOSPEL AND IN POLITICS
When, as counselor in the First Presidency, Hugh B. Brown stated that he was a Democrat because Democrats were more sensitive to the poor, he put his finger on an aspect of the gospel that many Mormons separate from their view of religion. Yet many scriptures show that compassion for the poor is central to …
BANQUET. A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON MY WAY TO THE TEMPLE: A STORY ABOUT MORMONS AND JEWS, AND BECOMING BOTH, PART TWO: BECOMING JEW-ISH
During his many years as one of Mormonism’s and Utah’s best-loved poets, essayists, and columnists, Clifton Jolley was unfailingly interesting. Blessed with piercing intelligence, a wry sense of humor, and a radar always tuned to finding life’s wonderful ironies, Clifton has never been afraid to share what’s on his mind. Earlier today (session 351), Clifton …
‘LET US TRY WHAT LOVE WILL DO’: A QUAKER-MORMON MARRIAGE
Acclaimed author Heidi Hart considers the challenges of interfaith marriage and community bridge-building. Living on the threshold between two very different religious traditions, she finds herself continually negotiating those differences with extended family and friends as well as in her own marriage. She is coming to understand relationship not as socially prescribed convention but as …
IN PRAISE OF GOOD WOMEN: THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF MORMONISM’S ‘IDEAL’ WOMEN
The recent death and funeral of Marjorie Pay Hinckley occasioned many heartfelt tributes that praised not only the personal qualities for which she was valued, but also the qualities that Mormonism currently values, and subtly encourages, for all of its women. If David O. McKay and Emma Rae Riggs McKay were models of “eternal sweethearts” …
RELIGION AND NATASHA MCDONALD, BORN UNABLE TO SPEAK OR MOVE
Natasha, now 24, is severely disabled by cerebral palsy, unable to speak by voice, make intentional movements, or control many body functions. Quite early, she learned to answer yes and no to questions by lifting or lowering her head slightly. In grade school, by means of a computer with software operated by a few facial …
QUESTIONING BOOK OF MORMON WORDPRINT STUDIES
Based upon the theory that all authors are unique in the frequency of their use of certain words, studies of word frequencies in the Book of Mormon have been conducted to draw conclusions regarding its authorship. A number of questions have been raised. Was Solomon Spalding the author, or Sidney Rigdon, or Joseph Smith, or …
PROGRESSIVE ORTHODOXY: A NEW CHAPTER IN MORMON ASSIMILATION?
Recent years have seen the rise of a Mormon intellectual movement I call “progressive orthodoxy.” Exemplified most prominently by the limited geography model for the Book of Mormon, progressive orthodoxy seeks to affirm LDS faith claims in ways that are credible by scholarly standards. Progressive orthodox scholars thus seek to balance two opposing forces that …
A ‘GATHERING’ STORM: THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT’S WORLDWIDE WAR ON MORMON PROSELYTING AND EMIGRATION
The Supreme Court’s 1879 ruling on the constitutionality of anti-polygamy laws triggered an offensive in the campaign to crush Mormonism. Within days of the Court’s ruling, the Secretary of State notified U.S. ambassadors to seek the help of foreign governments to “check the organization of [this] criminal enterprise” by halting the work of missionaries and …
THE OTHER DNA PROBLEM: BLACK AFRICAN JEWS AND THE PRIESTHOOD
For thousands of years, African tribes in Mozambique and Zimbabwe have claimed Jewish heritage and priesthood lineage. Their religious practice has included monotheistic worship, circumcising male children, and dietary practices closely resembling those prescribed in the Old Testament, including eschewing the eating of pork. Although some scholars have dismissed the tribes’ ancestral claims, new DNA …