This session will begin with Margaret Toscano’s slide lecture of images of goddesses and women represented in pre-historic statues, contemporary paintings, and sculptures. Taken primarily from Western art, they show how our reality is shaped by the images we make and how our limited discourse about the Female God has also limited our access to …
Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2012
MORMONS AND THE FBI
This session will include a screening of the BYU documentary Agents of Justice, detailing the lives of three LDS FBI agents who were killed in the line of duty: Samuel Cowley, Douglas Price, and Robert Porter. The remainder of the discussion will focus on famous (and infamous) Mormons who have worked at the FBI, performed …
THINKING ERRORS, MORMON STYLE
People often behave, think, and respond emotionally according to patterns dictated by deeply entrenched beliefs, assumptions, perceived obligations, fears, and distortions taken from their religious, cultural, and family teachings and role modeling. All cultures and families create this dynamic, which is not necessarily good or bad, but is still decidedly real. When the resulting behaviors …
AUTHOR MEETS CRITICS: IN HEAVEN AS IT IS ON EARTH: JOSEPH SMITH AND THE EARLY MORMON CONQUEST OF DEATH
This panel discussion brings together scholars and thinkers familiar with Samuel Morris Brown’s recent book, In Heaven as It Is on Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death. Please join the book’s author and a panel of careful readers in a vigorous exchange about this book and the overview of Mormonism it …
COMING OUT AS AN ALLY: THE IMPACT OF STRAIGHT MORMONS IN ADVANCING LGBT ISSUES IN THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD
From the launching of Mormon “It Gets Better” videos to the formation of Mormons for Marriage Facebook groups, from the organizing of “Circling the Wagons” conferences to the participation of straight Mormons in pride parades, 2012 will be remembered as the year when straight, progressive Latter-day Saints came out massively in support of LGBT Mormons. …
EVOLVING MEDIA PERCEPTIONS OF FOUR 2012 MORMON PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDERS: MITT ROMNEY, JON HUNTSMAN, ROCKY ANDERSON, AND ROSEANNE BARR
Part I: This paper will focus on the media’s evolving perceptions relative to Mitt Romney’s Mormonism, specifically as it involved the so-called “Mormon Question.” How have perceptions changed and shifted since the former Massachusetts governor announced his candidacy in early 2011 and as we approach the general election in which Romney seeks the nation’s highest …
THE LDS DEMS CAUCUS, ITS HISTORY AND WHERE IT’S GOING NEXT
On 15 October 2011, the Utah Democratic Party’s Central Committee unanimously voted to create the LDS Dems Caucus. In its first year, LDS Dems has quickly become the largest caucus of the Democratic Party. Panelists will discuss its history, an outreach plan to convince Utahns to vote for Democrats, methods to convey liberal concepts to …
AUTHOR MEETS CRITICS: THE MORMON PEOPLE: THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN FAITH
This panel discussion brings together readers, scholars, and thinkers familiar with Matthew Bowman’s recent book, The Mormon People: The Making of An American Faith. Please join the book’s author and a panel of careful readers in a vigorous exchange about this book and the overview of Mormonism it provides. Adam Jacobsen, Janet Rogers, Russell Arben …
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 challenges to traditional faith. How have these members wrestled with their faith and emerged more determined than ever to be a part of the Latter-day Saint community? Ronda Roberts Callister, John Dehlin, …
THE PRINCIPLE, THE PROPHET, AND PRISON
Part I: Of Joseph Smith’s 34 plural wives, 13 had legal husbands at the time they were sealed to him. Since Fawn Brodie’s 1945 No Man Knows My History, virtually every author who has written about Nauvoo plural marriages has concluded that the prophet practiced sexual polyandry (or at least may have) with some or …