This panel presents three case studies documenting and analyzing the expressions of Utah Mormonism as they developed in the twentieth century. Through these case studies, the presenters will demonstrate the diverse schismatic response to well-documented theological and cultural change within the LDS Church. Unlike Mormon Fundamentalism, (e.g. the FLDS Church, the Apostolic United Brethren), these two movements have rarely been studied by modern academics. The Order of Aaron, the subject of the first paper, has not received scholarly attention since Hans Baer’s Recreating Utopia in the Desert in 1968. The subject of papers two and three, the Church of the Firstborn, has never been the focus of an academic study. This panel takes the audience through the rise, development, and disintegration of these religious communities, and each speaker will address why one expression of the Restoration may survive and thrive while others last only a few years.

RYAN T. ROOS, CHRISTOPHER BLYTHE, CHRISTINE BLYTHE