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In 1948, Annalee Skarin had just published a book she said was written by the power of God. She was very soon excommunicated from the LDS Church. But then a few days later, eyewitnesses said she was translated. She wrote eight more books after that, becoming nationally famous. In this episode, Samuel W. Taylor and Skarin’s daughter Hope A. Hilton give two very different perspectives on Skarin’s life and legacy.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SLP-192.mp3The post E192: Annalee Skarin: Excommunicated then Translated—Yes, Like Enoch. appeared first on Sunstone.

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Join Lindsay and Bryan as they dive into the explosive history of the Utah War for part two of our Utah War series. We explore the complex interplay of guerrilla tactics, federal overreach, and theocratic resistance that defined this strange conflict. From Brigham Young’s bold proclamations to Porter Rockwell’s psychological warfare, the duo unpacks how this “war” without battles shaped Mormon identity and federal authority in the American West. Get ready for fascinating insights, historical tangents, and the unexpected connections that make this story unforgettable.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SHP_141.mp3SHOWNOTES:

• Deseret News archivesThe Nauvoo Legion and the Prevention of the Utah War
  By BRANDON J. METCALF
• Bigler, David L. Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847-1896
• Furniss, Norman F. The Mormon Conflict, 1850-1859
• MacKinnon, William P. At Sword’s Point: A Documentary History of the Utah War
• Poll, Richard D. and William P. MacKinnon. “Causes of the Utah War Reconsidered,” Journal of Mormon History
• Schindler, Harold. Orrin Porter Rockwell: Man of God, Son of Thunder
• Bagley, Will. Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows
• “The Aiken Party Executions and The Utah War, 1857-1858” by David L. Bigler
• “Lonely Bones: Leadership and Utah War Violence” by William P. MacKinnon
• “Fort Limhi: The Mormon Adventure in Oregon Territory, 1855-1858” by David L. Bigler
• “Russian Writers Look at Mormon Manners, 1857-72” by Leland A. Fetzer
• “The Utah War: The Hold Mormons Had on Utah Is Broken, 1857–1858” by Harold Schindler
• House Executive Document 71, 35th Congress
• Annual Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1857

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Julie M. SmithWhen, at the Lord’s command, Ezekiel ate a scroll, he proclaimed that it was as sweet as honey (see Ezekiel 3:3). This image of Ezekiel incorporating the Lord’s word into his very being—internalizing and digesting it so that he can convey the message to the people—suggests that the word of the Lord can be delightful and satisfying.

But this isn’t the kind of scripture study most people experience; the scroll tastes like cafeteria food a few days past its prime—bland and a bit stale. Though there are many ways to spice up the scroll, one of my favorite strategies is to focus on the differing perspectives the scriptures present.

Many readers do not even realize that there are different perspectives. Being taught a quiescent approach to sacred text, we tend to glide along agreeably without asking ourselves how the text before us might differ from other portions of the canon. For example, the chronologies of Jesus’ last days as presented in the Gospels of Mark and John are incompatible: in Mark, the Passover lamb is killed, Jesus celebrates Passover with his disciples, and then he is crucified on the next day (see Mark 14:12 and 15:1). In John’s Gospel, the Passover lamb is killed at precisely the same moment Jesus is crucified (see John 19:14).

If readers do notice a clear disagreement, their first tendency is to try to find a way to solve the mismatch: hence the numerous (and often byzantine) theories that attempt to reconcile the chronologies. Methodologically, they all rely on the same assumption: that the entire canon of scripture should speak with one consistent voice.

In my experience, this is an incorrect assumption. The blemishes in the text are not wrinkles to be ironed out as quickly as possible but rather textures that enhance the reading experience. The conflict between Mark and John could be interpreted to mean that the authors are more concerned with theology than chronology—each using the order of events to teach important truths about the death of Jesus. Mark’s priority is to show Jesus as re-imagining the symbolism of the Passover, applying it to his own life and death, while John wants to equate Jesus’ death with the death of the Passover lamb. Both of these messages are important and true. To ignore them because our gaze is focused on an irreconcilable historical problem would be to miss a major theological opportunity.

If we attempt to solve the discrepancy, we miss at least one of the symbolic messages about the meaning of Jesus’ death—if not both. If we ignore the discrepancy, we end up privileging one story over the other and, in a sense, silencing one of the gospel writers. Neither of these options is productive. It’s better to acknowledge the disjuncture and explore it. The recognition that the gospels present more than one view of the meaning of Jesus’ death implies that its meaning is multifaceted and well worth our close, creative attention. We should treat the differences as—to borrow an analogy from the tech world—features, not bugs.

But let’s push the analogy one step further. What if the presence of conflicting material within scripture is intentional? What if, instead of being the unavoidable result of flawed and fallen humanity, the inclusion of different perspectives is deliberate? What if God’s design for scripture is that it reflect a multiplicity of voices? What if inspiration is born in divergence? As biblical scholar Peter Enns writes:

Judaism seems to have a good handle on [something that] . . . many Christians do not: debating each other, and debating God, is what God wants. We can see the same sort of attitude in the rich tradition of Jewish medieval commentaries on the Bible. The sages of Judaism debate the meaning of biblical passages, often arriving at contradictory explanations—and all of it is recorded and preserved as part of the sacred tradition, without any need to resolve the problem and arrive at a final answer. Even in their debates, though, we see their affirmations: God exists; he has given us his law; it is important that we wrestle with it and make sure we honor God in how we keep his law—even if we disagree. But killing the possibility of debate is what kills the faith. The debate keeps the conversation at the center of the community. Ending the debate, getting to the right answer, is not the prime directive in the spiritual life. You can tussle with each other and with God (and win!), and it’s all good. The back-and-forth with the Bible is where God is found. Enter the dialogue and you find God waiting for you, laughing with delight, ready to be a part of that back-and-forth.1

Matthew Richard Schlimm cleverly exemplified this approach—delighting in differences instead of downplaying them—in This Strange and Sacred Scripture: Wrestling with the Old Testament and Its Oddities. The book is an attempt to help modern readers appreciate the Old Testament—including the parts that rub our modern sensibilities the wrong way, such as when God orders genocide (1 Samuel 15:2–3) and condones slavery (Exodus 21:1–11). One very brief portion of the book contains a dialogue between Ruth and Ezra. This dialogue is completely fictional—Ruth and Ezra were not even alive at the same time—but it hews closely to what is known of them from the biblical texts: Ezra insisted that Israelite men divorce their foreign wives (see Ezra 9:10), and Ruth, of course, was a foreign wife (see Ruth 4). Given this profound disagreement on such a fundamental matter, Ruth and Ezra would certainly have had plenty to talk about. In Schlimm’s dialogue, Ezra and Ruth present arguments in favor of their respective positions regarding what we would today call interfaith marriages. They both advocate for their positions with clarity and charity. Refreshingly, no one is declared the winner—the focus is on this wrestle with the complexities of marriage outside the covenant. And in Schlimm’s dialogue, these complexities are not hidden beneath a veneer of sprawling academic prose but rather presented in a reader-friendly fashion.

Though the dialogue was a rather unusual form of biblical interpretation (and I normally respond rather curmudgeonly to scriptural interpretation that is creative or speculative) I was completely captivated. Schlimm really did stay tethered to the scriptural record; the artifice of placing Ruth and Ezra in dialogue was not an attempt to re-write the story so that it would be more palatable to current sensibilities or in order to solve some supposed problem or fill a gap in the text, but a device to articulate a tension that already exists between the stories of Ruth and Ezra.

I remember thinking that I wished I could read an entire book of such dialogues. Then it dawned on me that I know a lot of really clever people and that, if I asked nicely, they might contribute to such a book. So I asked, and they responded. And I couldn’t be happier with the results. Kofford Books released As Iron Sharpens Iron: Listening to the Various Voices of Scripture in the summer of 2016.

What the various writers have accomplished in this unorthodox format is compelling. For example, Mark T. Decker presents a dialogue featuring Jacob (from the Book of Mormon) and Joseph Smith talking about polygamy. Though the conflict between them is obvious, the real depth of the piece comes forth when Mark shows that this is not a conversation about polygamy per se but rather an exploration of rules and how exceptions should be made. Thus the topic is more relevant than one might initially presume. In another dialogue, Miranda Wilcox brings Hannah and Sariah together to converse about the proper role of complaining in the life of a righteous person. Their disagreement is as muted as it is profound, and as immediately relevant as it is philosophically compelling.

Michael Austin brings Job and Abraham into conversation. Both of these men were tested and found faithful, but they show rather different attitudes toward sacrifice. “Abraham obeys unquestioningly, and Job complains vigorously,” Austin points out. It’s fascinating to watch as Austin’s Job presses Abraham on the difference between the two men’s willingness to acquiesce to God’s tests. Nevertheless, as Austin notes, “God’s responses to Job and Abraham are nearly identical. . . . both passed with flying colors . . . . That God ultimately commended both approaches shows us that the Divine Mind is perhaps more open, and more willing to change, than three millennia of believers have understood.”

For me, the most important aspect of this collection is two-fold. First, it balances inspiration with imperfection in scripture. There is no reason to think that scripture writers, even when acting under inspiration, were able to burst the limits of language. Rather, we have evidence that they were all too aware of these restrictions and bemoaned them: the very title page of the Book of Mormon warns the audience that there may be faults therein. I resonate with Joseph Smith’s recognition that all human writing is flawed in some way (“the little narrow prison almost as it were totel [sic] darkness of paper pen and ink and a crooked broken scattered and imperfect language”), but this does not mean that the product is without value. These dialogues display a strong commitment to the inspiration of scripture, while exploring the scriptural authors’ diverging opinions. This is a model for those who struggle with how to value scripture once its imperfections are acknowledged.

Second, each dialogue models civil, respectful discourse. It goes without saying that in the current political climate, polite and productive conversation between those who disagree is something of a lost art. And in the LDS community, which makes such strong truth claims, the ability to engage different opinions without contention is a skill for which we don’t see many models. These dialogues provide a template for what courteous and productive disagreement looks like. I hope that these dialogues counter the current trend to hunker down with the like-minded, instead showing what can be gained by respectfully and openly engaging those we disagree with. As Proverbs 27:17 (which the title of the book was drawn from) says, just as iron can sharpen iron, engaging a friend can sharpen one’s own thoughts and beliefs.

This approach of exploring conflict instead of smoothing it over is unusual in the Mormon tradition and may be discomfiting to some readers. But there are significant benefits to focusing on contrasting opinions within scripture and Church history. First, it can enliven and invigorate one’s scripture study; there is something inherently intriguing about wrestling with the contours of a conflict. Second, knowing that multivocality has always been part of our faith tradition can prepare Latter-day Saints to encounter difficult Church policies or practices more constructively. Rather than insisting that there has always been a uniformity of opinion on a given subject, we can explore the various perspectives and voices surrounding an issue, finding new insights and subtleties that can prepare future paths.

The post As Honey for Sweetness: Wrestling with the Various Voices of Scripture appeared first on Sunstone.

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By Robert A. ReesOn 3 April 2016, my wife Maya and I celebrated Easter at Trinity Episcopal Church in Santa Barbara, California. It was a lovely, moving choral Eucharist service, beginning with a processional hymn familiar to Latter-day Saints, “From All Who Dwell Below the Skies.” Next was the usual Episcopal Eucharistic celebration: the “Collect of the Day” (a liturgical prayer), readings from the Psalms and the Gospels, the sermon, and the Affirmation of Faith. Then we engaged in the Prayers of the People and the Peace. I am always touched by this part of the service, not only because the members of the congregation greet one another by shaking hands and saying, “The peace of Christ” or “Peace be with you,” but because this expression of bonding with other believers prepares one to make a personal bond with the Prince of Peace through the emblems of the sacrament.1

At this point in the service—before the administration of Communion—the congregants were invited either to stay in the chapel for a continuing Easter service or to join another minister and walk the labyrinth in the church courtyard. Maya and I joined those walking the labyrinth. We were led there by Rev. Mark Asman, who was retiring from his ministry at Trinity the following week. Rev. Asman oriented us to what he called “the Mystery of the labyrinth” and invited us to enter and “walk in love as Christ walks with us.”

Labyrinths are either unicursal (single path) or multicursal (multiple paths). The one we were walking was multicursal, providing us the opportunity to encounter other Christians walking in a counter direction as we wound our way to the center of the labyrinth and out the other side. Meditating, I concentrated on the faces of the disciples I passed. They had a variety of expressions and demeanors, from quietude to joy to sorrow. Some fellow pilgrims made eye contact and some did not. Some—undoubtedly members of the congregation who had walked the labyrinth often—seemed wrapped in a deep meditative state. One woman, a tall brunette, seemed completely lost in reverie. The face of an older woman, who seemed almost to glide along the path, was the epitome of peacefulness. A middle-aged man, wending his way behind a woman I took to be his wife, walked as if carrying a dolorous burden. An Asian man, Korean I guessed, had a beatific smile on his face each time I encountered him. A teenage girl with blonde, short-cropped hair seemed not walking so much as distractedly shuffling.

All of us are to some extent lost in labyrinths—the labyrinth of the world with all of its unpredictable, at times even insane, twists and turns; the labyrinths of our extended families, sometimes inhabited by ancestors; the labyrinths of our churches and congregations, which at times cause us to get lost and at others to get found; and the labyrinths of our daily lives.

Greek mythology proposes ways of escaping labyrinths. We remember that, after slaying the Minotaur, in order to unwind his way back out of the labyrinth, Theseus followed a ball of golden thread given to him by Princess Ariadne, with whom he had fallen in love. Daedalus, who had built the labyrinth for King Minos of Crete but was later imprisoned in it, himself devised to escape the labyrinth with his son Icarus by fashioning wings out of feathers and dogwood branches, fastening them to their bodies with wax. But, as the story goes, Icarus flew too high and the sun melted the wax, sending him plummeting to his death. The first story emphasizes the power of love and the second the danger of pride.

In Christian iconography, the dogwood tree is a symbol of the crucifixion and resurrection. As Elaine Jordan explains,

At the time of Our Lord’s Crucifixion, the dogwood used to have the size of the oak and other forest trees. Because the wood was so firm and strong—and there were few trees in the Middle East that were very large—it was chosen to be the wood for the crosses used in crucifixions of criminals. Thus, the wood of the cross that would bear Our Lord and Savior was made from the dogwood tree. To be used thus for such a cruel purpose, however, greatly distressed the tree. Sensing this, the crucified Christ said to it: “Because of your compassion and pity for My suffering, never again shall the dogwood tree grow large enough to be used as a cross. Henceforth, you shall be slender and bent and twisted and your blossoms shall be in the form of a cross. On the outer edge of each petal there will be nail prints, and the center of the flower will resemble the cruel crown of thorns placed on My head, with bright red clusters once again recalling the blood I shed. Thus, all who see this will remember Me.”2

Sometimes—like Icarus—we, too, try to rise out of the labyrinth of mortality on our own. Easter reminds us that ultimately we rise with and through Christ. But how do we find him?

At a certain point in the labyrinth, I found myself looking intentionally at the faces of those I encountered as if they were Christ’s, seeing each face as his—or rather, seeing him in each face. Gerard Manley Hopkins writes that “Christ plays in ten thousand paces / Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his / To the Father through the features of men’s [and women’s] faces.”3 That’s how I saw him that day as I wended my way in to and out of the labyrinth. In doing so, I felt my heart expand—with love for these strangers and love for him whose glorious rising we were celebrating that day. Encountering Christ embodied in others on Easter Sunday, I thought of the following poem by Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022):

We awaken in Christ’s body

as Christ awakens our bodies,

and my poor hand is Christ, He enters

my foot, and is infinitely me.

I move my hand, and wonderfully

my hand becomes Christ, becomes all of Him

(for God is indivisibly

whole, seamless in His Godhood).

I move my foot, and at once

He appears like a flash of lightning.

Do my words seem blasphemous? — Then

open your heart to Him

and let yourself receive the one

who is opening to you so deeply.

For if we genuinely love Him,

we wake up inside Christ’s body

where all our body, all over,

every most hidden part of it,

is realized in joy as Him,

and He makes us, utterly, real,

and everything that is hurt, everything

that seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful,

maimed, ugly, irreparably

damaged, is in Him transformed

and recognized as whole, as lovely,

and radiant in His light

he awakens as the Beloved

in every last part of our body.4

After walking the labyrinth at Trinity that Easter morning, we all returned to the chapel to join the others in preparing for Communion, which followed the Lord’s Prayer.

Taking the wafer in my hands, dipping it in the Communion wine, and putting it in my mouth, I thought of the faces I had seen in the labyrinth and I thought of the Lord in Gethsemane and on Calvary. During that last, fateful week, he courageously entered the labyrinth of Jerusalem (with all of its religious upheaval and political intrigue and turmoil). In the Garden and on the Cross, he slew the Minotaur of sin and death. And on Easter Sunday, he ascended triumphantly to the heavens on wings of glory.

NOTES

1. While some Latter-day Saints are uncomfortable taking the sacrament in other traditions, I never have been, because these symbols—no matter who uses them out of devotion to the Savior—are as meaningful as we choose to make them. Any sentiment about their being administered by a “false priesthood” would, I am confident, be highly offensive to the Lord.

2. “The Legend of the Dogwood,” Tradition in Action, http://www.traditioninaction.org/religious/h034rpLegendDogwood.htm (accessed 28 January 2025).

3. Gerard Manley Hopkins, “As Kingfishers Catch Fire,” Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/44389 (accessed 28 January 2025).

4. Symeon the New Theologian, “We Awaken in Christ’s Body,” The Enlightened Heart, edited by Stephen Mitchell (New York: HarperPerennial, 1993), 38.

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by Larry MenloveElder Bicknell and Elder Vanguard looked down at the hard-pack road.

The old woman’s legs—thin, white, and spider-veined—stuck out from under her pale green housedress, which had scrunched up high around her thighs owing to the throes and contortions she had undergone.

Standing over their bicycles, hands gripping the tape of their handlebars, the young men—these elders—were convinced that her falling into the short scrub-grass in the road was simply part of a casting out against them—a holy roll on the good earth, in the dust, amongst the crawly things there. And they were patiently waiting for the glossolalia to begin.

But the old woman had not uttered a single unknown word throughout all her undulating, tearing at the grass, and dust eating, though she had said the following into the earth: “You; pipe; dirty (or kitty) boy; Mormons; fishers; river; great; terrible; hearts; fathers and mothers; brother Jeb; dunking,” and a muttering that sounded to the elders like, “sprechen sie Deutsch?”

Elder Bicknell—or “Bick” as Elder Vanguard liked to call him—turned his ear down to hear what might come next. Elder Vanguard—or “Van” as Bick liked to call him—did the same. And so both elders leaned over, their ties hanging above their bicycles’ skinny tires, staring at each other in anticipation.

Bick—the older of the two, at age twenty-years, six months, and three days—had seen this kind of thing before. Some of the folks around here didn’t just disbelieve the elder’s teachings, they believed that they were disciples of the Devil himself, and in the throes of their fear, would roll on the ground, howling in incomprehensible language, and ejecting a certain amount of saliva and cursing.

Bick spoke to the old woman. “Ma’am?”

Then, out of politeness, he waited for a reply. Which didn’t come.

“Ma’am, are you feeling OK?”

The old woman laid ramrod-flat, arms at her sides, legs slightly parted, sandal askew on one foot, standing between her two biggest toes, the other sandal off entire.

Bick threw a leg over the seat of his bike and lay it down carefully in the road. The bungee held his quad, tracting pamphlets, and extra Book of Mormons firmly to the rack. He took two steps toward the old lady then stopped and looked at Van. Van remained straddled over his bike: his nametag, cheap cycling helmet, and big white front teeth all crooked.

“Van?”

Van closed his mouth and looked up from the lady’s exposed legs and the bright pink, elastic-banded fringe at the bottom of her underwear.

“Van?”

“Huh?”

Bick raised his eyebrows. “Companions? Do everything together. Yeah? Come on, Elder.”

Van got off his bicycle, set the kickstand, and joined Bick in front of the lady.

Bick dropped to one knee and put a hand on her shoulder. “Ma’am?”

She didn’t move.

Van joined Bick and also placed his hand on her thin shoulder. A slow, airy wheeze came from the old lady’s flat bottom like an exhaled breath.

They stood up and took a step back.

“What the hell?” said Bick.

“Bick?” Van turned to him, “You just swore.”

Bick righted his bike and started back up the little turn-down road. He pushed the bike with one foot on the pedal and then threw his other leg over the seat and began pedaling hard, scriptures and tracting materials swaying back and forth on the rack.

“Bick! Where you going?” shouted Van. “She just passed some gas, Bick.” He lifted his bike and followed his companion. “Bick! She tooted! That’s all!”

When they reached the paved road, Bick stopped on top of the straight yellow line and leaned over the handlebars with his head down. Van pedaled up and stopped beside him.

“Shouldn’t we give her a blessing or something?”

Bick raised his head and looked around. The hard-pack dirt road continued on across the pavement, crisscrossing the main road. Tupelo trees jutted up everywhere. A light, warm breeze ruffled the grass. Back the way they had come along the pavement he could see the bridge over the river. Three dead opossums lay in differing stages of decomposition on the white line of the east direction lane, green bottle-flies squabbling in a high pitch above them. A cloud covered the sun for a moment like a hand passing over the eyes.

Bick sighed. He had nine months to go on his mission before he had to go back to Provo and face his life. Van, on the other hand, had just started: two short months here in Alabama. Bick had heard him cry nearly every night they’d been companioned up. But that wasn’t unusual; he’d cried himself to sleep plenty of times early on—though Bick suspected his reasons were different than Van’s. His girlfriend, Lindsay, had moved to Toronto a month after Bick had left on his mission and given birth to a baby a few months later. Then she’d put it up for adoption. He didn’t even know if it was a boy or girl.

Bick looked up the road and then he turned and looked out the two sides of the hard-pack. “We go back,” he said.

A raven had perched in a kudzu-choked tupelo branch over the old woman, who hadn’t moved. It had a noodle-looking weed in its beak, its head turning side-to-side with a casual air fitting the afternoon.

“Shoo, you bird.” Van waved his arms at the raven. Then he looked at the old lady. “Bick, I think she’s dead.”

“Check her pulse.”

Van got down beside her, dirtying the knees of his navy-blue slacks. He put his fingers against her wrist. He looked up at Bick. “I don’t know how! I can’t feel anything, Bick.” Van rocked back on his heels. “I think she’s dead. You check her.”

Bick stooped down and looked at her. Her face was mashed down in the grass, mouth open, top denture protruding between her lips. “I think you’re right.” He stood up. “Let’s ride in and see if we can find a phone or something. She must live around here.”

“What about a blessing, Bick?” Van reached into his front slacks pocket and produced a tiny golden metal vial on a key chain.

“Van, she’s dead. No blessing’s going to bring her back.”

They left the lady in the road, pedaled around her, and headed down the lane past more tupelo trees and magnolias blooming pink and fragrant—the scent of the river overarching all. Above a slight rise, a roof came into view, and they pedaled toward a small house nestled down in a depression of land. A Buick from the Johnson administration sat in a weed-plagued driveway in front: tires flat, hood propped open with a tin trashcan. A light bulb shone in the afternoon sun over a small porch burdened with a rattling refrigerator on two-by-fours beside the screen door. Empty whiskey bottles stacked on top of one another lined the concrete wall all along the foundation. An electrical wire sagged low to the ground between the house and a bent, kudzu-draped pole.

The elders got off their bikes. Out of habit, Elder Vanguard took his quad-combination and an extra give-away Book of Mormon from the bike rack, and together they walked up the slat-wood path to the front door.

Bick tapped on the screen. In answer, the refrigerator shut off. They heard a television inside the house—a game show host shouting the odds of winning, of changing someone’s life forever.

Bick knocked at the screen again. “Hello! Is there anyone home?” he shouted. “A lady’s fallen up the road here. We need some help. Anyone!”

Elder Bicknell tapped at the screen door again, and then opened it on its screeching spring.

“But, Bick?”

Bick stepped into the house. Van followed, thinking they would now have to knock on at least one—maybe three—more doors today. Never end on an odd number, his father always said. The screen shrieked and slammed behind Van. He yelped and dropped his books to the floor. As he stooped to pick them up, he knocked a cheap, round clock off the wall beside the door. He snatched it up and hung it crooked on its nail.

The kitchen smelled of yeast and something over-sweet, like rotting raisins. A steaming mug of coffee sat on the table next to a half-eaten powdered donut, both surrounded by a nest of old celebrity magazines.

The linoleum floor felt mushy under their feet. It reminded Van of the old floor he had sneaked across in the abandoned house back in Malad City, Idaho. He had seen his big sister, Tami, going in there with her boyfriend, and—being fifteen—desperately wanted to know if they were fornicating. Feeling oddly jealous, he had stood on that mushy floor and peeked through a crack in a backroom door to see his sister and her boyfriend kneeling on the floor, hand in hand, heads bowed. Praying.

The elders entered a hallway where the linoleum gave way to thick yellow carpet, and they walked toward the sound of the television. A commercial described the benefits of a particular insurance plan, reminding Bick of what he was offering: the restored gospel plan, eternal life, the keys to salvation, a forever family—though Bick’s family beginnings were scattered between here, Provo, Toronto, and wherever his son or daughter was now.

“Anyone home?” Bick called.

As he crept behind Bick, Van admired his companion’s will and courage. It was true that sometimes Bick cut corners or didn’t follow protocol: he skipped prayers, made phone calls too often, gazed overlong at attractive women, spent inordinate amounts of time in the shower, and used sullied language. Van himself had sworn once when he was nine. He could never quite recall the context of his foray into the dark languages, but he had used the words damn, hell, and shit all in one sentence at the dinner table. His father sent him to his room with a kick to his backside, and the next evening he had an interview with the bishop. The bishop, patient and kind, sent Van on his way with the admonition to speak only the words his mother used. He had done his best since then, but sometimes worried he might also be using the diction and speaking pace of a middle-aged woman.

Bick and Van stepped together into the doorway where the sound and flicker of the television spilled into the hall.

A young woman about their age stood on a tea-crate in the middle of the room. She was draped in a long, boney-white linen gown that fell straight down over her small breasts and slender hips. Her golden hair was piled on top of her head like pastry, and her arms hung at her side. The afternoon sun backlit her figure through an open window. She stared at them with blue eyes.

Bick and Van stared back.

“Have you come for me?”

Van made a sound that reverberated from the back of his throat like a purr.

“Is it time?”

Bick stirred. “There’s this lady, um, in the road up a ways, she, um . . .”

“Is it grandmother?”

“Yeah. I mean, I guess. She’s fallen and I, maybe she needs help.”

“Grandmother has her spells.”

The young woman jumped off the crate and punched a button on the television. There was silence in the room except for the gentle creak of floorboards under her bare feet as she stepped back onto the crate. She turned and faced the elders again, her arms at her sides.

“They should be along soon.”

Van stepped closer to the crate. He looked at her face, her nose and lips, the line of her neck, the strings tied in a bow over her bosom that held the slight gown together over her shoulders.

Bick said, “Would you like to hear more about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ?”

She cocked her head and looked at Van. “Are you with them? Are they here?” She looked past the elders. “Listen.”

They listened.

A distant melodic din hovered in the birdsong: a humming that oscillated with high pitches that might yet form into words. Maybe a song. Or a hymn.

The young woman’s chest rose, and she lifted her chin and arms toward the cracked, peeling ceiling. Her eyelids dropped and her mouth opened, her teeth sharp and small. She began to sway.

Van’s eye fell to the flesh below the gauzy gown she wore: her knees and calves bare, a fine sprig of hair along her shins. The light behind her cast a revelation through the gown.

The singing outside the house rose in pitch: “Oh saints, come forth from Bethlehem and see our Savior’s home . . .”

“What is this?” Van said.

Bick looked at him. Van did not turn his gaze from the girl. Bick looked back. She swayed and jerked her hips in odd, sensually stilted gyrations that were impossible for either of them to ignore.

The singing intensified outside the windows, and the young woman jumped off the crate. She swept between the elders, gown grazing both of them, and blindly grabbed Van’s hand. He squealed, dropped his quad-combo, and lurched after her. She led him into the hallway, through the kitchen, out past the refrigerator on the porch, and into the yard.

Bick followed.

In the tupelo-shadowed sunlight, a procession of men, women, and children moved along the dirt lane. There were fifty people or more, and they sang as they walked, everyone holding someone else’s hand. Bick stopped on the porch as Van and the girl fell in rank and blended in with the others. Most of the women and girls wore white dresses, and most were barefoot. The men wore slacks and white shirts, some with ties. Soon the only way for Bick to pick Van out was by his helmet—still on, still crooked—moving and bobbing among the other heads in the slight dust kicked up as they rounded the corner and disappeared into the brush.

Bick moved across the grass to the edge of the dirt lane then stepped into the smooth rut and looked after the crowd. A straggler took his hand up and tugged him along. He looked and saw that it was the old lady they had left for dead. She smiled up at him, her denture plate back in place, road dirt turning to mud on the incisors.

“Let’s go,” she said. “His glory is in the doin’. He brought you here this day, he did.” She winked, turned her head, and pulled Bick along.

Ahead of them, a tiny girl with unruly hair and a gaunt face made up of chin, a long nose, and sharp cheekbones—like a cross in her face—stared at Bick through round, thick glasses over a woman’s shoulder. Her eyes were magnified and bright, all-seeing. She suddenly opened in a wide, gap-toothed smile and pointed a little finger at him. Over the singing, he heard, “Da da.”

“You shouldn’t be dating someone like that,” Bick’s mom had warned, shaking her head as she stirred the cake mix for his eighteenth birthday. But he had anyway—for a year before he left on his mission.

No one in Bick’s circle had known Lindsay was pregnant. Certainly not his mother or father or bishop. They couldn’t know. Some of their letters asked after her. How was she doing at college in Canada? Had she sent him any letters? No. But that was OK. She wasn’t Mormon. She had let him go, and he knew that was the right way for things to be.

But he missed her. And he regretted that he was only partially a father. He sometimes wondered what it might have been like to hold his child. All he knew was that some strangers were holding his baby. Maybe even right now, like he was holding this old woman’s hand as they walked behind the throng of singing.

He’d lost sight of Van’s helmet, but Bick felt confident he would catch up to him soon. The crowd moved along for another few hundred yards and Bick began to smell the cool, musty river water that flowed shallow and slow near the bank, and deeper and slower further in. The bushes had thickened, and the sunlight had been replaced by an almost tactile gloaming. The screech and tick of insects were a metronome for the hymns drifting into the bushes and out over the water.

As they exited the brush, Van saw that the people had gathered in a wide alluvial cut in the course of the river, worn over a millennium. They spread along the bank, queued in the dewy grass where a tall, middle-aged man finished the song alone in a rich baritone:

Oh brothers, oh brothers, let’s go down,

Let’s go down in the river where we will pray.

Our Father, oh our Father, won’t You hear us, hear us pray?

We’ve come to the river, this mighty river.

Take our sins, Father, oh Father, oh Father, take our sins away.

The old lady pulled on Van’s hand.

“Look yonder.” She pointed across the river. “There are fishers among us.”

A bald man with a sunburned scalp stooped in the water on the far shore while the water thrashed violently around him. He seemed engaged in a mighty wrestle with—Van squinted and suddenly drew in a breath—a huge fish. In fact, it seemed to be trying to eat him, having already worked its way up his arm. Either that, or the man’s arm was itself a huge catfish, its tail jerking to and fro.

“He takes the fish with his bare hands, so he does,” the old lady said. “Sometimes they go under the water and swim with them, so they do.”

The bald man scrambled onto the shore with the fish struggling on his arm. Another man took hold of it there and staggered with the fisherman up the bank. Once out of the water, the fish seemed to calm, allowing itself to be carried to whatever destiny awaited it, river water dripping from its tail and sagging fins.

The girl held Van’s hand still as they waited in line. Ahead, folks were walking into the water where it flowed slowly in the little backwash of the river’s turning. The girl looked up at him.

“I like you,” she said. She turned her chin down then looked back at him with her glacier blue eyes. “You remind me of a kindly sloth.”

Van closed his lips over his teeth and blushed.

“Don’t be shy. You have good blood. I can see. We’re here to be saved. Have you been saved?”

Van realized that he didn’t have any of his tracting materials, not even a complimentary Book of Mormon. All he had was his badge clipped to his white shirt.

“I’ve myself been baptized three times, and I’m grateful for each one. I don’t know what I would have become if I hadn’t been washed clean when I was. I suspect my soul would have grown more foul. Have you been baptized?”

Van nodded.

“That’s real good. I was twice by Brother Jeb, but this is my first time with Brother Smith. He’s a good preacher. Brother Jeb, turns out, was a purveyor of perfidy.” She focused on Van’s nametag. “What’s that mean, ‘Elder’? You don’t seem so old.”

Van cleared his throat of the crab apple that had seemed to appear there. “I’m a messenger of our Father in Heaven.” He looked around him as though he’d misplaced something. “Me and my companion, Elder Bicknell . . .”

“You going to get dunked with me today? That’s what grandmother calls it. She been dunked twenty times. Most of anyone I know.”

Van pulled his hand from the girl’s hold. She reached for him, grasping like she was trying to catch a bird.

“I’ve been put under the water twenty time.”

Bick watched the way the old lady’s yellowed fake front teeth trembled behind her thin lips like honeybees.

“Brother Jeb—that had done it most—was a purveyor of perfidy. It’s why we’re all here today. Did you see the way the Spirit run through me on the path there when you and your friend came along?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Twas the spirit of the Lord Jesus, mind you. His tongue I’ve learned from the new preacher, Brother Smith.”

The little girl in front of them had slipped from her mother’s arms and wandered near the high-cut riverbank. She was tossing leaves and rocks into the lazy churn of swirling eddies when she tottered over a bush stump and fell out of sight.

Bick let go of the old lady’s hand and ran to the bank. He could not see the girl, though an effervescent ripple bloomed from the edge of the high-cut where she had fallen. He leapt into the water and sank down through its cool depths. He opened his eyes in the murk and wondered how one could ever see in such gloom—to save a girl or catch a catfish. But then he saw a flash of gray silver and followed it down.

“Oh, brother Jones, having authority from our Lord himself, I do baptize thee in the name of God, his beloved Son, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

Brother Smith’s voice rang out with the timbre of a growling bear. It reached over the water and up the muddy embankment to the newly pure, standing wet and cold, sodden clothes clinging to their flesh. His prayer came to Van’s ears where he floundered in the slosh of sand and silt at the water’s edge.

The girl found his hand again and clutched it against the thin fabric of her gown, steadying, pulling him into the water. Down into the river.

The post Into the River appeared first on Sunstone.

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By Philip G. McLemoreSeveral years ago I developed a model of five stages of spiritual growth and maturation based on personal experiences that had unfolded during my meditation practice, and which I believe are consistent with images of the soul’s relationship with God presented in both the Bible and Mormon scripture. For the purpose of this article, I’ll discuss this model in a Mormon context. In developmental order, these stages are: Parent/Child, Steward, Disciple, Friend, and Beloved.

This model is based on the assumption that the spiritual maturation process is like the physical maturation process, in that there is an interweaving combination of things we can control and things we can’t control. Physically, I have a DNA blueprint and genetic tendencies. Many of these are going to express themselves regardless of what I do; others will be influenced by how I eat, exercise, and manage stress and the toxic load of my environment. Spiritually, I have a divine nature and potential that might or might not express itself based on things I can do, such as a cultivating a mature, responsible, moral lifestyle, and things I can’t control, such as the flow of sanctifying grace. These two poles are represented in both exoteric and esoteric (or external and internal) spiritual practices—and both are necessary.1 Unlike the physical maturation process, which often malfunctions and ultimately leads to dissolution, the spiritual maturation process leads to spiritual rebirth, a Christ-like nature, and oneness with and in God—as long as we let it flow and don’t try to get control of it. Jesus’ statement that we must “be born again” (or the alternate translation of “be born from above”) implies the mysterious union of choice and no choice, especially when he uses the image of the “wind” for being “born of the Spirit” in John 3:8. We can’t control the wind but we can be available to receive it as Jesus himself received “grace for grace” and continued “from grace to grace” (D&C 93:12, 13). The ability to “receive” is the main characteristic of upper Disciple to Beloved stages and the “inner” path and practices.

The first two stages, Parent/Child and Steward, relate not only to our personal relationship with God but also to our relationship with the Church and its leadership. The third stage, Disciple, is a transitional stage in which people tend to either cycle back into the first two stages in church leadership roles or move on to the Friend and Beloved stages. These latter two stages are strictly personal in nature and emerge as one spends more and more time in communion with God. None of these stages are static or mutually exclusive, and since most of us do not develop through an even and balanced process, it is to be expected that we would be moving back and forth among two or three of these stages at any point in our maturation process. However, one of these stages will generally characterize our current inner development, spiritual perspective, and relationship with God.

Each stage represents a move in the direction of increased personal responsibility, flexibility, freedom, wisdom, and­—ultimately—oneness with God. At each stage, we may receive insights and inspiration, but these will be perceived and interpreted according the maturity level of that developmental stage and will therefore be limited by that level of understanding. We typically have spiritual experiences that punctuate our lives in the first two stages, while in the final two stages life itself is experienced as spiritual.

The system of spiritual practice that flows out of my model would begin with the external practices of learning and obedience, progressive self-discipline, service, and outward prayer and ritual.2 This should evolve into a greater desire to become Christ-like, a cultivation of Christian virtues, mental calmness, and emotional maturity; and finally a shift to inner work characterized by an increasingly deeper prayer experience. Prayer should shift from talking to God to being receptive to spiritual perception and higher states of consciousness. Then inner transformation symbolized by the rituals begins to unfold. In my experience, without some form of contemplative prayer or spiritual meditation practice, we are not able to access the inner purification and awakening that results from conscious communion in the presence of God and from receiving the flow of grace that unveils the Friend and Beloved stages.3 The “natural man” identity and orientation—no matter how righteous we try to make it—is literally “lost” and “fallen” and incapable of redeeming itself. This is why the Apostle Paul calls for its crucifixion and death (Galatians 5:24) and for us to become a “new creature (or creation)” (2 Corinthians 5:17) and to walk in a “newness of life” (Romans 6:4). My biggest problem with LDS gospel teaching is its emphasis on trying to make the “natural man” good enough to qualify for the Celestial Kingdom rather than crucifying it or “putting it off” (Mosiah 3:19) and becoming a new creature through spiritual rebirth.

Parent/Child

The chief characteristics of the Parent/Child stage are deference to authority, learning, and obedience. While in this stage of spiritual development, we feel dependent upon the protection, nurture, instruction, and guidance of parents, mentors, church leaders, or even the Church itself. At best, these people and institutions are motivated by love as they try to protect us from unhealthy and unholy influences, providing what we need to mature into the next stage of development. This parental leadership usually consists of teaching and modeling the basic tenets of the faith. Even though I was baptized at age 19, I began at this stage—and really needed it.

Our time in this stage can become unhealthy, however, if we get stuck in a dependent relationship with these “parents,” whether biological, associative, ecclesiastical, or even divine, especially if our spiritual practices reflect thoughtless obedience, immaturity, and superstition—believing our “good” actions control God’s behavior. In Mormonism, we seem sentimentally attached to the Parent/Child image of our relationship with God as evidenced by the regular singing of the children’s hymn ”I Am A Child of God” in adult classes and meetings. Some adult members, capable of so much more, seem to have carried the mentality and identity of the Parent/Child image to a point of spiritual stagnation.4 To a group of church members who were using the practice of speaking in tongues in a childish and immature way, the Apostle Paul said, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things . . . do not be children in understanding; however; in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature” (1 Corinthians 13:11 and 14:20 NKJV).

Steward

The Steward stage develops as we master the inspired guidelines and carnal commandments: when we can live according to their dictates and wisdom without constantly being reminded. I use the term “carnal commandments” to refer to directives that teach us to master the needs, drives, and desires of our bodies. Once these commandments are mastered to a reasonable degree, we can be trusted to live and act in a responsible, mature, wholesome manner without direct oversight, and we can even be expected to contribute independently to the well-being of the family, church, or whatever organization we are serving. Our parents, mentors, and church authorities can give minimal direction and still expect productive results. Inspired and creative service is possible to the degree that those in the Steward stage are open to spiritual influence.

The Elder Son in the parable of the Prodigal Son was a good Steward in that he “kept all of the commandments” of the Father. However, he was insecure and restless because he did not really “know” the Father. Also, if we remain in the Steward stage too long, we can burn out and find our service boring and frustrating. Many “good” church members remain at this level for reasons discussed below. This stage can turn especially unhealthy if we become stuck in an external or legalistic perspective, where we tend to become judgmental and unforgiving.

Due to the Church’s need to assert and maintain organizational control—and also because of the inherent risks of the next stage—we find a tendency among Church leaders, consciously or subconsciously, to encourage the Parent/Child and Steward stages and allow for just one form of the Disciple stage (explained below). Those who inhabit the first two stages or the one acceptable type of Disciple stage are typically predictable and easily managed. Those in these stages assist in growing and stabilizing the organization and represent the “ideal way” to think, believe, and act in the Church. However, there comes a point when the principles and procedures that foster organizational success come into conflict with and begin to inhibit individual spiritual growth. I believe this inherent conflict accounts for much of the high levels of inactivity, general boredom, and restlessness of many LDS Church members.

Disciple

The Disciple stage unfolds in us as we begin to understand the principles that underlie the rules and commandments we follow. Soon we can use these underlying principles to respond to situations that rules and commandments don’t directly address. Disciples can face the “gray” areas of life with increasing wisdom. As our confidence grows, we gain a desire to not only serve the Master but to become like him. As our Disciple inspiration deepens, our love for the Master increases, as does our desire to more substantially serve others. Those in the Disciple stage are typically joyful, enthusiastic, creative, and insightful.

At this point, however, the relative safety and predictability of the first two stages end and several possible paths open. I’ll address four of them:

1. If the Disciple discovers the inner path and begins to practice contemplative disciplines, he or she will quickly open to a spiritually transformative flow of divine grace. This Disciple notices that his or her efforts to cultivate Christ-like virtues and to be mentally stable and emotionally mature—being able to “act and not to be acted upon” (2 Nephi 2:26)—are empowered. Bad habits and unhealthy thought and behavior patterns that seemed resistant to change for decades are now easily dissolving; in fact, the Christ-like qualities he or she has long sought after are spontaneously unfolding. This Disciple will move beyond a common understanding of Jesus to a discernment of his actual nature. Soon he or she will begin to directly experience the presence and nature of God as well as the divine nature of his or her own soul. “Knowing for themselves,” these Disciples develop spiritual confidence and independence and now teach as those “having authority and not as the scribes,” which means they are not dependent on outside sources, books, teachers, and leaders. At some point during this process, the Disciple’s primary loyalty naturally shifts from the Church to the Master himself, and he or she will mature into the Friend stage.

This shift occurs when the Disciple realizes that although church participation might be helpful or desirable, it is no longer necessary. This Disciple is not disloyal to the Church and will remain humble when faced with differences and difficulties in Church teaching or practice, however, he or she will appropriately confront spiritual nonsense and abuse and always choose the insight gained from direct experience with God over contrary opinions, teachings, or consequential requests from church leaders. If it becomes obvious to leaders and fellow ward members that this Disciple’s loyalty has shifted, they will look at the Disciple differently—often with perplexity or even suspicion. Now seen as unsafe and unpredictable, this type of disciple (in all major religious traditions) tends to be marginalized and excluded from leadership roles.

1. There is a definite risk involved in the Discipleship stage: the risk of self-deception. The Church has experienced many sad episodes of self-deceived Disciples who mistook imagination for spiritual discernment. Once “off the path,” these errant Disciples can cause confusion and chaos in the lives of their families and among church members. Some of these people can have mental or emotional problems; others can be very intelligent and talented, which gives them the power to influence many others. Some, through innate ability, can “skip” into glimpses of higher spiritual realizations, but without the balance of a mature, moral, responsible lifestyle (the outer work) and an egoless exploration of the world of Spirit (the inner work), they cannot become established in it. The chief characteristic of this destructive Disciple path is self-absorption, where one’s own thoughts and perceptions become master. These Disciples easily see the weaknesses and limitations of the first two stages, but instead of responding with compassion, empathy, and a mentor’s spirit, they become hostile to these “lower” expressions. All Disciples prefer the inherent superiority of principles to rules and commandments; however, self-absorbed, self-deceived Disciples can easily rationalize selfish, prideful, and even immoral behavior, using their intelligence to manipulate principles toward outcomes they desire. In many cases, their Disciple potential is lost and they begin living below the good qualities of the Parent/Child- and Steward-stages they had judged to be inferior.

2. A third type of Disciple—the kind the Church finds most acceptable—is one who has gained a rich understanding of gospel principles, loves Jesus and Heavenly Father as he or she understands them, has unquestioned loyalty to the Church in spite of personal differences, and is devoted to serving others. This type of Disciple studies deeply and broadly, has a rich prayer life, “magnifies” his or her callings and responsibilities, and is often a gifted teacher or leader. These are responsible, mature, thoughtful people. These Disciples typically avoid inner or deeply contemplative spiritual practices since such are outside of usual Church practice, so their energy, insight, and gifts are poured back into the Church. They tend to not become frustrated with the Church’s persistent “back to the basics” approach, especially since they are admired and sought after for their inspiring teachings and/or writings that go beyond “the basics.” In moments of honest self-reflection, these Disciples are disappointed with certain character flaws they have not been able to shake and are perplexed that certain spiritual qualities have eluded them even after decades of church service and devoted efforts toward spiritual growth. They do not dwell in despair, however, but look instead to the future when they expect their spiritual desires will finally be fulfilled.

3. The fourth type of Disciple has most of the characteristics of group three but is unwilling to leave the fulfillment of his or her spiritual aspirations to the future. As a result, this Disciple expands his or her studies beyond prescribed LDS readings and begins exploring a variety of spiritual philosophies and practices in both ancient and modern expressions. These Disciples seek out like-minded individuals—often discreetly—as they try to balance their Church loyalty with a new and exciting phase of inner growth. Almost every month, I become aware of a new LDS “study group”—and their areas of inquiry are virtually unlimited. I know many LDS women who are experimenting with alternative health and therapeutic practices rooted in non-LDS spiritual philosophies. Some of these sisters are clearly developing and expressing spiritual gifts that would not be welcome in LDS meetings and activities. Some have been called in by their bishops and admonished for pretending to use the priesthood. The other difference between this Disciple group and group three is that some of these are beginning to question their loyalty to the Church. This group is much larger than Church leaders realize.

Friend

Friendship implies mutual interests, perspectives, sharing, and appreciation. Theologies that portray Jesus as God and humans as essentially flawed beings consider this level to be impossible or blasphemous to even consider. However, this stage should be easy for Mormons to envision. With the exception of those who teach a form of predestination that claims individuals are limited by the nature of their core intelligence, most Mormons believe that each person possesses a “divine nature” and can progress to become like God. Yet, in spite of that belief, I have found that few Mormons experience themselves as divine within. Most of them are too busy struggling with sins of commission and omission, trying to prove themselves worthy of the Celestial Kingdom, and trying to become like Jesus through external effort. But external performances do not sanctify, lead to spiritual awakening, or foster the direct experience of our inner, divine nature.

Immature Saints practice their religion superstitiously in hopes that something good will happen—a sign that they will make it into the kingdom “out there.” More mature Latter-day Saints, devoted to the development of Christ-like virtues, place their faith in the mercy, love, and grace of God for their ultimate redemption into the kingdom “out there.” But in both cases, these Saints usually maintain an internal sense of deficiency that makes friendship with Christ impossible, and the “out there” orientation takes them out of the present moment (or spiritual) awareness in which the friendship is experienced. Mormons comfortable in the Parent/Child or Steward relationship with God—images that are reinforced every week in church meetings—can’t image a genuine, mutual friendship with Christ. They might imagine becoming like him in the context of morality and character, but they usually can’t imagine the full acceptance of his divine friendship. They wonder what they could possibly have to share with he who knows all, sees all, and is intimately one with the Father.

However, through meditative and contemplative practices, Disciples can begin to regularly experience the nature and presence of God, the divine nature of their own being, and the purifying influence of “grace for grace” as they naturally awaken into a friendship with Christ.5 What could I possibly have to bring into a relationship of equality with the Christ? An awakened divine nature! Is not divine nature, divine nature? As our own awakened soul nature is brought into Christ’s presence, we realize that it is just like his, except that it has come from our own unique life perspective and experience. Christ is deeply interested in what his Friends have to share, and his sharing in return deepens the friendship. At this stage, the mysteries of Godliness are clearly perceived and regularly unveiled. This enlivening and enlightening friendship prepares one for the next stage.

Beloved

The experience of the Beloved stage is far beyond the expression of words. In spite of the profound experience of unity and the full acceptance of our being in friendship with Christ in the Friend stage, we still have a sense of self and other; this is dualistic and thus not an experience of pure Oneness, in which the subject-and-object (or the self-and-other) orientation dissolves. In 1 Corinthians 13:12, the Apostle Paul defines seeing God “face to face” as to “know just as I also am known.” This same expression appears in Doctrine and Covenants 76:94 in the context of one realizing the highest degree of glory and union with God, “. . . they see as they are seen, and know as they are known, having received of his fulness and of his grace.” Can you see that to “see as you are seen” (by God) and to “know as your are known” (as God knows) implies a oneness beyond our typical subject/object or self/other perception and experience?

This oneness implies the realization of the Unitive State in which we are “made perfect in one”6 with God—in which union there is no sense of self or other. In the teachings of most Eastern traditions this means the extinction of the individual self or personal identity. In the teachings of Jesus, I believe this refers to the mysterious and paradoxical union of the individual with God where there is pure oneness, without the loss of personal identity. My favorite Indian guru, Paramahansa Yogananda, concurs with this understanding. Using the term “yogi” to refer to one seeking union with God, he writes, “ . . . the illumined yogi does not lose the individuality of his soul; instead he finds his being extended into the Being of the Spirit.”7

One of the most common images in spiritual literature for the deepest relationship an individual can have with God is that of a marriage or “the bridal chamber.” Consider this verse from 2 Corinthians 11:2, “ . . . for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”8 As we are purified by our inner work in the Disciple and Friend stages, our “virginity,” lost from intercourse with “the world,” is restored, meaning we have conscious experience with and knowledge of our divine nature within, which is capable of entering the bridal chamber. John Climacus, a 7th-century Christian monk, exclaimed, “Blessed is the person whose desire for God has become like the lover’s passion for the beloved.”9

What is the difference between a friend and a lover? Friends share but lovers unite, or become “one.” Referring to Jesus’ invitation “Come unto me” (Matthew 11:28), Neil Douglas-Klotz, in his book, Blessings of the Cosmos, states that the Aramaic word, taw—usually translated “come”—has the sense of lovers coming together for the first time. This romantic imagery might not be easy to digest in our modern culture that has lost so much innocence to carnal overexposure and overindulgence. It is also an uncomfortable image for most Mormons who are more accustomed to relating to Jesus as brother and God as father. Nevertheless, this is a wonderful image that captures the paradoxical feelings of fear and desire as new lovers begin to explore one another. Of course, in the divine romance of the unfolding of the Beloved stage, this is an exploration of one’s essence of being and the ultimate realization of its oneness with and in God.

Marthas and Marys

It can be useful to look at the Parent/Child and Steward stages as having a “male,” “doing,” “external” orientation. This “male” path—characterized by work, goal setting, systems, power, control, and “making it happen” are vital for organization-building and maintenance. These two levels are also important steps toward spiritual rebirth since adherence to a responsible, mature, moral, productive lifestyle lays the essential foundation. However, these stages and their external, male orientation do not lead to inner purification and rebirth. Too much “maleness” in spiritual leadership and practice, characteristic of Mormonism, results in the boredom, frustration, and spiritual stagnation previously mentioned and, in my view, is the experience of most Latter-Day Saints.

On the other hand, the advanced Disciple, Friend, and Beloved stages can be seen as reflecting a “female,” “being,” “internal” orientation. The “female” path—characterized by vulnerability, surrender, reception, mercy, and grace—is that which leads us into spiritual transformation, a Christ-like nature, and Oneness with God. All of us must walk this feminine or inner path to experience intimate union with God. This is why the Bible uses the image of a bride for the church itself and for each individual in the church, both male and female. It is also the reason why Christian mystics considered each person’s soul, both male and female, to be feminine. Each one of us must enter the mystical marriage and become a bride of Christ to be fully redeemed. There is a broader dimension of subjectivity on this path, which increases the risk of self-deception, but it is a risk that must be taken if we are ever to awaken into Oneness with God. Maturation of any sort involves risk and this is absolutely true of spiritual maturity.

The distinction between these upper and lower stages or the male and female paths is nicely portrayed in the story of Martha and Mary as told in Luke 10:38–42. Jesus enters the women’s home with a group of disciples, and Martha dutifully begins the external work of serving them. Mary, on the other hand, cannot resist being in Jesus’ presence and hearing his words. Martha is disturbed at Mary’s neglect of “serving” and tattles on her to Jesus, asking for his help to get Mary working. Jesus responds, “Martha, Martha, thou art careful (or worried) and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

Temporal, external duties absolutely must be fulfilled responsibly, but clearly Mary was seeking “first” the kingdom of God—the “treasure in heaven.” She was doing the inner work of abiding in the presence of the Lord that leads to inner transformation and oneness with God. As with Martha’s work, many good things can be accomplished in the Parent/Child, Steward, and early Disciple stages, but our life’s purpose of becoming One with God will not be fulfilled unless we follow Mary’s path into the Friend and Beloved stages.

Sadly, those who devote themselves to the inner work of the upper stages are often pushed to the fringes, marginalized, or held in suspicion if not derision. This is true in all Christian churches and is particularly true in Mormonism. There are two reasons for this. The first is because the leadership of most churches is filled with “Marthas” who consider the spiritual, inner work of “Marys” to be selfish, unproductive, or even sinful. Second, because “Marys” will ultimately trust their inner realizations over orthodoxy, there are times when they don’t seem compliant with organizational needs and objectives. The good news is that no organizational success or acceptance can substitute for conscious union with God.

The problem with models such as mine is the tendency for people to think the objective is to get to the top as soon as possible. Maturity can be nourished but not forced. I’ve always known there was more on the spiritual path, and I’ve always had a hunger and thirst for deeper understanding and experience, but as I have reflected on my experience with each stage of this model, I’ve realized that at each step I felt joyful and satisfied. In fact, at each step I felt like I was at the peak of what I could receive and if I had died at any moment along the way it would seem like my life’s purpose had been fulfilled. I think this paradox of knowing there is more and seeking for more but at the same time feeling complete and fulfilled is a sign that your spiritual maturation is on God’s schedule.

Each of us can become the Beloved of the Lord if we will establish a responsible and moral lifestyle, mature through the stages of spiritual growth, learn the inner process of receiving the grace of God’s light and love, and continue patiently as we are transformed into the image of Christ and ultimately become One with and in God.

What is this precious love and laughter

Budding in our heart?

It is the glorious sound

Of a soul waking up!

­ —Hafiz

Notes

1. This topic is explored in my Sunstone article “Hindering the Saints,” 168 (September 2012), 18-26.

2. Most prayers that involve thoughts and words are external. Even silent, deeply personal prayers are external to our essence of being. Inner prayer, characteristic of meditation and contemplative prayer, accesses awareness and spiritual knowing beyond the dualistic cognition represented in thoughts and words. Some external prayers can reflect that deeper spiritual awareness.

3. Email me at abbaom@yahoo.com if you are interested in detailed instruction in meditation and forms of contemplative prayer.

4. Two years ago in a high priest group meeting, our lesson was on following and obeying church leadership. This was an accomplished group of men with decades of church leadership. I suddenly lost composure and interjected, “Is it bothering anyone that this lesson could be picked up and taken down to the Primary and taught to the children without any modifications?!” After an awkward silence, a friend in the group said, “What Brother McLemore meant to say was . . .” I then apologized for the interruption and asked the teacher to continue.

5. Friendship with “Christ” is not simply some sort of interaction with the man Jesus. For Christian mystics, and in my experience, the term “Christ” refers to the life, light, and love of the Father present in all of creation. Jesus abided in and embodied this “Christ.” So in the Friendship stage, one experiences a mutual interaction and shared life with Jesus as “Christ,” as well as with creation itself and the Father. The man Jesus does not have to be present for this realization, which is in fact, a deeper and more expansive spiritual realization than the personal appearance of the person Jesus. For an explanation of the Cosmic Christ, I suggest Richard Rohr, Christ, Cosmology & Consciousness: A Reframing of How We See (MP3 download) and The Cosmic Christ (CD, MP3 download) from the Center for Action and Contemplation.

6. John 17:23. The common teaching in LDS classes that the oneness Jesus is talking about in John 17 means “oneness of purpose” is a startling example of spiritual blindness and the reduction of the greatest mystery of the Gospel to a concept understood by the human mind!

7. Paramahansa Yogananda, God Talks to Arjuna, (Los Angeles: Self Realization Fellowship, 1995), 635. His expression “Being of the Spirit” is a reference to God.

8. Again, as in note 3, the expanded meaning of Christ is intended

9. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, 30th step, 5.

The post Becoming the Beloved of the Lord: Maturing Through the Stages of Spiritual Growth appeared first on Sunstone.

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By David R. HallFigure 1: The community pattern comes from two 1833 documents: the community plot (shown) and the building plan.More than seven billion human beings currently live on our planet in a wide variety of circumstances, with extremes of wealth and poverty and—in most places—in a manner that is steadily eroding the ecology. The United Nations projects that the earth’s human population might exceed 15 billion by the end of this century.1

Some people believe that the planet’s human population must be drastically reduced in order to live sustainably. According to two Mormon documents from 1833, however, a scalable pattern exists that could enable all people worldwide—even if we reach 15 billion people—to live a modern, prosperous lifestyle sustainably, without overtaxing natural resources or the environment. The pattern accomplishes this by drastically reducing today’s human footprint while simultaneously improving the quality of life.

Drawn up by Frederick G. Williams in June of 1833, these two double-sided 14″ x 18″ documents—the community plot2 and the building plan3—define a complete human ecosystem that can be applied to all people, regardless of location, ethnicity, or religion.

Williams, Sidney Rigdon, and Joseph Smith said they received the documents through a vision.4 However, early Mormons had access to the documents for only a few months before they were lost. Even if they had not been lost, Mormon leaders didn’t have the time, experience, or capability to study and understand the pattern; neither did they have the technology and resources to put it into practice. Many early Mormon leaders viewed the documents as having been “drawn in haste,”5 so they failed to notice the remarkable solutions to human problems they contain.

In 1868, the documents were rediscovered in a metal tube in a trunk that belonged to former bishop Edward Partridge. Partridge’s widow Lydia donated the documents to the LDS Church’s history department. Since about 1970, these two community documents have been available to only a few researchers. However, they have recently become publicly available online via the Joseph Smith Papers project.

They are, in my opinion, a world treasure—an intricate and complex puzzle that anyone can now examine and attempt to solve. Even non-Mormons have noticed their value. In 1996, the documents received the American Planning Association’s National Planning Landmark Award “for projects . . . that are historically significant, initiated a new direction in planning or impacted American planning, cities or regions over a broad range of time or space.” Then, in 2010, Andres Duany, founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism, said of the documents, “You have a Ferrari in the garage, and you have never taken it for a drive—you have never shown what it could really do.”6

After forty years of analysis from mathematical, engineering, economic, organizational, and social perspectives, I have come to believe that these documents describe a complete, consistent human ecology of “spatial and temporal interrelationships between humans and their economic, social, and political organization.”7 I am applying this pattern to current American urban planning and technology and developing a community pattern I call NewVistas.

The pattern shows how people can live in closer proximity to each other and utilize more efficient technology, economics, transportation, and agriculture. This pattern greatly reduces the role of the automobile and eliminates suburban sprawl,8 maximizes solar power (not for energy but for photosynthesis, with intensive gardening instead of wasteful landscaping), and counters the inefficiencies and limitations of large-scale centralization that afflict so many of today’s government agencies, industries, and other institutions. By implementing the pattern, I believe we could feed and house the expanding world at the maximum projected population of 15 billion on 20 percent of the land we consume now, allowing us to restore wetlands, wildlife, and wilderness areas in 80 percent of the land we currently occupy.

Figure 2: With all its prescribed components in place, each community takes a diamond shape.Figure 2 shows my basic interpretation of how the community plot would be laid out. The plot states that each independent community is populated by a minimum of 15,000 and a maximum of 20,000 active participants, which means that each person has about .1 acres to live on. This small allotment was one reason why early Mormon leaders dismissed the original documents. However, this specific density of .1 acres per person is the key to the community’s worldwide scalability and sustainability, as well as its social and organizational effectiveness. With our current technology, spaces can be built to transform, fulfilling multiple functions and thus being much more efficient than our traditional single-function rooms and buildings. The community’s prescribed density decreases the cost of living and replaces modern society’s social fragmentation and isolation with a balance of privacy and public interaction.

Figure 3. Houses have three levels, containing up to eight separate living apartments,
each with its own private patio. The bottom level includes commercial space that opens
to the gardens in back and an enclosed podway in front. The roof functions as a deck
and transforming box garden.Community Housing

Each community contains 960 half-acre housing and garden lots. The pattern’s housing follows a similar model as the row houses that have populated Europe for thousands of years. In the community pattern, a three-story “house” holds 16 to 21 people (see Figure 3). Each house is four rods (66 feet) wide, divided into eight one-rod-wide (16.5 feet) apartments. Every person has a private bed and bath. According to the plot’s prescriptions, the lots are directionally staggered so that all apartments enjoy a private, unobstructed view.9

Ten of these houses form a village, with the entire community divided into 96 villages. Four villages form a district, for a total of 24 districts in a community. Each district has its own multipurpose building in the center of the community, used for everything from sports to education. These buildings are discussed below.

This community is a solar community. Instead of using the sun for electric power, however, the community uses its complete surface area, including the roofs of buildings, for growing food. Inside the plot grid, space is devoted not only to housing but also to commercial activity and high-intensity gardening. All the surface land is planted in gardens and orchards. Outside the street grid, the plot prescribes additional areas for use in heavier agriculture and industry.

Figure 6. Behind the community’s row houses, gardens slope down. This allows garden drainage to flow through a filtration system in the center of each block. For more productivity, gardens are grown in incubator boxes.Figure 6 shows how the rear garden plots slope so they drain into the middle of the block, down into a swamp area that acts as a natural filter to purify the drainage. Not only do 960 separate half-acre gardens allow for a wide variety of produce, they help naturally protect against pests and disease. In addition, the top floor of every building holds year-round greenhouse boxes managed by professional farmers who train willing participants. Grains and a few animals are farmed in the triangular areas outside the main street grid.

In the NewVistas interpretation of the original plans, no cars are used inside this walkable community. Each 132-foot-wide “street” functions not only as a pedestrian thoroughfare but also as a network of green public squares. In fact, in the original plot drawing itself, the streets are colored green.

As Figure 3 shows, each three-story house has commercial space on the bottom level for retail stores, offices, labs, and workshops. In front of each house’s commercial level is a covered podway that facilitates foot traffic and, as needed, small electric carts and wheelchairs. This enclosed passage allows all residents to get from point A to B anywhere in the community and also reach other connected communities. This helps give the community the feeling of “the world’s largest mansion.” When weather allows, people can also use the outside walkways for access to all places.

Multipurpose Community Buildings

After establishing that each independent community has a minimum of 15,000 and a maximum of 20,000 active participants, the plot text states that it will require 24 central buildings on two 15-acre plots to “supply them.”10 Like the plot, the plan for this central building was drawn up in June of 1833 on both sides of one piece of foolscap paper (see the central squares in Figure 1).

Figure 7: While the central multipurpose building takes a simple rectangular form,
decorative features and facades can be added as desired.The plot’s dimensions enable us to determine the correct size of the 24 central public buildings. We know from other 1833 sources that each public building has two “inner courts,” one above the other, each measuring 55′ x 65′.11 We can triangulate to determine that the outer dimensions of each central building are 88′ x 132′. Following the pattern, each NewVistas multipurpose building takes a basic rectangular shape (see Figure 7), but decorative features and facades can be added to beautify and also to meet any cultural or local design preferences.

Figure 8: Each multipurpose building has five levels, including two identical double-level courts and a ground level with an Olympic-length pool, which can be subdivided into 20 smaller pools for other purposes.The original document shows each multipurpose building as having five 14′ levels. The top four levels comprise two identical 28′-high courts—a higher court and a lower court. Above each court’s assembly area, the building plan prescribes an elliptical arch. In the NewVistas interpretation of this plan (see Figure 8), the elliptical arches allow room for structural box elements (described below) and for floor storage of chairs and tables for the court above. They also allow space along the sides of the arch for storage for the adjoining chambers. Additionally, the elliptical shape is perfect for ventilating the assembly hall.

Rather than open galleries, the upper side rooms of both courts are enclosed chambers that hang from the structural elements and can be used for many purposes. (In the NewVistas plan, they can be classrooms, boardrooms, hotel rooms, etc.) Each of the two identical courts has twelve chambers, as does the ground-floor level, which (in the NewVistas plan) also features two half-size Olympic pools that can be divided into smaller sections. Also, each assembly hall can be divided into twelve rooms, including four smaller assembly rooms and eight small chamber rooms. This means that each of the 24 community buildings has a high capacity of 52 chambers measuring 13.5′ x 16′.

Figure 9: An assembly hall can transform into many different configurations of cubicles,
sports courts, lecture halls, drama theaters, board rooms, etc.Assembly Halls

As shown in Figure 9, each court’s assembly hall offers many configuration possibilities. When all the dividing walls are rolled up, a full-sized assembly hall measures 55′ x 99′. If we allow for a 2½’ buffer around each of the assembly halls, we end up with exactly the right size to accommodate two of today’s NBA basketball courts (50′ x 94′) in each of the 24 buildings. First prescribed in June of 1833, this size has now become the standard for most indoor sports courts. When the space is used for sports or dancing, all the furniture is stored under the floors.

The original documents talk about using transforming technology to allow the interior space of these multipurpose buildings to be quickly reconfigured for a wide variety of uses. For example: “A curtain is to drop at right angles, and divide the house into four parts”; “Let the seats be loose so as to slip from one side of the pew to the other, so as to face [either] pulpit, as occasion may require”; and “You will be careful to have hooks and rings to suspend your [curtains] on so they can be let down or raised up at any time, at pleasure.”12

Figure 10: From left to right, this illustration shows how bridge and vertical modules join together to form the floors, ceilings, and walls of a house. These same building elements are used in the multipurpose buildings. The space inside the modules is used for storage, elevators, bathrooms, workrooms, and hallways.In the NewVista plans, furniture and floors move quickly under the power of built-in linear motors and triple-screw technology, so space can be transformed within five minutes from, for example, a basketball court to a large dining hall with tables and chairs (see Figure 10). With chairs, tables, cubicles, altars, and other props moved into position at the touch of an app, an assembly hall can be used for dining, office space, theater, worship, and many other purposes. Sections of the floor can be raised up to four feet above floor level, allowing for theatrical platforms and stadium seating. Soundproof walls roll down to divide the space into rooms of various sizes.

All community buildings are constructed with mass-produced bridge modules and vertical modules. As shown in Figure 10, the bridge modules allow for copious storage in 8′ x 4′ x 4′ floor boxes. The vertical modules consist of several 14′ tall, 4′ square rectangles stacked on top of each other. The space inside these rectangles is used for elevators, private bathrooms, kitchenettes, workstations, and connecting hallways. Each central multipurpose building has 60 private unisex bathrooms and 12 elevators.

“Cheerfully Disposed to Share”

NewVistas owes its essential concepts to these two double-sided sheets of handwritten foolscap received by Joseph Smith. As I have studied these documents, I have realized that, on all subjects, we have only begun to understand the works of Joseph Smith. Every one of his documents needs to be thoroughly studied and triangulated with each other—especially with the benefit of modern technology and knowledge. Joseph Smith was an out-of-the-blue revolutionary, not someone who copied and adapted things from his own time and place. It appears that even he and his clerks may not have understood some of the prophetic content of their own works.

The pattern defined by the plot and building plan can be of great benefit to all aspects of human progress, including energy, economics, transportation, nutrition, water management, healthcare, recycling, social psychology, building ventilation, waste management, agriculture, heating and cooling, education, hygiene, retirement, and so forth. The NewVistas project is only a beginning.

The documents can help us organize communities at the most effective, efficient scale and configuration, allowing all to live in walkable, sociable ecologies that use space, energy, and resources efficiently, resulting in lower cost of living and more capital available to support individually owned businesses and jobs. Participants can be freer to pursue activities that they truly desire, rather than trap themselves in careers to support the unsustainable, unscalable lifestyle of suburban sprawl.

And, of course, the NewVistas project is not just for LDS people. Joseph Smith came to understand the importance of avoiding denominational preference: “[W]e claim no privilege but what we feel cheerfully disposed to share with our fellow citizens of every denomination, and every sentiment of religion; and therefore say, that so far from being restricted to our own faith, let all those who desire to locate themselves in this place, or the vicinity, come, and we will hail them as citizens and friends.”13 Communities must be freely open to all and run by the voice of the people.

NOTES

1. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision, http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/ (accessed 28 November 2016).

2. Frederick G. Williams, “Plat of the City of Zion, circa Early June–25 June 1833,” Joseph Smith Papers, http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paperSummary/plat-of-the-city-of-zion-circa-early-june-25-june-1833 (accessed 28 November 2016).

3. Frederick G. Williams, “Plan of the House of the Lord, between 1 and 25 June 1833,” Joseph Smith Papers, http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paperSummary/plan-of-the-house-of-the-lord-between-1-and-25-june-1833 (accessed 28 November 2016).

4. According to Frederick G. Williams, “We went upon our knees, called on the Lord, and the building appeared within viewing distance, I being the first to discover it. Then we all viewed it together. After we had taken a good look at the exterior, the building seemed to come right over us.” Quoted in Truman O. Angell, “Journal,” in Archie Leon Brown, 141 Years of Mormon Heritage, (Oakland, California: self-published, 1973).

5. “Revised Plan of the House of the Lord,” http://josephsmithpapers.org/paperSummary/revised-plan-of-the-house-of-the-lord-circa-10-august-circa-4-september-1833 (accessed 28 November 2016).

6. Quoted in Michael Hathorne, “Plat of Zion Recognized,” Trans/Form Place, https://transformplace.wordpress.com/plat-of-zion-recognized/ (accessed 28 November 2016).

7. “Human Ecology,” Merriam-Webster.com, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/human%20ecology (accessed 28 November 2016).

8. For more on why suburban sprawl is not sustainable, see James Howard Kunstler, “The Ghastly Tragedy of the Suburbs,” https://www.ted.com/talks/james_howard_kunstler_dissects_suburbia, February
   2004, and Alex Balashov, “Why Even Driving Through Suburbia Is Soul Crushing,” Quartz, 10 June 2016, http://qz.com/698928/why-suburbia-sucks/ (both accessed 28 November 2016).

9. The original plot drawing contains a few errors that don’t match the plot text, with some blocks not containing the right number of lots or not facing in the right direction.

10. Williams, “Plat of the City of Zion.”

11. See “Revelation, 2 August 1833–B [D&C 94]” Joseph Smith Papers, http://josephsmithpapers.org/paperSummary/revelation-2-august-1833-b-dc-94 and “Revelation, 1 June 1833 [D&C 95],” Joseph Smith Papers, http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paperSummary/revelation-1-june-1833-dc-95, (both accessed 28 November 2016).

12. Williams, “Plan of the House of the Lord.”

13. HC 4:273.

Further Reading

Ralph Becker, “From Self-Sufficiency to Sustainability: Building on Our Heritage for a Sustainable Western Future” Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute, John Carver Distinguished Lecture and Keynote Address, 5 March 2009.

Brigham Daniels, “Revitalizing Zion: Nineteenth-Century Mormonism and Today’s Urban Sprawl,” Journal of Land, Resources & Environmental Law 28, no. 2 (2008): 257–300.

Craig D. Galli, “Building Zion: The Latter-day Saint Legacy of Urban Planning.” BYU Studies 44, no. 1 (2005): 111–136.

The post The Pattern: “Fill Up the World” and “Let Every Man Live” appeared first on Sunstone.

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By D. Jeff BurtonI exchanged the following edited emails with Jeremy Jones (all names and details have been changed), a young man who is currently serving a mission in Ireland.

Elder Jones: I thought you might find my situation interesting. I have always considered myself a Borderlander, but, as you’ve probably noticed by my email address, I am also a full-time missionary.

I am from the LA area and went to a year of university at USC before going out. I had a choice between BYU and USC and ultimately decided on USC—I wanted to be an active Mormon because I chose to be, not because I’d get kicked out of school if I weren’t. It was also at a time when I wasn’t sure if I would serve a mission.

But, then, of course, I did. And many people were surprised. I have enjoyed it for the most part—understanding all the growing pains for what they are.

Jeff: Thanks for contacting me. I would really like to have something in the column about you and your situation. Let’s see where this goes. You might start by telling me something about your mission. (By the way, does someone in your leadership monitor these emails? I want to send you my questionnaire but I don’t want to stir things up for you.)

Elder Jones: I have been on my mission for about a year, currently as a zone leader in a stake that is struggling. (In other words, a lot of work falls on the missionaries’ shoulders.) Though bringing people into the Church has been going pretty well, it’s my personal goal to work with Mormons who are going through a crisis of faith, or are on the road to becoming less active, or have gone inactive altogether. Most of them are taken aback when I tell them that there is such a thing as a liberal Mormon and Sunstone.

Feel free to send your questionnaire over. In theory these emails are accessible by the Church if they have reason to suspect I am doing illicit things. But I’d like to believe that anyone who would read this conversation would see it as it is: an attempt to spread one member’s successful experiences with the gospel and Church in hopes of touching other people’s lives.

[I sent him our standard questionnaire.]

Elder Jones (several weeks later): Sorry it has taken a while to get this back to you. My mission has been going well for the past few weeks and we will hopefully have a baptism soon. I’m happy about this because I can tell the Church has helped him change his life for the better. But it is tough knowing that he will probably go through the various stages of questioning and doubting new members often encounter.

Jeff: Yes, I know that only too well. I was once a Seventy in Cincinnati, Ohio—in charge of follow-ups for newly baptized members. The father of a recently converted family came to me after hearing about the Church’s “race and the priesthood” policy and its attendant folklore. I talked about how I believed it would all be resolved someday—but that wasn’t good enough for him. We never saw him or his family again. So it isn’t a new phenomenon, just a more widespread one, thanks to the availability of more information (e.g, that found on the Internet).

Elder Jones: That sounds familiar. The father of a large family who had recently been converted called me and asked whether I “actually believed in the Celestial Kingdom.” We talked for a while and I think I got him calmed down.

Here’s the questionnaire with my answers. Let me know what other questions you have.

1. How would you describe your upbringing in the Church? I was raised in a Mormon family that goes all the way back to Martin Harris. We were always very active except for a 2-month stint when I was ten while we were moving around. My dad has been a bishop and my mom has served in various stake callings. I always had Mormon friends growing up, but they were never the ones I spent the most time with.

2. What is your current status in the Church? I’m serving a mission so I basically tick all the boxes on church attendance, temple recommend, and keeping the commandments. Following the White Handbook (which contains all the missionary rules) can be a bit tricky, though.

3. What issues / events / actions / concerns / historical data caused you to move into the “Borderlands? I have been in the Borderlands ever since I can remember. At age 13, for example, I was against California’s Prop 8 and then realized that the Church supported it. While I’ve never quite fit in, going to church has made me feel happier. So, my testimony is based on personal experiences, though I can’t really stand in fast and testimony meeting and say, “I don’t really care if Joseph Smith saw God or not.“

4. Why do you stay in the Borderlands as opposed to moving on past the Borderlands into inactivity / leaving the Church / moving back into Group 1, etc.? It’s really hard to be inactive as a missionary, ha ha! My testimony is not built on the mythology I hear every day. It is based on the spiritual experiences my association with the Church has facilitated. I certainly don’t have those every week, and I didn’t start having them until I was a teenager. They were never grandiose events, either—usually just me recognizing that the Church has benefited my life or someone else’s, and sometimes a feeling of immense peace or joy.

5. How well do you cope with your Borderland status? I cope extremely well. I love being in the Borderlands because it allows me to see things from many perspectives, which is an incredible tool as a missionary. It allows me to help members who need a stronger foundation of faith and help people transition from doubt and trouble to a reconciliation of Church history and certain doctrines. I love to see the faces of those in Group 3 when they realize that I have just as many—if not more—doubts than they do, and yet I am serving a mission.

6. How open and honest are you with others about your situation, or about your Borderland-causing issues / events / actions / concerns? I am quite certain that although both my parents are completely active in the Church and hold callings, they are also Borderlanders, because they were the ones who brought up most of the issues I face today!

For example, my parents had a chat with me, saying, “Well, you’re fourteen now. When I was fourteen I had no idea that there were four accounts of the First Vision. Here’s how I interpret it. Go look it up for yourself and make your own conclusions.”

We would often have family discussions on such topics as women and the priesthood. There was always an open dialogue for any questions or doubts we had.

1. How does the Borderlands experience effect your family / spouse / children /parents / friends / relatives / others? People around me generally know how I feel. They understand that I am about as strong a member of the Church as anyone can be. I just go about it my own way. I believe that there is room for everyone in this church and I stand as proof that even as a missionary you can still have doubts and be yourself.

2. How do these various people (e.g., spouse, ward members, children, friends, relatives) respond to you and your experience? Generally it has been positive though there have been times where I overstepped an undrawn line. For example, at the MTC I made comments about women and the priesthood and even that I would have no problem if the Church accepted gay marriage in the temple. Right away, I was called into the branch president’s office where he sat me down and started with, “Do you sustain President Monson as prophet, seer, and revelator?” He said he’d heard that I held views contrary to the teachings of the Church and thought that maybe I should rethink going on a mission. I explained that both my bishop and stake president knew how I felt and had still encouraged me to serve a mission. I explained that my beliefs were my own and that I had a testimony of the gospel even if it was a bit different. Strangely, a new branch president was called on the same day as that interview, so that was the end of that.

3. Any suggestions for others? Even if you have different beliefs, church can still be a good place. I personally believe that people who don’t go to church can still have salvation, but I also believe that church has been a good place for me: providing opportunities for spiritual experiences as well as learning and growth. I have looked up to many of the men in my ward as fathers, and many of the women as mothers. I realize that I may have a difficult time staying active after I return from my mission, but I believe I’ll stick with it because of the benefits.

One more thing that has really helped my position in the Church is that I see the institution as a project rather than a product.

Jeff: Thanks for responding. Your answers are very interesting and thought provoking. I have a few questions. At age 13 you were against California’s Prop 8? Seems amazing at such a young age. Are you in the LBGT community? And you mentioned LDS “mythology.” What do you mean by that term?

Elder Jones: I was aware, even at 13, that people had a range of views and feelings about Prop 8, and that was OK with me. The thing I didn’t understand was why one group of people wanted to tell another group of people that they could not practice what they believe. It’s especially puzzling given the 11th Article of Faith.

I would argue that I am in the LGBT community, even though I am heterosexual. I have friends who are LGBT and I go to their events and support them. I guess it’s like non-members who have enough Mormon friends and come to enough of our events that they feel like they’re a part of our community.

As for the “mythology” comment, I see every religion as having four major elements: doctrine, policy, culture, and mythology (or folklore). Mythology and folklore sometimes set the tone for the other elements since the stories we tell each other influence and sometimes help define doctrine, policy, and culture. Here is an example using the idea of family. Doctrine: Families can be together in the Celestial Kingdom. Policy: Temple sealings should be performed and we should focus on supporting the heterosexual, nuclear family unit. Culture: The Church sponsors loads of family-oriented activities. Mythology and folklore: In the pre-mortal life, we had a say in choosing our earthly families.

I’ve noticed that missionaries often focus mostly on Mormon folklore, touching only on the points of doctrine and policy that are essential to getting an investigator baptized.

Of course, culture, policy, and folklore often bleed into each other, such as with the race-and-the-priesthood issue. The myth that some spirits were not as valiant in the pre-mortal life supported the policy, and then the culture tended to treat blacks as if the myth were true.

Jeff: Can you share with me one or two experiences you’ve had working on your mission “with Mormons who are going through a crisis of faith”?

Elder Jones: Currently I am working with an ex-bishop who has asked for his name to be removed from Church records. He says he just doesn’t believe anymore. The first time I went to his house I told him that he and I probably had very similar beliefs and that I wanted to share a little of what helped me. I told him to read Sunstone and also a bit of Sterling McMurrin. I told him some of my views, e.g., that the “truth” of a religious story shouldn’t always be judged on its factuality, but on its meaning. He seems to like my views, but he has been telling some members about them, too, and I’ve been pulled aside a couple of times by leaders who wanted me to explain myself. Currently, he isn’t trying to get his name removed, but he has not yet come back to full activity. I am meeting with him and his wife again this week, so we’ll see where this all goes.

I also worked with a family in another area who were all very involved in church. The father had been in a stake presidency and one son is currently in a bishopric, but another son was just a regular member who taught in Sunday School, loved his family, but missed church meetings sometimes. I figured out pretty quickly that he and I had similar views. I went over once for dinner where we talked about disillusionment with the Church but also about the great community it brings. After our conversation, he let me know that if I ever needed a place to stay during future visits I was more than welcome. (I believe there is an extra-strong bond between Mormons who are active yet view the Church in this alternative light—kind of like the bond “Sunstoners” have with each other.)

Jeff: Do you seek out less-active members and try to solve their problems, answer their questions, etc.?

Elder Jones: Usually I work more with active members who I can tell have similar views to mine and may be headed towards being “less active.” People who have gone inactive because of disillusionment with the Church are sometimes not the friendliest toward the missionaries, viewing us as “predators stalking prey for the Mormons.”

Jeff: How much does your mission president know about your Borderland status? He has called you as a zone leader, which means he trusts you. Is he cool with your outlook on Mormonism?

Elder Jones: To be honest, I haven’t expressly talked with my mission president about being a “doubter,” mainly because he doesn’t cultivate a very close relationship with the missionaries in general. In our brief, surface conversations, I have used some code words to refer to topics that are discussed by more liberal Mormons, and I’m sure he’s heard things about me from others. So I think he knows enough about me to get the gist.

Jeff: Thanks so much for sharing your story. I’m sure many Borderland column readers will be influenced (if not inspired) by your wonderful approaches and experiences.

The post Experiences of a Missionary Borderlander appeared first on Sunstone.

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By Emily BelangerI was barely in Kindergarten when my father went crazy. Certain he had assassinated Bobby Kennedy and was being trailed by helicopters only he could hear, he went into hiding. For weeks at a time he would camp deep in the New Hampshire forest, only emerging when he ran low on supplies. Weeks without news, and then his dusty orange truck would appear like a miracle and park in front of the garage. He’d work hurriedly, refilling the kerosene in his lamp and stove, scrounging some extra fishing line, emptying a whole cupboard of canned goods. During one of these fleeting visits, he crouched in front of me and promised he would take me with him if he could, “But you need to be in school.” Behind the calm voice, he was likely panicked, certain that his presence placed his family at risk as much as himself. And then he’d disappear. Without proof that his madness made him a danger to himself or others, my mother could do nothing but watch her husband drive away and wait for another visit from the forest.

As I look back on my childhood, my father’s madness surfaces in spits of memory, disconnected. I can’t say in what order anything occurred. But at the center of it all is one image: my father sitting at the kitchen table while two thin men in suits place their hands on his head, their voices droning softly. “To cast out demons,” my father said later, bitterly.

When I asked my older sister if she remembered the blessing, she said she couldn’t. If it did happen, she said, it wouldn’t bother her: she believes evil spirits need to be cast out of some mentally ill people—she even mentioned a friend who’s had them cast out four times.

So I asked my mother if this blessing had actually occurred. She acknowledged that it could have happened, but admitted that she didn’t have any memory of it. I remember her desperation as she watched her husband react to sounds only he could hear. If she had believed there were even a chance that a blessing would cure her husband, she would have tried it. I also remember one occasion when my mother wondered aloud if evil spirits were lurking, if not in my father, then in the house, invited by his behavior. If there was a chance the madness was caused by demons, she probably would have asked the home teachers to cast them out.

Though I don’t know what actually happened in that blessing, it raised an important question for me at an impressionable age: were spiritual forces at play behind my father’s madness? The question terrified me, especially when adults explained that schizophrenia often runs in families. Growing up, I knew two facts: madness and demons lurked in my DNA, and life was a powder keg of potential triggers.

My father was hardly the first schizophrenic in his family line, so the possibility that it would manifest in one of his four children felt certain. My siblings and I watched each other for signs: not hallucinations but the subtler symptoms, like noticing subtle background noises or struggling to focus on one conversation in a loud and crowded room. In a family full of introverts, it was easy to mistake our personalities for signs that danger was coming—what introvert doesn’t feel overwhelmed in a loud and crowded room? I remember a period when, if I drifted too gradually into sleep and found myself half-asleep but dreaming, I would wake with a start and struggle to reassure myself, as if I were a child who had just experienced a nightmare. “It’s okay. It was just a dream.” I wasn’t afraid the dream was real, though: I feared it was a hallucination.

But against this backdrop of fearing the unseen, unheard world in my father’s mind, I was also learning to seek the divine. My Primary teachers taught me that I should seek feelings, convictions, even words in my mind—so long as they came from God. And, strangely, I didn’t see any contradiction between these two worldviews, perhaps because my father’s delusions and hallucinations were never about God or religion but rather the temporal world, where killing a Kennedy when he was a child meant government forces would be hunting him down decades later.

From time to time, especially at fast and testimony meetings, I heard stories of visions. A woman whose unborn child appeared and spoke to her as a ball of light. A woman whose exasperated ancestor appeared in a vision demanding to know why no proxy temple work had been done for her yet. A man who saw a ball of light at the temple and knew it was his dead father thanking him for performing a proxy ordinance. A girl who went to the temple for the first time and felt invisible hands touching her back. A woman who had been beaten as a child because she told her father that angels appeared to her.

I accepted these miraculous accounts without question—invisible helicopters were a clear sign of madness, but an angry ancestor was another story. I was skeptical about only one of the visionary members of my childhood ward. Brother Brown (not his real name) once interrupted the youth Sunday School class to tell about a time the Angel Moroni appeared, promising that he and Moroni would serve an important mission together during the Millennium. I didn’t believe a word of it because his wife had told my mom about the abuse she suffered at his hands. As an adult, I’m less certain that I can dismiss his story without questioning the others. If my only method of discerning between hallucinations and miracles were how peaceful I felt listening to them, then my knowledge of Brother Brown’s abusive history alone would have determined my reaction. Could the others have been mistaken as well?

And then there’s the world outside of Mormonism, where what one person calls revelation another calls madness. When I was in high school, a classmate who had been reading about polygamous Mormon sects chose a day when I was out sick to tell our Advanced Writing class about how crazy Joseph Smith was—with his all visions and prophecies—and how crazy anyone would have to be to belong to his church. The whole class, even the teacher, participated in the conversation. One friend reported that she’d defended me by insisting, “Just because Joseph Smith was crazy doesn’t mean Emily is crazy,” a defense I didn’t find quite as satisfactory as she’d hoped.

Today I am thirty years old, past the age where schizophrenia surfaces: home free, as a therapist once told me. But it’s hard to shake the feeling that madness is etched into my marrow. After growing up with a parent who couldn’t even trust his five senses, I understand that my own are also fallible. I’d like to believe, therefore, that God’s perspective is the only one I can trust, but can I trust myself to understand this being? An atheist colleague once cheerfully called me a “not-crazy person of faith.” It’s a title I wear uncomfortably. Perhaps my colleague saw sanity in my desperation to remain open-minded and uncertain. The downside to my open mind is that my faith is like Schrodinger’s cat, valuable mainly for its potential. Anything could be inside that box. Life, death. Peace, madness. Angels, helicopters. It’s when I insist on opening it up—when I insist on relying on my senses, when I insist on certainty—that I risk stumbling into my own forests of New Hampshire.

The post The Madness of Faith appeared first on Sunstone.

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By Ian R. HarveyWandering through the Internet one day, I bumped into a YouTube video of Hugh Nibley giving his “Adam and Eve” presentation in his Pearl of Great Price lecture series,1 so I decided to sit in. About 23 minutes into the video, just after Dr. Nibley has zipped through Moses 5:112 without comment, an intrepid class member tentatively interrupts the lecture, and (with Brother Nibley’s permission) asks him about the clearly contingent if/then nature of the conversation between Elohim and Jehovah: If they should fall, then we shall provide a Savior for them. She then asks him whether Lucifer’s contention that “there is no other way” for Adam and Eve to progress except by eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is true. Nibley asks, “Well, what other way would you suggest?” She says she doesn’t know and looks to him as the teacher, at which point he summarily cuts off the discussion with, “There isn’t any.”

I have to wonder who that insightful and brave young woman was,3 because I think she is on to something very important: Why not wonder why it was okay to obey Lucifer back then, when such is rather frowned upon now? Why should disobedience to a direct commandment from God––complete with “Thou shalt not” and punctuated with “I forbid it!”––be the single, isolated exception to the irrevocable Law of Heaven “upon which all blessings are predicated”?4 Why do we make heroine and hero out of our first parents for having supposed 5 that God was only kidding? Were there really technical difficulties preventing our parents from keeping his commandments to multiply and replenish the earth?6 (Good thing it wasn’t stubborn young Nephi7 in the Garden, or we would all be pretty stuck, I guess.)

And what does Lucifer’s account of the Garden story imply about the nature of God? 1: That God once ate the fruit of “knowledge” himself to fall into the need for personal salvation.8 2: That God commanded one thing while harboring an opposite intention. Should not such duplicity from God be disturbing to us? Isn’t it a bit disappointing that this is the best he could do (“there is no other way,” Lucifer insists) to create an exalted life for a very small fraction of his children, through a process of suffering, privation, sorrow, fruitless toil, thorns, and death? And we call such a plan “happiness”? (Let’s ask the Syrians, the cancer victims, and the Chibok girls if this is indeed, a happy plan.)

In fact, it seems that Lucifer comes out of the story rather rosy: He tells us “secrets” about our Father––that we believe. He tells us “secrets” about how to become like God––that we take to be truth. He convinces us, almost purely through repetition,9 that there is “no other way.” Shall we believe that Lucifer unwittingly helps to complete God’s secret plan?10 At the end, Lucifer is crowned god of this world!11

I have always had a hard time believing the traditional LDS interpretation of the Fall.12 Not only does it go against Ockham’s Razor13 of rational interpretation, it also goes against every Primary song and against one of the most basic tenets of Christian belief: God is righteous and trustworthy; Lucifer is cunning, manipulative, and false. Jesus says of the devil:

Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. (John 8:44)

This is a pretty unequivocal statement. Jesus doesn’t make room for the devil to be a truth-teller at any point. But, for some reason, we have decided that Lucifer’s statements to Adam and Eve are true.

And then Jesus describes his own Father:

Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. (John 5:19–20)

Jesus was perfect and unblemished precisely because of the ever-righteous example shown him by his Father!

My perspective on the Fall—as well as the temple endowment itself—changed dramatically when I chose to take Jesus at his word: disbelieving Lucifer every whit, assuming there is “no truth” in him; and believing God entirely.

With these two thoughts under our belt—that Lucifer has always been a liar and that God always tells the truth—what changes when we read these statements?

You must partake of this fruit. For that is the way father obtained his knowledge.

I want you to take of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil that your eyes may be opened. You must partake of this fruit in order to comprehend that everything has its opposite: good and evil, virtue and vice, light and darkness, health and sickness, pleasure and pain.

There is no other way!

I have a suggestion that I’d like to make to Brother Nibley: “There is another way: Choose to always believe God and to always disbelieve Lucifer!”14

Yes, what I mean is that, because they disobeyed God’s commandment, Adam and Eve indeed fell. And it was not a fortunate fall. Nor did they fall “up.” If I choose to believe that God always tells the truth, then there is no way to spin or dress the Fall other than as Adam and Eve’s failure.15 Believing that God always tells the truth implies that, while in the Garden of Eden, the way was already open for Adam and Eve to receive every promised joy and to directly progress toward exaltation.16 God had given them a good commandment. It did not need to be broken to enable fertility. Breaking that commandment was a sin, just as breaking a commandment today is a sin.

This proposed interpretation of the Fall gives the pre-ordinance Eden re-enactment significant relevance to our lives. With the traditional view, I might be tempted to doze off, comfortably supposing that God had designed and intended all of this. Now I need to sit up and pay attention—as if I were in Adam and Eve’s place, faced with the same test they are facing, and with the stakes just as high. What would I do in such a circumstance? How loyal would I be to Father? Which God (or would-be god) would I hearken unto?

Of course, we know how the story goes. Adam and Eve eat the bitter fruit proffered by the liar and are cast into exile. But now comes the important part of the story: We discover that our first parents are sufficiently courageous to begin repenting and making covenants with the Lord. We watch as they set the pattern for us to be saved along with them. We are inspired by their desire to come back into God’s presence. Their courage to repent invites our respect, honor, and emulation—even though their repentance process gets off to a pretty rocky start.17

How much more sacred does the scene of the Fall become to me when I realize that our parents failed and that I am now being similarly tested? How much more desperate am I for salvation when I realize that the path of sorrow is not what my God intended, and that dramatic rescue is now vital? Christ has paid––in full––the price of the Fall, as a ransom to the one whom I once (wittingly or not) claimed as master. This was all foreseen by omniscience and allowed through moral agency. Now it is up to me to take full advantage of that Atonement.

The entire temple experience takes on a new meaning as the pattern of administering the gift of moral agency to our first parents in Eden is made available to each of us: We are brought into a holy place, set in the presence of Father and taught by his voice. Then we are allowed to be tempted by the voice of the adversary, who speaks as one unopposed from a central bully pulpit. No one tells us that he is lying, but we must choose for ourselves individually and collectively––just as our first parents did––whether we believe Lucifer in preference to our Father. Will we likewise partake of that same forbidden fruit?

This new perspective also changed how I interpret the fig-leaf apron. Is it really a symbol of fertility, given to me through a prudent choice of disobedience to God? Well, consider who commanded the apron’s use in the first place! Perhaps it is now more fitting to see it as a symbol of cherishing Lucifer’s lies––that by wearing it I have not yet fully given myself over to Christ as I cling to Lucifer’s ownership. Perhaps I should seek the means to release myself from the fig leaves of betrayal, trading them for the palm fronds of true praise:

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands . . . (Revelation 7:9)

The paradoxes that plague our current interpretation of the Fall entirely dissipated as I simply chose to disbelieve Lucifer and to believe God at face value. The pre-endowment presentation became more relevant to my own condition before God, presenting me with the same test of moral agency that our first parents faced. This new temple perspective promotes honor and reverence to Mother Eve and Father Adam not for their perceived courage to obey Lucifer, but rather for their exemplary willingness to repent from having obeyed him! It also allows me to honor and revere the temple, not for the secret teachings of Lucifer, but rather for the sacred opportunity to be tested, to be found true, and to covenant with God!

President Monson was recently quoted in the October 2016 Ensign First Presidency Message, “The greatest lesson we can learn in mortality, is that when God speaks and we obey, we will always be right.”18 I believe that these words bespeak an eternal principle, timeless and unchanging. I believe that the principle is not only true that we can always be right, but the same was also true at the great test of the first estate, in the Grand Council of Heaven, as well as at the first test of the second estate, in Eden. Even our first parents can take that principle “to the bank” in Eden: Obedience to God always makes us right. Because they failed that test, we can only rejoice that our parents later taught us to repent and continually seek our Father.

I can still find eternal joy through the atoning “Plan-B” Plan of Salvation: redemption and rescue by the Lord whom I now may praise and worship without equivocation or excuse: Jesus Christ, master of my soul and my sole Master.

Notes

1. “Hugh Nibley, ‘Adam and Eve’ (Pearl of Great Price Lecture Series – 19),” YouTube, The Maxwell Institute, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XpdC4nJ-o0 (accessed 17 November 2016).

2. We Latter-day Saints normally take this verse as an unquestioned core element of our traditional theology. The clear message speaks for itself and typically leads us to vaunting the special insight we gain “only from modern revelation” and supposing to ourselves the otherwise childless and purposeless would-be parents moping forever in a boring garden . . . unless they did what God really intended, which was—reluctantly, but obviously—to break his own commandment (it must not have been a real commandment, and its breaking not a real sin): “And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient” (Moses 5:11).

3. She must be about my age, though, because I was in Institute then (though at the University of Utah), and asking similar questions!

4. D&C 130:20–21, “There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.”

5. 2 Nephi 9:28–29, “O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish. But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God” (emphasis added).

6. He had married them, commanded them to procreate, and promised them joy and rejoicing in their posterity. It has really got to be much simpler than all the reasons we speculate in Gospel Doctrine class why God cannot provide the blessings from fulfilling his own commandment (see again the irrevocable Law of Heaven in D&C 130:20–21). We are so learned, we suffer from TMI: too much information from Lucifer in the temple where cultural taboo prevents discussion of his lies; too much information from beguiled (her word) Eve in Moses 5:11 and too much speculation from Lehi in 2 Nephi 2:22–24 after he had read Eve (see 1 Nephi 5:11) and tried to suppose (that word again, his word, per 2 Nephi 2:17) her yet-to-be-repented (see Moses 5:8) deluded rationalizations into his otherwise insightful 2 Nephi 2 sermon.

7. 1 Nephi 3:7, “And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.”

8. Lucifer’s statement “. . . for that is the way Father gained his knowledge . . .” leads directly to an anthropomorphic construction of God articulated by then-Elder Lorenzo Snow: “As man is, God once was . . .” Believing Satan’s lie creates a god who was once carnal, sensual, and devilish as we are now, and, in my opinion, is legitimately the most damning evidence that other Christians have that Mormons are not Christian, in spite of how nice we are, in spite of how charitable we are, and regardless of how intensely our marketing campaigns work to paint us as “normal.” I suggest we need to purge our practice of hearkening to Lucifer as a source of knowledge regarding the nature of God. Why should we complain about others using Joseph Smith’s enemies as his character witnesses when we ourselves use the eternal enemy of our God as his principal defining witness? Dropping our traditional belief in Lucifer’s lies is perhaps the most important ecumenical step we could take in truly uniting with fellow Christians against a common foe.

9. “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth” is a law of propaganda often attributed to the Nazi Joseph Goebbels. Among psychologists, something like this is known as the “illusion of truth” effect. Tom Stafford, “How Liars Create the Illusion of Truth,” BBC Online, 26 October 2016, http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20161026-how-liars-create-the-illusion-of-truth (accessed 17 November 2016).

10. 2 Nephi 2:24 is commonly used to suggest that God designed and intended all of this to happen in his great wisdom, and that this manipulation of Lucifer to fulfill his great will is simply part of God’s overall cunning plan. This leads to what I heard some missionaries once declare after teaching this lesson, “Boy, I would sure hate to play chess with God!” Such a view misses two key points: first, the fundamentally unchanging nature of an ever-righteous God who says what he means and means what he says (See Joseph Smith, Lectures on Faith 3:10, 11, 15, 16, 22; 4:19); and second, the fundamental nature of moral agency, in which God is “in charge” only insofar as having designed a means for us to experience opposition, make choices among legitimate alternatives, and to fully own all the consequences of our actions. He is clearly not manipulating our lives “behind the scenes.”

11. The devil is happy to play the fool when he succeeds in getting us to transpose notions of God’s true character with those of his own.

12. Our traditional––albeit unwitting––assignment of manipulation, cunning and duplicity to God’s behavioral patterns strikes me as blasphemous.

13. William of Ockham: a fourteenth-century Franciscan friar credited with the notion that complex problems are best solved using the simplest, minimum set of assumptions.

14. Dr. Nibley’s response represents the most common reaction to what is treated as an outlandish notion that there might have been “another way”: through absolute obedience to God. “Well, what was it then?” If I strictly follow the divine definition of truth in terms of what was, what is, and what is to come (D&C 93:24), then I can definitely offer possibilities about what has happened on other planets of God’s vast creation portfolio, in which there is naught but justice, truth, and peace; and in which there has been no society-encompassing fall (Moses 7:30–31). But if I respond hypothetically to what “might have been different, if only . . .”, then I stoop to the same forbidden source as Eve (compare Moses 5:11 to D&C 93:25), and my conjecture carries no more credibility than her rationalization.

C.S. Lewis well understood the limits of “coulda, shoulda, woulda,” placing them all into a common, irrelevant, and energy-wasting category. He did this even without the benefit we Latter-day Saints enjoy of the revelation in D&C 93:25, defining such conjecture as coming from the one who was a “liar from the beginning.” Lewis narrates his friend Ransom pondering as follows on page 45 in Perelandra, the second book in his little known series The Space Trilogy:

In vain did his mind hark back, time after time, to the book of Genesis, asking “what would have happened?” But to this the Darkness gave him no answer. Patiently and inexorably it brought him back to the here and now, and to the growing certainty of what it was here and now demanded. Almost he felt that the words “would have happened” were meaningless––near invitations to wander in what the Lady would have called an “alongside world” which had no reality.

Lewis was keenly aware of––and specifically avoided––the hypothetical by placing himself directly into the story as a first-person participant in a real-time event, even if imagining narrating Ransom’s story. For Lewis it is strikingly testimonial. As to the specifics of what it is like in an unfallen world, he described justice, truth and peace; but not without opposition, challenge, disappointment, and pain. He demonstrated satisfying personal growth experiences without the fallen influence of betrayal and sin. Again in Perelandra, Ransom is “called” to participate as an advocate for good while the devil from Earth attempts to beguile and enslave the first Lady of Perelandra. Lewis conveys Lucifer’s seductive sophistry most convincingly then compellingly persuades the Lady—and us—that we are better off obeying God’s commandments than falling.

From C.S. Lewis, Perelandra (New York: Collier Books, 1944), Lucifer’s voice begins on page 115:

“These other commands of his––to love, to sleep, to fill this world with your children––you see for yourself that they are good and they are the same in all worlds. But the command against living on the fixed island [comparable to the eating of the forbidden fruit] is not so. You have already learned that he gave no such command to my world. And you cannot see the goodness of it . . . It is forbidding for the mere sake of forbidding . . . In order that you may break it. What other reason can there be? It is not good. It is not the same for other worlds. It stands between you and all settled life, all command of your own days. Is not [Deity] showing you as plainly as he can that it was set up as a test––as a great wave you have to go over that you may become really [mature], really separate from him . . . He longs––oh, how greatly he longs––to see his creature become fully itself, to stand up in its own reason and its own courage even against him.”

“Lady,” said Ransom, “if I speak will you hear me?”

“This man has said that the law against living on the fixed island is different from the other laws, because it is not the same for all worlds and because we cannot see the goodness in it. And so far he says well. But then he says that it is thus different in order that you may disobey it. But there might be another reason.”

“I think He made one law of that kind in order that there might be obedience. In all these other matters what you call obeying Him, is but doing what seems good in your own eyes also. Is love content with that? You do them, indeed, because they are His will, but not only because they are His will. Where can you taste the joy of obeying unless He bids you do something for which His bidding is the only reason?”

(Lucifer’s voice, p.119) “Your deepest will, at present, is to obey him––to be always as you are now, only his beast or his very young child. The way out of that is hard. It was made hard that only the very great, the very wise, the very courageous should dare to walk in it, to go on––on without this smallness in which you now live––through the dark wave of his forbidding, into the real life, deep life with all its joy and splendor and hardness.”

“Listen, Lady,” said Ransom, “there is something he is not telling you. All this that we are now talking has been talked before. The thing he wants you to try has been tried before. Long ago, when our world began, there was only one man and one woman in it, as you and the King are in this. And there once before he stood as he stands now, talking to the woman. He had found her alone as he has found you alone. And she listened, and did the thing [Deity] had forbidden her to do. But no joy and splendor came of it. What came of it I cannot tell you because you have no image of it in your mind. But all love was troubled and made cold, and [Deity’s] voice became hard to hear so that wisdom grew little among them; and the woman was against the man and the mother against the child; and when they looked to eat there was no fruit on the trees, and hunting for food took all their time so that their life became narrower not wider.”

“He has hidden the half of what happened,” said [Lucifer]. “Hardness came out of it but also splendor. They made with their own hands mountains higher than your fixed island. They made for themselves floating islands greater than yours which they could move at will through the ocean faster than any bird can fly. Because there was not always food enough, a woman could give the only fruit to her child or her husband and eat death instead––could give them all, as you and your little narrow life of playing and kissing and riding fishes have never done, nor shall do till you break the commandment. Because knowledge was harder to find, those few who found it became more beautiful and excel above their fellows as you excel the beasts; and thousands were striving for their love. There is more. He has not told you that it was this breaking of the commandment which brought [Deity] to our world and because of which he was made man. He dare not deny it.”

“I will tell you what I say,” answered Ransom, “of course good came of it. Is [Deity] a beast that we can stop His path, or a leaf that we can twist His shape? Whatever you do, He will make good of it. But not the good He had prepared for you if you had obeyed Him. That is lost forever. The first King and first Mother of our world did the forbidden thing; and He brought good of it in the end. But what they did was not good; and what they lost we have not seen. And there were some to whom no good can nor ever will come.”

“You,” Ransom said, “tell her all. What good came to you? Do you rejoice that [Deity] became a man? Tell her of your joys, and of what profit you had when you made [Deity] and death acquainted.”

1. We should be careful rationalizing the Fall as something other than “sin,” since that is the word God himself uses to describe why the Tree of Life needs to be guarded so that his now-exiled children might not partake of the fruit thereof and live forever in their sins.

2. Exaltation is not the same as salvation. This usage of the term “exaltation” is precisely the original meaning of “keeping the second estate.” It is the direct “Plan-A” route to exaltation, without being required to be rescued, redeemed, ransomed, and snatched from damnation through the “Plan-B” Plan of Salvation coming at the horrific cost of Jesus’ Atonement. It is the notion of glory being added upon “for ever and ever” without the annoying interruption of having chosen to become carnal, sensual, and devilish, with a very small chance of ever regaining all the Plan-A opportunities. This is the very essence of the idea that there is another way, the preferred way!

And they who keep their first estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever. (Abraham 3:26)

1. Moses 5:4–11 documents the very first command to repent (v.8) and the first influence of the comforter (v.9) as our parents realized they were being rescued from their lonely exile away from the presence of the Lord. The scripture then subsequently and objectively records their delirious responses in v.10–11. But our parent’s responses reflect no understanding of the Plan of Salvation to be revealed later, as documented in Moses 6. Their reactions, in varying degrees, still reflect a tone of rationalizing their actions as evidenced by the fact that light only comes to us in obedience, never as a result of disobedience (D&C 93:26–28, 31, 37–39). In full repentance, the Holy Ghost gives us love, comfort, and relief from the sense of being saved, redeemed, snatched; but we must not assign to the Holy Ghost the deluded sense that “It sure is a good thing that I sinned after all because of how good it feels to repent, and just look at all the opportunities I would have missed if I hadn’t sinned.” It helps to keep in mind that they had only just been commanded to repent, and that that purging action––producing thoughts realigned to true principles––had yet to be consummated over time. Moses 6:48–62 documents their later learning of the Plan of Salvation and their full repentance.

2. Thomas S. Monson, “They Marked the Path to Follow,” Ensign, October 2007, 7.

The post Well, Dr. Nibley… I Do Have a Suggestion: Always Believe God, Always Disbelieve Lucifer appeared first on Sunstone.

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Clark Gilbert is tightening the orthodoxy clamps at BYU, just like Ernest Wilkinson did in the 1950s and 60s. Is this the best way to make BYU students into lifelong Latter-day Saints? Stephen Carter compares Wilkinson’s BYU with Gilbert’s and then talks about his own experience with two BYU professors who kept him engaged with the Church—because of their unique mix of faithfulness and unorthodoxy.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SLP-191.mp3The post E191: How to Spot an Unorthodox BYU Professor. appeared first on Sunstone.

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Dive into the chaotic and fascinating history of the Utah War with Lindsay and Bryan. They’ll unravel how political paranoia, religious zeal, and national stereotypes collided in the 1850s, leading to guerrilla warfare, fiery rhetoric from Brigham Young, and nearly one-third of the U.S. Army marching into Utah Territory. Was it truly a “bloodless war”? How did polygamy and propaganda shape perceptions? From raids to scorched-earth tactics, this podcast explores the stranger-than-fiction events behind Netflix’s American Primeval with insights from those who consulted on the series. History has never been this wild—or this entertaining.

SHOWNOTES:

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SHP_140.mp3* Deseret News archivesThe Nauvoo Legion and the Prevention of the Utah War
By BRANDON J. METCALF * Bigler, David L. Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847-1896 * Furniss, Norman F. The Mormon Conflict, 1850-1859 * MacKinnon, William P. At Sword’s Point: A Documentary History of the Utah War * Poll, Richard D. and William P. MacKinnon. “Causes of the Utah War Reconsidered,” Journal of Mormon History * Schindler, Harold. Orrin Porter Rockwell: Man of God, Son of Thunder * Bagley, Will. Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows * “The Aiken Party Executions and The Utah War, 1857-1858” by David L. Bigler * “Lonely Bones: Leadership and Utah War Violence” by William P. MacKinnon * “Fort Limhi: The Mormon Adventure in Oregon Territory, 1855-1858” by David L. Bigler * “Russian Writers Look at Mormon Manners, 1857-72” by Leland A. Fetzer * “The Utah War: The Hold Mormons Had on Utah Is Broken, 1857–1858” by Harold Schindler * House Executive Document 71, 35th Congress * Annual Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1857

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Sterling M. McMurrin had only been a seminary teacher for two years before the president of the Church, Heber J. Grant, wanted to fire him. And he camped at the edge of excommunication for the rest of his life. McMurrin recalls these turbulent, and comic, years in this episode.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SLP-190.mp3The post E190: Camping at the Edge of Excommunication. appeared first on Sunstone.

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Much is made in the LDS Church about how David Whitmer, one of the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, never recanted his testimony, even though he left the Church. What they don’t tell you is that it was precisely his testimony of the Book of Mormon that drove him out. In this episode, Karl C. Sandberg tells the rest of Whitmer’s story, showing how Whitmer, B. H. Roberts, and Werner Heisenberg represent three different types of believers—all offering something completely different.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SLP-189.mp3The post E189: Three Kinds of Believers. appeared first on Sunstone.

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The Sunstone Mormon History Podcast recently took off their “regular chronology” hat for a minute and put on the “fantastic new book” hat (it’s hot pink, thanks for asking). Lindsay and Bryan sat down with Katie Ludlow Rich and Heather Sundahl—authors of “50 Years of Exponent II” (published by Signature Books)—to talk about their book. Drawing on a combination of the huge (and fascinating) Exponent II archive, interviews and their own experiences, Katie and Heather trace the history from lovingly handcrafted origins to the digital world.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SHP_139.mp3SHOWNOTES:

• Buy the book: https://www.benchmarkbooks.com/pages/…
• Learn more about Exponent II: https://exponentii.org/
• Support Sunstone: https://sunstone.org/donate/

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In this gripping episode, Bryan and Lindsay delve into the controversial rumors of punitive castrations carried out by Mormon elders, focusing on figures like Bishop Warren Snow. They examine the source materials, weighing the evidence and context behind these shocking claims. Was this zealotry, justice, or something else entirely? Join the discussion as they bring historical analysis and perspective to a dark chapter of Mormon history. This episode is the audio adaptation of a video available on Sunstone’s YouTube channel.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SHP_138.mp3SHOWNOTES:

• John Peterson, “Warren Stone Snow, a Man in Between: The Biography of a Mormon Defender” (masters thesis, BYU).
• John Turner, “‘Things Are So Dark and Mysterious’: The Thomas Lewis Case and Violence in Early LDS Utah,” in Matthew L. Harris and Newell G. Bringhurst, eds. The LDS Gospel Topics Series: A Scholarly Engagement.
• Ann Eliza Young, Wife No. 19
• John D. Lee, Mormonism Unveiled

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Stepping up to the legendary lectern at the Cambridge Union was one of the most nerve-wracking and electrifying moments of my life. I felt like both a paradox and a provocation: an unexpected guest at the table of tradition.

The audible reaction to my introduction was both surreal and overwhelming. The room had to be gaveled to order when they announced me as a “Mormon Feminist.” This was a striking affirmation of the debate itself—whether feminism and religion are compatible—arguing for my very existence as a Mormon feminist. In that moment, I realized I was not just speaking for myself, but for countless others who inhabit the liminal spaces where faith and feminism converge, defying the expectations of many in the room who saw me as both an anomaly and an anachronism. It’s okay—fitting neatly into one mold has never been my strong suit.

The initial uproar could have been daunting, but what followed was nothing short of extraordinary. I was met with warmth, curiosity, and a level of intellectual generosity that left me in awe. The response to my speech—people sharing their stories, offering heartfelt encouragement, and even telling me I had changed their minds—was profoundly humbling. It was a moment that crystallized for me the power of dialogue and the enduring importance of spaces like the Cambridge Union.

The hospitality extended to me was exceptional, and I especially loved meeting the student ambassadors. To have been invited into such an illustrious space was an honor; to leave feeling connected, challenged, and changed was a gift.

Initially, my remarks were prepared to fit a ten-minute slot, but with the addition of two speakers, we were asked to condense our arguments to under eight minutes. What follows is the full version of my speech, where I argued against the House’s proposition that “Feminism and Religion are Incompatible.”

I am a woman born from seven generations of devout Mormon stock, with ancestors who carved their faith into the unforgiving lands of the American West. To shoulder the extreme, relentless burdens we faced, we needed powerful stories. Stories became the bedrock of our lives.

And in the world my people built, the rules were absolute. In this universe, as a woman, my place was clear: submissive, obedient, a willing sacrifice. What others called sexism, we called God’s plan—a divinely woven order where patriarchy was seen as natural law, deeply embedded not only in belief and ritual but in our legal, social, and cultural fabric.

For a time, this lens held because to leave it seemed as impossible as leaving the world itself. And even as I distanced myself from orthodoxy, I found echoes of this belief recapitulated outside my faith. Yes, the secular world, too, seemed shaped by these same unseen lines, as if patriarchy were as immutable as gravity, embedded in the law of all things.

And that’s the architecture I was raised in. A patriarchal religion that defined itself by the world it competed with to hobble women’s equity. But to diagnose Mormonism as the singular villain in the race against women’s rights is to ignore how other institutions uphold patriarchy, reinforcing its structure within religious spaces.

At its core, religion offers beliefs, practices, and values that attempt to elevate the human experience by providing meaning, purpose, and guidance.

In my experience, faith has fallen short of its promises, and the infection of sexism is just one of the many threads of oppression that moves through its body, constantly undermining its aim.

If you take feminism seriously in its goals, it seeks to liberate and move toward equality. So it’s in covenant with many things, including faith to accomplish these objectives.

Perhaps I’m wrong, and a secular heaven is really a kingdom of perfect Laïcité—where empirical certitude rules, and institutional abuse fades because the god who authored them is dying.

But that’s not my world. I’ll concede that mine’s rooted in complexity. I’ll even confess that I think the framing of the question we’re here to argue is an unhelpful one.

So I’ll defer to my roots as a good Mormon woman and I’ll apologize for my bad manners.

Feminism didn’t emerge in opposition to religion; it arose as a response to patriarchy itself. And it rose right in my own heart before I had a word or language for it.

I first encountered feminism as a young, orthodox mother in rural Utah. Raised in a harmful, isolated discourse, I absorbed its poison, believing my suffering was a personal failure—that the rules weren’t wrong; I was. Haunted by the impossible quest for perfection, I fell asleep each night bathed in shame. I closed my eyes comforted only by the image of a swinging noose.

But meeting women in my faith who resisted these narratives, who met me where I was at, without judgment or demands, was a revelation, transforming that noose into a ladder, lifting me from my own gallows and helping me find my voice. A voice silenced by the design of men who made the mistake of thinking we’d never find what we had a right to.

My ancestors deliberately sought to replicate the great American machine of conquest, trading secular abuses of power for religious ones. Why did they do that? Because humans, no matter how brave and grown, are scared little children when facing the sky, and we need a story. We’d rather have a bad story than no story at all.

When I first questioned narratives I had both inherited and perpetuated, I groped for new stories that would fill the void of the big question—one that, if I think many of us are really honest, we’re all asking: what the hell is going on here? How did all this happen and how did we let this happen?

Maybe that last part is just for those of us who leave religion, bewildered and shocked, wondering how we got out alive. So we search for kinder tales to tuck us in at night. I don’t know anyone who left religion who didn’t find a new story.

My current iteration of religion is one that blends mystic tarot-white girl nonsense, simulation theory, and Mormon prayers. And this is fine. I mean, my beliefs are bananas, but all of us hold magical beliefs, especially those of us that think we have it all figured out.

What I’m saying is, it’s all narrative in this big mystery of life.

We let science tell stories in data, let secular laws script morality, and let God fill in the gaps of the unknown—assigning villains as we please.

Having lived under dogma and then escaping to this supposed heaven of reason, it seems everywhere I go, no matter what banner is flown at power’s door, someone wants to hold someone else down. A boot on the neck by the state or by Jesus still makes it hard to breathe. Hierarchical power marries well with patriarchy—secular or sacred.

And I hate that. I hate that this pattern has been pervasive and consistent throughout history, in spite of feminist hermeneutics (which I adore, btw). Admitting they exist is not a defense for them. Let’s be clear on that. But we combat things we don’t like that show up in nature, not by praying them away in blind faith, but by making choices to build cultures that remediate them.

Culture is defined by our choices and we have the power and the capacity to decide which things in culture we will value and which things we will reject. And only part of culture is affected and reflected in religion.

Religions, especially the powerful ones, have been poor authors of equity. But that’s what human beings do, we make up stories. I can’t account for all the bad stories we tell in the world—not just in religion, but everywhere.

Clearly, some narratives are better than others, and some institutions are more vulnerable to unhealthy authority. But there is no story that the values of feminism don’t improve upon.

The patriarchal oppression I’ve lived first-hand, that took me to the brink, did not argue against compatibility, it argued for deeper integration.

So yeah, I’ll argue for the compatibility that saved my life.

Where there’s oppression, there’s resistance. Human beings resist. Resistance to harm makes for a protagonist in an individual human story. Use postmodern words or ancient ones. As I see it, feminism, though a modern word, is an old idea: negotiating your personal dignity no matter whose heel is against your cheek, no matter what culture defines you, no matter what era you’re constrained by.

When you see those poor polygamous women from my heritage—wearing prairie dresses on TV, married horrifically by older, patriarchal predators who try to coerce and control them with a heavenly father’s dictates—you’re only seeing the half of the hell they’re going through.

What you also must try to see, even when the camera stops rolling, is women that still find ways to negotiate their power and dignity over the course of their lives. Is that not feminism?

Sure, it’s not a pure, academic, gender-studies version that we’d like to convert them to, but it’s resistance just the same.

We so love to strip down those who suffer the most and rob them of dignity because it’s tempting to collapse a narrative and point the finger at religion.

But that’s a bad story, too—a harmful one. In my experiences in this space, it usurps the lives of victims and uses them to further our own agendas of pain and politics. Or maybe we just need our type of justice to feel pure, like our gods.

As we advocate for women, should we force them to comport to our idea of what a good woman looks like? Of what a good feminist looks like? Should we tell a dangerous story that’s incompatible with their lives?

Here’s a better story: There’s a human institution named religion, and He—ever Male—has a chronic, terminal disease. He’s afflicted with patriarchy.

But then he encounters the medicine of feminism, a reaction to patriarchy, a response to his debilitation. The two are compatible because they must be. Medicine doesn’t refuse to work within an afflicted body.

Our impatience with complexity seeks to shortcut the arc of history. It turns feminism into a religion instead of a cure. As a tool, it harmonizes; as a doctrine, it devolves into a crusade. But that’s not the only danger…

When we accept the question of this debate, we, whether by design or ignorance, offer a cruel choice to many women who have the least access to equity.

Pick one: feminism or religion.

And what this does, what this fundamentally does, is stops the medicine of better narratives from accessing the parts of the body most insulated by the diseases of oppression.

Arguing that feminism is incompatible with religion reeks of scarcity—something I know well, as my people are poor in love and rich in fear. Good theology is so often co-opted by fear, rooted in the belief that there’s only so much liberation to go around, and a single, one-true-path to get there. How is that any different from the beliefs in my faith that once harmed me?

Arguing that feminism and religion are inherently incompatible is to oversimplify a complex drama—84% of the world follows religions often entangled with patriarchy.

Feminism isn’t here to convert those traditions; it’s here to subvert harm. Otherwise, we only replicate the abuses we aim to dismantle, narrowing feminism’s power into prescriptive demands.

To believe you can eradicate religion or let feminism work in a vacuum is an insane proposition.

Leave that sort of magical thinking to old, white, male theologians. Religion—ancient and modern—is a deeply ingrained human construct. The question isn’t whether religion is flawed—that’s the wrong altar to kneel at tonight. The debate is about compatibility. Yet we talk as if religion can simply be exorcised from humanity. We aren’t getting rid of religion. Let a few more million years of evolution work on the human brain’s need to understand itself. Maybe Darwin will prove to be the prophet science dreamed him to be.

The work instead is to evolve towards healthier ideas in all spheres of being. To inject the opportunity to choose equity against the darkness of primal impulse.

Membership in major religions may be declining, but faith itself isn’t dying; it’s just resurrecting—into wellness cults, new-age spirituality, and other modern-day theologies of meaning.

In all of them the potential of feminism emerges. It exists as a response to patriarchy and shows up where it’s needed. Its power can be maximized if it’s met with hope and patience, because where feminism arises, it transmutes injustice to truth and excavates the hero in the heart of the oppressed. Feminism is always more powerful when it’s chosen and not imposed.

So let it integrate, not separate, itself from those who live under the propaganda papered by selfish authors. Do not cast it in opposition to the things it was meant to heal.

Feminism can be both bridge and ladder woven into even the most patriarchal structures, transforming them from within. In every institution, sacred or secular, feminism belongs—not to divide, but to enlighten and liberate. It’s a story worth telling, and good stories are good medicine, especially to those most sick.

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The following is a review of the 2024 film Heretic. The review contains light spoilers, but the heavy ones are placed in the endnotes so as to not ruin the film. (You can also listen to the Sunstone Podcast review of Heretic here: Spotify, Apple, Sunstone.)

A preamble:

Dear Father in Heaven, thank you for my blessings and thank you for good art.

Good art is like the promise of our baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit—it lights up the soul and burns with the power of rightness. And that’s exactly what the recent film Heretic did. It’s good art. And if I’m honest, I’ve been nervous to watch it because I knew it would stoke a little hell-fire in me.

Mormon representation on screen does that to all the Mormons I know. We are a community of people that really believe we should have a say in things that include us. Given our history, we’ve a pattern of being somewhat … territorial.[i] When that representation makes it to the big screen, it triggers our emotions and opens up old wounds.

I knew going in that I’d have to be aware of that impulse. Now after I’ve seen the film, I know exactly what levers it pulled at, and to be honest, most of mine are rooted in sin.

It’s okay. As a Mormon woman, I know my way around a confession, the guilt already softening the words as they leave my lips.

Forgive me, ancestors, for I have been ensnared by the chains of pleasure, pride, and movie-theater pickles. I enjoyed the film so much that envy has crept around me like flaxen cords, binding me with jealousy—that I didn’t write Heretic. It’s so brilliant, so incisively true, that I wish I’d thought of it first.

Damn y’all.

For a decade, I’ve been honing my craft, striving to tell Mormon stories that pierce the heart of our identity, that unveil our myths and hold them to the light. I’m deeply proud of the work I’ve done and profoundly grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given. Scaling my life’s passion to this level is nothing short of a dream, and I have no complaints. But I share this perspective to lend weight to my thesis. Over the past few years, I’ve come to understand just how elusive that piercing narrative truth can be: the kind that cuts through the noise and lands with precision. It’s so often lost in the maze of the Hollywood industrial complex—far harder to capture than most realize.

And it’s not like we make it easy for folks. Mormons are historically protective of how our narratives are told, constantly engaged in a holy war about how to frame our virtues and the excesses of our past. We’re really tangled up about artistic legitimacy being linked to a one, true depiction. But I believe Mormons’ loyalty to this kind of purity gets in the way of our taking the kind of risks good art sometimes requires. We’re not doing ourselves any favors when we limit our rubric to exact obedience.

I saw a critique of Heretic claiming it was inaccurate because the mission leader didn’t have a companion, and another noted the sister missionaries’ last names (Barnes and Paxton) weren’t “Mormon enough.” These critiques are distractions treated like cockroaches in our ice cream; they focus on small details that poison the whole.

But Art works differently than Mormonads. Perhaps it’s because we struggle to confront the real bugs and poison in our history—the elements that truly taint the story—so we project that discomfort onto minor, superficial inaccuracies in our depictions.

Details in media serve a purpose. Sometimes they are utilitarian, shaped by creative constraints like time, budget, or storytelling priorities. Real estate in a script is precious, and writers make deliberate choices to balance narrative flow and audience engagement. When a detail pulls us out of the story, it can be a reflection of our own biases or triggers, not necessarily a flaw in the story itself. The real question is: does it change the narrative?

As viewers, Mormons of all people should understand Hollywood’s impulse to maximize efficiency and profit—after all, capitalism is practically a cornerstone of our culture. But this capitalist instinct in storytelling sometimes feeds our own anxieties, making us fixate on details that aren’t “pure” or “resurrected” representations of our community. This boundary maintenance often lures us into the brambles, distracting us from the larger narrative at hand.

And yet …

Two non-Mormon writers just gave us a sermon on Mormon representation in Heretic, carving a truth so sharp it feels like it belongs to all of us.

As Carl Jung reminds us, “there are some things to which the ego must bow.” So here I am, bowing before the brilliance of a story that I’m so glad exists.

My Review:

Some films linger with you, haunting not just your thoughts but the quiet spaces between them. This one does so with an artistry and intelligence that is as disarming as it is devastating. From the very first scene, it was clear this wasn’t your typical horror fare. Where others might lunge straight for the jugular, with violence for pacing, this film wielded something subtler, smarter. It started with a hilarious tableau of sex and innocence, playfully invoking the Madonna-whore dichotomy—a long-running joke that Mormon women are often the punchline for.[ii] The film wants you to underestimate these women with a jumpgrab that announces: pay attention; we’re doing something different here.

The writing? Absolute chef’s kiss. The acting? Unflinchingly brilliant. The Mormon representation? #goals. Spot-on in a way that felt reverent and authentic, even as it interrogated the very foundation of belief. When that Moroni joke landed early on, I knew we were in good hands.[iii] It’s the kind of accuracy I strive for in projects I’m working on—accuracy that isn’t just surface-deep but steeped in an understanding of the culture’s soul.

Sophie Thatcher’s performance has deservedly dominated the conversation—her portrayal of the skeptic brimming with tension and raw humanity. But for me, it was Chloe East’s character, Sister Paxton, that unearthed something primal and tender.[iv] In her, I saw myself—or at least the self shaped by Mormon womanhood. From the outset, she exudes a kind of earnestness that’s so often mistaken for naïveté. Yet as the film unfolds, it becomes achingly clear that her innocence is not a lack of intelligence but a learned affect, a survival mechanism in a system that perpetually positions women as both sacred and suspect. Her choices—often misread as foolish—are acts of self-preservation.

There is something profoundly true in how the film captures the pressures Mormon women face. Modesty culture is not, at its core, about fabric or skin; it’s about fear. It’s about teaching girls to navigate a world where men are threats and then blaming them for the danger. Cover up, the system says, or you’ll get hurt. Chloe’s people-pleasing, her hesitance to disrupt, feels like the survival instinct of a thousand generations of women trying to carve safety out of a patriarchal labyrinth.

The dialogue’s exploration of intuition in the face of danger was another revelation. As women, we are taught to second-guess our instincts, to smile when we should scream, to accommodate when we should flee.[v] Yet this film refuses to punish its characters for trusting those instincts. Instead, it builds a narrative where intuition becomes not just a weapon but a salvation, as vital as faith itself.

The faith dynamic was another layer of brilliance. This was a story that began by dismantling belief and ended with miracles—a narrative arc that felt, in some ways, like a sermon. The film dared to affirm faith in a way that was complex, neither cynical nor naive. It left me asking myself: If I were Sister Paxton (Chloe East), would I stay in the church after witnessing such a miracle? Perhaps. But faith is rarely that simple, and this film knew that too.

Hugh Grant’s performance, though exceptional, left me wanting a touch more menace. As a woman in discussions of faith, I’ve met many Mr. Reeds—men eager to “enlighten” me on cosmic mysteries they assume I’m too simple to grasp. There was an opportunity to lean further into the specific kind of creepiness women recognize all too well—charm as weapon, control disguised as benevolence. Yet even without that edge, the film’s critique of patriarchal power within religious systems was scathing and incisive. Grant’s character wasn’t just a man; he was an archetype—a god, a gatekeeper, a warning.

I found myself agreeing with Taylor Petrey’s observation that the film is an inverted endowment ceremony, with Grant playing God and the women descending through degrees of hell. That they ended with veiled women, a potent symbol of both sanctity and silencing, felt like a stroke of brilliance—an understanding of Mormonism’s imagery so sharp it was almost unnerving. How did non-Mormons write this so well? Their homework wasn’t just thorough; it was revelatory, forcing us to ask—can we ever truly see ourselves, or does it take the eyes of an outsider to reveal who we are?

And yet, unlike so many horror films—and much of Hollywood—this film didn’t simply mine the reflection of Mormon trauma for entertainment, leaving our community to bear the real-world consequences. It didn’t just resist the voyeurism that often accompanies women’s suffering on screen. Instead, the thoughtful writing transmuted pain to reclamation. Yes, it was terrifying—watching women navigate a system designed to consume them always is—but it was also cathartic. The terror felt essential, not exploitative, because it was grounded in truth. An arc we can work with in our own lives—one that says: trust in who you are and where you came from.

Perhaps I experienced this differently than others in the theater. Proximity shapes perspective, and as a Mormon woman, I couldn’t help but see myself, my community, my history woven into every frame. But the audience’s collective engagement spoke volumes about the film’s power. It didn’t matter if you understood the nuances of Mormon theology or not; the story resonated because it tapped into something universal—faith, fear, resilience.

Latter-day Saints, whose community is built on complex and often conflicting narratives, should appreciate how the filmmakers used fiction to call on truth. Yet, Mormons and ex-Mormons alike often resist viewing their stories as material for fiction, insisting they must be either entirely true or entirely false—when, in reality, the truth of Mormon narratives is far more nuanced. This film gave us both, by placing characters who rang true, in fictional situations.

More than that, Heretic was a testament to the importance of involving people from the community being represented. The two actors who played the sister missionaries have a Mormon background, and it shows.[vi] Their presence points the film’s algorithm to truth. My hope is that this sets a precedent, that more creators will recognize the wealth of talent within marginalized communities and collaborate with them to tell stories that are rich, real, and resonant.

Too often, projects exploit Mormonism for its pain, telling our stories without care for the impact or the communities they depict. This film felt different.[vii] It engaged with the struggles and harms at the heart of our experiences, but it did so with purpose and respect. It wasn’t just entertainment—it was a thoughtful resistance to the very systems and dynamics it portrayed. In the end, I walked away deeply impressed by its craft and courage. This was a film that tackled big, complicated ideas with clarity and intention, leaving the audience with not just a story but a sense of meaningful reflection and connection.

While most filmmakers aim for the stars, Heretic dares something far more celestial:[viii] it descends into the human soul. It doesn’t flatten Mormons into caricatures or punchlines but engages them as fully realized people—fallible, searching, flawed, and alive. To obsess over small inaccuracies would be to miss the film’s richer offering: a narrative that transcends faith to interrogate the universal. It wrestles with the collision of internal power and external control, the machinery of greed and lust disguised as righteousness. Yet at its heart is a reminder, a revelation: within us burns something more potent than systems, more resilient than dogma—a quiet, unquantifiable force that refuses to be subdued. That is the triumph of Heretic: not just good art, but art that reaches into the marrow and sinew of existence and insists we see what we too often miss. Something just at the tip of your finger, waiting to be paid attention to.

NOTES

[i] Is this a Utah War joke? Yes, yes it is.

[ii] The film’s opening scene immediately grabs the audience with its provocative juxtaposition: two young, attractive LDS sister missionaries sit on a bus bench, discussing sex in the form of “porno-graphy”—a word Sister Paxton (Chloe East) hilariously mispronounces—while a massive condom advertisement looms behind them. Sister Paxton earnestly tries to reframe a pornographic image she’s encountered into a faith-affirming narrative, justifying her need to analyze it. Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher), distracted by her own inner thoughts, listens with minimal engagement. Her eventual response, delivered like a sharp accusation, asking if she actually watched the “porn”—makes Paxton visibly recoil in quiet shame.

[iii] Hugh Grant’s character, Mr. Reed, pronounces the name of the Book of Mormon prophet Moroni to rhyme with “macaroni,” triggering Mormons’ boundary maintenance impulse—a subtle way they gauge who is “in” or “out” of their community. The sister missionaries correct him to the familiar “more-own-nye,” highlighting how pronunciation often serves as a litmus test for accuracy and authenticity in Mormon representation.

[iv] While Sister Barnes’s skepticism is more overt, this scene reveals that Sister Paxton is also grappling with her world, though in a different way. She’s striving to stay obedient to the worldview she was raised with, yet her curiosity is undeniable. She’s questioning the role of women, their power, and their representation—all while navigating the constraints of her faith. This tension invites the viewer into the film with a compelling exploration of identity and belief right from the start.

[v] If I have one note on the script, it’s that the writers could have pushed this further: missionaries, especially women, will endure almost any abuse to secure a baptism, driven by a fear of seeming rude or unpleasant. While the film teases this people-pleasing impulse, I think Mr. Reed’s character could have been even creepier, and the missionaries would likely still have stayed.

[vi] Writer Bryan Woods said in an interview with the Daily Beast: “We chose Mormonism as the entry point for this larger, broader conversation of all religions because it is a very new religion. If you’re talking about major world religions, it is the biggest, newest religion. Which means that its history is so recent that it’s easy to pick apart historical problems with it. It’s a very good entry point. It’s also an American religion. It’s the only American Christ narrative in world religions, and that is amusing to us as Americans. Then on top of that, our personal connections to the faith. We felt like we know Mormons. I married into a Mormon family. I’m not Mormon, but my wife’s family is, and we felt like we had an opportunity to present an authentic Mormon depiction that’s not condescending, that’s not making fun of them. We wanted to write two Mormon missionary characters that, yes, they’re a little naive, they’re young, they grew up in a certain mindset, but there’s a lot of depth there and they’re really smart and they’re kind of fucking cool. That was exciting to us as well.”

[vii] The film concludes with a profound irony: the very miracles it seeks to dismantle persist, unresolved and undeniable. This reflects a universal truth that transcends any single faith—the mysteries of existence defy explanation, categorization, or control. Mr. Reed claims the one true religion is control, but the film ultimately reveals a deeper truth: the most profound connection is not external or imposed, but innate—a thread within every soul, uniting us to a vast and inexplicable reality.

Sister Paxton’s courage and persistence shine in this journey. Her determination to wrestle with the tension between doubt and belief becomes a quiet act of defiance and self-affirmation. In the end, the universe gifts her with a meaning she wasn’t expecting—a moment that reaffirms not just her faith, but her faith in herself. The film leaves us questioning not whether belief is true or false, but whether its beauty and power lie precisely in its unprovable nature. It reminds us that the search for meaning is itself a miracle, one uniquely ours to experience. One not proven or disproven by the logic of men, or god, but one felt inside the heart.

[viii] Am I making a Kolob reference? Probably.

The post The Patriarchal Labyrinth: A Review of “Heretic” appeared first on Sunstone.

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In the movie “Heretic,” Mr. Reed is the logical conclusion of many parts of Mormonism. And they threaten to destroy Mormonism’s best parts. Join Stephen Carter on a deep dive into Heretic’s multi-faceted story.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SLP-188.mp3The post E188: “Heretic” and the War Within Mormonism. appeared first on Sunstone.

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In Part Three of our series on the Mormon Reformation, we dive into the most harrowing chapter yet. This episode uncovers the brutal measures Mormons took against apostates and outsiders during this period of fiery zeal, exploring the violent and gory tactics used to enforce loyalty and obedience. We also delve into the dark side of polygamy, exposing some of the most abusive and coercive marriages that emerged during the Reformation’s fervor. It’s an unflinching look at the extremes of faith, fear, and control in a community on fire with religious devotion.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SHP_137.mp3SHOWNOTES:

• “‘You Nasty Apostates, Clear Out’: Reasons for Disaffection in the Late 1850s,” Journal of Mormon History 30, no. 2 (Fall 2004): 132–33. Aird’s own ancestor, Peter McAuslan, joined others during this period that left Mormonism, chronicled in her book Mormon Convert, Mormon Defector.
• Shakers, Mormons, and Religious Worlds: Conflicting Visions, Contested Boundaries (Indiana University Press, 2010), 171.
• Brigham Young, sermon of March 2, 1856, Journal of Discourses, 3:226.
• A brief history of Springville, Utah : from its first settlement September 18, 1850 to the 18th day of September, 1900 : fifty years by Johnson, Don Carlos
• A Tangled Skein edited by Leslie Klinger
• Rocky Mountain Saints by T.B.H. Stenhouse

The post Episode 137: Mormon Reformation, part three appeared first on Sunstone.

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What happens when you grow apart politically from a parent? In this episode, Bryan Waterman looks back over the years he spent with his father—both at home and at school—and how they learned to live together.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/SLP-187.mp3The post E187: Four Looks at My Father. appeared first on Sunstone.

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In part two of our deep dive into the Mormon Reformation, Lindsay and Bryan explore how the movement intensified under the leadership of Jedediah Morgan Grant, Brigham Young, and Heber C. Kimball. As the push for purity reached its peak, controversial doctrines like blood atonement and plural marriage took center stage, along with the surprising emphasis on the importance of bathing and physical cleanliness. With public confessions and strict enforcement, the early Saints faced growing pressure to conform, as the leaders drove the community toward extreme obedience and spiritual reform.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/SHP_136.mp3SHOWNOTES:

• Wilford Woodruff and the Mormon Reformation of 1855-57 by Thomas G. Alexander
• Shakers, Mormons, and Religious Worlds by Stephen Taysom
• The Mormon Reformation by Paul Peterson
• The Mormon Reformation A Historiographical Essay by Julie Harris Adams
• Confessions of a Revisionist Historian: David L. Bigler

The post Episode 136: Mormon Reformation, part two appeared first on Sunstone.

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In this episode, Lindsay and Bryan wrap up the story of Jedediah Morgan Grant, the “Sledgehammer of Mormonism,” as they dive into the final chapter of his life. From his rise to prominence in Salt Lake City as mayor and Brigham Young’s right-hand man, to his fiery leadership in the intense spiritual revival known as the Mormon Reformation, Grant’s zeal for purifying the faith left a lasting impact on the early LDS Church.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/SHP_135.mp3SHOWNOTES:

• Wilford Woodruff and the Mormon Reformation of 1855-57 by Thomas G. Alexander
• Shakers, Mormons, and Religious Worlds by Stephen Taysom
• The Mormon Reformation by Paul Peterson
• The Mormon Reformation A Historiographical Essay by Julie Harris Adams
• Confessions of a Revisionist Historian: David L. Bigler

The post Episode 135: Mormon Reformation, part one appeared first on Sunstone.

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People need organizations to help us fulfill our potential. However, organizations are never entirely safe. In this episode, J. Bonner Ritchie explores how the LDS Church functions and how members can transcend its inherent organizational dangers.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/SLP-185.mp3The post E185: Can You Avoid Organizational Abuse in the Church? appeared first on Sunstone.

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Stephen Carter takes you on a tour of various afterlife theologies—from Ancient Greek to LDS to New Age—to see if he can believe in one.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/SLP-184.mp3The post E184: The Afterlife: A Celestial Six-pack or a Ten-mile Gut? appeared first on Sunstone.

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Join hosts Lindsay and Bryan as they smash into the life and legacy of one of Mormonism’s most fiery and controversial figures: Jedediah Morgan Grant, also known as “Brigham’s Sledgehammer.” Buckle up; it’s about to get heavy…

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/SHP_134.mp3SHOWNOTES:

• Mormon Thunder: A Documentary History of Jedediah Morgan Grant

The post Episode 134: Before They Were Famous: Jedediah Grant appeared first on Sunstone.

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Join Lindsay as she sits down with Phillip B. Gottfredson to delve into one of the most significant yet often overlooked chapters in Utah’s history—the Black Hawk War of 1865. In this gripping conversation, they explore the complex and brutal conflict that erupted between Mormon settlers and Native American tribes, led by the Ute war chief Antonga Black Hawk. With over 150 battles, raids, and skirmishes spread across central and southern Utah, the war not only altered the course of settlement but also profoundly impacted the Ute, Southern Paiute, Apache, and Navajo tribes. Tune in to uncover the untold stories, the struggles for survival, and the legacy of this war that shaped Utah’s landscape and history.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/SHP_133-2.mp3SHOWNOTES:

• Phillip’s website and history of the Black Hawk war
• Sanpitch Saga
• Utah’s Black Hawk War: lore and reminiscences of participants

The post Episode 133: The Black Hawk War appeared first on Sunstone.

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Welcome to our Scandinavian Summer Smorgesbord, where we serve up hot takes on cold historical facts! In this episode, we finally let Lindsay dig into her family roots—think less Ancestry.com and more “My Grandparents Were the Cigarette-Dispensing Rebels of Fountain Green.” Bryan tries (and fails) to dodge another round of Scandinavian sagas, but Lindsay’s not letting him off the hook that easily. With shoutouts to Sister Debra, aka the family tree whisperer, and tales of Danish grandpas puffing cigars in shacks, this episode is a hearty stew of Mormon history, small-town legends, and more sass than you can shake a stick at. Tune in, laugh out loud, and maybe even learn something—probably by accident.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/SHP_132.mp3SHOWNOTES:

• Become a Sunstone History Podcast recurring donor
• History of San Pete County
• Encyclopedia of Mormonism​​
• Brigham City History Project.
• History of the Norwegian People in America
• Church’s Historian Press
• Danish but not Lutheran: The Impact of Mormonism on Danish Cultural Identity
• Music: Yodel Blues – The Petersens (LIVE), DELMORE BROTHERS – Lonesome yodel blues – 1933, Jimmie Rodgers – Blue Yodel No 1 (T For Texas), The Laughing Song – George W. Johnson (1898)

The post Episode 132: Fountain Green and the Mormons appeared first on Sunstone.

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In 1972, Marylee Mitcham started a quasi-monastic Catholic community, where she lived for ten years. Later, when she joined the LDS Church, she learned that one of her ancestors had started a branch of the United Order in early Utah. Mitcham narrates her fascinating religious history in this episode.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/SLP-182.mp3The post E182: The Search for God in Intentional Community. appeared first on Sunstone.

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LDS scholar Hugh Nibley became a legend in his own time. But how many of the legends were real and how many were fantasies? In this episode, Boyd Petersen digs into the facts behind the stories.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/SLP-181.mp3The post E181: Hugh Nibley: The Man and the Legend. appeared first on Sunstone.

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Dive into the fascinating blend of history and personal stories in the latest episode of the SMHP podcast! Lindsay and Bryan take a deep, heartfelt dive into the rich tapestry of Mormonism’s Scandinavian past, exploring Lindsay’s connection to her ancestors and the unique impact of Danish Mormon migration to Utah as well as the Scandinavian mission that involved Danish, Swedish and Norwegian Saints.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/SHP_131.mp3SHOWNOTES:

• Become a Sunstone History Podcast recurring donor
• History of San Pete County
• Encyclopedia of Mormonism​​
• Brigham City History Project.
• History of the Norwegian People in America
• Church’s Historian Press
• Danish but not Lutheran: The Impact of Mormonism on Danish Cultural Identity

The post Episode 131: The Scandinavian Mission appeared first on Sunstone.

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Religious conversion and trauma have very similar structures, but with one important difference. In this episode, Stephen Carter draws on Adam Phillips, Julie Hanks, and Prentis Hemphill to explore what happens when people enter a religion, and what happens when they leave.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/SLP-180.mp3The post E180: Is Conversion a Type of Trauma? appeared first on Sunstone.

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Join Bryan and Lindsay for another episode of Before They Were Famous! This time, starring tall-guy and early Latter-day Saint leader, Charles Coulson Rich.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/SHP_130.mp3SHOWNOTES:

• Become a Sunstone History Podcast recurring donor
• Charles C. Rich: Mormon General and Western Frontiersman by Leonard Arrington

The post Episode 130: Before They Were Famous: Charles C. Rich appeared first on Sunstone.

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The SMHP recently sat down with Dr. Matt Harris to discuss his hotly-awaited new book “Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality” (Oxford University Press). Harris’s book is full of fascinating new sources and fresh insights into the rise and fall of the temple and priesthood ban. Check out the conversation!

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/SHP_129.mp3SHOWNOTES:

• Become a Sunstone History Podcast recurring donor

The post Episode 129: Dr. Matt Harris, Second Class Saints appeared first on Sunstone.

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The LDS Church’s mammoth audiovisual infrastructure stems largely from the early efforts of one man. James E. Talmage.

Ninety years after his death, Elder James E. Talmage of the Quorum of the Twelve is primarily remembered as an intellectual defender of his faith and the author of several lengthy theological books like The Articles of Faith and Jesus the Christ. But thirty years before he entered full-time Church service, he was a polymathic scientist and orator, activities which quickly transformed him into a prototypical documentary filmmaker.

Born in England in 1862, Talmage was raised in the Church and began his education at various primary schools before his family moved to Provo, Utah when he was fourteen. He studied chemistry and biology at Lehigh and Johns Hopkins Universities, and put his newfound knowledge to use by supporting academic and social causes back in Provo. He began giving fundraising lectures for institutions like the Provo Free Reading Room, the forerunner of the public library, and quickly became one of the most popular speakers in Provo and Salt Lake City. Depending on his topic, he might include scientific experiments or other visual aids in his presentations, and thus quite early in his speaking career he secured a camera and began illustrating his lectures with the magic lantern.

Dating back to the 1600s, the magic lantern was a small box that illuminated a glass slide, thus casting a projection like a twentieth-century slide projector. By the late 1880s they had progressed technologically past flame and even gaslight to utilize electric lightbulbs, with some versions, called stereopticons, equipped with dual lenses that could create fades and other optical effects. The projected images would be accompanied by a spoken narration of tales like The Pilgrim’s Progress or Ben-Hur, or, as in Talmage’s case, factual presentations.

Talmage’s first recorded magic lantern lecture was “The Earth’s Formation” in February 1885. He followed that with dozens of others such as “A History of the Earth” (April 1887), “An Hour with the Insects” (November 1890), “Fragments of Earth-lore” (February 1894), and the wonderful “Geology, Historical Sketch of the Sciences: In the Beginning, the Geological Record; Development and Progress Declared by the Rocks: Unity of Design Apparent; illustrated by stereopticon views” (March 1895).

Lectures like these used either Talmage’s illustrations or photographs printed on the glass slides, which by itself makes him akin to a prototypical educational filmmaker (motion pictures were not presented to the public until December 1895). But he moved even more into the role of a traditional documentarian when he started photographing his European travels and using these to relate a history of the places he visited. The first of these was apparently “Pompeii, a City of the Past” in November 1894, followed by presentations about Rome, Finland, tsarist Russia, and elsewhere. The Salt Lake Herald reported that his 1897 lecture “The Eternal City,” about Rome, featured “very fine and numerous” slides, with images of “the catacombs, ruins, the cathedrals and other objects of interest, [which] lent a vividness and reality to the word paintings.”

So popular did his presentations become that he became the top fundraiser on the Utah lecture circuit. He repeatedly filled both the Assembly Hall and the Tabernacle on Temple Square—then the largest assembly room in the United States. Usually charging either ten or fifteen cents per person, he raised money for the Deseret Museum, local kindergartens, and Church organizations like the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement League, which received a staggering $500 from one of his lectures. When he created sequels to his Russia and Pompeii lectures, the local papers predicted “the tabernacle will without doubt be thronged,” which apparently proved true.

Other considerations took his attention by the 1900s, but in 1911 when someone took illicit photographs inside the Salt Lake Temple and attempted to extort the First Presidency in exchange for repressing them, it was Talmage who promoted the idea of the Church itself commissioning high-quality photos and releasing them as an official publication. President Joseph F. Smith jumped at the idea and asked Talmage to write a book—which became The House of the Lord—to accompany the photos—though they were also sold as magic lantern slides in New York City. Smith called Talmage as an apostle while the work was underway.

Had he had access to the inexpensive and lightweight 16mm filmmaking equipment invented in the 1930s, James Talmage surely would have filmed his foreign tours and presented those to the paying public. As it was, he got as close as he could, and in the process helped acclimatize Mormon leaders and lay members to the idea of using visual media in their worship. It was a memory of one of Talmage’s lectures, this one about Utah and given in Scotland, that transformed David O. McKay into a lifelong champion of Church filmmaking, which he encouraged from the 1930s until his death.

The post James E. Talmage: Documentarian appeared first on Sunstone.

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Is the story of Korihor the story of a missed opportunity? In the Book of Mormon, an anti-Christ named Korhior is struck dumb by Alma using the power of God. Could there have been a neurological contributor to Korihor’s sudden loss of speech? But even more importantly, could Korihor have been rehabilitated, physically and spiritually, …

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Ever wondered what Amasa Lyman was up to before he became the 13th apostle of the LDS Church? What’s that? You’ve never heard of a 13th apostle before? Join Bryan and Lindsay as we rewind the clock to uncover the surprising and untold early life of Amasa Lyman. Before he was the (13th) apostle of the LDS Church, he was a man of unexpected twists, trials, and spiritual adventures. Discover how a humble beginning set the stage for his extraordinary legacy.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/SHP_128.mp3SHOWNOTES:

• Register for the Sunstone Summer Symposium
• Become a Sunstone History Podcast recurring donor

The post Episode 128: Before They Were Famous: Amasa Lyman appeared first on Sunstone.

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One of the darkest episodes in Utah history, an 1873 lynching and subsequent coverup in the Mormon settlement of Logan, has resurfaced with the unearthing of bones in a remote corner of the Logan city cemetery.

It’s interesting that this stark case of frontier justice would come back to light right now when our nation is embroiled in so much debate and controversy involving the rule of law and fairness in the legal system. But don’t ghosts from the past often have impeccable timing?

Nobody was ever prosecuted for the lynching of suspected Logan murderer Charlie Benson, possibly due to intimidation of witnesses along with the turning of a blind eye toward the matter by officialdom—and those are subplots that also resonate strongly in the 2020s.

Benson, the eldest son of early-day Mormon apostle Ezra T. Benson, was pulled from a jail cell by armed and angry locals on a cold February day in 1873 and strung up, of all places, on the sign in front of the town’s courthouse. One of many stories handed down from that time suggest Benson, found fleeing on the outskirts of Logan, had surrendered to a posse on the condition he receive a fair trial.

But he was a notoriously rowdy and disliked local character, and after he shot and killed the sheriff’s brother following a night of drinking at a local establishment, his hot temper caught up with him in a big way. The morning he was arrested for the killing, an angry mob of locals formed outside the courthouse that doubled as a jail, and they had a rope.

As a long-time managing editor of the newspaper in Logan, I knew the Charlie Benson story well from history columns written by A.J. Simmonds, the now-deceased curator of Utah State University’s Department of Special Collections and Archives. Simmonds, a local legend in his own right, used a wide variety of contemporaneous accounts, diary entries, and other records to paint a detailed picture of that fateful time. His narratives were republished in a book produced by the newspaper titled In God’s Lap, borrowing a phrase the author often used to describe his beloved Cache Valley.

According to Simmons, one of several witnesses to the vigilante action was “beaten senseless and left in the snow” after loudly announcing he was going to summon the U.S. marshal in Salt Lake City to investigate Benson’s death. The man was also reportedly told there was room for more on the courthouse sign. A local coroner’s report, made out the afternoon of the lynching, noted Benson’s death at the hands of a mob but simply left it at that.

Though not investigated, word of the hanging traveled around the region, resulting in an editorial in the Salt Lake Daily Tribune warning against the institution of “lynch law” in the territory.

“The lynching of Charles A. Benson is an act to be deplored, no matter how deserving the criminal might have been,” the editorial stated. “Society must be made secure at any cost, and if lynching once be countenanced there is no knowing where it may end, at what moment a mob of irresponsible persons may pounce upon their victims, or how soon we may have in Utah a reign of terror.”

Benson’s remains wound up in an unmarked grave, but cemetery records giving the exact location inexplicably disappeared sometime after the sexton transferred ledger entries to a card-filing system in the 1930s. By that time, stories about the lynching and unceremonious burial were deeply imbedded in local lore, which makes one wonder if someone wanted history to forget the shameful events of 1873.

Still, present-day cemetery workers had good reason to believe Benson was buried in the largely vacant northeast corner of the grounds, and when a road-widening project began recently on the eastern boundary, they had a hunch something might turn up. They were right.

It’s uncertain the bones are Benson’s. That will require a determination by state anthropologists, who visited Logan in early June to gather the remains. Either way, the discovery has prompted an important revisitation of history at a curiously appropriate time.

Like so many judicial matters dividing Americans today, there were numerous religious, political, and cultural crosscurrents at play in early day Logan, not the least of which was the relation of the shooting victim to the sheriff. In a fair and just society, nothing of this sort should factor into the application of the law.

In his retelling of the Logan lynching, historian Simmonds noted that the shock of what happened that day in 1873 had a sobering effect on the populace. The suspects in subsequent killings, including that of a telegraph operator a short time later, were dealt with inside, not outside, the courthouse.

Simmonds, incidentally, died in a 1995 natural gas explosion at his ancestral Cache Valley home that police ruled a suicide. Among many things Simmonds was known for was his unwitting mentorship of one of America’s most notorious historic-document forgers, Mark Hoffman, who remains imprisoned for two murders carried out to cover his misdeeds. Simmonds, of course, had no idea what his intern in USU Special Collections and Archives was capable of or would go on to do, but friends say he never got over it.

The post A Lynched Apostle’s Son is Haunting Us … Again appeared first on Sunstone.

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The Woman’s Exponent supported women’s suffrage, but it didn’t seem to have a lot of faith in what women would do with it.

For example, the 1 August 1872 issue explained why women would be unable to vote wisely. If women voted, it said, they should be able to

“form a clear and irreprehensible judgment; but they have not cultivated those faculties. Their attention has been given to other things; and they are, therefore, unqualified, the majority of them, to act wisely in the capacity they so earnestly seek.”

However, assuming that women were given the chance to focus their attention on civic matters, the Exponent wasn’t sure that women wouldn’t abuse political power the way men do. But it did believe that women were qualified to function as a kind of political air freshener:

“The fact that the motives of women are purer, their sentiments more refined and elevated than those of men, should be sufficient testimony that the right of suffrage ought to be conceded to them. Not that they may teach men wisdom by their superior intelligence, but that they may exert their more beneficient [sic] and chaste influences in endeavoring to purify the social atmosphere.”

But obtaining equal status with men would be an uphill battle. For example, the Exponent reports that as a wedding gift, a groom, thinking to honor his new wife, presented her with an original transcript of one of the first telegrams sent from Baltimore to Washington. It had been sent to the bride’s grandmother announcing the bride’s birth. It read “only a girl.”

The Exponent staff probably wanted to throw metaphorical bricks at that groom.

Those in favor of female suffrage had to deal with misguided but common opinions on why women should not vote. One often repeated reason was that voting would blunt a woman’s ability to bear and care for children. The Exponent was worried about the health of women as well, but thought it had much more to do with the way women dressed than their ability to vote. For example, the 15 August 1872 issue includes an article titled “Why Women Are Weak.” The main cause? Fashion.

The article was alarmed at the thin underclothes women wore, as well as the custom of baring the neck and arms, all of which was assumed to affect blood circulation and thus the health of the skin. Also under suspicion was the corset: “a rack of steel and whalebone about all the vital organs of the body.” The heaviness of long skirts affected the ability of a woman to walk—“if, indeed, we apply that term to the infantile toddle to which women are driven, thus endangering her life on all occasions.”

The article then decries the fact that the homebound occupations of a woman forbid her from taking exercise in the open air, of enjoying a change of scene, and becoming acquainted with the larger world. It concludes, “shall we find it a matter of surprise that women as a race are diseased and feeble, and are bestowing upon the world a future legacy of diseased and feeble children?”

From the publication of this article, these “diseased and feeble” children would have to wait 24 years until the constitution of the new state of Utah gave the women the vote once more. And they likely did a better job at voting than the prevailing wisdom of 1872 gave them credit for.

The post “Why Women Are Weak”—According to the Exponent appeared first on Sunstone.

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Join Lindsay and Bryan as they interview historian Ryan Wimmer about the Walker War that involved the Mormons, Utes, and other native bands in the 1850s.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/SHP_127.mp3SHOWNOTES:

• Register for the Sunstone Summer Symposium
• Become a Sunstone History Podcast recurring donor
• The Walker War Reconsidered Ryan Elwood Wimmer Brigham Young University – Provo
• Brigham Young and Mormon Indian Policies: The Formative Period, 1836-1851 by Lawrence G. Coates, Brigham Young University Studies, Vol. 18, No. 3 (Spring 1978), pp. 428-452
• A history of the Goshutes
• A HISTORY OF Sanpete County by Albert C.T. Antrei and Allen D. Roberts

The post Episode 127: The Walker War, part two appeared first on Sunstone.

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A Mormon can’t get a temple recommend if they drink coffee or black tea, but they can get one if they consume energy drinks that have five times as much caffeine as either. Launching from Michael Pollan’s book “Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World,” Stephen Carter explores the strange limbo caffeine has occupied in in the LDS Church—from general condemnation to apostolic approval.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/SLP-177.mp3

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Join Bryan and Lindsay as they discuss the history of the war the Mormons declared on the Ute tribe (and all other tribal bands in Utah) during the 1850’s. These conflicts have been dubbed, “The Walker War,” after Ute Chief Walkara (or Walker). What really happened and why? Tune in to find out.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/SHP_126.mp3SHOWNOTES:

• Register for the Sunstone Summer Symposium
• Become a Sunstone History Podcast recurring donor
• Brigham Young and Mormon Indian Policies: The Formative Period, 1836-1851 by Lawrence G. Coates, Brigham Young University Studies, Vol. 18, No. 3 (Spring 1978), pp. 428-452
• The Walker War Reconsidered Ryan Elwood Wimmer Brigham Young University – Provo
• A history of the Goshutes
• A HISTORY OF Sanpete County by Albert C.T. Antrei and Allen D. Roberts

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In my previous post, we discussed how people who favor intuition over analytic reasoning are more likely to engage in conspiracy thinking, and how Mormon culture similarly favors intuition as the fundamental method of discerning truth—with analytic reason playing a supporting role. In this post, we will examine the availability heuristic.

The more frequently and/or recently we have been exposed to an idea or bit of information, the more rapidly our brains will recall it, and the more salient it will seem. Since our brains are predisposed to equate salience with importance, we are prone to interpret salience as truth and accuracy—especially if we have been socially conditioned to do so.1 In other words, our thinking is constrained by our preference for information readily available to us.

A powerful example of the availability heuristic is the illusory truth effect, which is: the more we are exposed to the same idea or information, the more we intuitively perceive it as true. Critically, this can happen even when we are initially aware that the information is misleading, inaccurate, or false.2 An expression of this is the misinformation effect, where individuals’ memory of an event can be influenced through later, repeated exposure to inaccurate information.3

In what ways do Mormons show a predilection toward the availability heuristic, and how might that contribute to Mormon conspiracism? One striking example is testimony meetings. In these meetings, members are encouraged to publicly “bear their testimony”—in other words, to declare their conviction, through the Holy Ghost, of the truthfulness of Mormon tenets—even if they don’t actually have a testimony. Why are they encouraged to do this? One Latter-day Saint apostle taught that “a testimony is to be found in the bearing of it,”4 meaning that (according to another apostle) “some testimonies are better gained on the feet bearing them than on the knees praying for them.”5 One general authority said that “bearing testimony drives your faith deeper into your soul, [so] you believe more fervently than before.”6 Another encouraged members to “consider recording the testimony of Joseph Smith in your own voice, listening to it regularly, and sharing it with friends.”7

Critics have asserted that this kind of testimony bearing is nothing more than “brainwashing.” Though the notion of brainwashing is pseudoscientific and a conspiracist idea itself, the critique is not wholly without merit.8 Encouraging members to publicly declare their certainty in the truthfulness of Mormon ideas as a method of self-conversion is an ethically questionable exercise because it puts the illusory truth effect into play, which the “bearer” may interpret as gaining a testimony through the Holy Ghost.

The availability heuristic also functions in LDS life through Mormon scripture, where conspiracy narratives abound. For example, there are prominent narratives about secret combinations (e.g., Ether 8), a conspiracy to steal and alter the early Book of Mormon translation manuscript (D&C 10), murderous plots against the Saints “in the secret chambers” (D&C 38:13, 28), “the Nicolaitane band and of all their secret abominations” (D&C 117:11), the order of Master Mahan (Moses 5), “evils and designs […] of conspiring men in the last days” (D&C 89:4), and “the subtle craftiness of men” who “lie in wait to deceive” and keep earnest seekers from the truth via “hidden things of darkness” (D&C 123:12–14). Seminary and Sunday school lessons frequently echo these themes with recitations of the organized persecution of the Saints or discussions that interpret current events as being deliberate opposition to the Restoration and one of the “signs of the times.”

Recall that the availability heuristic refers to our tendency to intuit as true those ideas to which we are most frequently exposed—especially when accompanied by social reinforcement and the absence of counter-messaging. Now, it’s true that the availability heuristic is a common tool in any community’s enculturation process, so it’s not remarkable that we find it in Mormonism. However, prominent among these oft-repeated ideas are sinister conspiracies, presented as past, present, and future realities. So, it is little wonder that many Mormons are attracted to conspiracy theories. They likely find something familiar in those theories—a similitude with ideas and information they have been taught to consider as plain and precious truths revealed from the most reliable authorities.

Footnotes:

1 Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Gligorić V, Većkalov B, & Žeželj I. (2018). Intuitive and analytical cognitive styles as determinants of belief in conspiracy theories. In K. Damnjanović, I. Stepanović Ilić, & S. Marković (Eds.), Proceedings of the XXIV conference empirical studies in psychology (pp. 93–95).

2 Dreyfuss, E. (2017). “Want to Make a Lie Seem True? Say It Again. And Again. And Again.” Wired Magazine, 11 February 2017. https://www.wired.com/2017/02/dont-believe-lies-just-people-repeat/

3 Udry, J, & Barber, SJ. (2024). “The illusory truth effect: A review of how repetition increases belief in misinformation.” Current Opinion in Psychology, 56, 101736.

4 Packer, BK. (1983). “The Candle of the Lord.” Ensign, 13 (1), January 1983.

5 Oaks, DH. (2008). “Testimony.” 178th Annual General Conference, Salt Lake City, UT.

6 Wirthlin, JB. (2000). “Pure Testimony.” 170th Semiannual General Conference, Salt Lake City, UT.

7 Andersen, NL. (2014). “Joseph Smith.” 184th Semiannual General Conference, Salt Lake City, UT.

8 Montell A. (2021). Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism. Harper Collins.

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“When virtues run wild, catastrophe reigns.” In this episode, John Durham Peters reveals the dangers of Mormon perfectionism and suggests a new approach.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/SLP-176.mp3

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Join Lindsay and Bryan for an audio version of their Youtube Chat where they discuss their favorite time periods in Mormon history.

SHOWNOTES:

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How could a “Gentile” survive in Utah in 1980s? This was the focus of the article “Stalking the Wild Gentile,” by Al Church, published in Network magazine, “the monthly for Utah’s working women.”

When Church moved to Utah, during the late 1960s, a Catholic nun told him, “As a kid raised a Catholic, you should be a little familiar with life in a convent or monastery. That’s what it’s like in Utah. People call each other ‘brother’ and ‘sister.’ They even wear habits, only under their clothes.”

Church managed to survive his first few years in Utah, and even married a Mormon. (“The women are beautiful,” he wrote.) He worked as a schoolteacher to begin with, eventually becoming a principal, and started moonlighting as a restaurant reviewer for Utah Holiday magazine and eventually for the LDS Church-owned Deseret News (where he once managed to slip a “damn” into an article).

Being a successful Utah Gentile, he shared some of his dos and don’ts for other non-Mormons who might be moving in. The following is excerpted from an excerpt of the article that appeared in the September/October 1981 issue of the Sunstone Review.

Do let Mormon friends know that you drink beer. Be sure to say, “Because I like the taste.”

Don’t go to a John Birch Society meeting when Ezra Taft Benson is the keynote speaker.

Do put on a bumper sticker that reads “The John Birch Society is Soft on Communism.” The confusion evoked from any paranoids will be sweet revenge.

Do ask guides at the Beehive House how many wives Brigham Young had. (Of my last four tours, the answer has averaged 21.)

Do visit and patronize the Mormon handicraft shop. It is a wonderful store, and if one of the sweet sales ladies asks if you are a member of “the” Church, do like my mother and say, “Yes,” discussing excitedly the Pope’s latest trip abroad.

Do take out-of-state visitors to Temple Square. Just don’t take the tour with them. Whispering in your friends’ ears during the tour causes glares from the guides, who have a sixth sense about latter-day Fawn Brodies.

Don’t let visiting friends sign the guest registers at Temple Square; that is, unless they are truly interested in more information about Mormonism.

Do read No Man Knows My History. Don’t discuss it with your Mormon in-laws.

Don’t discuss the Mountain Meadows Massacre with any Mormon unless you were there in person.

Do attend every ethnic festival in the area. (After we attended the Obon festival, my three-year old said, “Dad, teach me to be a Buddhist.” This will soften my parental anguish when she gets her first invitation to Primary.)

Do show your food storage area in your new home to your Mormon in-laws. Don’t hide the wine.

Do appreciate the skills of the Osmonds’ dentist.

Do serve punch at your parties that are “with” and “without.” Don’t have them different colors.

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In my previous post, we discussed how people with a strong desire to avoid ambiguity often engage in conspiracy thinking so that they can achieve “cognitive closure.” Then we showed how Mormon worship is structured to regularly provide cognitive closure, and, therefore, how it can exacerbate conspiracy thinking. Another aspect of conspiracy thinking that Mormonism can intensify is the “intuition” aspect of cognitive styles.

Broadly speaking, we all engage in two styles of evaluative cognition: intuitive thinking and analytic reasoning.1 Intuitive thinking relies on tacit, experiential knowledge and implicit rules of thumb. In other words, thinking with the gut. Conversely, analytic reasoning relies on explicit, domain-general knowledge, and is methodically deliberate. In other words, thinking with the head. While everyone engages in both modes of thinking, research demonstrates that a tendency to favor intuition over analytic reasoning is associated with conspiracy thinking.2

When someone is thinking intuitively, they are paying attention to the feelings being evoked by the information they are encountering. They use those feelings to take mental shortcuts (i.e., heuristics) and make quick judgments about the value of the information. Hunches, gut-feelings, and spontaneous, unsolicited thoughts are examples of intuition. Intuition arises through subconscious processes, and can therefore feel like expressions of a deeper part of our being than our conscious self. Or they may feel wholly apart from our own mind—as if they originate from somewhere or someone outside ourselves. As a result, intuitive thoughts may have the “feeling of truth”—especially truth that is apart from, and perhaps even at odds with, our conscious processes.

Because intuition relies on cognitive shortcuts to make quick judgements, it is prone to making systematic errors, falling prey to a wide range of cognitive biases. Conversely, analytic reasoning is generally more accurate, but requires slow and deliberate effort. That said, do not conclude that intuitive thinking is fundamentally flawed, always leading to error, whereas analytic reasoning is inherently corrective and reliably accurate.3 Neither cognitive mode is perfect and free from error, nor do they function as wholly separate and independent systems. Nonetheless, a strong dispositional tendency toward intuitive cognition is strongly correlated with belief in conspiracy theories.

So, when you and I encounter situations where our intuitive and analytic thoughts are at odds, to which do we find ourselves giving priority? The values of the communities we participate in will have a large impact on that decision. Various communities differ about the priority one should give to these two cognitive modes and how the information they provide should be interpreted. For instance, scientific communities place a high value on skepticism and generally prioritize analytic thinking over intuition. Communities devoted to conspiracy theories generally place a higher priority on intuitive thinking and direct analytic reasoning toward defending those intuitions.

From my observations, intuitive thinking is highly prioritized in Mormon communities. The Book of Mormon asserts that “the truth of all things” can be known through the power of the Holy Ghost—who, as we are taught, communicates via emotions, sudden and unexpected thoughts, a sense of instinctive coherence, clarity of mind, and sometimes as “a still, small voice,” which are all descriptions of intuitive thinking.

During the production of the Book of Mormon manuscript, Oliver Cowdery wished to take a turn at translating the gold plates, and, in Sections 8 and 9 of the LDS Doctrine and Covenants, received a short discourse on intuitive thinking:

2 Yea, behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart.

[…]

8 But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.

9 But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong;

Doctrine and Covenants § 8:2, and § 9:8–9, emphasis my own.

Notice how manifestations of the Holy Ghost are described in ways that are highly characteristic of intuitive thinking. Clarity of thought is accompanied by emotional affirmation as signs of divine confirmation, contrasted with confusion or clouded thinking as indications of divine disconfirmation.

It’s interesting to see how this revelation approaches analytic thinking. Oliver is instructed to “study it out in your mind” to prepare himself to receive subsequent, confirmatory revelation. Similarly, Moroni instructs readers of the Book of Mormon to ponder in their hearts the things they have read before asking for confirmatory revelation via prayer. According to these two passages, analytic thinking serves a specific purpose—to prepare the individual to ask about the truth of something specific. Then the asker must confer with their intuitions for confirmation. Thereafter, analytic thinking is employed to interpret those intuitions as manifestations of the Holy Ghost, one’s own thoughts, or perhaps the deceptions of Satan.4 In other words, in Mormonism, analytic thinking plays a supporting role to intuition, which has the ultimate connection to truth.

In future posts, we will further examine the ways that reliance on intuition and mental shortcuts makes us more prone to cognitive biases associated with conspiracism, and how these are expressed in Mormon culture.

Footnotes:

1. For a digestible review, see Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
2. Swami V, Voracek M, Steiger S, Tran US, & Furnham A. (2014). Analytic thinking reduces belief in conspiracy theories. Cognition, 133, 572–585. Gligorić V, Većkalov B, & Žeželj I. (2018). Intuitive and analytical cognitive styles as determinants of belief in conspiracy theories. In K. Damnjanović, I. Stepanović Ilić, & S. Marković (Eds.), Proceedings of the XXIV conference empirical studies in psychology(pp. 93–95).
3. https://www.marketingsociety.com/think-piece/system-1-and-system-2-thinking
4. Whitmer, D. (1887). An Address to All Believers in Christ, Part Second, Chapter IV, pp. 30–31. https://archive.org/details/addresstoallbeli00whit/page/30/mode/2up

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Esther Peterson was one of the most beloved and effective activists of the 20th century, working with John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Jimmy Carter to improve women’s rights in the United States. And she grew up Mormon in Provo, Utah. In this episode, Esther talks about how her Mormon upbringing affected her activism—both for good and ill.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/SLP-175.mp3

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In 1982, some Christian denominations in Utah Valley explicitly asked that vocal prayer not be conducted in public schools.

According to the October 1982 issue of the Sunstone Review, a statement from the Utah Valley Ministerial Association said, “Religious ideas or doctrines are conveyed in vocal prayer and there is already pressure upon children in this area to conform to the predominant religious thinking.” The Association estimated that “75 percent of the elementary teachers do have prayer” and encouraged them “not to have vocal classroom prayer.”

The request was part of a larger effort to curb religious discrimination in Utah Valley. The statement also objected to school counselors encouraging seminary enrollment, announcing seminary activities on school intercoms and school calendars, and allowing seminary teachers to use school faculty lounges.

Another thing that rankled the Association was people using the terms “brother,” “sister,” “our bishop,” “our stake president,” and “our prophet,” in classrooms, at PTA meetings, and other public-school functions. During a meeting with the Orem Education Advisory Council, the Council commented, “The ‘Brother’ and ‘Sister’ talk is so very cultural here that it’s very hard for everyone to stop such talk. It’s the ‘our’ terms on bishop or prophet that indeed should be stopped.” However, they noted that, if LDS honorifics were dropped, so should “reverend” and “pastor.”

This was actually the second time the Association had issued the statement. It had been issued six years before, and though the Association said it had seen improvements, recent events showed that the issue needed to be raised again. They cited an LDS teacher flipping a crucifix an elementary-school student was wearing and asking why she was “wearing dead bodies.” They also noted incidents of teachers singling out non-LDS students in the classroom and asked that students not be “asked to identify and/or defend their religious beliefs in the public schools.”

The Association said it reissued the statement because it believed that the offenses “occur mainly out of naiveté, not belligerence.”

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As I showed in my previous post, one factor that strongly correlates with conspiracy thinking is a stronger-than-average desire to avoid ambiguity. And for Mormons, the avoidance of ambiguity is baked into worship.

For example, imagine you are attending a Fast and Testimony meeting in an LDS ward. The priests and deacons have just returned to sit with their families and a member of the bishopric thanks them for their reverence. He begins with a cheerful anecdote about his week, ending in a tame joke that elicits a handful of chuckles from the congregation, scattered amidst the babbling of infants, children crushing Cheerios into the pews, and teenagers and adults discretely checking their smartphones. He then shares some heartfelt spiritual insight before settling into a familiar cadence of several succinct statements, each beginning with “I know.” He sits down. There is a brief and awkward silence. Eventually, a primary child and a confident looking adult make their way up to the stand. The child climbs the steps behind the pulpit, brings the microphone very close to their mouth, and repeats a series of similar “I know” statements. They return to their family in the congregation while the adult steps up to the microphone, tells an anecdote, shares a spiritual insight, and closes with a series of similar “I know” statements. On and on it continues for roughly 30 minutes.

Members repeat this ritual every month, and its structure bleeds into pretty much every aspect of Mormon experience.

We are frequently encouraged by church leaders to strive for and profess certainty in our religious convictions. Even a cursory internet search readily uncovers numerous conference talks,1 church magazine articles,2 and Sunday School lessons3 encouraging members to obtain a testimony of the truthfulness of Mormon teachings and to express their convictions with absolute certainty. Members are also encouraged to “doubt your doubts” or put their unresolved questions on the shelf.4 Occasionally, doubt is even characterized as Satanic and shameful.5

In the Book of Mormon, the prophet Alma describes how individuals can discern with perfect assurance whether something is true by consulting their feelings (Alma 32:17–34). Similarly, the prophet Moroni promises the reader that they “may know the truth of all things” through the influence of the Holy Ghost following a practice of contemplative prayer (Moroni 10:3–5). Every Mormon—whether raised within the faith or converted by the missionaries—is taught that they can obtain a sure knowledge of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and that Joseph Smith was a genuine prophet of God if they seek for it earnestly enough.

And then, we are encouraged to constantly express our knowledge. One of the most frequent directives given in teaching manuals is that the teacher should bear their testimony at the end of the lesson about the truthfulness of whatever concept has been discussed that day. It’s highly unusual for a sacrament meeting talk to close without a testimony. Most comments in a church lesson will be given in the form of a testimony. When Latter-day Saints find themselves in an ad hoc religious gathering, they will likely turn it into a kind of testimony meeting.

Perhaps there is no better example of the need for cognitive closure in a Mormon context than the works of Mormon apologists—groups like FAIR, the Interpreter Foundation, Scripture Central, and the Joseph Smith Foundation. Wherever there is conflicting information between traditional, faith-promoting narratives and secular knowledge, you will find Mormon apologists presenting a possible (if not probable) solution for those seeking a way to escape the discomfort of uncertainty.

In other words, official gatherings of the Saints are expressly structured to help attendees escape ambiguity and achieve cognitive closure. Thus, Mormons receive little practice sitting in the discomfort of ambiguity and uncertainty.

I propose that this socializes many Mormons toward developing a stronger need for cognitive closure, which predisposes them toward adopting a conspiracy mindset. But the need for closure is only one of several factors associated with conspiracy beliefs. We will examine more of them in future posts.

Footnotes:

1. For example: Ballard, MR. (2004). Pure Testimony. 174th Semiannual General Conference; Hinckley, GB. (2007). The Things of Which I Know. 177th Annual General Conference; Pace, GL. (2007). Do You Know? 177th Annual General Conference; Dibb, AM. (2012). I Know It. I Live It. I Love It. 182nd Semiannual General Conference; Christensen, CC. (October 2014). I Know These Things of Myself. 184th Semiannual General Conference.

2. For example: Wilcox B. (2013). “You Can Say, ‘I Know.’” New Era, 43(2); Berteaux K. (2018, November 7). “Bearing Your Testimony: 5 Powerful Tips.” LDS Living, https://www.ldsliving.com/bearing-your-testimony-5-powerful-tips/s/76198.

3. For example, see Lesson 5, “Testimony,” in the 2000 Relief Society manual, The Latter-day Saint Woman: Basic Manual for Women, Part A; Lesson 26, “A Testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” in the 2000 Priesthood manual, Duties and Blessings of the Priesthood: Basic Manual for Priesthood Holders, Part A; and “Acquiring Spiritual Knowledge” in the 2023 Seminary instructional document, Doctrinal Mastery Core Document.

4. Uchtdorf, DF. (2013). “Come, Join with Us.” 183rd Semiannual General Conference; Nelson, RM. (2021). “Christ is Risen; Faith in Him Will Move Mountains.” 191st Annual General Conference; Fielding, L. (1975). “Camilla Kimball: Lady of Constant Learning.” Ensign, 5(10).

5. Riess, J. (2017, June 8). “Mormon leader says doubt is dangerous, of Satan.” Religion News Service, https://religionnews.com/2017/06/08/mormon-leader-says-doubt-is-dangerous-of-satan/; Riess, J. (2019, January 15). “How Mormons handle doubt: Blame the victim.” Religion News Service, https://religionnews.com/2019/01/15/how-mormons-handle-doubt-blame-the-victim/.

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If the Christian God and the Mormon God got into a fight, who would win? In this episode, S. Richard Bellrock shows just just how unfair the fight would be.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/SLP-174.mp3

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Join Lindsay and Bryan as they discuss the 19th century economies of indigenous trafficking in the American west, human enslavement and abuse and how Mormons contributed and impacted it.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/SHP_124.mp3SHOWNOTES:

• “Redeeming” the Indian: The Enslavement of Indian Children in New Mexico and Utah by Sondra Jones
• Bancroft’s History of Utah
• Utah Indians and the Indian Slave Trade: The Mormon Adoption. Program and its Effect on the Indian Slaves by Robert M. Muhlestein.
• The Whites Want Every Thing: Indian-Mormon Relations, 1847–1877 (Volume 16) (Kingdom in the West: The Mormons and the American Frontier Series) by Will Bagley

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In 1982, one BYU professor stood on the brink of creating a new discipline. As the Sunstone Review reported in its November 1982 issue, “Dr. Wesley Burr has suggested a new term—famology—for a new academic field.”

And what does famology study? Coming from a BYU professor, there can be only one answer: families!

Burr was the president of the National Council on Family Relations at the time and delivered his idea to 5000 NCFR conference attendees. The next year, Burr published an article in the NCFR’s Journal of Marriage and the Family titled “Famology: A New Discipline.”

Forty-two years later, the first result that pops up in a web search for “famology” is a sleepwear company. The second and third results link to a work clothing company.

And, finally, the fourth result reads, “What Happened to Famology?”

At the time of Burr’s original speech, the field of family studies was interdisciplinary. In other words, it drew on the methodologies of various disciplines—such as anthropology, economics, and psychology—because it had not developed its own. Burr was trying to make the study of families its own discipline by—first—figuring out what to call it.

The field had been calling itself variously “family studies” and “family science.” But “family studies” was problematic because one could not call oneself a “family studies-ist” (as one can call oneself an anthropologist). One could call oneself a family scientist, but taking on the term “family science” seemed to tighten the focus too much. So, just as earlier in the 20th century the term gerontology was coined to bring the study of the aged under one umbrella, Burr pitched famology.

According to “What Happened to Famology?” an NCFR task force held many meetings from 1983–1985 to discuss what to call the discipline and initially floated the term “familiology” but then landed on “family science” as their preferred moniker.

But not even that stuck. In a 2013 analysis, it was found that “family studies” outnumbered “family science” in a survey of university department names with “family” in the title. Some scholars even argued that “family” was too restrictive a term, preferring “relationship” studies.

Famology never did stick, and these two charts were the final nails in its coffin.

Source: https://www.ncfr.org/sites/default/files/2020-01/2013_Hans_NCFR-Paper_Naming-the-Field_PRESENTED.pdfEven BYU strayed from Burr’s term, naming its department the School of Family Life.

But that didn’t stop Burr from publishing many academic articles and books on family studies throughout his career and contributing to a raft of LDS marriage and family handbooks.

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Did you know that Brigham Young called people on official church missions to pan for filthy lucre? Come learn about the Gold Mission with Lindsay and Bryan.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/SHP_123.mp3SHOWNOTES:

• The Mormon Gold-Mining Mission of 1849 by Eugene Campbell
• Bancroft’s history of Utah
• Kenneth Owens, Gold Rush Saints: California Mormons and the Great Rush for Riches
• Kenneth Davies and Lorin Hansen, Mormon Gold – Mormons in the California Gold Rush Contributing to the Development of California and the Monetary Solvency of Early Utah
• Erwin Gudde, Bigler’s Chronicle of the West
• M. Guy Bishop, Henry William Bigler: Soldier, Gold Miner, Missionary, Chronicler

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I am a nut for conspiracy theories. They are entertaining, often disturbing, but always fascinating. What makes conspiracy theories so captivating? Why do some communities seem especially drawn to them? Over the past few years, I have put my training as a researcher in the behavioral sciences to work answering this question. I’ve come to understand that we are all conspiracy theorists to some extent. I’ve also learned that some features of Mormon communities are especially good at making us susceptible to conspiracy thinking. I’ll explore why over a series of posts.

A foundational element of conspiracy thinking is the need for “cognitive closure.” As rational creatures, we crave clarity and understanding about the world. We don’t like ambiguity or confusion and yearn for the comfort of certainty. This is one of the reasons we like Google Maps. It reduces the discomfort of traversing unfamiliar territory by providing simple, black-and-white guidance.

When information about how to navigate our environment (whether physical, psychological, political, spiritual, social, etc.) is sparse, unreliable, conflicting, or otherwise ambiguous, humans naturally construct narratives that impose some kind of order onto it. It can be anything from, “Every time I’m in a hurry, some slow guy pulls in front of me,” to “I just know there’s someone watching from those traffic cameras to make sure I get stopped at every light.”

That second story comes from a conspiracy mindset, which always posits that someone—or, more likely, some many, acting in concert—are intentionally hiding information from us or otherwise manipulating our lives. It’s like the movie The Truman Show, where an entire artificial environment, sealed off and populated with actors and hidden cameras, has been constructed to provide Truman with a life that is scripted without his knowledge. If we only had the information “they” are hiding, our ambiguity would be clarified, and traffic would flow unimpeded.

This kind of conspiracy thinking is at the foundation the Book of Mormon, which says that it restores the “many plain and precious things taken away from the [Bible]”—the removal of which has resulted in an “awful state of blindness” wherein “an exceedingly great many do stumble, yea, insomuch that Satan hath great power over them.” This has been perpetrated by the agents of a “great and abominable church” that have purposefully pulled the wool over the eyes of contemporary Christendom.

The Book of Mormon uses this premise of hidden information to resolve a lot of the ambiguity that was present in Protestant thinking during Joseph Smith’s time. As Alexander Campbell wrote in his critique of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith “decides all the great controversies—infant baptism, ordination, the trinity, regeneration, repentance, justification, the fall of man, the atonement . . . even the question of free masonry, republican government, and the rights of man.”

Having this basic element of conspiracy thinking at the foundation of Mormon thought tends to make Mormons more willing to believe that bad actors are hiding essential information from them in other parts of their lives, such as in government, news media, and healthcare.

The thing is, bad actors do sometimes hide information. Mountains of evidence demonstrate that tobacco and opioid companies withheld a lot of information about the negative effects that their products had on the human body and the risks for society. What, then, is the difference between affirming widely accepted conspiracy realities and believing speculative conspiracy theories?

A simple answer is the quantity of evidence. We can know that Richard Nixon conspired to surveil his political rivals because there is just so much tangible evidence, but we can discard theories that the moon landing was a hoax because the evidence is so scant. That is the comforting answer which reassures us that we are rational and they are delusional; but they can be saved if only they can be taught to objectively weigh the evidence. This answer satisfies our own need for cognitive closure, but the reality, I argue, is more complicated, ambiguous, and discomforting.

The distinction between “accepted” and “speculative” conspiracy beliefs is not a matter of the quantity of evidence, but what qualifies as evidence. For example, in the LDS community, a “burning in the bosom” counts as evidence of the Book of Mormon’s authenticity as a historical document. But for archaeologists, it doesn’t. This is where most disagreement over conspiracy theories happens. One community accepts a kind of evidence that another community does not.

Valuing different types of evidence means we are looking for different things. And the human brain tends to find what it’s looking for. If you are in the market for a new car, it’s amazing how many dealerships you see, how you notice the brand of every car on the road, and how many for-sale signs there suddenly are in car windows. Similarly, if we believe that the reality around us is the product of an elaborate lie, we will interpret the things around us as evidence of that lie—no matter how tenuous the connection may be. It’s kind of like the difference between the apologist and the critic of Mormonism; they may examine the same data but disagree regarding what constitutes valid evidence and thereby come up with different interpretations that correspond with their original assumptions.

What this means is that it is not so much the bad actors around us that put us in an “awful state of blindness,” but, rather, our own conspiracy theories. And, yes, both you and I have our own—and probably more than one, as we will explore in future posts.

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History is a dangerous profession in the LDS Church, sometimes leading to excommunication. Stephen Carter explores why history is such a charged topic—and what Ethiopian leopards have to do with it.

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Frankly, it’s amazing that the Kirtland Temple was even around to be sold to the LDS Church a few weeks ago.

In 1838, just a few days after Joseph Smith left Kirtland, Lyman Sherman burned down a print shop that had gone over into Mormon dissenters’ hands and the temple was apparently scorched in the process. Then, a few months later, a Methodist chapel nearby was burned down and someone discovered a broken window in the Kirtland Temple with coals and straw stacked inside. David Howlett theorizes that this may have been the work of Joseph Smith loyalists who would rather see the temple burn than fall into the hands of dissenters.

But the temple survived and started into what I call its “revolving door” period, where all kinds of people laid claim to its ownership. To get the nitty-gritty of what happened over the next few decades, you can listen to this episode of the Sunstone Mormon History Podcast (Spotify, Apple, Sunstone). But here’s where it all starts.

Kirtland was named after a guy named Turhand Kirtland—who never even lived there, even though he owned part of it. And Turhand transferred 50 acres to Peter French who later sold it (along with his other property) to a Mormon named Joseph Coe. And, from there, it eventually made its way to Joseph Smith. The reason it went to Joseph Smith instead of the Church was because the Church wasn’t incorporated in Ohio, so it couldn’t own property. Joseph was the next best thing.

But, after Joseph’s death, the question that haunted the Kirtland property was, “Did Joseph own it as just himself? Or did he own it as trustee-in-trust for the Church? And, in either case, who did it belong to now?” The question led to plenty of yelling and shoving and bowie knives—which, once again, you can hear all about on the podcast. (Spotify, Apple, Sunstone)

Of course, since Joseph was dead, there were a lot of people contending to be his successor. And some of the debate between the various parties took place inside the Kirtland Temple. In fact, at one point during a meeting promoting Brigham Young, a guy named Increase Van Deusen hopped up on the partition in the middle of the room and stomped up to the front of the room on top of it, “hissing, and making other violent demonstrations.” Then he climbed up on the highest pulpit and swung his coat around until it ripped.

You’d think such a display would get him kicked out of the temple, but no. He actually preached there several times in the weeks after that.

And all this time, the temple was falling into disrepair. Some reports indicate that people had swiped letters from the pulpits, carved their name in things, and committed other bits of vandalism (like stomping along partitions). When the temple property was put up for auction, it was valued at only $325, and the guy who bought it paid only $217. Fortunately, the buyer immediately sold it to Russell Huntley, who really loved the building and started fixing it up. He eventually sold it to Joseph Smith III for $150, bringing it into RLDS hands.

But, believe me, that is not the end of the story. If legal shenanigans and Latin phrases are your thing, the rest of the Kirtland Temple’s history will thrill you. Click to listen. (Spotify, Apple, Sunstone)

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The sale of the Kirtland Temple from the Community of Christ to the LDS church has made headlines lately. Join Bryan and Lindsay as they discuss the long and storied history of the Kirtland Temple ownership. SHOWNOTES: Become a recurring donor at Sunstone.org Davis Bitton, “The Waning of Mormon Kirtland” Roger Launius, The Kirtland Temple: …

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One fine July Sunday in Relief Society, Deja Earley was asked to share a story about her Mormon ancestors. Her story did not go down well. In this episode, Deja tries to come to terms with her polygamous forebears.

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Join Lindsay and Bryan as they talk about the state of Mormon historical source material. Does the LDS church hide its history? What sources are available? How do you check our work? We also discuss our new move to Youtube as well. SHOWNOTES: Youtube version of this episode Subscribe to Sunstone’s youtube channel Become a …

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Testimony meeting would be a terrible place for Stephen Carter to talk about the movie that finally made him feel a connection to the atonement. Hint: It has connections to Lord of the Rings, Avatar, and Run Lola Run.

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Who were the real Mormons? We mean, the top-shelf kind? According to Brigham Young, any of the California Mormons couldn’t pass muster. Join Lindsay and Bryan as they talk about the history of how California Mormons came to be. SHOWNOTES: Become a monthly donor here! Pictures of Fort San Bernardino Mormons Created and Then Abandoned …

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Petty jokes about his name aside, who was Richard Ballantyne? Bryan and Lindsay dive into Brother Ballantyne and his history with the history of Sunday School in the Mormon church. Shownotes: DONATE TO SUNSTONE Richard Ballantyne founded the first sunday school in Utah 1897 Things You Didn’t Know (or May Have Forgotten) about Sunday School …

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The Atonement is all about suffering. Or is it? In this episode, Stephen Carter stumbles across a new atonement theory that would stop any Sunday school lesson in its tracks. Yet, it fits perfectly into the Plan of Salvation.

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In Part II of Gregory Prince’s article, he explores what he thinks the LDS Church has done right and what kinds of changes both it and its members will need to go through to meet current and future challenges.

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Gregory A. Prince has been watching the LDS Church for 75 years. And it has changed. A lot. Some changes have been constructive; some have been devastating. What does Prince see as the best way forward from where we are now? What will this path demand of the Church organization and its members?  

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Join Bryan and Lindsay for a special bonus episode! We were honored to talk with professors (and students) from Montana State (and several other universities ) about how we do responsible Mormon history. The panel, Believers and Skeptics in Mormon History has a youtube video which can be found here! Shownotes: Become a recurring donor …

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In this episode, Lindsay and Bryan discuss several expeditions, including the Stansbury Expedition and the Gunnison Expedition and Massacre. Each of these events had a profound effect on early Mormonism. SHOWNOTES: Howard Stansbury’s Expedition around the Great Salt Lake: An Examination of the Route and the Maps by Jesse G. Peterson John W.Gunnison’s Letters To …

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Carol Lynn Pearson is known for her long-standing advocacy for the LGBT community in the LDS Church. This episode presents her thoughts on the strengths and weaknesses of the Church, and why she continues to engage with it.

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Join Bryan and Lindsay for another episode of BEFORE THEY WERE FAMOUS, as they talk about an important (feminist) Mormon pioneer foremother, Emmeline B. Wells. SHOWNOTES: The Diaries of Emmeline B. Wells Emmeline B. Wells: An Intimate History by Carol Cornwall Madsen An Advocate for Women: The Public Life of Emmeline B. Wells, 1870-1920 by …

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If you watched the recent Hulu hit, ABC’s Daughters of the Cult about the complicated LeBaron family legacy, check out today’s SMHP episode. In this special bonus episode, Bryan Buchanan and historian Cristina Rosetti dive into the early history of the family. If you’re curious how Ervil LeBaron’s murderous group got started, dive into this …

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Using Eric Hoffer’s book “The True Believer,” Stephen Carter explores how Mormonism became a mass movement and the surprising way its cycle is playing out today.  

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Want to come to Zion? Don’t have the cold, hard cash? No worries! Bryan and Lindsay will walk you through how to get there through the 1850’s Perpetual Emigration Fund. Shownotes: Donate to Sunstone and the History Podcast (leave us a note in the comment section to say hi!) Bound for Zion: The Ten-and Thirteen- …

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Some historians claim that whenever Mormons moved into town, the crime rate went up. Is it true? Did Mormonism make some prolific thieves and robbers? Join Lindsay and Bryan as they dive into the seedy story. Shownotes: Donate to Sunstone and the History Podcast (leave us a note in the comment section to say hi!) …

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The New Testament is full of healing stories. But in real life, not so much. Dana Haight Cattani talks about her struggle with cancer.

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After a tour of the Orem Temple’s art with Stephen Carter, Michael Stubbs talks about how difficult it is for him to find God in nature—even when hiking with a bunch of rowdy Young Men!

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In the early days of the Utah territory, Mormon leaders decided to exterminate anything that got in the way of their plans to build their Kingdom of God. This episode delves into the ghastly execution of the Timpanogos tribe that occupied lands Mormons invaded. It also tells the story of the “Wasters & Destroyers” contest …

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Treasure digging did not stop with Joseph Smith. In this episode, Kevin Cantera tells us about John Koyle, a Mormon visionary who started a mine that he said would lead to caverns filled with Nephite gold.

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It’s time for another episode of Before They Were Famous. This time we focus on the leader of the Nauvoo Legion, Daniel H. Wells and his role in many massacres against indigenous tribes. Shownotes: Donate to Sunstone and the History Podcast (leave us a note in the comment section to say hi!) Daniel Hanmer Wells …

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This episode honors the life, thought, and spirit of Lavina Fielding Anderson with one of her best Sunstone articles: “In the Garden God Hath Planted: Explorations Toward a Maturing Faith.”

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In 1849 the Mormons in Utah territory had big, big plans. Too-big-for-their-britches kinds of plans. They called it the State of Deseret and it didn’t last long, at least in name. Join Bryan and Lindsay as they discuss this turbulent history and the secret shadow government that still continues in Utah today. Shownotes: Donate to …

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Are you a Barbie, a Ken, or a Gloria? Stephen Carter, who watched the Barbie movie five times in the theaters, argues that these three characters typify some of the most common faith crises in the LDS Church. And that they show us how to look at these crises in a completely new light.

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As the old Primary song goes, “I’m trying to be like Jigsaw.” In this episode, Stephen Carter explores the peculiar reason why so many Mormons are afraid to die.  

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It’s the worst war in Mormon history: The Cricket War of 1849. Or is it 1851? (Wait, was it grasshoppers?) Lindsay and Bryan discuss the myth behind the famous lore of the Seagull and the Crickets. Shownotes: Donate to Sunstone and the History Podcast (leave us a note in the comment section to say …

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Jana Riess grew up in a household where swearing was the norm. And she wonders if bringing a little of that spice over to our religious devotions might not kick things up a notch.

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Buckle up as Stephen Carter takes you on a ride through Mormonism’s most popular, and notorious, marriage manual on its 60th anniversary.  

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Alright kids, the pioneers have arrived in Zion. Now what? Lindsay and Bryan talk about their first year in the Great Salt Lake valley. Shownotes: Donate to Sunstone and the History Podcast (leave us a note in the comment section to say hi!) A Banner is Unfurled by Ron Walker Sagwitch Bio Open Hand and …

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How did the one of richest Mormon polygamous groups get its start? With one man, Charles William Kingston. In this episode, his great-grandson, Charles Elden Kingston, tells his story.

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Yes, the mothership temple of Utah County has been the butt of many jokes. But what will we lose if the LDS Church goes ahead with its renovation of the Provo Temple? Alan Barnett reveals surprising architectural aspects of the Provo and Ogden Temples, and argues that their loss robs us of an essential part …

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In this episode, Bryan and Lindsay discuss Orson Pratt and the reorganization of the First Presidency.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/SHP_107.mp3Shownotes:* Donate to Sunstone and the History Podcast (leave us a note in the comment section to say hi!) * Buy the book! Conflict in the Quorum: Orson Pratt, Brigham Young, Joseph Smith by Gary Bergera

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Our intuition tells us that there must be humor in heaven, but the D&C has specific injunctions against laughter. Using theories of humor and stories from the Bible, Stephen Carter tries to figure out what kind of jokes gods make. And if they’re any good.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/155.mp3

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When Michael Stevens started teaching university courses in Utah, he noticed that passive-aggressive behavior was significantly higher there than at the midwestern universities he had taught at. His studies revealed that the behavior was highest among people with an LDS background. Where does this behavior come from? How does it manifest itself? And how does …

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Well, that took forever… But Bryan and Lindsay finally brought the podcast to Zion! This episode covers the story of Brigham Young’s vanguard wagon company as they arrive in the Great Salt Lake Valley. Now the fun can really begin! Shownotes: Donate to Sunstone and the History Podcast (leave us a note in the comment …

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Would Jesus pass muster to visit an LDS ward? Ryan Shoemaker doesn’t think so. But for reasons that have more to do with Whole Foods than the whole gospel. Episode includes bonus scripture from Jake Christensen.

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Ever played the old PC game The Mormon Trail? Your ancestors played it in real life and this episode discusses what it was like for them. Shownotes: Donate to Sunstone and the History Podcast (leave us a note in the comment section to say hi!) Historic Resource Study: Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail by Stanley Kimball …

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What was life like if you were stuck in Winter Quarters? Bryan and Lindsay dig into some of the stories of the women who lived there and what their day-to-day life was like. Shownotes: Donate to Sunstone and the History Podcast (leave us a note in the comment section to say hi!) George Q. Cannon: Politician, …

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Many people don’t realize just how many Mormons were part of the fated Donner/Reed tragedy. In this episode, Lindsay and Bryan discuss the horrible tale of travel gone awry. Shownotes: Donate to Sunstone and the History Podcast (leave us a note in the comment section to say hi!) Register for the Sunstone Summer Symposium The …

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The story goes that anyone who leaves the Good Ship Zion comes back all wet and half drowned. But in this episode, Stephen Carter argues that this is short-sighted, and that a journey away from the ship may actually be the best way to save both yourself and the ship.

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Mormonism used to pride itself on how different it was from other Christian sects. But it has since become part and parcel of the Evangelical movement. How did this happen? In this episode, Stephen Carter looks at recent LDS history through Kristen Du Mez’s book “Jesus and John Wayne: How Evangelicalism Corrupted a Faith and …

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Women were an integral part of the Mormon Battalion story and Lindsay and Bryan share their histories, including the story of a rogue group of women that braved the wild to avoid practicing polygamy. Shownotes: Donate to Sunstone and the History Podcast (leave us a note in the comment section to say hi!) Register for …

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Walking into the forest means walking into the unknown. Reverend Patty Willis has done so many times in her life, and is about to do it again.

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When the Proclamation on the Family says “gender,” what does it mean? Ted Lee makes a case that using the academic, rather than colloquial, definition of gender opens the way to fitting transgender people into the Plan of Salvation.

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By Dayna Patterson Dayna Patterson is a writer, editor, textile artist, macro photographer, amateur fungophile, and Thea-curious recovering Mormon. Find her at daynapatterson.com. As the camera zooms out to capture the last scene—a paved road winding through Switzerland’s rolling green—I feel myself about to break. We’re sitting on the bed in pajamas, me and my …

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By Ronn Smith Ronn Smith is a consulting engineer in Wyoming who taught college physics and engineering for fifteen years. He and his wife founded the Sheridan Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in 1983.   As A Mormon youth enthralled with physics and philosophy, perhaps my post-mission departure from the LDS Church was inevitable. I wrestled with …

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In these two hilarious and compelling dialogues by Theric Jepson, Mormon Socrates explores the theology behind transgender people and reproductive rights.

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The third in a three-part miniseries where Bryan and Lindsay discuss the development of race in Mormon theology through a historical lens. Shownotes: Donate to Sunstone and the History Podcast (leave us a note in the comment section to say hi!) Register for the Sunstone Summer Symposium Charisma Under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839 (Dan Vogel).  …

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It’s hard to know how to respond when a favorite artist breaks one of you most cherished values. Starting with Erich Hatala Matthes’ book “Drawing the Line: What to Do with the Work of Immoral Artists from Museums to the Movies,” Stephen Carter explores some approaches to cancel culture and their surprising connections with Mormonism.

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In this three-part miniseries, Bryan and Lindsay discuss the development of race in Mormon theology through a historical lens. Shownotes: Donate to Sunstone and the History Podcast (leave us a note in the comment section to say hi!) Register for the Sunstone Summer Symposium (Use coupon code HistoryPod for 30% off full or one day registration …

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The line between polygamy and adultery in early Mormonism was blurry, and people were killed over the interpretation of that line. This article by Edward Hogan explores how often the killers got off scot free—or even with a pat on the back.

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In this three-part miniseries, Bryan and Lindsay discuss the development of race in Mormon theology through a historical lens. Shownotes: Donate to Sunstone and the History Podcast (leave us a note in the comment section to say hi!) Register for the Sunstone Summer Symposium (Use coupon code HistoryPod for 30% off full or one day registration …

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Ritual is the basic building block of civilization. But what makes a strong ritual? And does Mormonism have enough of it to survive? Stephen Carter explores the Mormon implications of Dimitris Xygalatas’s book “Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living.” Listen to its companion episode at https://sunstone.org/e118-the-lds-proselytizing-mission-as-hazing/

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What was Mormon polygamy like on the trail? Not great. Come listen to the heartbreaking stories of polygamy in Winter Quarters. Shownotes: Donate to Sunstone and the History Podcast (leave us a note in the comment section to say hi!) Register for the Sunstone Summer Symposium (Use coupon code HistoryPod for 30% off full or one …

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When you lose your religion, you lose your life story. You have to reconstruct what life means. Stephen Carter presents an approach to telling your life story after the pre- and post-mortal lives have been removed from your worldview.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/SLP-144.mp3

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Garden Grove is known as one of the way-stations for Latter-day Saints who were fleeing Nauvoo in 1846-47. But this Winter Quarters encampment was full of tawdry secrets, crime and even a… brothel? Join Lindsay and Bryan as they discuss the Garden Grove branch, bawdy houses, counterfeiting and more. Winter Quarters just got a whole …

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Artificial Intelligence could possibly destroy humanity. How do we reduce that risk? R. W. Richey shows how Abraham 3 offers a practical solution.

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/SLP-143.mp3 

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Spoiler: The Idaho Falls Temple

Today I showed my wife this picture and asked her what came to mind.

From: Temples of the Imagination: AI-generated Temples, Human-generated Insights“It kind of looks like a Mormon temple pagoda,” she said.

“I think so, too!” I said. “But why does it look Mormon?”

The image is from a book called Temples of the Imagination: AI-generated Temples, Human-generated Insights, by Jeffrey Thayne and Nathan Richardson. The chapter the image appears in is called “Imaginary Latter-day Saint Temples Inspired by Avatar: The Last Airbender.” To assemble the book, Thayne and Richardson used Midjourney to generate images of imaginary LDS Temples inspired by various fantasy worlds, such as Star Wars, Narnia, Star Trek, Middle Earth, and “the future.”

And, indeed, as I looked through the book, I recognized 90 percent of the buildings as seeming somehow LDS.

Which brought up an interesting question. After analyzing probably millions of images of LDS temples, what does an LDS temple “look like” to AI? And why are the temples it creates recognizable to Mormons?

Especially the Mormon temple pagoda.

When I asked my wife to explain her reasoning, she said, “It’s the white stone pillars, the layers, and the great big steeple. Together, they just seem really Mormon.”

After looking through the book many times, I saw that her observations held up well. Most of them can be summed up in this image, which the authors identify as being particularly reminiscent of an LDS temple.

From: Temples of the Imagination: AI-generated Temples, Human-generated Insights. It kind of looks like the steeple from the Jordan River Temple got dropped into the middle of the Washington DC Temple.It has an outsized center steeple, so the building’s overall shape is a triangle. It has hard lines. It seems made of stone. It has long, thin, high, arched windows. And it is built in layers, like a wedding cake.

Ninety-five percent of the buildings in the book are shaped like triangles, with an outsized center steeple. Almost all of them are built in layers, and the “LDS” parts of the fantasy temples can be recognized either by their prominent center steeple or the hard-lined, stone elements.

What this means is that the building that rules AI’s (and apparently Mormons’) idea of what a temple “looks like” is (drum roll) the Idaho Falls Temple.

Bobjgalindo, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsIt was the first temple to take on this triangle shape with an outsized center steeple.[i]

Later, the Oakland Temple introduced multiple steeples to the basic triangle shape.

Hurling7And it looks like the Buenos Aires Temple was the first to sport the long, thin, high, arched windows.

Along with the hard-lined stone material all those buildings share, those are the things that make an LDS temple according to AI. Whether they’re built into a pagoda or a hobbit hole. Take a look.

Middle Earth temple. From: Temples of the Imagination: AI-generated Temples, Human-generated InsightsStar Wars temple. From: Temples of the Imagination: AI-generated Temples, Human-generated InsightsStar Trek temple. From: Temples of the Imagination: AI-generated Temples, Human-generated Insights[i] I’d say the second most influential temple on AI is the Kirtland Temple when seen from the front. It, too, has a triangle shape with a central steeple, but with the steeple set at the front of the building. Probably 20 percent of the AI temples placed the steeple toward the front of the building.

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Winter Quarters wasn’t just snow, cabins and adorable oxen: there was plenty of drama as well! And by drama, we mean liquor, beatings, cheatings and so many naughty farm animals. Join Lindsay and Bryan as they dive into law and order in Winter Quarters. Shownotes: Donate to Sunstone and the History Podcast (leave us a note …

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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 thinking about it, I remembered that BYU allows non-LDS students into the university and grants them degrees, but when someone is admitted as LDS and then leaves the Church while a student, BYU retains the right to eject them from the university without any recourse or the possibility of a degree. And it often does so.

Why does BYU do this? I think it’s because of what I’ll call traitor aversion. Many cultures consider someone who has left to be more dangerous or repugnant than someone who has never been part of the culture. Because someone who leaves is deliberately rejecting the group and its ways, it’s a deeper injury than an outsider dismissing or attacking the group. I think such groups also feel that if leavers are so disillusioned, they are more likely to attack the group—and they have inside tools they can do it with, making them more dangerous than an outsider.

Looking back, I think something similar happened between Mormonism and the United States.

Yes, our religion was born in the United States, but then we chose to leave it. And not just leave it but build our own kingdom. Along the way, we rejected many of the United States’ most basic social structures: monogamy (we practiced polygamy), capitalism (we used a communitarian structure), free flow of information (information ran through the LDS hierarchy), and wide social connection (Mormons were encouraged to not trade or intermarry with outsiders—though of course, we were also encouraged to convert outsiders to Mormonism. But that was the thing, Mormons only took you seriously if you were Mormon.).

So, we rejected not only the United States, but many of its most foundational structures. I think we took on a goodly dose of traitor aversion in America’s eyes at that point.

Now, I don’t think that most Americans remember that history. I don’t even think most Mormons remember that history. But its effect has hung onto our outlook and behavior. Mormon programming has the outward appearance of Christian American programming, but it’s just different enough. And people can feel that. Sometimes it’s intriguing. Sometimes it’s off-putting. But it’s always niggling.

As John Gardner writes in his novel Mickelsson’s Ghosts, Mormons are “clubby. . . . There’s something unnatural about people all hanging together like that. The Baptists, now, they may be mean . . . , but there’s no way they’re ever gonna take over the world. . . . But the Mormons, now—”

And you have to admit, we are kind of trying take over the world. And we do proudly call ourselves a “peculiar people.”

But, from what I’ve seen, LDS Church leadership is making deliberate strides away from our peculiar roots and toward becoming a flavor of Christianity (see this podcast episode). It will be interesting to see how much movement we make toward shedding our peculiarity and traitor aversion over the next few decades.

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He was a friend to Mormons, sure. But was he a Mormon? Who was Thomas Kane and why does he matter? Bryan and Lindsay dive into these important questions about a good, good boy in Mormon history, Brother, er, Mister Thomas Kane. Shownotes: Donate to Sunstone and the History Podcast (leave us a note in …

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In September 1982, the Sunstone Review published an interview with Mark Hofmann. At the time, Hofmann was known for having found a series of extraordinary historical documents. One was the Anthon transcript, which contained symbols Joseph Smith allegedly copied from the golden plates and sent to New York scholar Charles Anthon. Another contained an alleged blessing Joseph Smith had given to his son Joseph III apparently ordaining him to become his successor. And finally, a letter from Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph Smith’s mother.

At the time of the interview, each of these were considered authentic documents. But by 1986, after Hofmann killed two people with bombs, these documents would be shown to be forgeries created by Hofmann himself. Thus, a contemporary reading of this interview brims with irony. Here are a few excerpts.

Review: Once you have found an item, how do you determine if it’s authentic?

Hofmann: Actually, to authenticate a Mormon item—at least so far—has been easier than the same process for, say, Lincoln or Washington letters. There have been all kinds of Lincoln forgeries around and even though I’m in the business, I wouldn’t buy a Lincoln letter without getting one of the few persons I respect as experts to authenticate it. To date that hasn’t been a real problem with Mormon documents. Now, however, with the publicity that’s been given the tremendous amount of money to be realized (for example the Trib mentioned a $30,000 figure for the Lucy Mack Smith letter), there may be some temptation to forge.

Review: Do you know of any Mormon forgeries?

Hofmann: Only a couple. There was a forgery of a journal from a soldier in the Mormon Battalion.

Review: A whole journal?

Hofmann: Yes. But as far as a Joseph Smith letter, there are several laboratory tests that can be performed. In terms of handwriting, usually Dean Jessee speaks for the Church. He is conservative enough in his judgment that he’s pretty well respected by his supervisors as well as those outside. If it’s something spectacular or earth shattering, something with important doctrinal or historical implications, an all out effort would likely be made. There is a very complicated science involved. For example, it is possible to determine the rate of oxidation of the ink in relation to the paper. This would show how long the two were in contact. And so forth. The Reorganized Church did some rather extensive tests on the Joseph Smith III blessing, I understand. But in the case of the Anthon transcript, they haven’t done everything I thought they were going to do. For example, there’s a black glue-like substance which held it in the Bible. They still don’t know what that substance is. I know that laboratory identification could be made on that. Perhaps someday the Church will do it.

…

Review: Do you consider yourself an active Latter-day Saint?

Hofmann: Yes. I’m an eighth-generation Mormon, and my mother is a stake Relief Society president right now.

Review: Has your profession affected your beliefs at all?

Hofmann: I guess I am a lot more callous than I was. But generally I just don’t worry about some things. I don’t have to figure everything out, have an explanation for everything. I can just say, “Well that’s the way it is.”

Review: Do you look for specific documents to substantiate the Mormon historical claims?

Hofmann: You can’t really do that; you have to take what you can find. I don’t think documents really change anyone’s mind anyway. For example, the Anthon transcript. The anti-Mormons used it for their purposes and the Mormons used it for theirs. The same thing with the Lucy letter. I think most people are a little like me. You have your beliefs and you don’t really let things change them too much.

Review: If you found a document that was potentially embarrassing to the Church, would you consider hiding or destroying it?

Hofmann: Oh no. That gets into a matter of ethics. It’s not my role to burn a document just because I don’t like what it says. (Not to mention that it’s not a very profitable thing to do in the business world.) The closest I’ve ever come was the Joseph Smith III blessing which shook up a few people in the Church. It surprised me a bit that the Church didn’t buy it up quick and stash it away somewhere, but I guess the historical department is trying to be more objective and get away from that sort of thing.

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Why are Mormons a bewildering mix of peculiar and normal? Some of it has to do with . . . testosterone? Stephen Carter explores the Mormon implications of Joseph Henrich’s book “The Weirdest People in the World.”

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The Lectures on Faith used to be part of the Doctrines and Covenants, but a strange event in Eureka, Utah, may have helped give it the boot.

On 17 April 1920, James E. Talmage took a train to Eureka to investigate alleged “separatists” that were trying to re-establish the United Order. The next day, he wrote in his journal that the allegations were “greatly exaggerated.” He had found a small group of families in the West Tintic Branch, led by Moses Gudmundsen, who had “tried to establish a system of cooperative farming.”

However, less than two months later, Talmage returned to West Tintic and became “convinced that the evil one is acting upon the minds of certain men and women in this locality.” On 20 February 1921, Talmage and Rudger Clawson took part in a high council proceeding where they heard that:

residents of the West Tintic branch . . . had adopted a system of “wife-sacrifice,” whereby men were required to give up their wives to other men, and this under a diabolical misinterpretation of Scripture as to the law of sacrifice requiring one to give up all he has, even wife and children.

Twelve men from the branch were excommunicated or disfellowshipped, and the West Tintic Branch was dissolved.

Reflecting on the trial, Talmage wrote:

They have made sacrifice their hobby. The eating of meat, the taking of animal life even to provide food, and many other practices common with other people have been forbidden there; while long fasts and particularly the sacrificing of comforts and wholesome desires have been held up as ideals. . . . The present state is one of abominable immorality. Some of the women, notably the wife of Moses Gudmundsen . . . withdrew promptly from the colony rather than countenance in any degree these ungodly practices.

Gudmundsen asserted “that the faithful must sacrifice everything—home, family, all. . . . He built much upon the discussion of sacrifice in the Sixth Lecture [on Faith] of the Doctrine and Covenants.”

The passage in question reads in part:

Let us here observe that a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation. For from the first existence of man, the faith necessary unto the enjoyment of life and salvation never could be obtained without the sacrifice of all earthly things. It is through this sacrifice, and this only, that God has ordained that men should enjoy eternal life.

In early 1921, while Talmage was in the midst of dealing with the West Tintic Branch, he and a committee that included Elders Joseph Fielding Smith and John A. Widtsoe recommended that the Lectures on Faith be removed from the D&C. It’s very possible that his ongoing experience with the West Tintic Branch was a factor in this removal.

(Condensed from “Sacrificing the Lectures on Faith,” by James P. Harris, Sunstone 172.)

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Consider the following. E.T. is a Christ figure. He is a botanist, a “shepherd of plants” so to speak. His mission is peaceful—he has come to save some of the earth’s endangered organisms. He arrives out of the heavens, heals the sick (the dying plant, Elliot’s finger), and performs miracles (elevating the bicycles and other objects). All the while, he is preoccupied by a major goal of calling home (see Mark 1:35). He communicates through some sort of mystic transference of feelings rather than through words (Matthew 16:17). E.T. has a profound influence for the positive over those around him: Elliot sets the frogs free; Elliott’s older brother, contemplating E.T.’s higher intelligence, abstains from juvenile mischief on the bus; and an arguing family unites in a bond of love as disciples.

E.T. encourages faith in a broken-hearted Elliot who says, “I’ll believe in you every day for the rest of my life.” As a confirmation of the heavenly parallel, the kind scientist declares, “E.T.’s being with us is a miracle.”) The extraterrestrial dies, resurrects, and ascends to heaven, but not before issuing a final decree to his disciples, a proclamation on how to conduct one’s life (“Be good”), an invitation to follow him (“Come”), and a promise to be with them always (“I’ll be right here”; see Matthew 28:20). And owing to Spielberg’s religious background, E.T. even has “the sacred heart.”

And if all these examples aren’t enough, consider the E.T. ad poster: E.T. touching the finger of an infant—a visual parallel of Michelangelo’s depiction of the creation of Man.

An excerpt from “E.T.: Celluloid Savior” by Marty Nabhan, in the September 1982 Sunstone Review.

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Finally, we’ve arrived at the story of Lyman Wight and his break-off group of Texas Mormons. Join Lindsay and Bryan as they explore the story of Brigham Young’s troublesome apostle, Elder “fistacuffs,” the Wild Ram himself, Brother Lyman Wight.

Shownotes:* Purchase the book: An Abundant Life: The Memoirs of Hugh B. Brown edited by Edwin B. Firmage * Polygamy on the Pedernales: Lyman Wight’s Mormon Villages in Antebellum Texas, 1845-1858– by Melvin C. Johnson

https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SHP_093.mp3

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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 a sexless university that releases its steam through “religious ecstasy,” where theology is the academic best bet and where even indulging in caffeine is prohibited. Understandably, the pleasure-seeking magazine listed BYU’s “hottest hangout” as “any plane leaving Provo.”

However, this time BYU administrators were delighted with being last place. “It pretty well pinpoints where we are,” said Public Communications Director Paul Richards. “We feel it would be where we would come in if they had surveyed several hundred colleges around the country. If we had ranked 20th in the country out of all the universities, we would be worried,” he told the Deseret News.

From the September 1982 edition of the Sunstone Review.

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“Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith” was a turning point in the telling of Mormon history. And it has a fascinating history of its own. Linda King Newell recounts how she and Valeen Avery Tippetts wrote this groundbreaking book. This episode was recorded at the 2009 Salt Lake Symposium.

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I had been suckered into donating platelets, which meant I was going to be stuck in a chair with needles in my arms for two and a half hours. Fortunately, the Red Cross provides Netflix on a little screen for entertainment. But, since you can’t move your arms, whatever you pick, you’re stuck with it. As I scrolled through the offerings, I remembered that some friends had suggested I watch the Midnight Mass television series. So, I took a leap of faith and watched two episodes while a machine sucked blood out of one arm and injected it back through the other.

I’ll have to admit that, even after two episodes, I wasn’t quite sure what the show was about. But one thing about it really caught my attention: How seriously the show takes religious people. I was especially taken by some conversations between a pastor and the atheist protagonist of the show. As they discussed their conflicting worldviews, I realized that the show wasn’t trying to make me decide who was right. Instead, it was pointing to thoughts beyond what the two characters were talking about.

It was refreshing. Even nourishing. I realized that in popular media, religious characters are usually two-dimensional comedic characters or villains. And it’s apparently very noticeable. Last Sunday my elders quorum was discussing a general conference talk by Kevin W. Pearson where he said, “As harsh and hateful criticism is increasingly leveled at the Savior’s Church and those who follow Him, our discipleship will require a greater willingness to straighten and strengthen our spiritual spines and heed them not.” I can see how religious people would feel dismissed, even criticized, in popular television.

But it occurred to me that it might largely be our own fault.

The reason the religious characters in Midnight Mass were interesting was because we got to see them bring their faith into an eloquent, passionate, robust conversation. Once the initial volley was over, the pastor and the atheist didn’t just continue to entrench themselves in their original positions, instead they started to respond to each other in a way that let you know they were actually listening to each other. Heeding each other. And through their responses they started to build a relationship.

How often does that kind of thing happen when religious people talk with non-religious people? How often do we progress beyond preaching into listening, then to responding, and, soon, into mutual enrichment and relationship building?

For example, there was a guy in my grad school program who was a very committed Christian. He was never shy about it, and I admired his willingness to be himself in an otherwise largely religion-free group. But whenever I got too close to religion with him, it would turn into a one-way conversation: he would preach at me.

On the other hand, I had a film teacher who, though he had a Jewish background, was quite secular. However, he ran a Jewish film festival in town, which was kind of amazing because this was Fairbanks, Alaska. I can’t imagine there was much of an audience. It was obviously a labor of love for him. One year, I watched some of the movies he brought in and was amazed by how, instead of preaching, they explored Jewish lives and struggles. For a few years after that, my professor and I had a lot of religious conversations. And he helped me enrich my idea of both religion and Mormonism. Toward the end of my stay, I published a personal essay about holding the priesthood in Dialogue and he was one of the few people I felt I could share it with.

So, I guess my response to Elder Pearson is, “If we want less criticism leveled at us—if we want to be heeded—shouldn’t we heed in return?”

I know that the LDS Church has lately been encouraging its members to “Love, share, invite,” but “invite” implies that the person we are speaking with must come to where we are. I wonder if we shouldn’t reverse it. Invite into conversation, engage in mutual sharing, then learn to love through that sharing.

It’s certainly not a new concept in Mormonism. Brigham Young said it right out loud: “Whether a truth be found with professed infidels, or with the Universalists, or the Church of Rome, or the Methodists, the Church of England, the Presbyterians, the Baptists, the Quakers, the Shakers, or any other of the various and numerous different sects and parties, all of whom have more or less truth, it is the business of the Elders of this Church (Jesus, their Elder Brother, being at their head) to gather [it] up.”

Being enriched by conversations with people outside the church—even outside religion—is both useful and divine. We seek to enrich and to be enriched.

What if, when non-religious people thought of Mormons, they thought, “They’re good listeners, and the world always gets more interesting when I talk with them.” Their criticisms would probably just drop away, and we could straighten and strengthen our spiritual spines through robust conversation and posture-friendly sitting habits.

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Join Lindsay and Bryan as they discuss the insane story of James Emmett, the Council of 50 member who started his own frontier break-off-get-back-together sect during the Mormon exodus. Show Notes: Council of Fifty, Minutes, March 1844–January 1846; Volume 1, 10 March 1844–1 March 1845-

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How much of a role might hallucinogens have played in some of the visions of early Mormon history? Bryce Blakenagel, host of the Naked Mormonism podcast, explores the possibilities. This episode was recorded at the 2022 Salt Lake Summer Symposium.

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When I saw the list of the Academy Awards’ Best Picture nominees, I thought, “Which of these movies would be most useful to Mormons?” And the answer I came up with was Tár.Which seemed strange. After all, we have Avatar: The Way of Water, a movie about a family—and Mormons love families! We also have Everything Everywhere All at Once, which ends on a very family-centered note. And we have The Fabelmans, which is largely about . . . a family! So why would I choose a movie about a lesbian orchestra conductor?

Probably the thing that launches the most faith crises in the LDS Church is when someone finds out that various historical figures were much more complicated than Sunday school lessons make them out to be.

See, in Mormonism, the value of a life is measured in how well it can be an example of righteousness. Think about the stories told in various official LDS channels (general conference, church curriculum, those emails they send around, etc.). If a historical figure is brought up, it is because they can teach some value—whether promoting a positive one or warning against a negative one. Lives are valued according to their teaching potential.

This comes out in how Mormons are taught to keep journals. We don’t keep journals for ourselves, we keep them for our posterity. And the job of our entries is to teach values to our descendants through our experiences.

So, when we find out how deeply Joseph devastated Emma with polygamy, it really throws us. Joseph was supposed to be a guileless revelator of truth. When we realize how ruthless Brigham could be in his kingdom building, it makes us reinterpret everything we learned about him in Sunday school.

In other words, Mormons approach lives with judgment, whether approving or disapproving of them. We are trained from the beginning to do so, and we tend to stick with it before, during, and after a faith crisis.

Tár provides excellent training for escaping this automatic judgment. But first, spoiler alert!

Here we have a towering character. A woman who can draw extraordinary music from an orchestra. Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) charges everything around her with her commitment to, and genius for, great music. And she has made it to the top of the pile, directing the Berlin Philharmonic.

The odd thing is, the beginning of the story presents her in such a way that—though we admire her, though we are astonished by her, though she compels us—we don’t feel a personal connection to her. She’s like a piece of brutalist architecture that takes our breath away, that dominates the landscape, but does not invite us to come inside and live.

So, as we start to see other aspects of Lydia’s life—her cold, laser-focused politicking, her taste for seducing and abandoning her young protégés—we don’t feel like our hero is falling. We don’t feel the shock we felt, for example, when we learned that Emma caught Joseph frolicking in the barn with the teenaged Fanny Alger. Since the story did not require our heart to be invested in Lydia, it doesn’t break as her various aspects reveal themselves. We watch with impartiality as she becomes more and more complicated.

We see how she cultivates excellence in her orchestra. We see how she becomes obsessed with a new protégé. We see her defend her daughter at school. We see her sideline another conductor. We see her rapturously watching old videotapes of Leonard Bernstein’s music lectures. We watch her final humiliation, which she approaches with the same intensity and discipline she approached the Berlin Philharmonic with.

That Lydia is extraordinary is never in question. That she is complicated becomes more and more apparent as the story progresses.

I think Mormons would gain a lot from being able to approach their historical figures the same way, even if only temporarily. To be able to say, “Yes, that person was extraordinary. And complicated.” To allow the fullness of these people to stand before us, instead of only pieces. To escape the idea that we can only look with judgment. Which, strangely enough, is something Jesus taught. “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged” (Matt. 7:1–2).

It may help us to begin seeing the fullness of the people around us. And, with practice, hopefully even our own.

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Today we are talking about Council Bluffs and how Mormons ended up there. The episode with Lindsay and Bryan discusses the controversial land trade Mormons made with the federal government to be able to settle “Winter Quarters” and the tragic consequences of the deal.

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If the LDS Church has light, it also has a shadow. But what should it do with that shadow? Valerie Hamaker shows how the Jungian shadow can either save or destroy a person—or a religion. This episode was recorded at the 2022 Sunstone Summer Symposium.  

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We kick off a new season leaving Nauvoo and heading into the great unknown. Join Lindsay and Bryan for a fascinating look at the Mormon journey into Iowa, known as Winter Quarters.

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The Season of Nauvoo is (finally) in the books. Join Bryan and Lindsay as they discuss the year and the new season ahead.

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LDS Church member Beatrice Sparks published two wildly popular diaries of teen drug abuse and Satanism: “Go Ask Alice” and “Jay’s Journal.” But the diaries, and Beatrice herself, were much more complicated than they appeared. Using Rick Emerson’s book “Unmask Alice: LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World’s Most Notorious Diaries,” Stephen Carter …

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Recently I saw the August 1925 cover of The Children’s Friend (the official publication of the LDS Church’s Primary organization). What made the cover interesting was the fact that it showed two children sitting with their dog in front of a gigantic mushroom. The mushroom had windows and doors in it. And in one of the windows sat a winged fairy.

1925 was almost 100 years ago, and a lot has changed in church culture since then. Would The Friend (the current iteration of The Children’s Friend) come anywhere close to printing such a cover these days? I mean, I don’t think you could find many Mormons who would recognize fairies and giant mushroom houses as being a part of the gospel or church history.

Intrigued, I looked back over the history of the Friend’s covers to see if anything similar has made the front page of our children’s gospel instruction in the recent past. And found something very odd.

For the past 10 years, the cover of The Friend has been made up almost exclusively of illustrations. Only two covers out of the 120 between 2022 and 2012 had photos on them. I looked further back and found that the moment when the illustrations-only decision seems to have been made was 2007. There must have been a revelation or something.

But did any of these illustrated covers over the past 10 years display giant mushroom houses and fairies?

One came close. It was the November 2015 cover, which shows a group of anthropomorphic woodland creatures making their way through a forest, all wearing some article of clothing and carrying food items such as pie, bread, and casserole. (Headed to the ward Christmas potluck, I suppose.)

But this image was a rarity. The last time something like that had been printed was thirteen years previous when the March 1992 issue featured a raccoon and a rabbit planting a garden. (Interestingly enough, some rather large mushrooms stand in the foreground.)

What I basically found is that the further back you go in the Friend’s archives, the more likely you are to find the equivalent of giant mushroom houses and fairies. For example, this bizarre cover featuring anthropomorphic tools from 1981.

Or this band of animal pirates also from 1981.

Or Santa Claus in a balloon from 1971.

Of course, it’s quite easy to find floating, white-robed men on the Friend’s covers. But those are part of Mormon history. Heck, they started Mormon history. So I guess they deserve to be there.

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As we wrap up the Nauvoo era of Mormon history, we focus in on a lesser known figure that had a big impact on Mormonism: Vilate Kimball

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Utah has often been called the ‘fraud capital of the world.” In this episode, Ryan McKnight takes us on a tour of Utah’s worst fraudsters—all of them LDS. Recorded at the 2018 Sunstone Summer Symposium.

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In the beginning, Sam Brannan might have been a loyal Mormon leader, but the glitter of gold and the allurements of the world are about to test his mettle. Join Lindsay and Bryan as they talk about the rise and fall of Brigham Young’s biggest colonizing competitor, Sam Brannan.

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In this episode, Lindsay and Bryan discuss the Mormons’ first venture heading west: Samuel Brannan’s expedition to the so-called, “Upper California.” Special thanks to Matt Riley for the cameo on this episode. Music mentioned and used in this episode: Mormon Symphony & Mormon Youth Chorus – The Upper California

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They’re embedded in a patriarchal church, so shouldn’t Mormon men be the very definition of toxic masculinity? In this episode, Stephen Carter explores the surprising ways Mormon masculinity has shifted over the past few years.

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In the Book of Abraham, the gods create intelligences and put them into human bodies. Humans are now creating intelligences. But the intelligences we create could have the capacity to destroy us. Ross Richey shows how this could change the way we think about the Plan of Salvation. This episode was recorded at the 2018 …

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Utah’s first AIDS cases were confirmed in 1983. How did gay and lesbian people in Utah respond to this new disease? How did the LDS Church respond? J. Seth Anderson presents an overview of this tragic part of Utah’s history. This episode was recorded at the 2017 Sunstone Summer Symposium.

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After the death of Joseph Smith, things got even wilder in Nauvoo. Bryan and Lindsay talk about the crazy chaos and sit down with historian Dr. Benjamin Park to unpack it all.

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Remember when Brigham Young disbanded the Relief Society shortly after Joseph Smith’s death? We do. Or do we…? In this long-awaited and teased BONUS episode, Bryan and Lindsay sit down with historian Katie Ludlow Rich to discuss her research and paper, The Shadow Succession Crisis: Challenging the Claim that Brigham Young Disbanded the Relief Society …

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Remember when Brigham Young disbanded the Relief Society shortly after Joseph Smith’s death? We do. Or do we…? In this long-awaited and teased BONUS episode, Bryan and Lindsay sit down with historian Katie Ludlow Rich to discuss her research and paper, The Shadow Succession Crisis: Challenging the Claim that Brigham Young Disbanded the Relief Society …

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In this special bonus episode, historian Christopher C. Smith interviews Joseph West about a paper he coauthored with Eric W. Schoon, titled, “From Prophecy to Practice: Mutual Selection Cycles in the Routinization of Charismatic Authority.” We dig into the “death of a founder syndrome” and how schismatic movements form. Shownotes: Link to the paper: From Prophecy …

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In this special bonus episode, historian Christopher C. Smith interviews Joseph West about a paper he coauthored with Eric W. Schoon, titled, “From Prophecy to Practice: Mutual Selection Cycles in the Routinization of Charismatic Authority.” We dig into the “death of a founder syndrome” and how schismatic movements form. Shownotes: Link to the paper: From Prophecy …

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What if we could free polygamy from patriarchy and inequality? In this episode, Brady Williams and Blaire Ostler talk about how we could greatly expand the definition of this odd Mormon concept to make room for more types of relationships.

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What if we could free polygamy from patriarchy and inequality? In this episode, Brady Williams and Blaire Ostler talk about how we could greatly expand the definition of this odd Mormon concept to make room for more types of relationships.

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It’s finally here; the story of how Brigham Young took over the church after Joseph Smith’s death. We’ve shown you the candidates, and now it’s time for the Succession Crisis showdown.

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Stephen Carter found a copy of “The Miracle of Forgiveness” at DI . . . and read it. How does the book that launched a million bishop confessions sound more than 50 years after publication? And how has the very idea of forgiveness changed along the way?

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When people leave the LDS Church, they rarely go join another church. Why do ex-Mormons go from “all in” to “all out”? Ryan Wimmer presents his ideas in this episode, recorded at the 2018 Sunstone Summer Symposium.

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Alpheus Cutler broke with Brigham Young but his timing couldn’t have been worse. Join Bryan and Lindsay as they discuss Cutler’s role in the succession crisis in Mormonism and the Cutlerite movement.

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In the final part of the James Strang saga, Bryan and Lindsay discuss the rise and downfall of the growing Mormon congregation on Beaver island known as the Strangite movement.

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In the final part of the James Strang saga, Bryan and Lindsay discuss the rise and downfall of the growing Mormon congregation on Beaver island known as the Strangite movement.

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After working with Helen Whitney on the PBS documentary “The Mormons,” Whitney told Greg Prince, “You have a good religion, but you need to own it. Most of its members are borrowing it.” In this episode, Prince reflects on what it means to own one’s religion. Recorded at the 2018 Sunstone Summer Symposium.

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After working with Helen Whitney on the PBS documentary “The Mormons,” Whitney told Greg Prince, “You have a good religion, but you need to own it. Most of its members are borrowing it.” In this episode, Prince reflects on what it means to own one’s religion. Recorded at the 2018 Sunstone Summer Symposium.

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How many of your beliefs, words, and actions are driven not by your self, but by your context? Social psychologist Peter Leavitt proposes some disconcerting answers, giving us more reason question ourselves as well as more reason to be compassionate with others. This episode was recorded at the 2018 Sunstone Summer Symposium.

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How many of your beliefs, words, and actions are driven not by your self, but by your context? Social psychologist Peter Leavitt proposes some disconcerting answers, giving us more reason question ourselves as well as more reason to be compassionate with others. This episode was recorded at the 2018 Sunstone Summer Symposium.

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After an LDS apostle suggested the existence of “counterfeit families,” Sunstone sponsored a conference that gave many types of families a voice. In this episode, LaShawn Williams, Jerilyn Hassell Pool, Brady Williams, Richard Ostler, and Weston Clark talk about their unique families. This episode was recorded at the 2018 Sunstone Summer Symposium.

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After an LDS apostle suggested the existence of “counterfeit families,” Sunstone sponsored a conference that gave many types of families a voice. In this episode, LaShawn Williams, Jerilyn Hassell Pool, Brady Williams, Richard Ostler, and Weston Clark talk about their unique families. This episode was recorded at the 2018 Sunstone Summer Symposium.

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The James Strang has left the station and things keep getting… stranger. In this episode, Bryan and Lindsay discuss how James Strang’s Mormon movement takes off and moves to Beaver Island, causing all sorts of problems.

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Join Bryan and Lindsay as they dive back into the Mormon history timeline and the contenders for the Nauvoo succession crisis. Today’s candidate? None other than James Jesse Strang.

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Join Bryan and Lindsay as they dive back into the Mormon history timeline and the contenders for the Nauvoo succession crisis. Today’s candidate? None other than James Jesse Strang.

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During early Utah’s “Mormon Reformation,” LDS leaders whipped the Saints into a religious fervor. Along with this reformation came an unprecedented spate of polygamous marriages. Scholar John G. Turner tells the story of the run-up and fallout of this matrimonial frenzy. This episode was recorded at the 2016 Sunstone Summer Symposium.

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During early Utah’s “Mormon Reformation,” LDS leaders whipped the Saints into a religious fervor. Along with this reformation came an unprecedented spate of polygamous marriages. Scholar John G. Turner tells the story of the run-up and fallout of this matrimonial frenzy. This episode was recorded at the 2016 Sunstone Summer Symposium.

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Will the personality we develop in mortal life have any kind of staying power in the post-mortal life? Stephen Carter uses the television series “Severance” to explore the possibilities.

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Will the personality we develop in mortal life have any kind of staying power in the post-mortal life? Stephen Carter uses the television series “Severance” to explore the possibilities.

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In this episode, Bryan, Lindsay and Cristina Rosetti discuss Netflix’s new series Keep Sweet which tells the story of two sisters and their upbringing in the FLDS. This episode covers the historical context and stories featured in the rest of the mini series.

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In this episode, Bryan, Lindsay and Cristina Rosetti discuss Netflix’s new series Keep Sweet which tells the story of two sisters and their upbringing in the FLDS. This episode covers the historical context and stories featured in the rest of the mini series.

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In this episode, Bryan, Lindsay and Cristina Rosetti discuss Netflix’s new series Keep Sweet which tells the story of two sisters and their upbringing in the FLDS. This episode covers the historical context and stories featured in the first episode in the series.

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In this episode, Bryan, Lindsay and Cristina Rosetti discuss Netflix’s new series Keep Sweet which tells the story of two sisters and their upbringing in the Flds. We go into the background of Mormon Fundamentalism and how it started to explain to listeners how stories like those featured in Keep Sweet, could have possibly happened.

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Who was living in Salt Lake Valley when the Mormon pioneers arrived? What relationships existed between the Mormons and the Natives during Utah’s settlement? Forrest Cuch talks about the role generational trauma played in Utah’s settlement and how can we reconcile the difficulties of Utah’s past. This episode was recorded at the 2018 Sunstone Summer …

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Join consultant for the series Lindsay Hansen Park as she discusses the portrayals in the show, along with co-host Bryan Buchanan. In this final episode discussing the series, Bryan and Lindsay discuss what is happening in episode six and seven of Under the Banner of Heaven and sort fact from fiction. Shownotes: Robert Crossfield/Onias statement on …

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Join consultant for the series Lindsay Hansen Park as she interviews Mormon Fundamentalist Moroni Jessop about the Peacemaker, the document that informed Dan Lafferty’s doctrine.

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Join consultant for the series Lindsay Hansen Park as she discusses the portrayals in the show, along with co-host Bryan Buchanan. In this episode Bryan and Lindsay discuss what is happening in episode four and five of Under the Banner of Heaven and sort fact from fiction.

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Join consultant for the series Lindsay Hansen Park as she discusses the timeline of the murder of Brenda and Erica Lafferty. Following the details, Bryan Buchanan interviews Creight Horton, the attorney who worked on Ron’s retrial. Warning: this episode contains discussions of graphic violence and misogyny.  Show notes: Court Decision: State vs. Lafferty Creight Horton’s …

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In this episode, Zina Bennion and Sara Hanks talk about their journeys from being Mormons to being witches, and how their upbringing still affects the way they practice and believe now. This episode was recorded at the 2019 Sunstone Summer Symposium.

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Join consultant for the series Lindsay Hansen Park as she discusses the portrayals in the show, along with co-host Bryan Buchanan. In this episode Bryan and Lindsay discuss what is happening in episode three of Under the Banner of Heaven and sort fact from fiction.

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It would probably surprise both the prophet Mormon and Dustin Lance Black to know how much they have in common. In this episode, Stephen Carter shows how the similarities between Under the Banner of Heaven and the the Book of Mormon should encourage Latter-day Saints to give the television series a chance.

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Join consultant for the series Lindsay Hansen Park as she discusses the portrayals in the show, along with co-host Bryan Buchanan. In this episode Bryan and Lindsay discuss what is happening in episode two of Under the Banner of Heaven and sort fact from fiction.

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How important is the “historical” in historical fiction? Three historians, Barbara Jones Brown, Bryan Buchanan, and Cheryl Bruno, talk with Stephen Carter about the historical inaccuracies in Under the Banner of Heaven and whether they were worth it.

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Mormon fundamentalism plays a shadowy, menacing part in Under the Banner of Heaven. This episode gathers Vicki Darger, Benjamin Shaffer, Shirlee Draper, and Moroni Lopez Jessop, all either current or former fundamentalists, to talk about the realities of current-day Mormon fundamentalism, temple ceremonies, blood atonement, and polygamy.

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Join consultant for the series Lindsay Hansen Park as she discusses the portrayals in the show, along with co-host Bryan Buchanan. In this episode Bryan and Lindsay discuss what is happening in episode one of Under the Banner of Heaven and sort fact from fiction.

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We’re putting a pin in the Succession Crisis history to discuss the accuracy of Hulu’s new limited series, Under the Banner of Heaven! Join consultant for the series Lindsay Hansen Park as she discusses the portrayals in the show, along with co-host Bryan Buchanan. In this episode, Bryan interviews fundamentalist scholar Cristina Rosetti about prophet …

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Lindsay Hansen Park interviews two actors who took on iconic Mormon roles for “Under the Banner of Heaven”: Tyner Rushing as Emma Hale Smith, and Scott Michael Campbell as Brigham Young. Did one of them really end up in Relief Society one Sunday?

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In part one, we gave you the origin story of Sidney Rigdon. In this episode Lindsay and Bryan will discuss Rigdon’s transformation into early Mormon leader and contender for prophet, seer and revelator after Joseph Smith’s death. Show notes: Richard S. Van Wagoner’s 1996 Sunstone presentation of Sidney Rigdon and female ordination.

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Stephen Carter and his ex-Mormon brother walked into the Washington DC Temple open house, and what they saw on the walls changed the way they perceive the LDS Church forever. No ex-Mormons were re-converted in the making of this episode.

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In this episode, S. Richard Bellrock argues that the LDS proselytizing mission hits all the right buttons at all the right times to be a bona fide instance of hazing, with both hazing’s benefits and drawbacks.

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As we continue our journey through Mormon succession contenders, Bryan and Lindsay offer up Sidney Rigdon for your consideration.

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Most Mormons are suspicious of postmodernism. But Mormon apologists have actually made use of it to defend the faith. How in the world did they do it? Will it backfire? Taylor Petrey takes us on a tour of this fraught relationship in this 2019 Sunstone Summer Symposium recording.

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For a time, he was THE Stake President and the biggest game in town… but not for long, especially after the death of Joseph Smith. Come learn about the rise and fall of Brother William Marks, another contender in the Mormon succession crisis.

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Stephen Carter believes that a Canadian horror film holds the key to escaping any faith crisis. But will it turn you into a zombie?

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As the podcast begins to gear up for the Mormon succession crisis, Bryan and Lindsay review the major players. One of the unlikely contenders to take over the church after Joseph Smith’s murder was his younger brother Sam. But Sam wouldn’t survive long himself and his cause of death remains a mystery.

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In this episode, scholar Reza Aslan examines how the idea of gods arose in human evolution, was gradually personalized, endowed with human traits and emotions, and eventually transformed into a single Divine Personality. This episode was recorded at the 2019 Sunstone Summer Symposium.

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Ten years ago, President Thomas S. Monson opened the City Creek Shopping Center across from Temple Square with the immortal words, “Let’s go shopping!” Where is the line between the sacred and the secular in Mormonism? Matthew Bowman explores that question in this week’s episode. Recorded at the 2019 Sunstone Summer Symposium.

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By Megan Greenwood     Or download the audio file here: Linguini to Spare   I am really good in a crisis. Seriously. Really good. I’m actually kind of famous for it. Cancer diagnosis? I’m your gal. Divorce? I’ve got you. Lost your job? I’m here to help. Years ago, my mom and I were …

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The first time Mormonism encountered the Pacific Islands was in the 1840’s. Unfortunately for native Hawaiians, the Gospel wasn’t the only thing Mormons brought to the Islands. Bryan and Lindsay discuss the first mission to the Sandwich Islands, as well as the Smallpox epidemic. Show notes: John Hammond’s Sunstone speech on the Smallpox epidemic

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According to Paula Baker, the LDS Church is trying to become more empathetic. But when is empathy real and when is it fake? Baker explores the differences and how they could apply to an LDS context. This episode was part of a session at the 2021 Sunstone Summer Symposium.

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Come hear the diverging duet of two cousins, Joseph F. Smith and Joseph Smith III and how their paths mirrored and shaped two dominant Mormon sects.

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As more people experience faith transitions, many LDS couples find themselves grieving over their suddenly mixed-faith marriages. In this episode, eight therapists and life coaches give both personal and professional insights into honoring the challenging and the beautiful aspects of differing beliefs in a marriage. This episode was recorded at the 2020 Sunstone Summer Symposium.

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Joseph and Hyrum are shot dead in Carthage. Now what? Join Lindsay and Bryan as they discuss the aftermath of the events at Carthage.

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A recent Pew Research poll showed that 72% of Americans believe in a literal heaven, 58% in a literal hell. Most people who hold these beliefs are Christian and assume they are the age-old teachings from the Bible. But eternal rewards and punishments are found nowhere in the Old Testament and are not what Jesus …

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We are kicking off Season Three of the Sunstone Mormon History podcast. But before we do, Bryan and Lindsay discuss the state of the podcast: where it’s been and where it’s heading.

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The largest massacre of Native Americans by federal troops in the history of the United States took place in Cache Valley, Idaho, and it was both invited and condoned by the Mormons settling the area. Darren Parry, author of “The Bear River Massacre: A Shoshone History,” tells the story of that day on this episode …

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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.

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Heather Robertson and Christina Dee, both practicing members of the LDS Church, have experienced a significant shift in their approach to the LGBTQ community. This is their story. This episode comes from the 2020 Sunstone Summer Symposium.

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Join Lindsay and Bryan for the final episode in season two of the Sunstone Mormon History podcast as they discuss the murder of Joseph Smith in Carthage.

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Most people see their faith journey as taking them away from religion. But, using The Matrix, The Hobbit, and Star Wars, Stephen Carter uncovers evidence that faith journeys have something completely different up their sleeves.

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It seems like every general conference is the same, but data analytics tells us otherwise. Quentin Spencer talks about the surprising things the prophets have stopped talking about during the past 80 years. This episode is a recording from the 2020 Sunstone Summer Symposium.

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Susan Meredith Hinckley used to feel like she needed a bigger church, but behind that need was a more fundamental one: the need for a larger God. Regaining her spiritual footing after her children left Mormonism has required a new kind of faith: a turning away from the confines of what she had been taught …

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By Thomas A. Blakely       Or click to download the audio file: The Swearing Elders: The First Generation of Modern Mormon Intellectuals.   Read the text here.

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Merry Smithmas everyone! As part of a special bonus episode for the holidays (and Joseph Smith’s birthday), Bryan and Lindsay sat down with graphic artist Mark Elwood to discuss his newest book, The Glass Looker which covers Joseph Smith’s earliest years using magic and treasure digging. Buy The Glass Looker and see more of Mark’s …

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Part two of the history of the Mormon Expositor destruction is finally here! Join Lindsay and Bryan as they dig into the murky history of the newspaper that changed Mormonism forever.

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What is it like to grow up as a “Lamanite” in the LDS Church? Sarah Newcomb talks about her complicated history as a seventh-generation Native American Mormon in this recording of a 2020 Sunstone Summer Symposium session.  

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One of the most fiery controversies during the Nauvoo period for Joseph Smith involved the newspaper, The Nauvoo Expositor. In this episode, Lindsay and Bryan explore the people behind the infamous paper.

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The LDS Church has an actual policy of never apologizing. Is it just to ward off lawsuits, or is something deeper going on? In this episode, Stephen Carter uncovers the roots of this policy and its surprising consequences.

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Counterfeiting in Nauvoo is a controversial topic, not without its scandals. Bryan and Lindsay discuss the bogus counterfeiting scheme among the Saints and interview Mary Ann Clements, an expert on the subject.

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In 2019, Kyle Ashworth released the “On the Record” project (lattergaystories.org/record), a detailed chronology of quotes and messaging about LGBTQIA+ issues from the LDS Church. In this episode, Ashworth takes us on a whirlwind tour of that history. Recorded at the 2021 Sunstone Symposium.

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Most discussions about faith transitions center on adults. But what about the children of these parents? After his own faith transition, Jon Ogden wrestled with how he and his wife could best raise their kids — particularly while living in Utah County. In this episode, recorded at the 2021 Sunstone Symposium, Ogden shares lessons he …

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There were a lot of shenanigans afoot when it came to the law in Nauvoo. In this episode, Lindsay and Bryan talk with Nauvoo legal historian John Dinger about the legal charges levied against Joseph Smith.

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Many people who transition from orthodox Mormonism to either post or nuanced positions often look back on their sexual journey and feel that a lot of their decisions were co-opted by the Church. And now they’re dealing with grief, anger, feelings of betrayal, and the “what if?” syndrome. This episode addresses some of the common …

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To believe is to be human. But belief has a price—one that has risen higher and higher in recent years. Can we afford it anymore? That’s the question Stephen Carter asks as he explores Amanda Montell’s book “Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism.”

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While the Mormons were building a Kingdom of God in the United States, they began to branch out across the pond. Join Lindsay and Bryan as they discuss the early history of Mormonism in the UK and the English mission.

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“Queer polygamy” is probably one of the most provocative phrases you could throw into an LDS conversation. But Blaire Ostler thinks it can open up constructive new ways of reimagining the ways we relate to each other. In this episode, Ostler and professor of religion Taylor Petrey unpack this phrase and explore its possibilities.

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As promised, join Bryan and Lindsay for their special session at the 2021 Sunstone Summer Symposium. They discuss some of their adventures digging up the history for the podcast and much more!

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The idea that our spirits are the literal offspring of heavenly parents is found nowhere in LDS scripture or the writings, sermons, and contemporaneous teachings of Joseph Smith. In fact, the theology of Smith’s King Follett Discourse undermines the doctrine. Drawing from LDS scripture and Smith’s famous sermon, Rob Lauer presents a Mormon theology that …

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How did Joseph Smith Jr.’s parents and their upbringings influence Mormonism? Join Lindsay and Bryan as they discuss the early cultures and ideas in New England that made an impact on the Smith family and Mormonism at large.

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Liz Brown MacDonald interviewed fifteen young adults from rigidly religious homes who had left the LDS Church and was amazed by how many similarities their stories had. For example, the lengths the children would go to to cover up their disaffiliation with the church; the way their parents would blame themselves for the children’s disaffiliation; …

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Displays showing the remains of Native Americans were pretty normal in LDS museums for many decades. In this episode, Thomas Murphy gives a brief history of how these displays came to be, who protested them, and why repatriation is finally starting to happen. This episode is from the 2021 Sunstone Symposium.

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He was the murderous, rough-and-tumble police chief in Nauvoo, but Hosea Stout was also a lot more than that. Join Lindsay and Bryan as they talk about the history of early Mormon leader Hosea Stout.

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Is an LGBTQ worldview more Mormon than Mormonism these days? After reading Blaire Ostler’s book “Queer Mormon Theology,” Stephen Carter thinks so. In this episode, Stephen follows some of Ostler’s concepts to discover some startling compatibilities between the LGBTQ and LDS worldviews.

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A great majority of Latter-day Saints can trace their roots to immigrants who were part of the “Great gathering of Israel.” Immigration to Nauvoo was just the beginning, bringing thousands of Saints from all over Europe. They came by boat, wagon and steam. Join Lindsay and Bryan for a discussion of Nauvoo immigration and Joseph …

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The LDS Church used to run on belief. But things have changed so drastically in the past five years that Stephen Carter believes only doubt can save it now. But it must be a very deep kind of doubt. One that would change the church forever.

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While Mormonism was steamboats and celestial sealings over in Nauvoo, something else was afoot in old B-town. Bryan and Lindsay describe some of the lesser known Mormon settlements, including the Boston Mormons of the 1840s.

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Mormonism has a long and interesting history with Masonry. The beginnings of those connections are as fascinating as the history itself. In this episode, Lindsay and Bryan discuss the complicated origins of Mormonism’s relationship to the masons.

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Two famed Mormon pioneers, Jacob and Jane helped shape Mormonism in a big way. But how much do you know about them? Join Lindsay and Bryan as they discuss what life was like for these two in Nauvoo. Featuring a bonus cameo by historian Christopher C. Smith who discusses another pioneer man that never got …

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Understanding the legal system of early Nauvoo helps give context for the tumultuous events facing Mormons in the 1840s. Lindsay and Bryan bring on legal expert John Dinger to sort out how the Mormons ran the Nauvoo municipal system and what that says about Mormon power.

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For years a handful of polygamy deniers have published books and periodicals claiming that Joseph Smith never practiced polygamy and that it was a later invention of Brigham Young. In this episode, Bryan and Lindsay get into the literature, dive into the details and throw out the conspiracy theories and bad history leaps.

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The assassination attempt on former Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs still remains a mystery to this day. Bryan and Lindsay go over the events, with the help of historian Christopher C. Smith, to decide who really pulled the trigger on Boggs that day. Was it the Mormons?

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It’s incredibly frustrating when groups construct a version of history that ignores documented facts. Why do we do it? Stephen Carter analyzes a recent article from the Atlantic showing why the descendants of Confederate veterans, Mormons, and the rest of us ignore facts.

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In this fascinating episode, Lindsay and Bryan discuss the origins and history of the Nauvoo Legion, with special guest and renowned Nauvoo historian, Benjamin Park.

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After messing around for two episodes, Bryan and Lindsay finally discuss what William Clayton’s journals contain. From messy plural marriage to the nuts and bolts of the city, you can’t know about the history of Nauvoo without learning about William Clayton’s diaries.

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In his new book, Patrick Mason argues that the best way to move the Restoration forward is to start … the Renovation? In this episode, Stephen Carter delves in to Mason’s ideas to see if a renovation will be enough to move Mormonism forward, and, if so, how we might actually go about it.

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This is part-two of our curious case of the William Clayton diaries. In this episode, Bryan and Lindsay reveal the identity of Mr. X, the other important person to view William Clayton’s journals. Listen to Episode 36 first to get caught up on the story!

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One of the biggest stars of the Netflix documentary “Murder Among the Mormons” is Shannon Flynn, who was Mark Hofmann’s close friend. In this episode, Bryan Buchanan and Lindsay Hansen Park talk with Flynn about his relationship with Hofmann, and Flynn’s behind-the-scenes role in the making of the documentary.

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William Clayton was the scribe of Joseph Smith and had arguably the best access to the dirty deets of church history, which is probably why his journals have become politically fraught in the Mormon historical community. Bryan and Lindsay explain how access to his diaries became so contested it ended in a long, drawn-out court …

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Mormonism has long been suspicious of the concept of grace, choosing to focus instead on worthiness. But worthiness culture was toxic for Katie Langston. During a 10-year spiritual journey, Katie learned about, experienced, and finally embraced grace. Stephen Carter talks with Katie about her journey and the book she’s publishing about it.

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Ever wonder how the Mormon women’s Relief Society got started? The beginnings of the organization touted by the LDS as “the largest women’s organization in the world,” is fraught with conflict, drama and that pesky thing called spiritual wifery. Join Lindsay and Bryan as they discuss the history of the Relief Society in Nauvoo.

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Interviewed by Jimmy Rex, Sunstone gathers some of the people who appeared on the Netflix documentary “Murder Among the Mormons” to talk about what it was like to be there during the time of Mark Hofmann’s forgeries and bombings. Panelists include Brent Ashworth, Curt Bench, Brent Metcalfe, and Sandra Tanner.

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How do you go about making a movie about the notorious bombings committed by Mark Hoffman? Especially when Mormons are not your audience? Lindsay Hansen Park talks with Jared Hess and Tyler Measom about how they went about making the Netflix documentary “Murder Among the Mormons.”

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In this recording of a Sunstone UK Fireside, Jane Christy talks about the difficulties and rewards of being an active member of a small LDS ward while being a feminist and bi-sexual.

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In part three of our temple development episodes, Bryan and Lindsay discuss the changes to the LDS temples in the 20th century. From garment pattern alterations to less oaths and penalties, a lot has happened to the Mormon temple practices in the last century.

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Why is the doctrine of eternal polygamy so painful to so many Mormon women? Stephen Carter turns the question around, exploring why eternal polyandry would be a painful prospect to Mormon men. The answers lie in the limbic layer of the brain, which has a lot to teach us about the delicate workings of love.

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Last episode, we talked about the development of the Mormon temple in the Nauvoo era. As the Saints move to Utah, the temple ceremony and structure slowly changes. In part two of our temple development series, Bryan and Lindsay discuss what the temple was like in the early Utah period of Mormonism.

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In this recording of a Sunstone U.K. fireside, Peter Bleakley argues that the LDS Church should be “rocking the 21st century”—but that it absolutely isn’t. Bleakley presents his ideas on how the LDS church could both change and make use of its strengths to reignite the spiritual passion of the many young people leaving the …

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Mormon temples are often steeped in mystery and intrigue for outsiders. Join Bryan Buchanan and Lindsay Hansen Park as they dive into the fascinating history behind the development of temple rituals.

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We may think that American politics is simply going nuts, but what it’s actually doing is turning into religion. In this episode, Stephen Carter argues that Mormonism had a big hand in turning politics into religion—and that, ironically, this shift is biting the Church hard.  

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Ever wonder about how prominent Mormon church leaders got their start? Lindsay and Bryan discuss the experiences of John D. Lee and Bathsheba W.B. Smith in Nauvoo, before they made a name for themselves.

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Mormonism is all about goals, growth, and progression. But Abinadi and Joseph Smith threw some serious monkey wrenches into the definition of those words. In this episode, Stephen Carter proposes a new approach to the Mormon obsession with progression. And it’s kind of dark.

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The Nauvoo period and the last few years of Joseph Smith’s life shaped Mormon doctrine in some remarkable ways. Lindsay and Bryan discuss the theological developments that came from this time period including baptism for the dead, the temple endowment and the garment.

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Charles Dickens is often credited as being the man who invented Christmas with his story “A Christmas Carol.” And the story bears a striking resemblance to a psychedelic trip, which has profoundly affected the way we celebrate Christmas, whether we are religious or not. Join Stephen Carter on this trip through history, culture, religion, and …

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Bryan and Lindsay continue their dive into the messiness of Nauvoo polygamy.

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By Edgar C. Snow Jr.     Or, right-click here to download the audio file: Writing the History of Pets and Other Animals in Mormondom     Click here to read the PDF version of this article.

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A few weeks ago, LDS social media feeds exploded with #givethanks. But something about it seemed … off. Stephen Carter digs into the oddities of Mormon gratitude in this episode of the Sunstone Podcast.

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In this episode, Bryan and Lindsay discuss the many wives of Joseph Smith in early Nauvoo.

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After a two-year break from church, why in the world would you want to go back to Sunday school? Stephen Carter had a few strange reasons, none of which will ever be quoted in General Conference. Listen to the harrowing story of his first virtual Sunday school class.  

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He was a man of many talents, some say too many. So who was John C. Bennett, the villain in the Mormon story? Join Lindsay and Bryan as they dig into the life of one of the most notorious anti-Mormons of all time.

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If you want to go to heaven, look no further than a one-way ticket straight to the Celestial Kingdom. The only catch is… you have to marry Brigham Young. Join Bryan and Lindsay as they begin to discuss the practice of plural marriage in Nauvoo.

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Forget the pandemic, the truly earth-shattering thing about 2020 is that people from Sunstone, Dialogue, and Exponent actually liked Dallin Oaks’ October conference talk! And was this the official anti-DezNat general conference? There are plenty of surprises in this analysis with Heather Harris-Bergevin, Jim Bennett, Emily Jensen, and Stephen Carter.

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Season Two: The History of Mormon History Historiography—We are doing it…. Join the Sunstone Mormon History podcasters Bryan Buchanan and Lindsay Hansen Park for a special second season of Deseret Dramas. This miniseries will explore the history of how Mormon history was told and came to be.

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How do you secure your eternal salvation? Join Lindsay and Bryan as they discuss the sacred and little-known, Book of the Law of the Lord, and how it became a place to record the name of the faithful.

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This panel discussion from Sunstone Birmingham features current and ex-Mormons telling the story of their faith journeys. Moderated by Mark Johnson, the panel includes Deborah Squires-Coleman, Debra Edwards, Mark Lake, and Lauren Richardson Alcock.

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Kristine Haglund, Karin Peter, and Stephen Carter scoured the 2020 Democratic National Convention transcripts for signs of Jesus’ teachings. What they found (and didn’t find) gave them new insight into what Jesus’ politics might have been.

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Welcome back to the Sunstone Mormon History podcast! We start off season two in beautiful Nauvoo, Illinois where Lindsay and Bryan show how early Mormonism begins to shift and grow into a religion, more peculiar than ever.

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In the last episode of season one, Lindsay and Bryan wrap up the Kirtland period and head to Missouri.

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Phil McLemore and Stephen Carter scoured the 2020 Republican National Convention’s transcripts for signs of Jesus’ teachings. What they found led to surprising insights about constructive ways conservatives and liberals can talk with each other.

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The Lamanites in the Book of Mormon were presented as the ancestors of the American Indians by early LDS Church leaders. But how plausible is that connection? In this episode, John Larsen and Christopher Smith dig into the difficulties.

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What if a voice started talking to you while you were all alone, soaking in a nice, warm bath? What if that voice told you that everything is a fiction — and that fictions are the single most important innovation in the history of humanity? What if you debated and argued with this voice until …

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The LDS Church is more enmeshed in white supremacy that most Latter-day Saints realize. Education professor Roni Jo Draper talks with co-host Blaire Ostler about how systemic racism shows up in Mormon conversations about education and how we can start to dismantle it.

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The Book of Mormon is simultaneously the most central and the most problematic part of the Restoration movement. In this episode, John Larsen introduces a new series in the Sunstone Podcast where he will be exploring various approaches to the Book of Mormon, revealing both its problems and its power.

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As Ijeoma Oluo wrote, “White people, talk about race with other white people. … Take some of the burden of racism off of people of color. Bring it into your life so that you can dismantle racism in the white spaces of your life.” But how do white people talk constructively about race amongst themselves? …

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Christian and LDS doctrine both teach about the resurrection of the dead. But how will that resurrection occur? Lincoln Cannon, Jordan Roberts, and Blaire Ostler have a theory that it will be accomplished through technological means. How does new technology and old scripture support their assertion? And what complexities does their theory pose?

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LeiLoni Lee grew up as a Black person in a small, largely White Utah town. She loved her experience in the LDS Church until the day a “trusted adult” told her that her dark skin was the sign of a curse. Then, at age 12, she began to realize that she was Queer. Blaire Ostler …

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With the advent of COVID-19, physically going to church has taken on the aura of a life-and-death proposition. Jana Riess and Stephen Carter discuss how we may have reached a historic period where the way we worship changes forever. Listen to this episode here. 

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In her new book, “Mormonism and White Supremacy: American Religion and the Problem and Racial Innocence,” Joanna Brooks reveals uncomfortable truths about how White supremacist attitudes were built into the LDS Church—and how they still function today. Joanna Brooks and Mica McGriggs talk with Stephen Carter about how racism became part of the Church’s structure …

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Taylor Petrey, author of the new book “Tabernacles of Clay: Sexuality and Gender in Modern Mormonism” talks with Ben Park and Lindsay Hansen Park about the many ways LDS teachings on gender and sexuality have shifted since World War II. Listen to this episode here. 

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Join Lindsay and Bryan as they record from the Visitor’s Center in Kirtland, Ohio about some of the hidden histories and impacts of the Kirtland period on Mormonism. Listen to this episode here. 

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Every great book has a great backstory,” says the blurb on the back of “Writing Mormon History: Historians and Their Books” Editor Joseph Geisner and contributor Daniel Stone talk with Lindsay Hansen Park and Josh Allred about their journeys of writing books that have influenced our understanding of the Mormon past. Listen to this episode …

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LDS Churches have been closed for two months now, which means we can only talk about religion online. And often our attempts at discussion blow up in our virtual faces. This panel explores how to discuss religion constructively online. Panelists include Gina Colvin, Michael Austin, Blaire Ostler, and Stephen Carter. Listen to this episode here. 

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Lindsay and John start to discuss the murder of Dr. Robinson and the fall out it caused throughout the country, including the lynching of Thomas Coleman. To give context for this murder, they briefly discuss many other murders in frontier Utah, such as Lieutenant Brassfield and the Parrish Potter murders. Was Utah really this lawless? …

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Are Mormons more violent than other religious groups? Was frontier Utah a dangerous place? Join Lindsay and John as they introduce extralegal justice in Utah and the West, and describe what is to come on Sunstone’s Crime and Punishment podcast. Listen to this episode here. 

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We live in unprecedented times, with unprecedented problems, that demand unprecedented solutions—solutions that only a prophetic people can provide. But what does being prophetic even mean? And when is a person being prophetic? What stops Mormons from being prophetic, and what can help them? This panel discussion includes Mica McGriggs, Daniel Carter, Lindsay Hansen Park, …

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The COVID-19 pandemic has upended normal life the world over. And things will likely be very different after the pandemic subsides. This panel discussion explores the kinds of changes the LDS Church might go through, including in its temple worship, and what theological possibilities the pandemic could spawn. Panelists include Blaire Ostler, Carl Youngblood, Michaelann …