Sunstone is pleased to release the preliminary program for the 2008 Salt Lake Symposium. Download the PDF version here. You can also register securely online!

This year’s theme is “The Spirituality of the Rising Generation,” and the symposium will feature about a dozen sessions relating to the fit between today’s Mormonism and the life-worlds of today’s young adults (late teens through early thirties).

Other topics that will receive special attention during the symposium include:

• The legacy of President Gordon B. Hinckley
• Fallout from California’s Proposition 22, and the current battle over marriage rights
• The LDS fallout from Mitt Romney’s bid for the presidency
• LDS responses to the war in Iraq and other world events
• The FLDS situation in Texas
• Responses to Sister Julie K. Beck’s October 2007 General Conference talk, “Women Who Know”
• Managing faith and questions within the church
• Mormonism and race
• Sunstone’s new “Mapping Mormon Issues” initiative (presentations on three of the topics: Book of Mormon historicity, Book of Mormon Translation processes, and Mormon teachings about humans becoming gods)

Read the rest

Sunstone is pleased to announce the hiring of a new Editor and a new Director of Outreach and Symposia. You can read the full release at SunstoneMagazine. Congratulations to Stephen Carter, selected as our new Editor, and to Mary Ellen Robertson, our new Director of Outreach and Symposia.

SunstoneBlog readers will easily recognize Stephen. He has a great style and a strong commitment to exploring Mormonism through open conversations. We’re excited to see him implement his ideas for the magazine, and to see how it will evolve under his editorship. In fact - if I could put in a personal plug - one of my favorite essays is his Winter Light, the 2005 Eugene England Memorial Personal Essay Contest Third Place Winner. Check out the search feature at www.SunstoneMagazine.com to find his other articles and symposium papers.

Mary Ellen has been a strong supporter of Sunstone since attending her first symposium in 1992, and has served on our board for the past 7 years. She has strong experience organizing several past regional symposia, and is fully committed to the open forum that Sunstone represents. She will work to organize the main symposium, as well as expand into regional and local Sunstone-sponsored events/symposia. She will also work to expand our reach through campus outreach, cultivating new readers from the younger generations, enhancing our online and blog offerings, and work to build both a physical and an online community.

You’ll notice that we have split the responsibilities for the symposia and the magazine instead of concentrating them in one person’s hands. By doing so, we hope to see not only a more aggressive publication schedule for the magazine but also a much more concerted effort to leverage the value of the gatherings to build this community.

As always, we rely on the generosity and support of you, our readers and our friends. We are in the middle of a significant transition right now, so every donation helps. If you can give, know that even small donations are welcome. You can also register now for this year’s Symposium (see the details on our site).

Again, congratulations to Stephen and to Mary Ellen. We look forward to the direction you two will lead us!

The motto of Sunstone is “Faith Seeking Understanding.” But in the latest issue of the magazine, David Richardson questioned whether we follow our own motto when we decide what to publish.

A few issues ago Sunstone published an article by Margaret Toscano that takes a measurement of the progress the Church has made along feminist fronts. Are women treated equally in the Church? Toscano concludes that equality is still a long way off, and that progress is slow going.

Richardson wrote in to Sunstone to argue one simple point. Why would Sunstone publish an article by an excommunicated Mormon who “seems to believe she is more inspired than God’s anointed prophet,” when the foundation of the magazine is faith? Sunstone “must respect the boundaries of faith in which we seek to understand,” Richardson argues. Read the rest

As far as I can tell, religion’s function, up until about Christianity, was basically to hold a culture together with a unified narrative. In other words, it gave meaning to workings of a group of people. No one thought to question it. That would be like questioning air. The people’s belief in the religion (or mythology if you would prefer) simply went along with being part of the group, just like the color of your skin or what you did to the tender parts of your male infants. So, just as everyone in the group shared the same air, they also shared the same religion.

In other words, religion was glue that kept people together, and that was it.

But then along comes Christianity with a completely different idea of what religion is. Read the rest

I watched The Merchant of Venice a few weeks ago, the one with Al Pacino (Shylock) and Jeremy Irons (Bassanio). It’s really an outstanding film. I just wish it didn’t have period prostitutes in it so I could show it to my class.

I had forgotten just how tautly Shakespeare draws the tensions in that play. We have on one hand a Jew who has lived under persecution his entire life. So when he gets the chance to even the score a little (lending money to Bassonio and possibly getting a pound of his flesh out of the deal), he’s happy to do so. But then his daughter runs away from him (admittedly, he was a despot) with a Christian, no less, and trades a family heirloom for a monkey. This sends Shylock over the edge, and rightly so. His rage is completely justified.

On the other hand we have a man who has participated with the rest of Christian Venice in persecuting Shylock and his kind. He takes out the loan, despite its strange terms, to help a friend win a wife. However, Bassonio’s ships are all lost at sea, and he can’t pay Shylock back.

When the court is held, the judges beg for mercy on Bassonio’s behalf, but Shylock demands justice according to the terms of the contract which Bassonio had voluntarily signed. Antonio offers to pay Shylock back three times over, but he won’t accept it.

This is where things go crazy, and where Shakespeare’s genius resides. Read the rest

After more than seven years in his position, Sunstone’s editor, Dan Wotherspoon, has decided the time is right to pursue other opportunities—which he will do following the conclusion of the 2008 Sunstone Symposium (to be held 6-9 August).

Sunstone has benefited tremendously from Dan’s  vision and direction, and we wish him well as he begins to pursue the next phase of his career along with new writing and publishing endeavors. There will certainly be interest in his plans, and Dan will be outlining these in the coming magazine and in other forums.

As part of the transition, the Sunstone Board of Trustees has elected to restructure the staff positions to better facilitate its desire to increase the frequency of Sunstone magazine production along with continual expansion of the annual Symposium and regional symposia.

We are seeking candidates for two positions: Director of Publications and Editor, and Director of Symposia and Outreach. These positions will report to the Sunstone Board of Trustees and will be expected to work and coordinate closely with each other. The job descriptions/qualifications are listed after the jump:

Read the rest

At a recent SXSW (read: geek conference), blogger Heather B. Armstrong, was awarded a lifetime achievement award and her blog, dooce.com, was recently named in the top 5 of most influential blogs by The Guardian.

So, why should you care?

Because Heather is a SAHM living in Salt Lake City, a BYU grad, a post-Mormon. Her website is followed by tens of thousands of readers each day, which makes her one of the most-widely read LDS writers.

For me, reading dooce is a guilty pleasure. She’s crass and completely self-absorbed. But I have to admit that I just love her that way.

Zenaida regularly contributes to the Exponent II blog. Her bio may be found here.

I am awash in ambivalence. I attended my first Sunstone Symposium on Saturday. I anticipated the symposium with both excitement and reservation. I had friends who shared my excitement and friends who intensified my reservation. The Symposium was pitched to me with enthusiasm and ardor, but the validity and source of the magazine and the symposium were also questioned by those who had never heard of it before I had. So, I showed up as early as I could for the first session to see what it was all about.

I was open. I listened. All day. Read the rest

The week between Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem and his triumphant resurrection from the dead is the most significant week in human history. Beginning with the early church, Christians celebrated the events of this week and for two millenia they have been the focus of annual celebrations of what has been called the Passion of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Beginning with Palm Sunday and moving through Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, Christians throughout the world mark the last great events in Christ’s life. All of these holy days lead us to the great drama of Easter Sunday when the angel rolled back the stone from the tomb and said to his disciples, ‘He is not here, for he is risen.”

Latter-day Saints celebrate the last of these holy days, but not the others, and yet there is no doctrinal reason why we cannot join with other Christians in offering our devotions throughout this week. This presentation offers an historical overview of Holy Week and presents the case that Latter-day Saints, especially with the Church’s new emphasis on being the Church of Jesus Christ, should join with other Christians in making this an annual holy festival.

From the 2001 Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium, August 10, 2001

Paper: Robert A. Rees
Respondent: Kathleen Flake

 

 Why Mormons Should Celebrate Holy Week: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download