Monthly Archives: July 2011

44: A Vital Legacy of Independent Mormon Thought: Dialogue and Sunstone

July 27, 2011
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Sunstone cartoon

The Sunstone Symposium that begins next week (3 – 6 August) provides an excellent springboard into a discussion of the history and focuses of two of the longest-running and most important entities in independent Mormon thought: Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought and Sunstone (magazine and host of multiple conferences each year). In today’s Internet world with ever-increasing numbers of Mormon-themed websites, blogs, and podcasts, it is sometimes easy to forget that many of the most frequent topics under discussion in today’s forums have been debated and discussed in uncorrelated publications and gatherings for more than four decades, and...

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43: Healthy Approaches to Teaching Modesty

July 20, 2011
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43: Healthy Approaches to Teaching Modesty

In today’s LDS youth programs, especially those for young women, modesty has become even more of an emphasis than in years and decades past. Of course modesty is important, but are some of the ways modesty is being taught today more harmful than helpful for youth who are undergoing important transitions in their lives? Is modesty being taught too often as an end in itself rather than as a fruit that flows from a life and self-image rooted in healthy spiritual, emotional, and physical confidence? Furthermore, is modesty being taught too early, becoming an emphasis far ahead of when...

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42: Pros and Cons of Keeping Mormonism “Weird”

July 13, 2011
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42: Pros and Cons of Keeping Mormonism “Weird”

Recent decades have seen a decrease in emphases of and public and internal discussions of many of Mormonism’s most distinctive doctrines and practices–especially some that are often thought of as “weird.” Has this trend of downplaying Mormon differences from mainline Christian views, as well as many of Mormonism’s interesting and unique blend of views about human progression, the nature of God and humans, God’s power and goals for the world, the idea of a Heavenly Mother, and so forth, been a net positive or negative for the tradition? Clearly Mormonism is more publicly accepted today (with obvious exceptions), but...

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40–41: Ritual within Mormonism

July 5, 2011
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40–41: Ritual within Mormonism

In this two-part discussion, Mormon Matters host Dan Wotherspoon and panelists Julia Hunter, Chelsea Strayer, and Chelsea Fife explore insights from myth and ritual studies and the ways these ideas help illuminate aspects of Mormon devotional and cultural experience. Can having a better understanding of ritual structure, how ritual functions in social life, and ritual’s intent to lead us out of everyday rhythms and ways of relating to each other and into new head and heart spaces in which we learn and feel things of significance in different ways help us gain deeper appreciation for Mormonism’s many rituals? In...

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