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Jonathan Ellis
Austin, Texas

The Week in Mormonism, 8/7/2016: Sunstone and FairMormon conferences

The Sunstone and FairMormon conferences were held almost back-to-back this year. For the most part, if you want to know what was said you will need to purchase access to audio-only archives. (Sunstone here, and FairMormon here. Note that FairMormon talks are only available “for a limited time.”)

The few articles I have seen about Sunstone include:

  1. Randall Bowen’s conference report.
  2. Benjamin Knoll’s full presentation on Faith and Doubt in Contemporary American Mormonism: A Quantitative Empirical Perspective.
  3. Polygamists describe how to live in family with 27 wives and 145 children.
  4. Eric Samuelsen’s talk on Why I Stay.

And from FairMormon:

  1. Ally Isom denounces ‘hyperpolarized rhetoric,’ notes nuances regarding gays.
  2. Patrick Mason calls for a more embracing Mormonism that rejects fear.
  3. Randall Bowen’s conference report.

Please let me know of any articles that I missed in the comments!

Books and Reviews

  1. Review of The Mormon Jesus. And an interview with author John Turner.
  2. Tangentially Mormon reviews: Through the Valley of Shadows, Zealot, and The Sin of Certainty.
  3. Review of Writing Ourselves: Essays on Creativity, Craft, and Mormonism.
  4. The next Living Faith book: One Hundred Birds Taught Me to Fly.
  5. Dialogue Journal interviews authors Carol Lynn Pearson (author of Ghosts of Eternal Polygamy), Devery Anderson (author of Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement), and Journal of Mormon History editor Jesse Embry.
  6. The out-of-print An Intimate Chronicle: The Journals of William Clayton (with used copies selling for hundreds of dollars) is now available on Kindle.

Church History

  1. Review of the Newly Renovated Church History Museum.
  2. Discrediting the Nauvoo Expositor, Part 3: Mad Hominem.
  3. Content from ‘The First Fifty Years of Relief Society’ now accessible online.

Political Stories

  1. A Brief History of Mormon Prayers at the Republican National Convention.
  2. Why Mormons Don’t Like Trump.
  3. Gary Johnson stirs up a religious freedom controversy. And Johnson responds to the Millennial Star’s request for clarification.
  4. Boy Scouts faring well a year after easing ban on gay adults.

Other Links

  1. Dialogue Journal editor Boyd Petersen writes one of the best articles of the year in Landing Instructions: How to Navigate (or Help Someone Navigating) a Faith Crisis.
  2. When correlation turns the Church into an echo chamber. And What’s a Rameumptom, Daddy?
  3. What are the church’s moral obligations with respect to its money? Sam Brunson argues that it’s not as obvious as you might think.
  4. Power & Restraint: A Feminist Perspective on Mormon Sisterhood.
  5. BYU student Michael Ferguson’s experience with gay conversion therapy.
  6. President Uchtdorf visits refugees; presents $3 million from LDS Church to help refugees.
  7. 2017 Mutual Theme announced.
  8. Open House Begins for the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple.