Sunstone Magazine

From the 1991 Summer Symposium in Salt Lake City

Presentation: Child Sexual Abuse in the LDS Community

Presenters:

Marion Burrows Smith, co-founded, former executive director, Intermountain Sexual Abuse Treatment Center.

Carlos Y. Robey, executive director, Intermountain Sexual Abuse Treatment Center; former director, Utah State Prison Residential Program for Sex Offenders.

Brent D. Ward, senior vice-president and general council. Huntsman Chemical Corporation; former U.S. Attorney, District of Utah.

Marsha, mother of a victim.

Laura Blanchard, program chairperson, Utah County Child Abuse Council; chairperson, Advisory Board for Utah County Children’s Justice Center.

Abstract: Child sexual abuse is epidemic in Utah with its 73 percent LDS population. The Church promotes comprehensive youth programs and a reverence for authority which gives perpetrators of sexual crimes unique access to fresh victims. LDS neighborhoods are warm and friendly, an ideal environment for child molesters, most of whom at relatives or family friends. When discovery of abuse occurs, untrained Church leaders may try to treat pedophilia and other sexual disorders with counseling which fails to alter behavior. The panel will explore ways to identity and treat victims and perpetrators. It will discuss typical Church and parental responses to reported abuse, examine the presence of neighborhood sex rings in Utah, outline help which is available, and offer suggestions for more effective ways of dealing with this illness in our society.

From the 2000 Summer Symposium in Salt Lake City

Presentation: The Academic Study Of Religion: Prospects And Perils

Presenters: Dan Wotherspoon, Brian Birch, Elaine Englehardt, Eugene England, Mary Ellen Robertson, Scott Kenney

Abstract: The recent announcement that early steps have been taken toward establishing a Mormon Studies program at Utah Valley State College has generated much excitement among many who have long felt a need for such a program at one of Utah’s state schools, but it has also raised concerns on two fronts. Some have begun to worry that such a program could easily become a forum for Mormon apologetics, even proselyting, while others voice concerns about it as “yet another forum for Mormon bashing.” This panel, consisting of UVSC faculty, as well as others with experience studying religion– including their own–from an academic perspective, will address these and other issues as they consider both the “prospects” and the “perils” of such an adventure.

From the 1983 Summer Symposium in Salt Lake City

Presentation: The Life of Oliver Cowdery

Presenter: R.D. Dennis 

Presenter: John Sillito 

Abstract: Two papers discuss the life of Oliver Cowdery.

This is an excerpt from the original Sunstone 2015 presentation, Four View of Joseph Smith: Historians Debate the Prophet Puzzle.

From the 2013 Summer Symposium in Salt Lake City

Panel MYSTICISM, REVELATION AND LEADERSHIP IN MORMON HISTORY: TWO CASE STUDIES

Paper 1 J. DUNHAM LAMANITE: EARLY MORMON LEADER, MYSTIC, AND INDIAN AMBASSADOR

Presenter: CHRISTOPHER C. SMITH is a PhD student in religions in North america at Claremont Graduate University. He’s writing a dissertation on Mormons and American Indians in the “age of Removal,” which roughly coincided with the lifetime of Joseph Smith. 

Abstract: Although Jonathan Dunham was a prominent Mormon leader who left a wealth of journals and papers, he’s largely ignored by modern Mormon historians. When he’s remembered at all, it’s for his role in early Mormon violence (as a Danite, Nauvoo police captain, and Major General of the Nauvoo Legion). yet violence was only one part of Dunham’s life and legacy. His papers reveal him as a mystic, entrepreneur, highly successful evangelist, and great champion of the Indian mission. Dunham’s self-identification as “Lamanite,” though he had no Native american heritage, also provides insight into early Mormon racial theology.

Paper 2 THE LAWLESS WOMEN REVELATION:

Presenter: CLAIR BARRUS manages several church history sites including Today-in-Mormon-History.Blogspot.com. He blogs at Worlds Without End and has presented papers at Sunstone, the Mormon History association, and the BYU Mormon Media Studies Symposium.

Abstract: The day after Brigham young publicly announced the ban on blacks receiving the priesthood, his first counselor Heber C. Kimball received a revelation stating that Kimball had fulfilled “the law of lawless women” and that he was now “free from such Spirrits” [sic]. This paper will take a close look at Kimball’s cryptic revelation, how it was modified, who the lawless women were, what that law was, and the parallels between the “lawless women revelation” and Brigham young’s views on blacks, reproduction, and priesthood authority.