Posted on 04/16/2009 6:16:18 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
Finding Mormon freethinkers was not an easy thing to do until I began reading Sunstone magazine, the bad boy of the Mormon world.
I had barely heard of the publication (which publishes between four and six times a year) until traveling to Salt Lake City in 2006. There, someone handed me a copy of Sunstone, named after a sun image on a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) temple in Nauvoo, Ill.
Sunstone's tongue-in-cheek essays range from blacks and the Mormon priesthood, Mormons and first-time sex (titled "When Virgins Collide"), reviews of a new film about Joseph Smith, and divorce, spouse abuse and child abuse in the church. I'd call it the Christianity Today of the Mormon world.
It was founded 35 years ago by LDS graduate students at secular universities who wanted to start a scholarly journal. The publication then morphed into an examination and critique of Mormon culture.
Sunstone's sometimes irreverent way of dealing with church teachings got the cold shoulder from the church hierarchy especially from 1989 to 1993, which cut into subscriptions a bit. The magazine has rallied in recent years but still remains fairly tiny at 2,500 circulation.
When some members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (the top leaders of the LDS church) showed up at The Washington Times' editorial offices last year, I told them that my sum total knowledge of Mormon theology was the book "Mormonism for Dummies" and Sunstone magazine. They looked horrified.
"Sunstone is hardly representative of Mormon thought," one apostle told me.
When I repeated this anecdote to Carol Quist, Sunstone's office manager and associate editor, she responded: "Well, some of them subscribe."
When they do, they get poetry, fiction, cartoons and news clips along with offbeat essays such as "Cross-Dressing and the LDS Church."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
....Sunstone is a view into an alternate world where Mormon doctrines are taken seriously. Beliefs - such as a Mother God or the pre-existence of the human soul before birth in a "pre-mortal world" - are woven into the narrative as fact"....
...."The great problem in Mormon culture is the tension between intellectualism and faith," said Matt Bowman, a graduate student in American religious history at Georgetown University. "Sunstone provides a forum where people can combine the two."
Things to do list: #132-Post an article from that rag on FR.
I dunno I've read quite a few Sunstone articles. The apostle might be surprised. Either that or I'm an apostate for just reading it (gasp!) and didn't know it.
Web here: Sunstone Magazine. Click magazine to read back issues and articles.
Interesting to read for normal people Mormon thought instead of filtered and checked and filtered through doctrine again Mormon thought.
Ooops, of course I meant “Sun”stone
“spouse abuse and child abuse in the church”
Yeah, the church likes to abuse people’s spouses and children. No wonder you picked this article to post. It makes your eyes glossy.
I'm not sure your bishop would approve of this post, Jimmy.
As a "closed" "devotional" thread.
Yeah, the church likes to abuse people’s spouses and children.
AH HA!
ow understand why some can follow the BOM doctrine etc...
They read it wrong...
Reading it wrong is the only way you can make sense of LDS doctrine. It is also how they use bible verses.
In fact given what I have seen when some in the LDS use a bible verse then tell us what it says, I say it's spot on...
Can you imagine what the beyond-the-veil celestial conversation might be if the Mormon worldview is true?
Temple-worthy Mormon-turned-god: "I believed in you; but then again, I didn't."
Mom God: "Well, I birthed you in the pre-existence. But your memory of me was erased."
Temple-worthy Mormon-turned-god: "Well, we talked about you behind the scenes -- you know, like in unofficial Mormon magazines like Sunstone. And included you in one Eliza Snow hymn. I hope you heard our extra-boistrous voices on that stanza."
Mom God: "But you effectively denied me before men."
Temple-worthy Mormon-turned-god: "But you don't understand, Mom. How were we to keep up the LDS PR campaign that we only believed in one God if 'twas announced to the world that we also believed in you?"
Mom God: "Let me get this straight. My husband is one god. Our son, Jesus, is a second god. The Holy Ghost is a third god. And then there's the 'council of gods.' And you and your earthly temple Mormon peers don't look any less divine these days; nor the other general authority mortal gods that have been out and about. We've got gods galore up here -- and you were concerned about earthling non-Mormons comprehending you adding just one more to the pantheon of gods up here? (Really, the excuses I hear...)"
ROFL. That is a keeper.
One of the best things I did, after I left the LDS, was take courses in Biblical Studies from a Bible college. It was a very big help in teaching me proper exegesis and what the scriptures actually meant.
Thanks for revealing you needed to be De Holy Ghost!
Yes the Tradition of Men can give the corrrect Critical explanation or analysis, especially of scripture text!:)
You spelled GLASSY wrong.
It's more like a great problem of historical credibility vs. blind faith. Nowhere are we told to exercise blind faith. And the only prophet the Bible lifts out of proportion to any other prophet is Jesus Christ Himself. Any time one prophet gets elevated above the rest (except for Jesus), that faith has major problems.
Example: The Book of Mormon was anti-polygamy. Smith came along and said polygamy was personally fine. It took about a dozen or more years for what Smith was doing privately to make its way into a written Mormon teaching. (Wasn't published until the 1850s)
Another example: The Bible & Book of Mormon say absolutely nothing about God the Father being once a man; or men becoming gods. Smith then decides not long before his death to give a funeral sermon about this. Yet this new teaching still doesn't find its way into a Mormon canon as a new revelation. (Why not?)
So the prophets of old & Jesus Christ somehow missed out on all of this "revelation" but Smith had the corner on truth on this? (This is what I mean by blind faith -- trusting in a man other Jesus Christ as your near-100% filter of truth)
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