E159: Why the Heck Don’t Mormons Swear?
Jana Riess grew up in a household where swearing was the norm. And she wonders if bringing a little of that spice over to our religious devotions might not kick things up a notch....
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Episode 109: Gulls and the Crickets
It’s the worst war in Mormon history: The Cricket War of 1849. Or is it 1851? (Wait, was it grasshoppers?) Lindsay and Bryan discuss the myth behind the famous lore of the Seagull and the Crickets....
View ArticleE160: The Plan of Saw-vation: What the Movie “Saw” Reveals about What Truly...
As the old Primary song goes, “I’m trying to be like Jigsaw.” In this episode, Stephen Carter explores the peculiar reason why so many Mormons are afraid to die....
View ArticleE161: How the Barbie Movie Rewrites the Faith Crisis Script.
Are you a Barbie, a Ken, or a Gloria? Stephen Carter, who watched the Barbie movie five times in the theaters, argues that these three characters typify some of the most common faith crises in the LDS...
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Episode 110: The State of Deseret
In 1849 the Mormons in Utah territory had big, big plans. Too-big-for-their-britches kinds of plans. They called it the State of Deseret and it didn’t last long, at least in name. Join Bryan and...
View ArticleE162: In the Garden God Hath Planted: Remembering Lavina Fielding Anderson
This episode honors the life, thought, and spirit of Lavina Fielding Anderson with one of her best Sunstone articles: “In the Garden God Hath Planted: Explorations Toward a Maturing Faith.”...
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Episode 111: Before They Were Famous: Daniel H. Wells
It’s time for another episode of Before They Were Famous. This time we focus on the leader of the Nauvoo Legion, Daniel H. Wells and his role in many massacres against indigenous tribes....
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Creepy Temple Girl
I went to the Orem Temple open house and saw something very strange. It’s in the marriage waiting room where there is a panoramic painting that seems to depict the Second Coming. Here’s the lower left...
View ArticleE163: Nephite Treasure in the Mountains: Utah County’s “Dream Mine.”
Treasure digging did not stop with Joseph Smith. In this episode, Kevin Cantera tells us about John Koyle, a Mormon visionary who started a mine that he said would lead to caverns filled with Nephite...
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Episode 112: Wasters and Destroyers
In the early days of the Utah territory, Mormon leaders decided to exterminate anything that got in the way of their plans to build their Kingdom of God. This episode delves into the ghastly execution...
View ArticleTraitor Aversion and Mormonism
A recent Pew Research Center poll reported that Americans tend to view members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints more negatively than they view Catholics, Jews, evangelicals, atheists,...
View ArticleE164: In the Mountains, No One Can Hear You Swear.
After a tour of the Orem Temple’s art with Stephen Carter, Michael Stubbs talks about how difficult it is for him to find God in nature—even when hiking with a bunch of rowdy Young Men!...
View ArticleBefore the Bombs: A Mark Hofmann Interview
In September 1982, the Sunstone Review published an interview with Mark Hofmann. At the time, Hofmann was known for having found a series of extraordinary historical documents. One was the Anthon...
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What Does an LDS Temple Look Like to AI?
Today I showed my wife this picture and asked her what came to mind. From: Temples of the Imagination: AI-generated Temples, Human-generated Insights “It kind of looks like a Mormon temple pagoda,” she...
View ArticleE165: His Eye Is on the Sparrow.
The New Testament is full of healing stories. But in real life, not so much. Dana Haight Cattani talks about her struggle with cancer. https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/SLP-165.mp3
View ArticleBYU in Playboy
From the September 1982 edition of the Sunstone Review. BYU’s Wilkinson Center bowling alley comes in dead last according to the October Playboy’s ranking of “sex on campus” among 20 American...
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Episode 113: Mormon Thieves
Some historians claim that whenever Mormons moved into town, the crime rate went up. Is it true? Did Mormonism make some prolific thieves and robbers? Join Lindsay and Bryan as they dive into the...
View ArticleLet’s Reverse “Love, Share, Invite”
I had been suckered into donating platelets, which meant I was going to be stuck in a chair with needles in my arms for two and a half hours. Fortunately, the Red Cross provides Netflix on a little...
View ArticleE.T.: Celluloid Savior
An excerpt from “E.T.: Celluloid Savior” by Marty Nabhan, in the September 1982 Sunstone Review. Consider the following. E.T. is a Christ figure. He is a botanist, a “shepherd of plants” so to speak....
View ArticleWhat Latter-day Saints Can Learn from Tár
When I saw the list of the 2022 Academy Awards’ Best Picture nominees, I thought, “Which of these movies would be most useful to Mormons?” And the answer I came up with was Tár. Which seemed strange....
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Episode 114: The PEF (Perpetual Emigration Fund)
Want to come to Zion? Don’t have the cold, hard cash? No worries! Bryan and Lindsay will walk you through how to get there through the 1850’s Perpetual Emigration Fund....
View ArticleHow “Wife Sacrifice” Tanked the Lectures on Faith
The Lectures on Faith used to be part of the Doctrines and Covenants, but a strange event in Eureka, Utah, may have helped give it the boot. On 17 April 1920, James E. Talmage took a train to Eureka to...
View ArticleRemembering Ardean Watts
In the January 2002 issue of Sunstone, the centerfold read: “If you’ve ever attended a Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium, you know him. He’s the man with the shockingly white hair and irrepressible spirit...
View ArticleE166: What Makes the True Believer Tick?
Using Eric Hoffer’s book “The True Believer,” Stephen Carter explores how Mormonism became a mass movement and the surprising way its cycle is playing out today....
View ArticleThe First Issue of the Woman’s Exponent
by Constance Lieber Despite being an LDS publication, the first issue of the Woman’s Exponent read mostly like a run-of-the-mill woman’s journal. Eight pages long, it was filled with news (both...
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Episode 115: BONUS EPISODE: History of the LeBaron Family
https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/SHP_115.mp3 If you watched the recent Hulu hit, ABC’s Daughters of the Cult about the complicated LeBaron family legacy, check out today’s SMHP episode....
View ArticleHow Two Silent Films Made Every Member a Missionary
“Every member a missionary.” You’ve probably heard this phrase more times than you can count. But what you probably don’t know is that it has its roots in the silent films Trapped by the Mormons and...
View ArticleHow the Mormons Missed a Miracle
Imagine that your name is Lovina Gibson Andrus. You’re five years old, and you live in Salt Lake Valley. The year is 1849, so, naturally, you spend your summer days smashing crickets with a wooden...
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Episode 116: Before They Were Famous: Emmeline B. Wells
https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/SHP_116.mp3 Join Bryan and Lindsay for another episode of BEFORE THEY WERE FAMOUS, as they talk about an important (feminist) Mormon pioneer foremother,...
View ArticleE167: Why I Stay.
Carol Lynn Pearson is known for her long-standing advocacy for the LGBT community in the LDS Church. This episode presents her thoughts on the strengths and weaknesses of the Church, and why she...
View ArticleIs This the First Gay Mormon Play?
The Sunstone Review reviewed what may be the earliest instance of gay Mormon theater, “Emmett: A One-Mormon Show,” written and performed by Emmett Foster, which was staged in 1983 at The Public House...
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Episode 117: The Gunnison Expedition and Massacre
https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/SHP_117.mp3 In this episode, Lindsay and Bryan discuss several expeditions, including the Stansbury Expedition and the Gunnison Expedition and Massacre....
View ArticleWhen the Mormons Let Their Freak Flag Fly
Just before Joseph Smith made a brief escape from Nauvoo over the Mississippi River into Iowa, he made a strange request. He asked his followers to take up their glue guns, their knitting needles, and...
View ArticleAre Mormon Missionaries Allowed to Kiss?
Today, the answer is “No!” But that was not always the case. The current missionary handbook reads: “Do not flirt or associate inappropriately with anyone. Limit physical contact with someone of the...
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Episode 118: Believers and Skeptics panel
Join Bryan and Lindsay for a special bonus episode! We were honored to talk with professors (and students) from Montana State (and several other universities ) about how we do responsible Mormon...
View ArticleE168: Where Do We Go From Here? Part I.
https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/SLP-168.mp3 Gregory A. Prince has been watching the LDS Church for 75 years. And it has changed. A lot. Some changes have been constructive; some have...
View ArticleThe Man in the Hole at General Conference
The filming of General Conference began humbly, with one man sitting in a hole he’d carved out beneath the Tabernacle floor. Frank Wise was a young British convert to the Church who grew up wandering...
View ArticleE169: Where Do We Go From Here? Part II
In Part II of Gregory Prince’s article, he explores what he thinks the LDS Church has done right and what kinds of changes both it and its members will need to go through to meet current and future...
View ArticleE170: The Weird New Atonement Theory You Can’t Talk About in Sunday School.
The Atonement is all about suffering. Or is it? In this episode, Stephen Carter stumbles across a new atonement theory that would stop any Sunday school lesson in its tracks. Yet, it fits perfectly...
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Episode 119: History of Mormon Sunday School
Petty jokes about his name aside, who was Richard Ballantyne? Bryan and Lindsay dive into Brother Ballantyne and his history with the history of Sunday School in the Mormon church....
View ArticleWhich Apostle’s Sister Became a Nun?
Why would the April 1982 Sunstone Review print an obituary for a Catholic nun? Lurlene Romney Cheney had plenty of Mormon roots. She was born in Colonia Juarez, Mexico, a colony established by Mormon...
View ArticleWhy the Communists Liked the Mormons
The communist government of East Germany had really grown to like the Mormons in 1982. Which was strange considering apostle Ezra Taft Benson’s relentless condemnation of communism or anything he...
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Episode 120: San Bernardino Mormons
Who were the real Mormons? We mean, the top-shelf kind? According to Brigham Young, any of the California Mormons couldn’t pass muster. Join Lindsay and Bryan as they talk about the history of how...
View ArticleE171: The Movie that Turns Easter on its Head.
Testimony meeting would be a terrible place for Stephen Carter to talk about the movie that finally made him feel a connection to the atonement. Hint: It has connections to Lord of the Rings, Avatar,...
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Episode 121: Youtube and Historical Sources Discussion
Join Lindsay and Bryan as they talk about the state of Mormon historical source material. Does the LDS church hide its history? What sources are available? How do you check our work? We also discuss...
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In Memory of Steve Mayfield
Steve Mayfield began his decades-long connection with Sunstone in the 1980s when he volunteered as an audio recorder at Washington DC Sunstone symposia. When he moved to Utah to become a crime scene...
View ArticleHow the Spanish-American War Created the First Mormon Movies
During the Spanish-American War, Mormons made up almost an entire company of the famous Rough Riders. But they never made an appearance with Theodore Roosevelt in Cuba. Why was that? When the United...
View ArticleE172: What Really Happened When Phineas Got His New Wives?
One fine July Sunday in Relief Society, Deja Earley was asked to share a story about her Mormon ancestors. Her story did not go down well. In this episode, Deja tries to come to terms with her...
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Episode 122: Ownership of the Kirtland Temple, a History
The sale of the Kirtland Temple from the Community of Christ to the LDS church has made headlines lately. Join Bryan and Lindsay as they discuss the long and storied history of the Kirtland Temple...
View ArticleHow the Kirtland Temple Got Flipped. And Flipped. And Flipped.
Frankly, it’s amazing that the Kirtland Temple was even around to be sold to the LDS Church a few weeks ago. In 1838, just a few days after Joseph Smith left Kirtland, Lyman Sherman burned down a print...
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