Discussion Lead:
Maxine Hanks

Time:
Friday, February 7, 2014, 7:30 pm

Location
Mark and Elizabeth England’s Home
1194 S 500 E | Salt Lake City, UT 84111

Travel with Maxine as she leaves and returns to the the LDS Church working through faith, history, authority, and gender equality issues. Maxine Hanks was one of the Mormon “September Six” in 1993, afterward studying Christian liturgy and clergy formation since 1996, also serving in interfaith ministry and chaplaincy since 1999. She returned to LDS Church membership in 2012.

Maxine lectures and writes on Mormon studies and women’s studies in religion. Her work focuses on gender in Mormonism and in Christianity, and explores other themes in Mormon studies and religious studies. She was a visiting fellow at Harvard Divinity School, and a research fellow with the Utah Humanities Council. She has lectured at the University of Utah, and guest lectured at Utah Valley U., Salt Lake Community College, Weber State U., Harvard Divinity School, and Claremont Grad. U. Her first book, Women and Authority, excavated Mormon feminist history, theology, discourse, and women’s authority. Subsequent books include Mormon Faith in America, and Getting Together With Yesterday. Her essays appear in anthologies such as Religion in America (2005), Secrets of Mary Magdalene (2006), and Latter-day Dissent (2011), among others.

Below are valuable resources to pursue in preparation:

Maxine Hanks

Mormon Stories talk, March 2012:

Pillars of My Faith

Maxine Hanks at Feminist Mormon Housewives

Map of the Hero’s Journey

A Simple guide to the Hero’s Journey

Thousand Faces Collected by Joseph-Campbell

Discussion Lead:
Barbara Jones Brown

Time:
Friday, January 3, 2014, 7:30 pm

Location
Mark and Elizabeth England’s Home
1194 S 500 E
Salt Lake City, UT 84111

We have the very good fortune of having Barbara Jones Brown present and lead a discussion on a topical subject. The church just made history this past month by officially posting on their web site some of the more thorny issues of our history, including post-manifesto polygamy.

Barbara has written and spoken extensively about “post-Manifesto polygamy,” or the Latter-day Saint practice of plural marriage after 1890. She is the biographer of Lorna Call Alder, who was born and raised in northern Mexico’s polygamous Mormon “colonies” in the early twentieth-century. (105 year old Lorna is next to Barbara in the photo above.) Brown won Utah State University’s Leonard J. Arrington Award for her work on this subject. She holds a master’s degree in American History from the University of Utah, where she was a Floyd A. O’Neil Scholar and a U.S. Department of Education fellow. She was the content editor of Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley and Glen M. Leonard’s Massacre at Mountain Meadows (Oxford University Press, 2008) and is now at work on its sequel.

As always, our discussions are more fruitful if we take the time to read ahead. Please become familiar with some of the following:

The Church’s official presentation of the topic in Gospel Topics

Here’s a historical essay Barbara wrote about polygamy, including post-manifesto polygamy, and her personal struggle to understand my ancestors and others who practiced it.

Want to dig deeper? Barbara suggests the following:

D. Michael Quinn, “LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890–1904“, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Spring 1985, 9–105.

For those who want to really delve into this topic, here’s a few books on the topic:

B. Carmon Hardy, Solemn Covenant: The Mormon Polygamous Passage (University of Illinois Press, 1992)

Kathleen Flake, The Politics of American Religious Identity: The Seating of Senator Reed Smoot, Mormon Apostle (University of North Carolina Press, 2003)

Kathryn Daynes, More Wives Than One: Transformation of the Mormon Marriage System, 1840-1910 (University of Illinois Press, 2008)

1 Peter 3:15

“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear”

For this month we’d like to invite you to come prepared to share your reasons for finding hope in Christ. We will have asked a few of you in advance to get us warmed up, beginning with our hosts, Mark and Elisabeth England.

And in the spirit of the season, we invite you (if you are not over-burdened with charitable giving) to bring items or money to donate to the Road Home. Attached is a list of needed items.

We have reasons to hope that you will join us for a lovely holiday sharing event. And we’ll likely sing a few holiday appropriate songs too.

Time

Friday, December 6, 7:30 pm

Location

Mark and Elizabeth England’s Home
1194 S 500 E
Salt Lake City, UT 84111

Discussion Lead
Brian C. Hales

Brian C. Hales, board-certified anesthesiologist in Layton, Utah, graduated from Utah State University with a B.S. in biology and from the University of Utah’s College of Medicine. His seventh and latest book is Modern Polygamy and Mormon Fundamentalism: The Generations after the Manifesto (Salt Lake City: Kofford Books, 2007) was awarded the “Best Book of 2007” prize from the John Whitmer Historical Association.

He authored Setting the Record Straight: Mormon Fundamentalism (2008) and The Priesthood of Modern Polygamy: An LDS Perspective (1992). Hales has published articles in Mormon Historical Studies, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, and the Journal of Mormon History. He also contributed a chapter to The Persistence of Polygamy: Joseph Smith and the Origins of Mormon Polygamy, edited by Newell Bringhurst and Craig L. Foster (2010). He is also webmaster of www.MormonFundamentalism.com and www.JosephSmithsPolygamy.com. In addition to a full-time LDS mission in Venezuela (1976-78), he has served as a music missionary (1999 -). Professionally, Hales has served as president of the Utah Medical Association and as president of the Medical Staff at Davis Hospital and Medical Center. He is the father of four adult children.

Resources

Latest interview with FAIR
Book signing at Benchmark Book
Book Review

John Dehlin interviews:
Brian Hales Pt. 1 – A Refutation of Grant Palmer’s Treatment of Sexual Allegations Against Joseph Smith
Brian Hales Pt. 2 – 12 Myths Regarding Joseph Smith’s Polygamy

Brian’s websites:
www.JosephSmithsPolygamy.com
www.MormonFundamentalism.com
Author page at Amazon

Location

Mark and Elizabeth England’s Home
1194 S 500 E
Salt Lake City, UT 84111

Time

Friday, November 8 @ 7:30 pm

Discussion Lead
Dan Wotherspon

Dan Wotherspoon is a free-lance writer, editor, and manager whose most recent projects include the creation of the website for the Eugene England Foundation (http://www.eugeneengland.org) and serving as director of communications for the Foundation for InterReligious Diplomacy (http://fidweb.org/) and co-writing with its president, Charles Randall Paul, a book titled Fighting about God: Why We Do It and How to Do It Better. For the eight years prior to that, he served as editor of Sunstone magazine and director of the Sunstone Education Foundation, and he now serves on its board of directors. Since its inception, he has been an active participant in the work and development of the Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology, currently serving on its board, as a secretary for its executive committee, and as an associate editor ofElement, the society’s journal. In September 2010, Wotherspoon will also join long-time friend and associate John Dehlin as a host and producer of the Mormon Stories podcast (http://mormonstories.org).

Wotherspoon has a Ph.D. in religion from the Claremont Graduate School, where he wrote his dissertation on theological resources within Mormonism for affirming a robust environmental sensibility. He also has an M.A. in religious studies from Arizona State University, where he focused on world religions and ritual studies, ultimately writing his thesis on theories of ritual empowerment. He also has a B.A. in philosophy with a minor in classical civilizations from Brigham Young University.

Wotherspoon and his wife Lorri are about to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary. They have two children, Alex (23) and Hope (16), and live in Tooele, Utah. He is currently soliciting additional writing, editing, and project management clients and can be reached by email at dan.wotherspoon@me.com.

Discussion Topic
Fowler’s Stages of Faith

Reading

Taking Faith Development Seriously
When I Needed it Most by Dan Wotherspoon
Integral Life – The Stages of Faith

Location

Mark and Elizabeth England’sHome
1194 S 500 E
Salt Lake City, UT 84111

Time

Friday, October 11 @ 7:30 pm

Discussion Lead
James McConkie

Jim will speak about suggestions on how to deal with questions and information (historical or otherwise) that arise in connection with Mormonism that challenge our belief and allegiance to the Church and its leaders.

Reading

Scholarship – Brown, H.B
Letter to a Doubter – Givens, Terryl
Love is not Blind – Hafen, Bruce

Location

Mark and Elizabeth England’sHome
1194 S 500 E
Salt Lake City, UT 84111

Time

Friday, September 13 @ 7:30 pm