Sunstoning

I was kind of ambivalent about attending Sunstone this year. I hadn’t been in a few years, and I wasn’t sure I was up to making it through a conference—especially after the chaos of having a family reunion earlier that week. But after I got asked to be on a fun-sounding panel, I figured that I’d might as well do all three days. And I have to say, I’m so glad that I did. I really enjoyed myself.

A lot of what makes Sunstone fun, of course, is getting to hang out with interesting people. I went with Ziff and Melyngoch (who was there for a day), and it”s always fun to do stuff with my siblings. I also met a lot of people whom I only previously knew online, as well as new people whom I didn’t even know online. And there were plenty of familiar faces that it was good to see again.

Some of the highlights:

The Mormon Mind on Facebook was made up of a panel of moderators from the Mormon Hub. I was interested in their perspectives on the challenge of moderating comments, and the similar ways in which Mormons and ex-Mormons behave. (Also, Sara Burlingame gave a shout-out to ZD and our moderating style.)

The Conflicting Identities of LGBT Mormons was a presentation by Amber Whiteley about research into the mental health of LGBT Mormons. Not surprisingly, Mormon members of the LGBT community were found to suffer from problems as a result of that disconnect. One of the points I really liked was that it”s a problem for counselors to assume that the only options for such people are to leave the church or change their sexuality.

Author Meets Critics: How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian was a panel about John Dominic Crossan’s most recent book. I got to be on that panel, and one of the things I talked about was the implications of his book for the Book of Mormon (what do we do with not only violent people, but a violent God?) The other panelists tackled such subjects as economics, pacifism, and taking a dialectical approach to religion. It was really great to hear from “Dom” in person. He talked about Jesus’ program of nonviolent resistance to violence. One of the many interesting things he said is that he doesn’t believe in the Second Coming, because that implies that Jesus left us.

Scared Sacred: How the Horrifying Story of Joseph Smith’s Polygamy Can Help Save Us was a presentation by Stephen Carter. He compared the very disturbing way in which Joseph practiced polygamy to the very disturbing story of Abraham and Isaac, and argued that we need to go beyond the content of the stories to examining what it is that the stories do.

Four Views of Joseph Smith: Historians Debate the Prophet Puzzle was a panel on whether Joseph Smith was a visionary, a pious fraud, a con man, or a prophet. It was really interesting to hear the different perspectives. Christopher Smith in particular, who argued that Joseph was a con man, kept everyone laughing.

Twenty Years of the Proclamation on the Family was a fascinating look at how the FamProc has influenced Mormonism. I arrived too late to hear the first speaker, but the ones I heard were fantastic. Christian Anderson had all kinds of fun charts and stats, and tackled such questions as authorship and whether it was canon. He posed the provocative question: “Do you love the traditions of your organization more than the members of your organization?” Bryndis Roberts talked about her experiences in a ward with a lot of single mothers, and how the FamProc made them feel second-class.

Why I Don’t Need Heavenly Mother was a panel that I was very curious about, as I’ve in the past expressed my own reservations about Heavenly Mother. Marina Capella and Christian Anderson made a very strong case, I thought, for a post-sexual God, pointing out some of the pitfalls of a divine feminine, such as its reliance on gender essentialism and “separate but equal” rhetoric, and the fact that it leaves open the question about whether women can really become like God. I especially appreciated the room that this alternative model would leave for gay families. That left me with a lot to think about.

All Fall Short: An Interfaith Panel on Sin was a really good discussion of sin and grace, coming from people of different faith traditions. I appreciated the point that it’s problematic to think of sin in terms of a checklist of bad things you’ve done. Someone said that we needed to “claim our belovedness,” and I liked that a lot. I was really glad I went to this panel; it left me feeling encouraged and hopeful.

Why We Stay was just amazing. We couldn’t get into the main room where it was being held, so we ended up in the overflow. All of the speakers were great, and the concluding speaker, Fatimah Salleh, just knocked it out of the park. She blew me away. One of the more poignant things she said was that when her daughter was blessed, she was told that she would know no limits—and Fatimah realized that that couldn’t happen in the LDS church. For some reason, that really hit me. There was so much good stuff in this session—lots of powerful personal narratives, and discussion of how to stay, and what it means to stay.

FemWoc: Women of Color Crash the Bloggernacle Party was another fabulous panel. The speakers were both hilarious and heartbreaking. There was a lot of discussion about what it’s like to be a woman of color in the church, and especially how that had influenced people’s experiences with dating and marriage. On the priesthood-temple ban, Bryndis Roberts said, “I would rather believe in imperfect leaders than an imperfect God.” It was a great discussion. I have to say that as a white feminist, it gave me a lot to think about in terms of what I take for granted.

The State of Queer Activism in Zion discussed recent events related to LGBT rights, including the compromise made in Utah, and an effort to get legislation passed in Wyoming that ultimately failed. There was also discussion of how much else needs to be done that goes beyond gay marriage, with issues such as immigration, homelessness, poverty, and violence, and how LDS and LGBT can find common ground on those. I was impressed with all of the speakers, who were very level-headed and thoughtful about what can be a very fraught topic.

Church for the Unchurched: The Case for Non-Dogmatic Religion in the 21st Century was a presentation by Community of Christ pastor John Hamer. He talked about the increasing numbers of people who say “none” on surveys about religion, and what can be done to reach them—things such as dialing down the dogma, getting away from some of what is alienating (including sexism, being anti-LGBT, and literalism), and creating positive communities. He said that his presentation wasn’t really relevant for the LDS church, because the church addresses the problem of people getting alienated by doubling down on its rhetoric, rather than considering change.

Data Analysis of 30 Years of Sunstone Talks was a presentation by Jake Spurlock, who talked about working with the database of Sunstone abstracts and topics. It was mostly on methodology, with only a little bit of analysis. But I can imagine a lot of fun future analysis with the data being available—Ziff was quite enthusiastic about that prospect.

Women and the Church: Addressing LDS Feminist Concerns was a powerful panel on contemporary LDS feminism. There was some discussion of Neylan McBaine’s book, and a thorough discussion of changes that need to be made. April Young Bennett in particular had an exhaustive list of such changes. One of the themes was that priesthood ordination, although important, really isn’t enough. Margaret Toscano proposed two changes that she saw as realistic: including more voices of color in Mormon feminism, and getting the temple language about priestesses changed.

The Impact of Infertility on the Mormon Mind grappled with how infertility affects the lives of church members, especially given that women are told that their glorious purpose in life is to be mothers. It was a very raw and honest discussion, with people sharing deeply personal and powerful experiences. Although there was obviously stuff I couldn’t personally relate to, I found that as s single woman, a lot of the issues raised were all too familiar.

Resurgent Mormon Feminism: Ordain Women, The Mormon Gender Issues Survey, and Contemporary LDS Women was a group of panelists who”d contributed to the new volume Voices for Equality. They had some fascinating stuff to say. I particularly enjoyed Nadine Hansen’s discussion about how church discipline really needs to be overhauled, and Nancy Ross’s report on the recent gender issues survey. One of the many interesting points she noted was that Mormons think other Mormons are more conservative on gender issues than they actually are.

So—a lot of great stuff! I’m already looking forward to next year.