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The Book of Mormon, Dark Skin, and Racist Theology

By Joanna Brooks

…a contemporary LDS decertification (from the top of the food chain in Salt Lake City!) of the arcane folk belief that dark skin signifies accursedness. I found that significant when I wrote about it last week, and I still do. Baby steps? Absolutely. Will the Church change the text of the Book of Mormon? Probably not. Just as progressive Jews have not expunged from the Torah verses like Leviticus 20:13 used by bigots to sanction anti-gay prejudice….

‘Landmark’ Speech From LDS Leader on LGBTQ Rights and Religious Freedom Was More Like a Sunnier Groundhog Day

By Aly Marino

…t with regard to the Church’s relationship to LGBTQ people, and indeed the Salt Lake Tribune’s religion reporter called it “important,” while the paper clearly deems the speech’s balancing act a success. First, I will acknowledge that this speech did sound very different from Oaks’ previous speeches. He referenced Obergefell without disparaging it, speaking critically of government employees who failed to uphold the law; and, in addition to Christ…

Mormon “Martin Luther” Causes Stir by Uploading LDS Church Handbook of Instructions to Internet

By Joanna Brooks

…cial Saturday meeting satellite-broadcast from Church headquarters in Salt Lake City. Before last week, in a whole lifetime of Mormonism, I can only remember seeing the CHI once, when I was a teenager, in the home where I grew up. Because my dad had served a few terms as a bishop—a lay minister in charge of a Mormon congregation—we had a copy in the house. The memory is fuzzy, but I believe it was my mom who brought it out so we could check out th…

FX’s ‘Under the Banner of Heaven’ Adaptation Rejects Reductive Elements of Krakauer’s Book, But Confirms That ‘Mormonism Breeds Dangerous Men’

By Benjamin E. Park

…the faith’s reputation. The culmination of this new congenial approach was Salt Lake City’s hosting the 2002 Winter Olympics, which received international acclaim. The Church finally appeared to be gaining mainstream acceptance. The honeymoon period wouldn’t last. Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven appeared the very next year, immediately becoming a bestseller. The book tells the story of the grisly murders of Brenda Lafferty and her infant dau…

What Most Critics Missed About Dustin Lance Black’s ‘Under the Banner of Heaven’

By Cristina Rosetti

At the Salt Lake City premiere of Under the Banner of Heaven, writer, director, and producer, Dustin Lance Black explained that the series sought to tell a broader story of Mormonism, including Mormon experiences foreign to most viewers. By this time, some critics and media comments responded to Banner by arguing it incorrectly portrayed Mormonism (broadly defined) as a violent and dangerous faith. Few considered Black’s goal and the reality that…

Elizabeth Smart Kidnapper Guilty, But Not Insane

By Joanna Brooks

A jury in Salt Lake City has found Brian David Mitchell guilty, on counts of kidnapping and transporting a minor across state lines for the purposes of having sex, in the 2002 kidnapping of then 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart. Mitchell, who has entered the courtroom each day (including today) singing hymns from the LDS hymnal, was portrayed by the defense as an anti-social narcissist led by delusional thinking to believe that he was directed by God…

Masculine Christianity, Praying Ballplayers, & Satanist Discrimination

By Michael J. Altman

…ter of famous scenes from the Book of Mormon, Arnold Friberg, died in Salt Lake City at the age of 96 last week. Meanwhile, one New Yorker found a tombstone on the sidewalk and began a quest to find its rightful owner. HBO’s new documentary No One Dies in Lily Dale details the lives of Spiritualists in the town of Lily Dale, New York. Spiritualism arose in the nineteenth century among women mediums who channeled messages from the dead. Then, as no…

The Mormon Moment?

By Joanna Brooks

…Mormon past. 4. The LDS Church has massive wealth it continues to develop through real estate and development projects. Lately, more LDS Church members are asking questions about the Church’s investment of $3 billion USD in a redevelopment project in downtown Salt Lake City in comparison to the Church’s reported spending of $50 million USD annually on welfare and humanitarian relief. Disappointed expectations. Global tensions. Historical controv…

Mormon-Born Daya Mata Typifies American Yoga

By Andrea R. Jain

…to Yogananda as her guru. A member of a prestigious Mormon family in Salt Lake City, she was seventeen when she first heard Yogananda speak, and she knew immediately that she wanted to follow him as her spiritual guide. She moved to Los Angeles and joined his Self-Realization Fellowship, took vows of renunciation and became one of the first nuns in its monastic order. Having been renamed Daya Mata (Mother of Compassion), she would be one of Yogan…

“Joseph Smith Himself Viewed Women as Priesthood Holders”

By Joanna Brooks

…, graduated from Brigham Young University in 2006, and married in the Salt Lake City Mormon temple. She is also an international human rights law attorney who, she reports, “graduated from the only law school in the world founded by women—American University.” This year, she helped launch a coalition of Mormon women and men who support women’s ordination in the LDS Church. As the Church’s semi-annual General Conference approaches this weekend, Kel…