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The Arab, the Feds and the Flood: Dave Eggers’ Zeitoun Rescues America

By Haroon Moghul

…to a flood of crystal-clear water pouring down streets and into homes, the lake become the surface of the city. In that “mythical disaster,” Zeitoun finds his calling: With the use of a canoe, his skills, and his friends, he can liberate the trapped, feed starving pets, and re-supply the isolated. He is, in other words, the federal government we should have had. That’s half of it—and don’t get me wrong, it’s done gorgeously. Eggers is so good at w…

Call Centers and… Congregational Email Lists

By Joanna Brooks

The Salt Lake Tribune describes the way the Romney campaign is putting his Utah supporters to work calling into battleground states. It is, after all, standard operating procedure for political parties to put supporters in non-contested states to work for the larger campaign. But it looks like at least a few of Romney’s Utah supporters are using LDS congregational email lists to drum up donations—despite explicit instructions not to do so from LD…

From Murderous to ‘MORG’: Mormonism Meets the Press

By Joanna Brooks

…ples that countervail this general trend. Peggy Fletcher Stack of the Salt Lake Tribune has been providing thoughtful and nuanced coverage of Mormonism for decades, while more recently McKay Coppins of BuzzFeed has emerged as an invaluable source on the faith angles of Romney’s candidacy. Matthew Bowman (who recently wrote about the emergence of the LDS corporate culture), Kathleen Flake, Kristine Haglund, and Ben Park are among the LDS scholars w…

Mormon Group Digging for Scriptural City of Zarahemla in Iowa is a Portrait of Religious Nationalism

By Hanna Seariac

News outlets like Iowa Starting Line and The Salt Lake Tribune have recently reported on a group called The Heartland Research Group (HRG) which has taken to the cornfields of Montrose, Iowa in search of Zarahemla, a city frequently mentioned in the Book of Mormon. From the coverage one might reasonably conclude that a Latter-day Saint group is simply seeking to find corroboration for their scriptures—which is certainly the case—but lurking benea…

Traditional Mormon Sexual Purity Lesson Contributed to Captivity, Elizabeth Smart Tells University Audience

By Joanna Brooks

…d: why didn’t Elizabeth Smart run? There she was, wandering downtown Salt Lake City, right in our midst, the veiled captive of a madman. But we also recognized something in that paralysis, that deadly quiet. We recognized something of ourselves. Now, Elizabeth Smart, continuing her elegant and courageous adult self-realization, tells an audience at a Johns Hopkins University event on human trafficking that a very traditional Mormon culture object…

Significant Changes to LDS Scripture Reflect Shifting Church Views on Racist History

By Joanna Brooks

…nt Spencer W. Kimball and was affirmed to other Church leaders in the Salt Lake Temple on June 1, 1978. The revelation removed all restrictions with regard to race that once applied to the priesthood. Church leaders have long maintained public ambiguity about the history of the ban and its end; they have rarely acknowledged the ordination of early African-American Mormons nor have they cited anti-racist teaching in the Book of Mormon in connection…

What’s Behind a Conservative Mormon’s Call For “Religious Freedom” Advocates to “Stand Down” on LGBT Rights

By Sunnivie Brydum

…ector of the Sutherland Institute, did this month in an op-ed for the Salt Lake Tribune. It is time for those of us who cherish religious freedom to stop, yes stop, opposing gender equality… This is no trade-off, no compromise nor quid pro quo. Neither is it unilateral surrender. It is neutrality and it is wisdom. Mero may not be a household name like Pat Robertson or Tony Perkins, but he has spent the past 30 years filling his resume with deep co…

Did Mormon Morality Teachings Really Make it Harder for Elizabeth Smart to Run?

By Joanna Brooks

…on homes, on Sundays, and in Mormon-saturated cultural contexts. Even Salt Lake City middle schools like the one Elizabeth Smart attended. Mind you, such lessons are nowhere in the official sex education curriculum of the state of Utah. Nor are they to be found in the current handbooks or youth instructional manuals of the LDS Church. The most current LDS youth manuals (released in January 2013) reflect a steady effort on the part of LDS Church l…

Mormon ‘Humorist’ Robert Kirby Is Butt of His Own Dirty Joke

By Holly Welker

…he wants to treat her. This isn’t a hypothetical: it happened between Salt Lake Tribune humorist Robert Kirby and Mormon blogger C. Jane Kendrick (aka Courtney Clark Kendrick) at the Sunstone Symposium in July. In response to Kirby’s column this week criticizing McKenna Denson, who is suing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over its role in an alleged attempted rape by a high-ranking church official, Kendrick posted on Facebook her a…

Orrin Hatch: Health Care Dollars for Prayer Cures, But Not Abortion

By Peter Laarman

…d NO to any federal dollars for abortion, saith the good senator from Salt Lake. Hatch narrowly lost his push to get this prohibition into the Senate Finance Committee’s health bill, but he vows that he’s not finished: he will fight again on the floor. If Hatch gets his way, women who purchase comprehensive private insurance packages that include abortion services would have to pay for the entire cost of the package (even if they qualify for feder…