Mormon Stories Listeners,
I have a few good interviews in the works, so things are really starting to move. As always, thanks for your patience.
As a supplement to this series, I’d love to highlight (and maybe even distribute) some of the “seminal” Sunstone/MHA presentations on Women’s issues in the church.
If you have some time, please help me peruse the Sunstone archive for important presentations. You can search by topic (Women, Women’s Studies, Feminism, etc.) presenter (Claudia Bushman, Cecelia Farr, etc.) , or by symposium date/location — so hopefully it will be easy enough for you all.
Please reply here (via comments) w/ your favorites.
Thanks! More very soon!!!!
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It’s been a long time since I heard this, but this is one that came to mind. I’ll have to relisten and see if I still think it’s that good:
SW94021, Could Feminism Have Saved the Nephites? Carol Lynn Pearson –
I could have sworn that she also did her “To Walk in Pink Moccassins at Sunstone, but it’s not listed in the archive. Maybe it was just in print.
This is not an exhaustive search; just a few articles from my collection:
Catherine L. Albanese, Mormonism and the Male-Female God: An Exploration in Active Mysticism, SS March/Apr 1981
Ida Smith, The Psychological Needs of Mormon Women: Effects of the Women’s Movement on Mormondom, SS March/Apr 1981
Mormon Women and the Struggle for Definition, SS Nov/Dec 1981. Includes 3 articles: The Nineteenth Century Church by Carol Cornwall Madsen; Contemporary Women by Lavina Fielding Anderson; and What is the Church by Francine Russell Bennion.
Linda Wilcox, The Mormon Concept of a Mother in Heaven; Grethe B. Peterson, Response; SS Jul/Aug 1980
Linda King Newell, A Gift Given, A Gift Taken: Washing, Anointing, and Blessing the Sick Among Mormon Women; Response by Michael Quinn and Response by Irene M. Bates; SS Sep/Oct 1981.
**Bonus Quote by President Lorenzo Snow: “A mother who has brought up a family of faithful children ought to be saved, if she never does another good thing.” :) (Improvement Era 22 (May 1919): 651.)
I do not know if this was a presentation, but the Sunstone cover article in October 1981 Volume Six Number Five was clearly a seminal contribution. “A Gift Given: A Gift Taken — Washing, Amointing, and Blessing the Sick Among Mormon Women, A Mormon historian traces changes in the practice” is about the years when it was normal within the LDS church to call for the sisters to give a blessing when a woman was sick. The practice died out in the 1940’s when the preferred response to illness became calling for the elders.
John, I don’t really have the expertise to give you what you are asking for here, but if I can make a request (and maybe somebody could direct me to previous scholarship on this topic). I would be interested to hear how the Adam and Eve story has been interprested through the ages. You’ve got the “Lilith was Adam’s first wife” strands of the story, which are very interesting. And then you have the “Eve didn’t sin in ignorance, but made a wise decision, a necessary sacrifice for the betterment of humanity” interpretation. I expect you will stick within Mormon experience in your interviews, but if anyone knows any good studies on the evolution of the Adam and Eve origins story and the Mormon contributions, please let me know.
Glenn, this page has many of the Mormon contributions to the Adam and Eve story. The Beverly Campbell books seem to me to be a balanced presentation of Mormon thought. I wish we had more indepth studies of the Mormon view of Eve. I don’t know of any that I am really thrilled about.
Cool. Thanks!
From SV,
There’s one piece from the last Salt Lake symposium, though, which is really a classic – SL06211, Are Boys More Important Than Girls? The Conflict between Gender Difference and Equality in Mormonism. Really good.
Here are some that caught my attention.
SL06332, Women in the Ministry – speakers: Susan D Skoor, Vickie Stewart Eastman, Nadine R Hansen – symposium: 2006 Salt Lake Symposium
SL06131, Mormon Feminist Bloggers: Can Blogging Help Mormon Feminism?
SL06163, Scarlet Threads in the Lineage of Jesus – speakers: H Parker Blount, Holly Welker – symposium: 2006 Salt Lake Symposium – excerpt: ”In his list of who fathered whom in the lineage of forty-two generations from Abraham to Jesus, Matthew includes five women. This presentation focuses on four of them—Tamar, Rachab, Ruth, and Bathsheba—who, though chosen as members of the most royal of lineages, are largely ignored today, apparently not considered proper examples for LDS women and men to follow. What is it about these four that ca . . .
SL06232, Big Love, Big Issues – speakers: Anne Wilde, Mary Batchelor, Richard Dutcher, Doe Daughtrey – symposium: 2006 Salt
SL06234, Hidden Envy and Competition among LDS Women – speakers: Julie Mounteer Hawker, Anne Arnold, Mary Ellen Robertson, Becky Linford, Sonja Farnsworth – symposium: 2006 Salt Lake Symposium
I would love to hear a ‘plain jane’, everyday LDS sister to counter point those with views that may be considered to be controversial – yet still someone fully informed with church history / gender issues.
The fella who taught my dad the discussions in the late 1970s is married to a prominent church historian (on the board of the MHA) and pretty main stream church beliefs.
If you are interested John I can provide more details. I hesitate to disclose her name in this forum because I don’t know what her reaction would be. She is a very cool lady (despite her harsh criticism of my polygamy thesis about 5 years ago) and could perhaps provide a good insight into how a regular smart LDS sister maintains her faith.
That is a Mormon Story I would love to hear.