Mormon Stories - LDS

To conclude our series on the Ordain Women project, we bring together Kate Kelly, Heather Olson Beal, Neylan McBaine and Sara Vranes for a concluding dialogue.

To conclude our series on the Ordain Women project, we bring together Kate Kelly, Heather Olson Beal, Neylan McBaine and Sara Vranes for a concluding dialogue.

Part 2 of a 2-part series wherein Fiona Givens, Maxine Hanks, Margaret Young, and Neylan McBain discuss alternative Feminist approaches to the Ordain Women movement.

Part 1 of a 2-part series wherein Fiona Givens, Maxine Hanks, Margaret Young, and Neylan McBain discuss alternative Feminist approaches to the Ordain Women movement.

In part 1 of a three-part series, we discuss the Ordain Women-planned event on 10/5/2013 to attend the LDS general conference priesthood session. Participants include Heather Olson Beal, Ann Marie Whittaker, Tinesha Zandamela, and Lorie Winder Stromberg - all of whom participated in Saturday’s event.

On today’s episode of the "Mormon News Review," we discuss: Pope Francis’ recent interview in "America: The National Catholic Review" and possible implications for the LDS church. Two articles written by Peggy Fletcher Stack on the 20th anniversary of the September Six. Elder D. Todd Christofferson‘s devotional delivered on September 24th at BYU Idaho entitled "The Prophet Joseph Smith." Joining us are three panelists: Right: Ralph Hancock is the President of the John Adams Center for the Study of Faith, Philosophy and Public Affairs. He is also a professor of Political Science at Brigham Young University, and a former intramural basketball teammate. Center: Mark Phillips is an active member of the LDS church in Los Angeles, and a former bishop. He is a husband, a father, an attorney, a musician, and he promises not to agree with everyone. Left: Lindsay Hansen Park is a Mormon Feminist and a work-from-home mother of two in Stansbury Park. She works as Social Media director for Sunstone, hosts and founded the feministmormonhousewives podcast, and is engaged in women’s issues and global activism.

Dr. Gregory A. Prince was selected to present the 19th annual Leonard J. Arrington Mormon History Lecture. The lecture is an annual event hosted by University Libraries and its Special Collections and Archives Division at Utah State University. The lecture is sponsored by University Libraries, Special Collections and Archives, the Leonard J. Arrington Lecture and Archives Foundation and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Utah State University. Dr. Prince spoke on Thursday, Sept. 19, at the Logan LDS Tabernacle. The title of Prince’s lecture was "Faith and Doubt as Partners in Mormon History."

Ryan McIlvain was born in Utah and raised in Massachusetts. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in many journals, including The Paris Review. A graduate of the Rutgers MFA Program and a recipient of the Stegner Fellowship at Stanford, he currently lives with his wife in Los Angeles. As part of Mormon Stories Book Club, today Heather Olson Beal and I discuss Ryan’s book "Elders," which is the story of two young Mormon missionaries in Brazil and their tense, peculiar friendship. Elder McLeod - outspoken, surly, a brash American - is nearing the end of his mission. For nearly two years he has spent his days studying the Bible and the Book of Mormon, knocking on doors, teaching missionary lessons "experimenting on the word." His new partner is Elder Passos, a devout, ambitious Brazilian who found salvation and solace in the church after his mother’s early death. The two men are at first suspicious of each other, and their work together is frustrating, fruitless. That changes when a beautiful woman and her husband offer the missionaries a chance to be heard, to put all of their practice to good use, to test the mettle of their faith. But before they can bring the couple to baptism, they must confront their own long-held beliefs and doubts, and the simmering tensions at the heart of their friendship. A novel of unsparing honesty and beauty, Elders announces Ryan McIlvain as a writer of enormous talent.

As an independent historian, Russell Stevenson has been studying Mormon history for nearly two decades. His first book, Black Mormon: The Story of Elijah Ables, tells the vexing story of race in nineteenth-century Mormonism through experiences of Elijah Ables, a biracial man ordained to the priesthood during Joseph Smith’s lifetime. Drawing on documents unused in other treatments, Black Mormon is the first effort to understand Elijah Ables in all of his identities: black, male, Mormon, and priesthood holder.

As an independent historian, Russell Stevenson has been studying Mormon history for nearly two decades. His first book, Black Mormon: The Story of Elijah Ables, tells the vexing story of race in nineteenth-century Mormonism through experiences of Elijah Ables, a biracial man ordained to the priesthood during Joseph Smith’s lifetime. Drawing on documents unused in other treatments, Black Mormon is the first effort to understand Elijah Ables in all of his identities: black, male, Mormon, and priesthood holder.

As the 10th feature of our Mormon Stories Book Club series, we feature Jack Harrell and his short story collection, A Sense of Order and Other Stories. Jack is currently a writing professor at BYU-Idaho. A Sense of Order and Other Stories contains two award-winning stories ("Calling and Election" and "A Prophet’s Story"); the collection won the award for best short fiction from the Association for Mormon Letters in 2010.

Hans H. Mattsson is a 3rd generation LDS church member from Sweden who served as a bishop and stake president before serving in the 3rd Quorum of the Seventy (Europe Central area) from 2000-2005 under LDS Apostle L. Tom Perry. In this 5-part interview, and accompanied by his beautiful wife Birgitta, Hans discusses the following: (1) His early years in Sweden, (2) His years as an Area Authority Seventy, (3) His interactions with LDS Apostles and the 1st Presidency, (4) His struggles with faith after being released as an area authority, and (5) His thoughts about the church today.

Special Fireside for Disaffected Swedish Latter-day Saints. Speakers: Elder Marlin K. Jensen (LDS Church Historian) and Richard E. Turley Jr. (Assistant Church Historian). Date: November 28, 2010. Location: Västerhaninge Chapel; Stockholm, Sweden.

Hans H. Mattsson is a 3rd generation LDS church member from Sweden who served as a bishop and stake president before serving in the 3rd Quorum of the Seventy (Europe Central area) from 2000-2005 under LDS Apostle L. Tom Perry. In this 5-part interview, and accompanied by his beautiful wife Birgitta, Hans discusses the following: (1) His early years in Sweden, (2) His years as an Area Authority Seventy, (3) His interactions with LDS Apostles and the 1st Presidency, (4) His struggles with faith after being released as an area authority, and (5) His thoughts about the church today.

Hans H. Mattsson is a 3rd generation LDS church member from Sweden who served as a bishop and stake president before serving in the 3rd Quorum of the Seventy (Europe Central area) from 2000-2005 under LDS Apostle L. Tom Perry. In this 5-part interview, and accompanied by his beautiful wife Birgitta, Hans discusses the following: (1) His early years in Sweden, (2) His years as an Area Authority Seventy, (3) His interactions with LDS Apostles and the 1st Presidency, (4) His struggles with faith after being released as an area authority, and (5) His thoughts about the church today.