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Mormon Matters - (Dan Wotherspoon ARCHIVE)

Mormon Matters was a weekly podcast that explored Mormon current events, pop culture, politics and spirituality. Dan retired from Mormon Matters Podcast in 2019 and now hosts a podcast called "Latter-day Faith" that can be found here: http://podcast.latterdayfaith.org/
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Mormon Matters - (Dan Wotherspoon ARCHIVE)
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Now displaying: June, 2011
Jun 29, 2011
In early June, the Deseret News published a list compiled by Leonard J. Arrington in 1969 of the "most eminent intellectuals in Mormon history." As you can imagine, the feature generated a lot of discussion both on the newspaper’s website, as well as in many corners of the Mormon bloggernacle. Who among those listed still belong in the Top Ten? Who should be on there now? Why aren’t any women listed, and which women should have made that list then or if a new list were compiled today?
In this Mormon Matters episode, host Dan Wotherspoon and panelists Joanna Brooks, Kristine Haglund, and Boyd Peterson discuss this list and various issues it raises, but then launch into a both serious and fun examination of the oftentimes uncomfortable relationship that Mormonism has had with its intellectuals. Among the topics they hash out are what makes someone an intellectual, why being "learned" is often seen with suspicion and denounced by certain church leaders and members, what positive roles do intellectuals play within the LDS tradition, and what advice might the panelists give to those with an intellectual temperament who find themselves struggling for a comfortable home within Mormonism? It’s a great discussion that raises issues faced by many of this podcast’s listeners.
Jun 22, 2011
On 10 June 2011, the LDS Church released an official statement on immigration that calls for Latter-day Saints and others to honor families and treat each other, foremost, as children of God while at the same time calling for the federal government to provide strong border security and discouraging its own members from entering any country illegally. The statement also expresses strong concern for the nearly twelve million people who are already in the United States illegally, urging lawmakers and citizens to strive to keep families together and work toward these people being able to "square themselves with the law and continue to work without this necessarily leading to citizenship." Official statements call for robust discussion, and this episode tries to provide just that through engaging not only the statement but also the human face of this issue and marriage of religion and politics that is often so prevalent in policy debates related to this issue. And it even ends with the episode’s panelists--Brent Beal, a business professor in Texas who for many years has served in LDS branches containing many undocumented church members, Ben Daniel, a Presbyterian minister in northern California who likewise ministers to many people here illegally and who recently wrote a book, Neighbor: Christian Encounters with "Illegal" Immigration, and Mark Alvarez, a Salt Lake City attorney, radio host, and advocate for smart immigration reform--sharing their ideas for better discussions and improved policies.
Jun 15, 2011
A recent article at the Patheos website by evangelical Christian writer and publisher Warren Cole Smith made a big splash both on that website and in Mormon circles because of Smith’s argument that a Mitt Romney presidency would be "dangerous" for many souls who could lose their salvation if they were led astray by Mormonism’s false teachings about God and Christ. Smith hangs his case for a president’s religious beliefs being a strong enough influence for something like this to happen on several claims that many, including other evangelicals writing at Patheos, find dubious. Yet, according to Smith (and the number of "likes" his article received on the Patheos site), many people are sympathetic to his warnings. Why do such claims arise? Why are there many who see Mormonism as so different from Christianity’s primary streams (Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism) that someone’s salvation might be threatened if they believed as Mormons do? Where does Smith and his "danger to souls" line of thinking fit along the Evangelical Christian spectrum of belief? How have Mormon attitudes and actions contributed to their being excluded by many as "Christians?" Are new forms of dialogue and seeing each other emerging that can lead the groups to learn important things from one other? In this episode, host Dan Wotherspoon is joined by Joanna Brooks, Jana Riess, and evangelical writer and host of dialogues between evangelical Christians and Latter-day Saints John Morehead. Even if discussions about the differences between evangelical/mainline Christian and Mormon teachings and attitudes seem like well-worn territory for many listeners, this podcast episode contains satisfying, frank talk about difficult issues as well as fresh insights and reasons for hopefulness that greater respect and understanding between the groups is on the horizon.
Jun 8, 2011
This year marks the thirty-third anniversary of the 1978 revelation extending the priesthood to "all worthy males" in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Since that day, little has been said by Church leaders on any topic related to the ban, including the reasons for the ban, the doctrinal justifications for the ban, and the process by which the ban came into existence in the first place. Even without such clarifications, the Church has nevertheless successfully grown in Africa and in U.S. inner cities with large African-American. Mormon Matters is very pleased this week to for the chance to mark this anniversary by hosting a dynamic discussion of this ban and the revelation that ended it between four black Latter-day Saints. Guest host, Dustin Jones (who will be familiar to many listeners who have heard his Mormon Stories podcast telling of his own experiences growing up black in the Church) recently convened a panel consisting of himself and three fellow seasoned and opinionated black Mormons--Keith N. Hamilton, Darron Smith, and Marguerite Driessen--who, like him, have spent the last three decades learning about and attempting to understand the LDS Church’s "negro doctrine." Collectively the group is made up of three outspoken lawyers, one unabashed sociology Ph.D., three high priests, two former bishopric counselors, three former stake high councilors, two current BYU adjunct law professors, one former BYU professor, and a Relief Society president. We at Mormon Matters are honored by this opportunity to "listen in" on their spirited (both in its "faith" connotation as well as hinting at their lively differences of opinion!) discussion of their individual interpretations of Official Declaration 2; statements made by Brigham Young and Bruce R. McConkie, Gordon B. Hinckley’s 2006 statement on “racial slurs,” the process by which the Brethren received the revelation and what they see as the best way to move beyond the Church’s history. For each panelist, dealing with this history is ultimately a matter of faith, however, as this discussion shows very well, the swing of the pendulum between faith and fact is an interesting dynamic that all black Mormon must balance for themselves.
Jun 8, 2011
This year marks the thirty-third anniversary of the 1978 revelation extending the priesthood to "all worthy males" in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Since that day, little has been said by Church leaders on any topic related to the ban, including the reasons for the ban, the doctrinal justifications for the ban, and the process by which the ban came into existence in the first place. Even without such clarifications, the Church has nevertheless successfully grown in Africa and in U.S. inner cities with large African-American. Mormon Matters is very pleased this week to for the chance to mark this anniversary by hosting a dynamic discussion of this ban and the revelation that ended it between four black Latter-day Saints. Guest host, Dustin Jones (who will be familiar to many listeners who have heard his Mormon Stories podcast telling of his own experiences growing up black in the Church) recently convened a panel consisting of himself and three fellow seasoned and opinionated black Mormons--Keith N. Hamilton, Darron Smith, and Marguerite Driessen--who, like him, have spent the last three decades learning about and attempting to understand the LDS Church’s "negro doctrine." Collectively the group is made up of three outspoken lawyers, one unabashed sociology Ph.D., three high priests, two former bishopric counselors, three former stake high councilors, two current BYU adjunct law professors, one former BYU professor, and a Relief Society president. We at Mormon Matters are honored by this opportunity to "listen in" on their spirited (both in its "faith" connotation as well as hinting at their lively differences of opinion!) discussion of their individual interpretations of Official Declaration 2; statements made by Brigham Young and Bruce R. McConkie, Gordon B. Hinckley’s 2006 statement on “racial slurs,” the process by which the Brethren received the revelation and what they see as the best way to move beyond the Church’s history. For each panelist, dealing with this history is ultimately a matter of faith, however, as this discussion shows very well, the swing of the pendulum between faith and fact is an interesting dynamic that all black Mormon must balance for themselves.
Jun 1, 2011
Mormonism has always been a home to members with many different religious temperaments, levels of belief, attitudes toward authority, and commitment to and comfort within the community. Still, even with this diversity, Mormonism has often felt to many members (and certainly to most outsiders) as monolithic--if the diversity is there, it hasn’t always been easy to find those "like you."

Indeed, much of this sense and appearance of unity came as a result of the efforts of the institutional church to deliberately set and convey fairly rigid boundaries about what constituted orthodoxy and orthopraxis, and who was and was not a Mormon "in good standing." Thanks in large part to the Internet revolution and the powerful networking it allows, this situation seem to be changing. Latter-day Saints are no longer looking quite as much to the institution for such definitions. Church members along many different spectrums of belief and practice are finding each other and declaring their identities as Mormons, even if they fail to align very closely with the mainstream.
In this week’s episode, Mormon Matters host, Dan Wotherspoon, and panelists Joanna Brooks, Jared Anderson, and Blair Hodges explore various aspects of this new moment, this explosion among Latter-day Saints who don’t feel they fit the standard, institutional identity to begin to categorize themselves within the tradition’s larger tent. What challenges and issues have led to this eruption of felt need for broader ways to identify oneself? What positive purposes do the labels people are using to describe themselves and their place within the larger tradition serve? Are there drawbacks to these labels, especially ones that seem to work to distance those persons from particular aspects of Mormonism or religious "styles" that don’t match with theirs? Can the needs of all these different types of Mormons be met within one community, or does literal belief and a comfort with exploration of complexities (even doubt) need to be quarantined from each other? What are some of the ways the panelists are finding homes for themselves--even on Sundays--within this broad and wonderfully diverse LDS community?
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