The LDS Church has just released via its website, LDS.org, several new essays under the heading "Plural Marriage in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." The cluster includes a framing article (named above) and links to three more detailed pieces: "Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo" (new article), "Plural Marriage and Families in Early Utah" (which has been available on the site since mid-December 2013), and "The Manifesto and the End of Plural Marriage" (also new). The articles have been widely hailed as major steps forward in helping the church confront its history with this most difficult practice, as well as the doctrines that led to it and have preserved it in many ways even down to today. As can be expected, especially in documents that emerged from committee and involved those with ecclesiastical as well as historical concerns, the articles fall short in some areas. The panelists in this episode, Barbara Jones Brown, Todd M. Compton, and Brian C. Hales, join with Mormon Matters host Dan Wotherspoon in celebrating these new releases, noting always their strengths and the ways they will undoubtedly assist the church and its many members for whom its polygamist past (and present) is so painful, but also sharing their thoughts on how they might have been improved. Perhaps sometime soon they will!

Through its Newsroom website, the LDS Church recently released a new video and essay that depicts Mormonism’s sacred temple clothing, along with the garments worn by those who have gone through the temple and made covenants there. The video and essay frame temple robes and garments as continuous with the phenomenon of sacred clothing worn by adherents in many other faith traditions, speaks about their use in temple rituals and daily life, highlights how similar they are for both men and women, and even depicts Latter-day Saints at distribution centers shopping for garments. It also directly addresses the inaccurate and offensive use of terms like "magical" or "magic underwear," and asks for the same degree of respect that people of good will give to religious symbols, rituals, and vestments worn by those of other faiths. In this episode, Adam Miller and Rosalynde Welch join Mormon Matters host Dan Wotherspoon in discussing the new video, its potential importance, what it covers and doesn’t cover (and what more they would like it to share about, if anything), and if and how it fits with other recent social media presentations that seem to be signaling that the church is becoming more open and proactive in teaching about the temple. They wonder if even more might be forthcoming. They also reflect on the "sacred vs. secret" dichotomy that is often playing in the background of all discussions of the temple. Is "secret" accurate, or are there better terms and ways of framing the need for not allowing total access to temple rituals and covenants? In what ways does the tension between being more or less transparent serve religious life and commitment to spiritual journeying?

Meet the Mormons was filmed for use in LDS visitor centers, but in a surprising move it was released in U.S. theaters on October 10th, and was seen by a substantial number of people--mostly Mormons, and many there from encouragement by leaders or local organizers to attend the opening weekend and convince theater owners to keep showing it for at least another week. Reactions to the film itself have been genuinely positive when evaluating it as a tool for visitor center guests, but it has been almost universally panned were one to judge it as a "documentary." It is more of an introduction to Mormons as a Christian tradition that centers on family and service, and it completely avoids mentions of Joseph Smith, the Restoration, or anything that is typically seen as unique or controversial. But is there more going on? Did the filmmakers (and church leaders who were in charge of final decision making) really intend this film to be primarily a proselytizing film? How aware were they of the LDS (especially North American) audience as they presented its six stories of people for whom Mormonism has been a wonderful blessing? Whether intentional or not, panelists Jody England Hansen, Brian Whitney, and Michael Barker, along with Mormon Matters host Dan Wotherspoon, see the film as perhaps a tool in helping LDS members shift their perception from Mormonism as a primarily Western church with mostly white, middle-class members, to a multi-racial and international church--even a world religion. Included in this signaling is paring down of the gospel message to its basics: be Christlike, serve others, enjoy fellowship in a caring community. Before diving into this wider framing, the panel discusses the film and its reception, including controversies and critiques from those who struggle with the decision to release it commercially or to use church resources on it when there are so many more pressing issues for which they could be used.

The importance of actively participating in sharing the gospel is a prominent topic in contemporary Mormonism. For youth, there are big pushes to prepare for and serve a full-time mission. For parents, one of our most important calls is to raise future missionaries. We’re frequently called on to pray for inspiration about who in our lives might be open to hearing the gospel and having missionaries teach them, and we sometimes sit (often uncomfortably) in meetings where we are directly asked to commit to submit names for contact by missionaries. We’re occasionally asked to accompany ward and full-time missionaries as they meet with people in our area. And quite often we’re encouraged to prepare now for that time when our children are raised and we will have the chance to serve as senior couple missionaries, or perhaps as mission presidents. While many of us may welcome this emphasis on actively sharing the gospel, it can trigger different feelings in those who are undergoing or who have undergone a faith crisis or transition. Those of us in this situation are very likely aware of complications to the standard narratives of the restoration and how missionaries frame their introductions of the gospel and Joseph Smith and other prophets, which leads to some degree of internal turmoil about participating enthusiastically in formal or informal missionary work--or perhaps encouraging our children to serve. Many of us who are returned missionaries have strong memories of certain aspects of "missionary culture" that we would love to protect our children from, and for others of us, we ourselves had mission presidents with personalities or visions of the gospel and how it should be shared that we felt were ultimately toxic for our own faith. In this episode, Kristine Haglund, Anthony Craiker, and Alice Fisher Roberts join Mormon Matters host Dan Wotherspoon in a far-ranging discussion of these issues. Each panelist is a parent and faithful church member who is aware of complicating issues, so do they hope their children will choose to serve full-time missions? How much of their own nuanced worldviews would they share with their children ahead of their missions? What advice about mission service or descriptions of mission pitfalls would they offer their child before she or he serves a mission? Would they themselves feel comfortable actively participating in the teaching of a friend or acquaintance who expresses interest in perhaps joining the church? How many nuances or complicating views of Mormon teachings would they feel they need to share with these investigators before they could feel good about their getting baptized? What about their own possible futures as senior missionaries or mission presidents? If they were to go on a mission knowing what they know now, what would they emphasize now that might be different from what young elders and sisters might teach?

No story differentiates Mormonism from other Christian traditions more than its claim to be the restoration of the church Jesus Christ set up while on the earth--an organization led by twelve apostles who were granted priesthood and authority to continue Christ’s saving work after he died. This framing narrative of an original church organization with priesthood keys that entitled its apostles to special revelation that, following the death of these leaders, fell into apostasy for some eighteen centuries before being restored to the earth, has provided a key part of our understanding of ourselves as Latter-day Saints and our historical location in God’s unfolding salvation story. The idea of an apostasy--a fall from a more pure form a Christianity--has provided us with a way to understand why there are so many competing traditions, so many different ideas about God and God’s requirements of us. It has also offered a sense of our own specialness, of being called to a particular work. However, scholarship over the past couple of centuries has begun to challenge the idea that Jesus was particularly concerned with priesthood ordination or an organization with a particular leadership structure. Early Christianity is becoming increasingly understood as anything but unified or a pure system that stood apart in key ways from other movements. The idea of apostleship seems to have been a fluid category. There is no consensus on who "the twelve" were, nor if Jesus considered them apostles. There don’t seem to be many hints that Jesus gave much thought to establishing an organization to aid his followers. A recent volume, Standing Apart: Mormon Historical Consciousness and the Concept of Apostasy, offers a wonderful introduction to Mormonism's apostasy (and thus a restoration was needed) narrative. The various articles in the collection trace the story’s origins how it has taken root in LDS self-understanding, and then complicate it. Written by LDS scholars who are disciplinary experts in the tune frames and approaches they write about, each wrestles with the historical record and its mismatch with the traditional narrative. But instead of only finding hopelessness as another sacred story falls back to earth, many of the pieces present rich and potentially transformative new framings for us to consider at this important moment in our tradition’s history. The book is a wonderful accomplishment and belongs on the shelves of all good LDS libraries. In this episode, the volume’s editors, Miranda Wilcox and John D. Young, and one of the contributors, Taylor Petrey, join Mormon Matters host Dan Wotherspoon in introducing this volume and the history of the LDS apostasy narrative, pointing out directions current research is taking it, and highlighting new possibilities for LDS self-understanding.

No story differentiates Mormonism from other Christian traditions more than its claim to be the restoration of the church Jesus Christ set up while on the earth--an organization led by twelve apostles who were granted priesthood and authority to continue Christ’s saving work after he died. This framing narrative of an original church organization with priesthood keys that entitled its apostles to special revelation that, following the death of these leaders, fell into apostasy for some eighteen centuries before being restored to the earth, has provided a key part of our understanding of ourselves as Latter-day Saints and our historical location in God’s unfolding salvation story. The idea of an apostasy--a fall from a more pure form a Christianity--has provided us with a way to understand why there are so many competing traditions, so many different ideas about God and God’s requirements of us. It has also offered a sense of our own specialness, of being called to a particular work. However, scholarship over the past couple of centuries has begun to challenge the idea that Jesus was particularly concerned with priesthood ordination or an organization with a particular leadership structure. Early Christianity is becoming increasingly understood as anything but unified or a pure system that stood apart in key ways from other movements. The idea of apostleship seems to have been a fluid category. There is no consensus on who "the twelve" were, nor if Jesus considered them apostles. There don’t seem to be many hints that Jesus gave much thought to establishing an organization to aid his followers. A recent volume, Standing Apart: Mormon Historical Consciousness and the Concept of Apostasy, offers a wonderful introduction to Mormonism's apostasy (and thus a restoration was needed) narrative. The various articles in the collection trace the story’s origins how it has taken root in LDS self-understanding, and then complicate it. Written by LDS scholars who are disciplinary experts in the tune frames and approaches they write about, each wrestles with the historical record and its mismatch with the traditional narrative. But instead of only finding hopelessness as another sacred story falls back to earth, many of the pieces present rich and potentially transformative new framings for us to consider at this important moment in our tradition’s history. The book is a wonderful accomplishment and belongs on the shelves of all good LDS libraries. In this episode, the volume’s editors, Miranda Wilcox and John D. Young, and one of the contributors, Taylor Petrey, join Mormon Matters host Dan Wotherspoon in introducing this volume and the history of the LDS apostasy narrative, pointing out directions current research is taking it, and highlighting new possibilities for LDS self-understanding.