The complete title of this talk is “Joseph Smith’s Sexual Polyandry and the Emperor’s New Clothes: On Closer Inspection, What Do We Find?”

Brian C. Hales is a member of the Church and is the author of a book on Mormon Fundamentalism and several other books. He has presented at the Mormon History Association, Sunstone and elsewhere. He is an anesthesiologist at the David Hospital and Medical Center in Layton, Utah. He is writing a new two-volume treatise on Joseph Smith’s polygamy.

Hales’ presentation was excellent but this subject is very difficult to address in a blog post. Those interested in this subject are encouraged to read Hales’ books on the subject.

The entire title of this talk is: “No Johnny-Come-Lately: the 182-year-long BLACK Mormon Moment.”

Darius Gray worked for many years in broadcast journalism (including at KSL). He joined the LDS church in 1964, before the priesthood was available to him as a person of African descent. He is a past president of the Genesis Group, an official arm of the Church organized in 1971 to meet the needs of black members. He is the author of “Standing on the Promises” and is completing special features for the documentary “Nobody Knows: the Untold Story of Black Mormons.”

He started out with a joke saying that he just had hip surgery and the surgeon made a mistake and gave him a “white hip,” and how he only has rhythm on one side.

He says this is the Mormon Moment. He mentioned the “Book of Mormon” musical, Mitt Romney, Harry Reid, etc.

But he says most members are just as ignorant about the rich black members’ heritage.

He praised blacklds.org, which is led by Scott Gordon, president of FAIR.

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Royal Skousen is a professor of linguistics and English language at BYU. He has been the editor of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project since 1988. He edited “The Book of Mormon, the Earliest Text.”

Any serious study of the Book of Mormon requires the most accurate text possible.

Objections to making changes:

1)The changes are innocuous or insignificant.
2)There are no changes in the doctrine or to the basic narrative, so don’t make any changes.
3)One should not reverse Joseph Smith’s editing for the 1837 and 1840 editions.

Some changes clearly worthwhile. The 1981 committee that brought the current edition of the BoM changed Alma 62:36 in a way that seems to make sense. Joseph Smith also changed his mind (1 Nephi 3:3).

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The complete title of this talk is:

“To Do the Business of the Church: A Cooperative Paradigm for Examining Gendered Participation Within Church Organizational Structure.”

McBaine is the founder of the Mormon Women Project, a non-profit web site. She works at Bonneville Communications, which is responsible for the “I’m a Mormon” campaign. She has been published in many periodicals.

“There is a tremendous amount of pain among women in the Church.” She says many women feel like they are treated like lesser human beings at Church. Nearly half of the people leaving the Church cited women’s issues.

She wants to publish reaffirming narratives of women in the Church. She also serves as a bridge between various women’s groups. We need to explain better why women cannot pass the sacrament. We cannot devalue these opinions as “prideful.”
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John Sorenson is famous for his work on Book of Mormon geography. He is a professor emeritus of anthropology at BYU. He is the author of more than 200 publications.

Says “Mormon’s Codex” will be his last major work. This is a new book, and his talk is a preview. For those looking for “evidence” that the Book of Mormon may have taken place in Mesoamerica, this book is for you.

The Bible shows some evidence that the writers were contemporary. “City gates,” for example, is time-sensitive and good evidence.

Sorenson identifies hundreds of correspondences that tie the Book of Mormon to Mesoamerican lifestyle and history.
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