Conferences tackle faith-based issues

While many churchgoing folks take a summer break along with fellow members and leaders of their congregations, thousands of local Latter-day Saints seek out some extracurricular summer sizzle for their faith.

At least four conference/symposium events designed to generate discussion and even some debate among LDS Church members are scheduled in August and September, providing fodder for family and water-cooler discussion that goes beyond the standard Sunday School fare.

Kicking off the discussion Aug. 5 and 6 at the South Towne Expo Center will be the sixth annual Mormon Apologetics Conference, sponsored by the Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research. With topics to include homosexuality, the role of women, being black in the church and the nature of God, FAIR president Scott Gordon believes the event will continue to grow in size and stature this year.

More than 250 people participated in last year's event, and the nonprofit organization's publication — the FAIR Journal — has more than 5,000 subscribers. Scholarly papers presented during the conference typically focus on answering critics of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as on new developments in the sociology, anthropology and applied theology of the faith.

"We outgrew our digs in Provo" and at Utah Valley State College, Gordon said, adding the group has enough eager presenters that "we've never had to send out a call for (paper) proposals yet." In fact, "we're at the point now where we have to turn speakers away." Topics for discussion are generated not only by potential speakers, but by "what's going on in (LDS discussion circles) based on e-mails we get and questions people send in" to the group's Web site, www.fairlds.org.

Scholarly presenters enjoy the forum, he said, "because they can discuss the topics in a safe environment. We start with the presumption that the church is true and make no bones about that. Some people say we're biased because of that and we freely admit that 'yes we are, now let's get over it and move on.' "

Though the FAIR conference is the conservative counterpart of the long-running and liberally minded Sunstone Symposium, Gordon believes that LDS members "who enjoy Sunstone tend to really enjoy our conferences. We also attract many people who have never been to Sunstone." Speakers will include historian Davis Bitton, ancient religious texts scholar Dan Peterson, researcher Dean Byrd and author Margaret Young.

Gordon acknowledged some potential attendees may have avoided the FAIR conference in its early years because his organization developed something of a reputation for bashing critics of the LDS Church, rather than simply addressing the issues.