Reader comments
Princeton sets conference on "Mormonism and American Politics"

This sounds like an interesting event.
But, Princeton University is in New Jersey.

Question: Will there be a way to view this conference
on TV? Does Princeton have an equivalent to BYU-TV??

Will this be available to the BYU-TV audience?

Not all of us can pack up and travel to Princeton
for a free of charge event.

I don't believe the article dealt with my question.
Maybe, it wasn't supposed to, but it is a valid question?? right??

Does sound interesting....

A little more background on the participants would
be useful too.

Who really are these participants? A background on them is highly important. Who are they to be talking of the mormon faith? Just because it's coming from Princeton doesn't neccessarily mean it's going to have accurate information, depending on the actual knowledge (or possible lack) of these participants.

I don't know about many of the participants but Bushman is the professor that talks about Mormonism all the time (like the PBS documentary). Thomas Griffith was a convert who spent a lot of time working in DC and then took an administrative position at BYU where he served as a stake president. So I know at least two of them are qualified to talk about the church from a members perspective.

Griffith is on the DC Circuit court.

I go to Princeton and believe that the LDS community should welcome this as a healthy inquiry into the Church and its rich and expanding intellectual and political culture. The participants include many scholars who are LDS or very sympathetic to the Church's interests. This should be an excellent conference, and I recommend that you come. There will probably be no broadcast of the proceedings.

Richard Bushman wrote the recent (2006) biography of Joseph Smith, _Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling_. Also, if you follow the link for more information, they have recordings of past events and a podcast, so it looks like a recording will probably be available.

I live in New Jersey and our LDS stake includes the Princeton ward - I am very excited about being able to attend this conference. Some of the conference participants are quite notable. Bushman is LDS, a professor at Columbia and the best-known biographer of Joseph Smith, although I don't like parts of his latest book. Kathleen Flake is an attorney and LDS and is an Assoc Professor of American Religious History at Vanderbilt Union Divinity School. Her book on the Reed Smoot Senate hearings has been cited by Dallin Oaks as the best thing ever written on the subject. Sarah Barringer Gordon is a non-LDS professor with degress in law, history and religion who teaches in the Law and History departments at the Univ. of PA. She is a leading scholar on the legal and political issues of plural marriage in the LDS church, with a well-written book on the subject. Helen Whiteny is the noted PBS producer who produced specials on the Pope and most recently "The Mormons" She is much better in person than her seriously flawed show would indicate - see her very interesting interviews with Elder Packer and Elder Oaks on the LDS church website.

I would love to go and see that conference as well. It doesn't matter if the participants are members or not because a fresh perspective or an outside perspective is just as important, if not more so, than an inside perspective. You know, sort of keeping a finger on the pulse of politics. It should be VERY interesting and I wish it were closer than a continent away!

I very much doubt that anything new will surface from
the upcomming conference. However it is important to get some of the many misconceptions before the public
as often as possible so thet the truth can surface.
I for one am grateful for such programs.