Session 301 (8:30 a.m., Saturday, September 26)
Title: Brother Joseph Again, Restoring the Likeness of Joseph Smith Jr. by Patrick Bishop, Joseph Brickey
Abstract: Many of those who knew Joseph Smith Jr. from life were not satisfied with paintings or drawings depicting him. Over the last hundred years, a persistent question has been repeated: “What did Joseph Smith look like?” After 25 years of historical and forensic research, we believe we can answer that question and determine if an authentic photograph of Joseph Smith exists. We invite you to weigh the evidence that will be presented and draw your own conclusions from it. This session consists of an advanced screening of the documentary. This presentation is a follow-up to the advanced documentary screening in Session 234 and will include a Q&A on the documentary and forthcoming book by Greg Kofford Books.
Biographical Sketches:
Patrick A. Bishop is a dedicated author, academic, and outdoorsman. A graduate of Montana State University (2001) and Utah State University (2004). His background is deeply rooted in the Intermountain West. As a prolific author of religious texts, he has published titles such as Joseph Smith’s Histories in Harmony and Apostolic Succession in the Restoration. His 25 years of employment have been with the Church Educational System and Temple and Correlation Departments of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He and his wife Liz, are the parents of five children.
Joseph F. Brickey is an accomplished classical artist who has won multiple international awards in both painting and sculpture. He received a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture from the New York Academy of Art in 2012. He studied forensic facial reconstruction with the Smithsonian’s acclaimed forensic artist Jiwoong Che and has since been honored with the Walter Erlebacher Award for his studies in human anatomy. For over a decade, he has taught classical and forensic anatomy at the Beaux-Arts Academy, a school of classical art and architecture, where he currently serves as director. He also serves as president of the Classical Tradition Institute, president of the Inspirational Artists Association, and as a member of the board of directors of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art.
Session 302 (8:30 a.m., Saturday, September 26)
Title: Pottawattamie County 1850 and Christian Nationalism by Dan Kelty
Abstract: The History of Pottawattie County, read, “Pottawattamie, with some of the territory of other counties, remained under the exclusive control of the Mormons” (1883, p. 20), until 1853. There were individuals who rebelled against the leaders. On August 3, 1850, the Church of Christ organized the “Union branch”. These Wheelers Grove and surrounding Silver Creek Saints declared that leadership would not dictate to free people, and they decided to move to Bashan, “Zion” of the Brewsterites.
Biographical Sketch: Dan Kelty is currently the Headwaters Mission Center historian for Community of Christ, living in Minneapolis, MN. He retired in 2018 as a librarian and currently operates a lending library/book service for research advice on restoration history. He has two great-grandchildren. He specializes in the histories of the upper Midwest and southern California.
Title: The Mormon and the Moonies: The Ecumenical W. Cleon Skousen by Jo Ann Skousen
Abstract: W. Cleon Skousen developed deep friendships with many evangelical leaders, including Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Fred Schwarz, Baptist minister Don Sill, and Billy James Hargis. He was invited frequently to speak to Protestant congregations and taught Constitutional seminars at Oral Roberts University and Falwell’s Liberty University. He was also greatly respected by leaders of such conservative organizations as Freedom Forum, Christian Crusade, Eagle Forum, Council for National Policy, and the Moral Majority.
Cleon was criticized for his close relationship with the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, a Korean minister and founder of the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (commonly called the Moonies). Moon’s experience with Korean totalitarianism led him to align with Cleon’s teachings about the US Constitution, and Cleon saw echoes of Mormonism in Moon’s theology.
This presentation will take a deep dive into what attracted Cleon to Reverend Moon and also what led to their falling out. It will also offer insights into how Cleon developed relationships of trust, respect, and community with evangelical leaders, despite being a devout Mormon.
Biographical Sketch: Jo Ann Skousen has taught English Literature and Writing at Rollins College in Florida, Mercy College in New York, Chapman University in California, and Sing Sing Correctional Facility, “up the river” from Manhattan in New York. She holds a B. A. in American Literature from Rollins College and an M.A. from the University of Florida. For over twenty years, she also served as a seminary teacher and a gospel doctrine teacher for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Jo Ann’s book, Matriarchs of the Messiah: Valiant Women in the Lineage of Jesus Christ (Cedar Fort, 2016), is the first to focus entirely on the dozen women identified in the Bible as maternal ancestors of Jesus Christ. She is also co-editor, with Mark Skousen, of There Were Giants in the Land: Episodes in the Life of Cleon Skousen and The Completed Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, and co-author, with him, of High Finance on a Low Budget and Never Say Budget.
Jo Ann is the president of Freedom360 Foundation, the founding director of the Anthem Libertarian Film Festival, and associate editor of The Skousen Report, a financial publication. She speaks frequently at conferences across the country and around the world. An avid traveler, she has led groups through the Mediterranean from Athens to Rome, relating the myths and Bible stories that are associated with each location.
Jo Ann has been married to financial economist Mark Skousen for over 50 years. They have lived in Washington DC, the Bahamas, London, Florida, New York, and California. In addition to collaborating on 25 books, two investment newsletters, and a large conference business, they are the parents of five children and eight grandchildren who genuinely like each other. Jo Ann is never happier than when traveling with her grandchildren or teaching them to catch a wave at the beach.
Session 303 (8:30 a.m., Saturday, September 26)
Title: William A. Hopkins: Architect of a Modern Lamoni by James S. Jones
Abstract: This presentation examines the life and legacy of William Alexander Hopkins (1867–1937), a second-generation pioneer of Lamoni, Iowa, whose leadership helped move the town from its pioneer foundations into a modern era of civic and economic development. Hopkins’ influence touched nearly every facet of community life, and his most enduring legacy grew from his vision of Lamoni at the crossroads of regional transportation, placing him on the national stage as a leader of the Jefferson Highway Association.
In addition to newspaper articles for confirmation of details and open sources for historical context, the presentation draws primarily on articles published more than half a century ago in the Lamoni Chronicle by Thomas S. Williams, a history enthusiast and longtime city council member and mayor whose access to municipal records—many now lost—makes his work especially valuable. The recent digitization of the Lamoni newspaper archive opened access to these materials, enabling recovery of this largely forgotten civic leader’s story and the mechanisms of early twentieth-century community building.
Biographical Sketch: James S. Jones, Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at Graceland University, retired in 2014 and pivoted his technical expertise toward local historical preservation. Driven by a goal to create a public website for the Lamoni Rose Hill Cemetery, he joined the board of trustees and now serves as Secretary, Treasurer, and volunteer Sexton. Faced with missing or conflicting information between its electronic and 140 years of written records, he has dedicated himself to researching and correcting the cemetery’s electronic database and information found online. To facilitate this work, he helped secure a grant for the Lamoni Library to digitize its microfilm newspaper archives for online access. An active FindAGrave.com volunteer, he has integrated these digital archives with the cemetery’s online burial records, providing direct links from each entry to their memorial page featuring headstone photos, family connections, and recovered biographies.
Title: Joseph Smith Lee, Sr. (1839-1921), “The Rocky Mountain Hunter”: Rediscovering the Life of an Apocalyptic RLDS Prophet, Showman, and Counterfeiter by Lee Krähenbühl
Abstract: When LDS President Harold B. Lee (1899-1973) enjoined the Samuel Lee Family Organization to complete their work on his family tree, the resulting book did not include the more sensational life details in one particular ancestor’s profile. Joseph Smith Lee, Sr. (1839-1921, fl. 1866-1909) was a prominent RLDS apocalyptic proselytizer of the American West—Utah, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana—for over four decades. Styling himself in buckskin garb as “The Rocky Mountain Hunter,” Lee claimed to have been a “seer and prophet of God” since the age of five, when he had a vision of his namesake Prophet’s murder while witnessing him preach in Nauvoo, Illinois. Lee’s career culminated in national press coverage when, acting as his own defense counsel during his Federal trial for counterfeiting, he predicted the destruction of the United States. This presentation draws not only on public documents, but on unpublished interviews and memoirs from Lee’s descendants—and also reveals his surprising motive for having minted the counterfeit coins that sent him to Leavenworth, ruined his family, and effectively expunged his full story from history until now.
Biographical Sketch: Dr. Lee Krähenbühl is a historian of the American theatre, religious movements, and the intergenerational transmission of family narrative. Lee is the immediate past (retired) chair and graduate director of the Communication Department at Stevenson University, Owings Mills, Maryland, where he continues as adjunct professor of communication and humanities. His previous articles in The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal include “Thomas A. Lyne, the Latter-day Saints, and the American Theatre: Confluences and Influences, 1844–1904” (Spring/Summer 2020), “Actors Wandering through the Desert to Brigham: The Strange, True Tale of Carter’s Dramatic Combination and their ‘Spirit Guides,’ 1871” (Fall/Winter 2021), and “Joseph Smith Lee, Sr. (1839-1921), ‘The Rocky Mountain Hunter’: An Apocalyptic RLDS Prophet/Showman Shaken from Harold B. Lee’s Family Tree” (Spring/Summer 2026).
Session 304 (8:30 a.m., Saturday, September 26)
Title: A History of Beyond the Walls by Michael Karpowicz
Abstract: Beyond the Walls is an online ministry started in 2017 by the Community of Christ Toronto Congregation, which has now grown into a worldwide program operated in partnership with Community of Christ in Canada. Over the last nine years, Beyond the Walls has grown into an influential program well-known to Community of Christ members around the world. The program’s YouTube channel has attracted 90,000 subscribers, making it the largest entry point for new people to learn about Community of Christ.
This paper will trace the origins of Beyond the Walls from the Toronto Congregation’s Renewal Plan of 2013, through the sale of its historic church building and establishment of its new Centre Place facility, experimentation with local community outreach programs, and rapid transition to a global ministry for Community of Christ members isolated by the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020-21, to its present incarnation as a producer of content for church members and a large public-facing seeker ministry.
Biographical Sketch: Michael Karpowicz served as co-executive director of the John Whitmer Historical Association from 2005 to 2010, and participated in the foundation of John Whitmer Books. A graduate of Ball State University, he is currently the organist and video director for Beyond the Walls and recorder for Community of Christ Toronto Congregation.
Title: G. Leslie DeLapp, Presiding Bishop, Faithful Minister for Church Finance, and Community Development by Dan Whittemore
Abstract: Presiding Bishop G. L. DeLapp served the Community of Christ for thirty-eight years, of which he was Presiding Bishop for twenty-six years. During this time, he directed the Church out of debt during the Great Depression, confronted the 1920’s Supreme Directional Control issue, brought financial stability to the Church, completed the Auditorium as the center focus of the Independence Center-Place, served on multiple community boards, and excelled as a faithful minister in every respect. He served with three Presidents of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, as it was known during his tenure. Bishop DeLapp was the right person at the right time for the Community of Christ.
Biographical Sketch: Dan Whittemore is a seasoned leader in higher education finance, public service, and community advocacy. Dan’s professional journey has encompassed leadership roles in state government, large educational systems, and local community colleges. These roles included RLDS Appointee, Public Accounting Partner, Colorado State Controller, Chicago Public Schools’ Controller, Vice Chancellor for Business and Administration for ten Maricopa Community Colleges, Vice President for Colorado Community Colleges, and Business Faculty at Scottsdale Community College. He served as President of the National Association of State Comptrollers.
Dan has a rich background in ministry, having served as a full-time minister with the Community of Christ. He chaired its international investment committee. He also served as a trustee and treasurer for the American Humane Association and has held leadership roles on numerous boards, including Graceland University and the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO). Dan holds a Master’s in Theological Studies from the Iliff School of Theology, a Juris Doctor from the University of Denver, a B.S.B.A. in Accounting from the University of Denver, and an A.A. degree from Graceland University. Dan and his wife, Elizabeth, initiated multiple financial endowments for Native American scholarships, support systems, and a Native American endowed professorship. He knew and worked for Bishop DeLapp.
Session 311 (10:15 a.m., Saturday, September 26)
Title: Diverse Gatherings in the Restoration Family: Comparing General and World Conferences Among Three Restoration Movements by Casey Paul Griffiths
Abstract: This paper compares and contrasts the function and utility of general Church gatherings among The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Community of Christ, and The Church of Christ (Bickertonite). Each of these, the three largest movements in the Smith-Rigdon Restoration tradition, has widely varying approaches about the purpose of world church gatherings. Over the course of one year, 2025, the author attended the largest conference of each tradition to observe the differences and similarities. These conferences highlight the differences in approach towards prophets and polities in these Restoration faiths. Seeing how the diverse branches of the Restoration meet together also highlights the unique strengths and challenges of each Church.
Biographical Sketch: Casey Paul Griffiths is a professor of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University.
Title: Meeting Together: The Evolution of General Membership Conferences of Community of Christ and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Jessica Yospe
Abstract: In this paper, I argue that world conferences of Community of Christ and general conferences of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints fulfill a shared need for communal gathering and institutional cohesion, but employ different methods shaped by their early leaders, namely Joseph Smith III and Brigham Young. It begins with a short outline of the practice and purpose of Methodist conferences, noting the influence on the Latter-day Saint movement, and then turns to an overview of conferences during the life of Joseph Smith, Jr. The paper analyzes structural and participatory innovations in conferences following the 1844 schism, particularly in response to differing needs for lay involvement and institutional unity. It concludes with a brief personal reflection, considering how both forms of conference continue to foster faith, identity, and communal cohesion in distinct but parallel ways.
Biographical Sketch: Jessica Yospe is a senior in Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Brigham Young University, emphasizing in Hebrew Bible. Passionate about understanding world religions, her involvement in BYU’s Council for Interfaith Engagement and her personal research revolve around interfaith relationships. After completing her bachelor’s degree, she will pursue graduate degrees in Jewish and Religious Studies. Jessica lives in Murray, Utah, with her husband, Lincoln.
Title: An Alphabet of Motives: Examining the Implicit Morality and Value Associations of the Deseret Alphabet by Harrison Endicott
Abstract: In the mid-1850s, Latter-day Saint leaders in the territory of Deseret sought to support a distinctive, unified cultural identity by creating a new alphabet. This effort yielded the Deseret Alphabet, a phonetic take on written English aimed at replacing the English alphabet’s traditional Latin script. A committee commissioned by Brigham Young, selected by the University of Deseret’s Board of Regents, and made up of Parley P. Pratt, Heber C. Kimball, and George D. Watt, designed the new alphabet to both standardize written English in the territory and provide non-native English speakers a leg up in learning the language. However, despite the best efforts of Church leaders, the Deseret Alphabet was never widely adopted and eventually fell out of use. With the advent of expanded Unicode formats in the early 2000s, the type had a brief renaissance both digitally and in print but failed to gain anything more than niche online attention.
The aim of this paper is to explore the rhetorical motives associated with the Deseret Alphabet by examining the published and unpublished literature that utilized it. This paper will examine published primers and books, material objects like coins and tombstones, and unpublished writings like diaries and record books to determine when and why writers chose to use the Deseret Alphabet. Ultimately, I posit that the Deseret Alphabet became associated with a distinct moral framework of values and that this association has permeated down to the present day.
Biographical Sketch: Harrison Endicott is a senior undergraduate student at Brigham Young University studying History. His research interests include religion in the American West, American hymnody, and historical rhetoric. Harrison served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Canada Winnipeg Mission from 2022 to 2024. He currently works as the editorial assistant for the Journal of Mormon History and as an intern for Intermountain Histories. He is the winner of the BYU History Department’s 2022 Cultural History Award and 2026 Latin American History Award. In 2025, he received a scholarship from the John Whitmer Historical Association for his conference presentation on early international expansion in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Harrison’s first publication, an article based on his 2025 JWHA presentation, was published in the Spring/Summer 2026 edition of the JWHA Journal.
Session 312 (10:15 a.m., Saturday, September 26)
Title: The Development of LDS Garments in Purity Culture 1940-1979 by Nancy Ross
Abstract: This presentation will explore changes in LDS Church teachings on sexuality and modesty in relation to garment history, focusing on themes of gender, race, and sexuality. This period begins with significant changes in the way church leaders talked about sex outside of marriage, insisting on changes in community norms around women’s dress. While not new, church leaders continued to tie sexual purity to ideas of racial purity. Building on the work of Taylor Petrey in this area, this presentation investigates the role of garments as a technology that facilitated new community norms around dress. As the church and society wrestled with changing norms around sexual behavior, the church eventually chose to implement changes to garment design that it had long resisted: that of two piece garments.
Biographical Sketch: Nancy Ross is an associate professor and the department chair of the Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Department at Utah Tech University, where she has taught for 20 years. She researches LDS and Community of Christ women, women’s ordination movements, and issues related to Mormon feminism. Her book, co-authored with Jessica Finnigan and Larissa Kanno Kindred, is titled Mormon Garments: Sacred and Secret and was published by the University of Illinois Press in February 2026. The book examines the meaning and lived experiences of those who wear garments through the lenses of gender and belief.
Title: “No Such Thing as Plural Marriage”: Polygamy, “Debauchery,” and Sexual Taxonomy in United States v. Cleveland (1944) by Makoto Hunter
Abstract: In 1944, Heber Kimball Cleveland and several other polygamy-practicing Mormon fundamentalists were arrested as part of a joint raid by federal and state law enforcement. Prosecutors charged Cleveland under the 1910 Mann Act, or “White Slave Traffic Act,” a law that prohibited transporting women across state lines for prostitution or “any other immoral purpose.” The trial came to hinge on how to interpret that clause. Was polygamy an immoral purpose prosecutable under the Mann Act, as the prosecutors claimed? Or did the Mann Act’s focus on prostitution leave polygamy out of the line of fire, as Cleveland’s defense argued? This paper examines the resulting United States v. Cleveland case (1944) through legal history, cultural history, and the history of sexuality to examine how polygamist men, fundamentalist women, and non-Mormon pluralists drew upon WWII-America’s newly consolidated democratic identity to contest—albeit unsuccessfully—the claims of antipolygamy.
Biographical Sketch: Makoto Hunter is a graduate student at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her prospective dissertation focuses on the legal and cultural history of Latter-day Saint plural marriage between the 1880s and 1940s.
Workshop 313 (10:15 a.m., Saturday, September 26)
Title: Trust but Verify: AI Productivity and Risk in Historical Research by Rob Stevens
Abstract: Artificial intelligence tools are entering the practice of historical research. AI not only creates an immense productivity boost but also opens avenues and methods of research that were difficult or impossible to pursue even just a few years ago. While the promise of AI is compelling and it is already demonstrating value, there are important caveats and pitfalls researchers need to be aware of.
This workshop will start with an overview of AI concepts and the various technologies available, and their capabilities. Importantly, emphasis will be given on their pitfalls, limitations, distortions, fabricated citations, and errors, along with ways to mitigate these issues.
We will then walk through many examples to illustrate these concepts. The examples will focus on research on the Latter-day Saint movement in Northern Illinois prior to roughly 1850. Many of the examples will draw from the creation of an AI-generated, human-curated Wiki on the topic, which consists of more than 350 individual pages/topics. Finally, during the workshop, time will be given for participants to share their experiences with AI with the group.
Biographical Sketch: Rob Stevens is a hobby history researcher, with a personal interest in the Latter-day Saint movement in Northern Illinois in the first half of the 19th Century. Professionally, Rob is a partner in a firm that develops and deploys AI solutions in the business world. It is this nexus of the professional and the personal that helps him bring practical AI experience into conversation with historical method.
Session 314 (10:15 a.m., Saturday, September 26)
Title: The Book of Mormon as an Automatic Writing by Brian Hales
Abstract: Historically, some researchers have treated the Book of Mormon as an automatic writing. Labeling the Book of Mormon as an automatic writing does not explain how Joseph Smith produced the words. However, it does potentially expand the naturalistic theoretical framework for explaining their origin. On the other hand, Joseph Smith’s theology predicts the production of automatic writings through supernatural processes similar to the spiritual power he described as enabling his dictation of the Book of Mormon. This presentation explores naturalistic explanations for both phenomena, specifically examining Pearl Curran and her book The Sorry Tale.
Biographical Sketch: Brian C. Hales is a retired anesthesiologist and the author or coauthor of several books on Joseph Smith and plural marriage. Brian and his wife, Janis, recently completed a full-time mission in the Salt Lake City Headquarters Mission, where they worked on Special Projects. He has served as president of the Utah Medical Association and the John Whitmer Historical Association. For the past ten years, Brian has also studied the origin of the Book of Mormon, with his new book, Authoring the Book of Mormon: Investigating Joseph Smith’s 1829 Literary Skills, scheduled for publication in 2026.
Title: Our Fathers Called It Liahona by Elliott Saxton
Abstract: The Book of Mormon‘s Liahona — a brass, compass-like instrument that guides Lehi’s family through the wilderness — remains a persistent puzzle in source-critical studies of the text. While the BYU Book of Mormon Onomasticon concedes that no origin for the related name “Lehonti” (spelled “Lahonti” in the original manuscript) “immediately suggests itself,” this paper proposes a single, overlooked linguistic and conceptual root for both terms: Baron de Lahontan’s New Voyages to North America (1703). A widely circulated account of French colonial exploration held in major American institutional libraries before 1830, Lahontan’s text — transmitted and adapted through Jonathan Carver’s Travels (1778) and other intermediaries — established a conceptual template that converges in the Liahona narrative. This includes portable spiritual instruments oriented toward the direction of travel, conditional divine favor, and a theological framework mapping readily onto the Book of Mormon‘s depiction of the Great Spirit. This paper traces this transmission history by positioning Dartmouth College as a critical node of access and environmental influence. By examining the intersection of Lahontan’s frontier travelogue with the classical epics foundational to the Dartmouth curriculum—specifically the Aeneid and the Odyssey, which furnish essential literary parallels for divinely guided, perilous oceanic wanderings—this study situates the Liahona within the broader literary and educational milieu of early nineteenth-century America.
Biographical Sketch: Elliott Saxton is a member of the Minneapolis Community of Christ.
Hymn Fest (11:45 a.m., Saturday, September 26
Title: Celebration of Restoration Music by Rebecca Roesler, Nancy Ross
Abstract: This year’s Hymn Fest is included in the Saturday agenda All are welcome to join us in singing old and new Restoration hymns in a spirit of worship, reflection, fellowship, and shared musical heritage. This hymn fest replaces the Sunday service and provides an opportunity for participants from across the Restoration tradition to gather in song.
Biographical Sketches:
Rebecca Roesler recently joined the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She has taught music education and violin at Brigham Young University–Idaho, Boston University, and the University of North Texas. She received a Ph.D. in Music and Human Learning from the University of Texas at Austin. In addition to being an invited presenter at a book history workshop exploring hymnals at the LDS Church History Library, she has presented at conferences for the Mormon History Association, Book of Mormon Studies Association, International Society for Music Education, National Association for Music Education, the American String Teachers Association, and the Society for Music Teacher Education, and her articles appear in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Psychology of Music, Journal of Research in Music Education, Journal of Music Teacher Education, and String Research Journal.
Nancy Ross is an associate professor and the department chair of the Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Department at Utah Tech University, where she has taught for 20 years. She researches LDS and Community of Christ women, women’s ordination movements, and issues related to Mormon feminism. Her book, co-authored with Jessica Finnigan and Larissa Kanno Kindred, is titled Mormon Garments: Sacred and Secret and was published by the University of Illinois Press in February 2026. The book examines the meaning and lived experiences of those who wear garments through the lenses of gender and belief.
Tour (12:00 p.m., Saturday, September 26)
Remember the Ladies! The Women of Early Omaha
Hop on a tour with us in honor of the founding ladies of Omaha. This tour will introduce you to a few of Omaha’s first women, from factory workers and business owners to religious leaders and activists, who contributed to the growth and success of Omaha today. Destinations on this tour will include driving through Omaha’s previous “Red Light District,” the Paxton Hotel, Joslyn Castle and so much more!
Union Station
One of The Durham Museum’s most popular programs, enjoy an in-depth guided tour of Omaha’s Union Station, learning the ins and outs of this National Historic Landmark’s time as one of the nation’s busiest and most celebrated train depots.
Panel 325 (6:30 p.m., Saturday, September 2)
Title: Who leaves and who stays?: Patterns of Latter-day Saint disaffiliation and retention by Jana Riess, Ryan Cragun, Justin Dyer, Jeff Strong
Abstract: In this panel, social science researchers will present data on who is leaving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and why, drawing on multiple recent studies. In particular, panelists will discuss which demographic, socioeconomic, political, and religious factors are common among people who exit. Studies show that while there is considerable variation among exiters, they tend to be younger, more socially and politically progressive, and less affluent than current members.
Panelists will also explore what happens to exiters after they leave Mormonism. Many have negative feelings toward religion in general and the LDS Church in particular, and a majority say they do not plan to return to the faith of their childhood. A majority also do not join another religion. However, some are open to religion and retain warm and positive feelings about the LDS Church.
Among those who stay members, research demonstrates that active religious engagement remains very high.
Biographical Sketches:
Jana Riess is a research fellow at Claremont Graduate University and a senior columnist for Religion News Service. She is the author or co-author of many books, including “The Next Mormons.”
Ryan Cragun is a professor of sociology at the University of Tampa. He is the coauthor of “Goodbye Religion,” “Secularity and Nonreligion in North America,” “Beyond Doubt,” and many other books, journal articles, and chapters. He is the co-editor of “The Palgrave Handbook of Global Mormonism.” He has presented his research in many venues, including internationally in Belgium, Lithuania, Sweden, Turkey, the UK, Taiwan, and Australia.
Justin Dyer is a professor of religious education at Brigham Young University and the editor-in-chief of “BYU Studies.” He has published many articles about the positive role of religion in mental health and adolescent development, with work appearing in the “Journal of Adolescent Health,” the “Journal of Marriage and Family,” the “Journal of Adolescence,” and other publications.
Jeff Strong is a former senior executive at Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson and a former LDS mission president. Dotson is an associate professor of marketing and logistics at the business school of Ohio State University, and formerly a professor at BYU’s Marriott School.