I'm writing from Salt Lake City, where last evening I gave the keynote address at the opening of the annual Sunstone Symposium. Sunstone is an independent Mormon magazine-cum-foundation devoted to open discussion of issues involving the religion–which has made it an object of suspicion in conservative Mormon circles. As part of its dedication to openness, Sunstone has a rule that the keynote must always be given by a non-Mormon.
My talk was titled “Mormons and the New Restorationism”–a rather bold effort to place the American conservative movement of the past several decades in the tradition of the religious restorationism of the Second Great Awakening out of which Mormonism arises. The Salt Lake Tribune's ace religion reporter, Peggy Fletcher Stack, has a nice account in today's paper. The audience–smart and knowledgeable–seemed to enjoy it. You can tell from the photo that I had a very good time.