Sunstone Issue 127, cover dated May 2003 |
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| Director of Publications and Editor | Stephen R. Carter |
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| Categories | Mormon studies: scholarship, issues, literature, and art |
| Frequency | five times per year |
| First issue | Winter 1975 |
| Company | Sunstone Education Foundation |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | Salt Lake City, Utah |
| Website | Sunstone |
| ISSN | 0363-1370 |
Sunstone is a magazine published by the Sunstone Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, that discusses Mormonism through scholarship, art, short fiction, and poetry. The foundation began the publication in 1974 and considers it a vehicle for free and frank exchange in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The magazine's motto is Faith Seeking Understanding.
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In 1979, Sunstone began sponsoring an annual symposium in Salt Lake City, which is now a four-day event with approximately 100 different sessions generally held the second week of August. Since the 1980s, Sunstone has also held regular regional symposia in Washington, D.C., California, Seattle, Chicago, Dallas, and Boston.
While early magazine issues and symposia included heavy participation from a full range of perspectives, circumstances and events in the late 1980s and early 1990s damaged Sunstone's reputation and hurt subscribership.[1] These events included a 1989 address given by Dallin H. Oaks, an apostle of the LDS Church, warning of "Alternate Voices"[2] and a November 1991 "Statement on Symposia" issued by the church's First Presidency; although, Sunstone was never mentioned in either case. Because of Sunstone's position as a visible symbol of independent thought within Mormonism, however, these communications led to a decline in participation in Sunstone fora by many conservative and moderate voices. This trend culminated after six individuals were disciplined by the LDS Church in September 1993, after which the potential costs of writing for the magazine and speaking at its symposia were feared by some to be too high. With a lack of participation from moderate and conservative voices, Sunstone experienced an unbalancing of many presentations toward liberal causes and points of view.[3][4][5]
With the passage of time and under new leadership, the Sunstone Education Foundation has begun to recover much of its former status as a vehicle for frank, honest discussion in Mormonism, with increased balance and a concerted effort to be welcoming to all voices.[6][7]
The magazine is published five times per year, and in addition to the annual Salt Lake symposium, the foundation generally sponsors three to five smaller-scale, regional symposia each year.
| Name | Position | Term |
|---|---|---|
| Scott Kenney | Editor/Publisher | 1975–1978 |
| Allen Roberts | Co-editor/publisher | 1978–1980 |
| Peggy Fletcher | Co-editor/publisher | 1978–1980 |
| Peggy Fletcher | Editor | 1978–1986 |
| Daniel Rector | Publisher | 1986–1991 |
| Elbert Eugene Peck | Editor | 1986–2001 |
| Linda Jean Stephenson | Publisher | 1991–1992 |
| William Stanford | Publisher | 2000–present |
| Dan Wotherspoon | Editor | 2001–2008 |
| Stephen R. Carter[8] | Director of Publications and Editor | 2008–present |
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