In the 1960s–1970s, independent
Mormon studies associations and publications were emerging, including the Mormon History Association and
Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. The
Journal of Mormon History and
Exponent II were both launched in 1974, and in that same year two graduate students at divinity schools, Scott Kenney and Keith Norman, hatched plans to create a scholarly journal for Mormon students. Gathering student volunteers but lacking funding, the team produced and sold a Mormon history calendar in Utah and California. They were encouraged by the
Dialogue staff, including editor Robert Rees, who suggested the name "Sunstone", an architectural symbol from the
Mormon temple in Nauvoo. After struggles and delays, the first issue was printed in November 1975. The publication faced early challenges. The time and effort to produce each issue was demanding on the volunteer staff, and the first several issues had a different editor for each issue, under the leadership of Kenney and
Peggy Fletcher. For
Orson Scott Card's ghost-edited issue in Summer 1977, Card had convinced the board to change to a cheaper and more accessible magazine format. Facing financial troubles later that year, Sunstone merged with the
New Messenger and Advocate, a new LDS news magazine with plenty of advertising, which further influenced the Sunstone format. In 1978 Kenney returned to edit three more issues before retiring from the venture, and passing the editorship to Fletcher and
Allen D. Roberts who would also go on to start its symposia. The magazine kept its approach for a popular audience while emphasizing intellectual issues, but it eventually dropped its student emphasis.
Symposia 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 regularly held 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. These events included a 1989 address given by
Dallin H. Oaks, an
apostle of the LDS Church, warning of "Alternate Voices" 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. 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. The Smith-Pettit Foundation sponsors an annual lecture in conjunction with
Sunstone magazine. ==Publication==