Announcement: A Tribute to Grant Palmer, February 15, 2017

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 5.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 February 2017

⏱️ 5 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A bit of sad news, and a bit of happy news. First the sad.

Grant Palmer, author of An Insider’s View of Mormon Origins – certainly one of the most important books in 20th/21st century Mormonism, is dying of cancer. I confirmed this with Grant yesterday – when he related to me that he likely only has weeks/months to live. This information moves many of us deeply, since Grant’s courageous scholarship over the years (which has come at a great personal cost to him) has been instrumental in helping tens of thousands of Mormons understand their church history more accurately. I dare say that projects like Mormon Stories Podcast, Mormon Think, Letter to a CES Director, and even the recent LDS Church Gospel Topics Essays would not exist without the courage and scholarship of Grant Palmer.

Now for the happy news. Mormon Stories Podcast and the Open Stories Foundation, along with a few supporters, will be holding a private event in Grant Palmer’s honor on the evening of February 15, 2017* in Utah – with the plan of live-streaming the event to all who are interested in showing support for Grant. The event will include:

An interview with Grant, wherein he will discuss his most recent book, along with reflections on his life.
A chance for some of those who are grateful for Grant’s work to express appreciation for him.

If you are interested in participating in this tribute/celebration, there are a few things you can do to participate:

Record a brief Facebook or Youtube video expressing your gratitude to Grant (and his positive impact on your life), and post the link as a comment here.
Write a text-based tribute to Grant in the comments section here.
Send an email to [email protected] with “Grant Pamer” in the subject line, wherein you express to Grant your gratitude for the positive impact that his work has had on your life.

Feel free to use the hash tag #grantpalmer for any of the tributes you share on social media. Finally, these emails, blog comments, and videos will be gathered and shared with Grant at the live-steamed, worldwide event in honor of him.

Thanks for taking the time to honor Grant with us, and we very much look forward to the evening of February 15th* wherein we hope to show Grant how much we love and appreciate him! *Date subject to how Grant is doing/feeling.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi everyone this is John Delan of Mormon Stories Podcasts and the Open Stories
0:04.2	Foundation. I have a bit of sad news and a bit of happy news. First the sad. Many
0:11.0	of you who follow Mormon stories are aware of the man Grant Palmer. He's a
0:16.5	lovely man and he's the author of the book and inside his view of Mormon
0:20.4	origins. In my view this is certainly one of the most important books in 20th
0:25.5	and 21st century Mormonism because I believe that this book more than
0:32.2	perhaps many others has been highly instrumental in tens of thousands of
0:36.6	Mormons coming to understand their church better and their church history. Grant
0:41.3	published this book at a heavy cost to him and to his life and he was the
0:46.6	ultimately disfellowshipped and threatened with excommunication for writing it.
0:51.2	I believe that works like Mormon Think Mormon Stories Podcasts, Letter to
0:56.6	CES Director and even the LDS Church's Gospel Topic essays would not
1:01.4	exist if it weren't for Grant's work and there are others of course who are
1:05.3	important to that. So the bad news is that Grant Palmer is dying of cancer and
1:12.7	he only has a few weeks or months to live and I've known about this for a
1:18.9	while but I spoke with Grant yesterday and he was very very reluctant but
1:24.4	ultimately he was willing to allow us to hold an event in his honor to honor
1:29.5	him in his last weeks or months of life so it's a sensitive issue but we're
1:36.2	tackling it head-on because we love this man and we honor him and we think he
1:40.5	deserves respect and honoring and I know he's been important to many of you. So
1:45.6	here's the happy news. Mormon Stories Podcasts and the open stories foundation
1:49.4	along with some of our closest friends and supporters will be holding a
	...

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