070-071: Patrick Mason — The Messiness of Mormon History, War and Peace, Mitt Romney, Cafeteria Mormonism…and More!

Patrick Mason currently holds the Howard W. Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University in California. He is the author of one book (The Mormon Menace) and co-editor of one other (War and Peace in Our Time), with more in the works. He is a recognized expert on the intersection of religion and politics, as well as a scholar of religion as it relates to issues of war and peace.

In this two-part series, I sit down with Patrick to talk about a myriad of fascinating topics:

In Part 1 we talk about:

• His background in Mormon studies
• The messiness of Mormon history
• Elder Russell M. Nelson’s recent conference address and how it relates to his upcoming biography on Ezra Taft Benson

In Part 2 we tackle:

• Mormonism and politics, including Mitt Romney
• Public relations and the church
• Mormon concepts of war and peace (and how we can be better at promoting the latter)
• and finally, I’ll talk to him about his awesome blog post that talks about embracing “cafeteria Mormonism”