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Mormon Land explores the contours and complexities of LDS news. It’s hosted by award-winning religion writer Peggy Fletcher Stack and Salt Lake Tribune managing editor David Noyce.
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If there is a constant in the history of Latter-day Saint temple worship, it is change. Language used, covenants made, clothing worn and meaning ascribed to all of it — each has evolved since the early 1830s, when Joseph Smith introduced the idea of sacred rituals beyond baptism and confirmation.
In his newly published book, “Holiness to the Lord: Latter-day Saint Temple Worship,” historian Jonathan Stapley explores those changes in greater detail than any other work to date.
Those changes have not only practical but also theological implications, he argues, for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the past and the present.
Of the major Western religious traditions in the United States, only The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints retains the service-until-death policy for its top leader.
Last week, Dallin H. Oaks, at age 93, became the 18th prophet-president of the faith, succeeding Russell M. Nelson, who died Sept. 27 at 101. Unlike a leader in any other American-based faith, Oaks will be expected to serve until the end of his life — as Nelson and 16 others did before him.
Oaks’ first counselor in the governing First Presidency, Henry B. Eyring, is 92. D. Todd Christofferson, his second counselor, is 80, one of four apostles in their 80s. Does this collective “gerontocracy” give rise to a stagnant, intractable, out-of-touch leadership? Would switching to a system that brings younger blood into the leadership invigorate the global faith of 17.5 million?
Historian Gregory Prince, who studied and written about these issues, discusses these, frankly, age-old questions — including how leadership succession has evolved throughout Latter-day Saint history, the advantages and disadvantages or having aging church leaders, and the prospect of apostles and First Presidency members someday being granted emeritus status rather than serving until they die.
It’s fitting this week to revisit our 2021 “Mormon Land” podcast with the biographer of President Dallin H. Oaks, the newly installed leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In this episode, historian Richard Turley discusses his book “In the Hands of the Lord: The Life of Dallin H. Oaks," which documents the personal journey of a church leader known for his devotion to religious liberty, his doctrinal dissections and his pointed preachings from the pulpit.
Oaks’ father died when he was 7 years old. Reared by his mother and his maternal grandparents, he committed himself to hard work and diligent scholarship.
He became a star student, earned a degree at one of the nation’s most prestigious law schools and launched a legal career that would see him rise to the Utah Supreme Court with whispers that he someday could land a seat on the country’s highest court.
Then, virtually overnight, Oaks changed his life’s trajectory, trading his career in the law for a commitment to his Lord. He accepted a call to be a Latter-day Saint apostle, a lifetime appointment in which he now serves as the faith’s prophet-president.
Enjoy this episode and learn about life of the church’s 18th president.
The 195th Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints looked much like any other in recent years.
There were talks by apostles and general authority Seventies, along with three women, punctuated by music by The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square and other Utah choirs.
But it might be remembered mostly for what didn’t happen.
It was presided over by the Dallin Oaks-led Quorum of the Twelve Apostles rather than by a church president and a reconstituted First Presidency.
That’s because President Russell M. Nelson died just a week before the two-day meetings and, by tradition, the three-man presidency is not reorganized until after the previous president’s funeral.
On top of that Oaks broke with conference tradition and announced no new temples. Nelson’s presumed successor said that Nelson “loved to announce new temples at the conclusion of each General Conference, and we all rejoiced with him.” Not this time, Oaks said. Due to the “large number of temples now in the very earliest phases of planning and construction, it is appropriate that we slow down the announcement of new temples.”
On this week’s show, Emily Jensen, web editor for Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, and Patrick Mason, chair of Mormon history and culture at Utah State University, discuss what did — and didn’t — happen at the just-completed meeting, plus which speakers were standouts, and what an Oaks’ presidency might look like.
As accolades and adoration continue to pour in after the death of President Russell M. Nelson, it could be time to assess the historical perspective and place of the oldest prophet-president in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
What will be his legacy? How did his leadership and innovations impact the global faith?
Then there’s the question of how his presumed successor, Dallin H. Oaks, will be “chosen,” how he might lead, how he will navigate the contemporary political landscape and how that relates to other religious groups.
In this week’s show, Latter-day Saint historian Benjamin Park, author of “American Zion: A New History of Mormonism," explores those questions and more.
Passion. Intimacy. Eroticism. Arousal. Sex.
These terms are as much a part of God’s plan in the theology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as agency, repentance and baptism. Yet they are rarely discussed or even mentioned — save for in hushed, almost apologetic, tones — among members.
Such hesitancy is not found in Latter-day Saint therapist Jennifer Finlayson-Fife’s new book, “That We Might Have Joy: Desire, Divinity & Intimate Love.” In it, she writes, for instance, that “the best sex is never hard work. Good sex is easy” and “the turn-on for most women is being the turn-on” and, finally, “our bodies and sensual natures are not obstacles to holiness, but essential components of it.”
By setting aside cultural taboos, Finlayson-Fife shows that the bedroom is a bedrock not just in marriage but also in Mormonism.
On this week’s podcast, she sheds light on how “soulful sex” can bring couples closer to each other and closer to God.
On the September crossover episode between ‘Mormon Land’ and ‘Mormons in Media, ’ Rebbie and Nicole are both newcomers to 'Dancing With The Stars.' Who knew the show, and dance in general, had so many ties to Utah? Rebbie gives an update on those sleeveless garments and Heather Gay from Real Housewives of Salt Lake City spills the beans on the underground distribution of those garments.
In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issuing two news releases condemning violence and calling for greater kindness and love, we are reprising this 2023 “Mormon Land” podcast.
Recorded a few days after church President Russell M. Nelson delivered his widely praised General Conference address on peacemaking, it is as timely now — if not more so — than when it originally aired.
Latter-day Saint scholars Patrick Mason and David Pulsipher, authors of “Proclaim Peace: The Restoration’s Answer to an Age of Conflict,” explain how “peace is possible” and explore how the Mormon message — along with writings from other faiths and other thinkers — can bring help, healing and harmony to the world, nations, communities, homes and individual hearts.
They also discuss Nelson’s speech, those of other church leaders, and how true Christian discipleship can end political polarization and cultural conflicts, and convey peace to one soul and all souls.
When Russell M. Nelson, already the oldest-ever president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, turned 100 last year, the Utah-based faith celebrated him with a televised birthday party.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox declared Sept. 9, 2024, as Russell M. Nelson Day. Throngs of young single adults signed a giant birthday card. And members everywhere reflected on the centenarian’s accomplishments and leadership.
By comparison, his 101st birthday on Tuesday was a quieter affair as Nelson gathered with close family and friends. Still, just before the calendar marked the day, Nelson published a major essay in Time magazine, extolling the importance of peacemaking in a divided world.
On this week’s show, Latter-day Saint historian Kathleen Flake, emeritus Bushman professor of Mormon studies at the University of Virginia, discusses his life, leadership and legacy.
A new nine-part video series about Mormonism, titled “An Inconvenient Faith,” was recently uploaded to YouTube.
It tackles the thorniest issues — LGBTQ relations, feminism, church history, race, polygamy, Book of Mormon historicity and divine revelation — currently faced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The ultimate approach seems to be to defend the church and help explain how members can wrestle honestly with these topics rather than deny their existence.
The effort was funded, directed and produced by Latter-day Saint businessman Robert Reynolds, with Jim Bennett, as co-producer.
On this week’s show, Bennett, the son of the late Utah Sen. Bob Bennett and a Latter-day Saint blogger and writer, discusses the project.
Is the following playing out more and more among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?
• The bishop asks Brother So-and-So to give a talk next week on being kind to strangers.
“No problem,” the member thinks. “I’ll just make a couple of queries in ChatGPT and, voila, instant sacrament sermon.”
• Or the Sunday school president calls on Sister Such-and-Such to pinch-hit in Gospel Doctrine.
“Sure,” the fill-in teacher replies. “I can do that.” Artificial intelligence, again, to the rescue.
Is A.I., then, a godsend or a devilish crutch?
The church, which has developed A.I. guidelines, points out that it uses this rapidly advancing technological tool in its global work.
But apostle Gerrit Gong matter-of-factly warned recently that A.I. can remove heavenly inspiration and should not be used to prepare talks, lessons, prayers or blessings.
On this week’s show, popular By Common Consent blogger Taylor Kerby discusses artificial intelligence — and the implications of the wise or not-so-wise use of it in the church.
The mission statement of Brigham Young University, the flagship school of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, says nothing about pursuing spots in the College Football Playoff or the Final Four.
It does say that BYU graduates “should be capable of competing with the best in their fields.”
So, in this era of “name, image and likeness,” with athletic budgets soaring into the mega-millions, does that mean the Cougars are correct to play this spending game in order to compete with the best on the field, in the gym, on the court and on the diamond?
Some boosters “rise and shout” an emphatic yes. Others worry that the school risks putting, in essence, football before faith, and veering from its principal purpose: following in the footsteps of Jesus.
On this week’s show, Salt Lake Tribune reporter Kevin Reynolds, who covers BYU athletics and wrote a cover story recently on the topic, discusses this balancing act.
For many early Utah pioneers, James Brown Jr. was a hero of sorts. He led a Mormon Battalion company into the Salt Lake Valley just days after Brigham Young. He and his family settled Ogden, which became known for a time as Brownsville, and he served as a Latter-day Saint bishop.
As a prominent leader, he married 13 women — all sealed to him in temple rites — and fathered 28 children.
What most church members didn’t know was that James Jr. had Black grandparents — and that carries significance, given that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had a policy barring Black members from holding the priesthood or entering temples from 1852 to 1978.
On this week’s show, Brigham Young University history professor Jenny Hale Pulsipher, a descendant of Brown, discovered his racial ancestry, and W. Paul Reeve, who is head of Mormon studies at the University of Utah and has done the most scholarly research on African Americans in the church, discuss this finding and how it helps modern believers understand the messiness of the past and the “impossibility of policing racial boundaries” through profiling.
Gordon B. Hinckley, then president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, stepped up to the microphone in General Conference in the fall of 2000 and solemnly denounced tattoos as “graffiti on the temple of the body.”
The following year, the faith’s “For the Strength of Youth” pamphlet pointedly counseled young people not to “disfigure” themselves with tattoos.
With those words, body art — no matter how innocent, innocuous or ingrained in one’s cultural heritage — joined a list of forbidden fruits for faithful Latter-day Saints.
A quarter century later, though, that prophetic prohibition has been silenced, or at least softened, and the explicit condemnation of tattoos removed from the latest youth guidelines.
Is the tattoo taboo, unlike that indelible ink, fading in mainstream Mormonism? Is such artwork no longer a mark of rebellion but rather, with the emerging embrace of Latter-day Saint symbols in some tattoos, now a symbol of that very faith?
On this week’s show, Ethan Gregory Dodge, co-founder of the former MormonLeaks website, a devotee of body art, editor of Tattootime magazine and an occasional Salt Lake Tribune contributor, explore this evolution, if not revolution. He also discussed the topic at a recent Sunstone Symposium.
On the fourth crossover episode between ‘Mormon Land’ and ‘Mormons in Media, ’ Rebbie and Nicole dissect the latest dating show to come out of Provo — The Altar. Rebbie fills Nicole in on the history of the show and Nicole can't seem to figure out why these 21-year-olds are so worried about marriage. Turns out, it's a lot deeper than she thinks. Plus, what IS a "basic Utah girl?" Let's discuss.
To Christians everywhere, the story of refugees is a part of Scripture. It is sacred. Adam and Eve, Moses and the Israelites, the Book of Mormon’s Lehi and his family, even Mary, Joseph and the child Jesus.
The history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints includes an epic journey of migrants fleeing persecution to find a promised land.
Latter-day Saints, then, have a natural affinity for immigrants. On top of that, modern Mormonism attracts converts seeking a better life.
Uprooted from their homes, many immigrants find a safe haven in the religious and congregational life of Latter-day Saints.
What should the church and its members think and do about current U.S. efforts to round up and deport immigrants who lack current legal status and even, in many cases, those here legally?
On this week’s show, Charles Kuck, a Latter-day Saint immigration attorney in Atlanta who has served as a bishop of a Spanish-language congregation, discusses the church and immigration.
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have a standard crossing-the-Plains narrative: Pioneers traversed the Mississippi River on the ice led by Brigham Young. Everything was well organized, and everyone was well behaved. They trekked hard by day and prayed together at night. They sang “Come, Come, Ye Saints” around the campfire and then delighted in dancing to the tunes of fiddles.
Sure, there was hardship, so the story goes, but all the suffering was mostly ennobling. The names varied but the stories for these religious migrants were pretty much interchangeable.
For Latter-day Saint historian Ardis Parshall, however, the pioneer saga is so much wider, richer and, at times, even more entertaining when members search for and honor experiences that differ from the oft-repeated accounts.
Parshall, who revels in being a historical sleuth, seeks out the little-known and unexpected episodes in the faith’s past.
In advance of Utah’s Pioneer Day on Thursday, July 24, she shares some of the gems she has discovered about the Latter-day Saints’ epic 19th-century pilgrimage.
The latest word from the IRS is that, contrary to popular belief, churches and other houses of worship can endorse political candidates from the pulpit without threatening their tax-exempt status.
When asked to comment on the tax agency’s stance, a spokesperson for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints pointed, perhaps tellingly, to the faith’s official policy of political neutrality, which states matter-of-factly that that the church “does not endorse, promote or oppose political parties and their platforms or candidates for political office.”
But could that change someday? Might the time come when President So-and-So, sporting a red tie, or apostle Such-and-Such, donning a blue one, gets up in General Conference and urges members to vote for a Republican presidential candidate or a Democrat seeking the White House? Is the IRS’ position really revolutionary? Could it dramatically alter the delicate balance between church and state? Will most clergy even want to wade into partisan politics from pulpit?
On this week’s podcast, Sam Brunson, a Latter-day Saint tax law professor at Loyola University Chicago and author of the recently released “Between the Temple and the Tax Collector: The Intersection of Mormonism and the State," discusses those questions and more.
This nonpartisan Latter-day Saint group has called out President Donald Trump for continuing to spread the false narrative that the 2020 election was rigged and for targeting those who have reported the truth about his electoral defeat that year.
It has denounced the present federal administration’s quest for greater power and Congress’ unwillingness to act as a constitutional check against such executive overreach.
It has opposed Trump’s push for mass deportations. It has pleaded with Utah Sen. Mike Lee, a fellow member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to cease his online bullying. It has encouraged reasonable reforms to reduce gun violence.
It has even sued the Utah Legislature, accusing lawmakers of gerrymandering and undermining the will of voters in approving new congressional districts for the Beehive State.
Given all that activity, to say that Mormon Women for Ethical Government has been quietly sitting on the sidelines would miss the mark.
So what does this grassroots group, with thousands of Latter-day Saint followers and with the stated goal of “building a more peaceful, just and ethical world,” hope to accomplish during this time of U.S. political upheaval?
On this week’s show, Laura Lewis Eyi, the organization’s public relations manager, addresses that question and more.
On the third crossover episode between ‘Mormon Land’ and ‘Mormons in Media, ’ Rebbie and Nicole are joined by Meg Walter, host of the ‘Hive Mind’ podcast. After watching the ‘Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ reunion, the three talk about the heaviness of it. Nicole asks the question: If faith is so important to these women, why stay in the LDS Church where they don’t follow the rules versus choosing a different denomination? We also talk about the “Mormon Hacks” Nick Viall brought up.
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I've never liked to analogy of Joseph's different accounts compared to Paul and the Road to Damascus. There are considerable differences. Mainly 1st person accounts vs Distant 3rd person recounts. One, Paul's story on the Road to Damascus and the different accounts shared, are accounts written many decades after the event and after the life of Paul. They do not appear to be first-hand accounts. Scholars seem to agree that Luke (or whomever is actually the author) would not have known Paul. And the written recountings that differ could be gathered from multiple 3rd party retellings or could vary due to other factors. But still, from 3rd party source(s). The other is multiple accounts of the same event given by one person who claims to have experienced said event, further elaborated upon and perhaps embellished on future tellings. Studies consistently show that recounting of one's own memories tend to be less accurate and more embellished as time passes, which could be due to one-upmansh