Mormon Land
338 episodes - English - Latest episode: 12 days ago - ★★★★ - 276 ratingsMormon 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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Episodes
A conversation about General Conference | Episode 333
April 10, 2024 21:25 - 47 minutes - 43.2 MBThe recently completed 194th Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints may merit no more than a mere mention in the history books of Mormonism. There were no theological breakthroughs, no major policy changes, no sweeping shake-ups among the top echelons. But the sessions did feature significant speeches, memorable moments and notable nuances. A British church leader delivered his debut conference sermon as an apostle. A longtime apostle returned to the con...
Who should decide when, where and how often Latter-day Saints wear temple garments? | Episode 332
April 03, 2024 21:31 - 45 minutes - 41.6 MBLatter-day Saint leaders seem to be concerned about what they believe is the causal, even “cavalier” wearing of religious underclothing by devout members. Indeed, in a recent speech, a general authority Seventy reportedly condemned women who wear temple garments only on Sunday and to the temple and the rest of the week can be seen in “yoga pants.” He warned that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was planning to issue stricter rules about the wearing of garments. The standard i...
What LDS women want — in the wake of a controversial ‘priesthood power’ speech | Episode 331
March 27, 2024 12:00 - 34 minutes - 31.7 MBA decade after the Ordain Women movement within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints made national news, another feminist issue is getting lots of media attention. During a March 17 meeting to celebrate the creation of the church’s Relief Society, J. Anette Dennis, first counselor in the faith’s global women’s organization, declared that “there is no other religious organization in the world that I know of that has so broadly given power and authority to women.” Dennis went on to...
Preserving the Kirtland and Manti temples — through the eyes of LDS historians | Episode 330
March 20, 2024 16:49 - 32 minutes - 29.5 MBIn the past, historians and preservationists were not always pleased with how The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints treated its treasured buildings. Bulldozing Utah’s Coalville Tabernacle and gutting the Logan Temple led to cries of anguish from insiders and outsiders alike. These days, though, the same groups are lauding the painstaking and resplendent renovation of the faith’s pioneer-era Manti Temple, which is now open to public tours. And they are reassured by the Salt Lake Cit...
A look at the Kirtland Temple’s past and its future under a new owner | Episode 329
March 14, 2024 18:56 - 25 minutes - 23.2 MBThe recent acquisition by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of Mormonism’s first temple — in Kirtland, Ohio — along with historic buildings in Nauvoo, Ill., similarly tied to founder Joseph Smith and his band of believers thrilled the global faith’s members. For followers of the Community of Christ, formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the longtime diligent, devoted caretakers of these properties, the sale, which that faith’s top lea...
The Huntsman case, ‘copycat’ tithing lawsuits and expanding LDS Church wealth | Episode 328
March 07, 2024 19:11 - 27 minutes - 25.5 MBMoney talks. It makes headlines, too. Just ask The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Utah-based faith’s finances have become a source of discussion, debate and, yes, dissent among insiders and outsiders. In recent weeks, the church’s chief investment arm, Ensign Peak Advisors, has seen its publicly reported stock portfolio shoot past $50 billion, helping to propel the global faith’s total wealth to an estimated $265 billion. Days ago, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ha...
BYU’s racial history | Episode 327
February 28, 2024 13:00 - 25 minutes - 23.3 MBEven in the 19th century, Brigham Young Academy (later Brigham Young University) welcomed students of both sexes, all nationalities, religions, races and colors. Nearly from the start, it included women, which made it distinctive among other American higher-education institutions. And the school — owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — had a small but consistent nonwhite student population. That included the school’s first Black graduate, Norman Wilson (not ...
The life and legacy of historian D. Michael Quinn | Episode 326
February 21, 2024 13:00 - 39 minutes - 36.4 MBWhat most Latter-day Saint historians and other scholars know about D. Michael Quinn is that he was, by all accounts, a remarkable researcher who could assemble disparate dots into a colorful mosaic. They may know that he was excommunicated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as part of the “September Six” for his discussion of post-Manifesto polygamy and other controversial topics or that he was an expert in the faith’s financial dealings and hierarchy. But now, nearly thre...
Finding love in today’s Latter-day Saint dating scene | Episode 325
February 14, 2024 20:06 - 25 minutes - 23.5 MBAh, Valentine’s Day, a holiday full of hearts and hopes, cards and candy, roses and romance. It’s a time couples seek their favorite table at their favorite restaurant and view their favorite rom-com from their favorite couch. What does it mean, though, for young members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? Are they on the lookout for more than gestures — indeed, eternal marriage — or do they just want to have a good time? On this week’s show, two young single adult Latter-da...
How Latter-day Saints can add other Christian traditions to Easter | Episode 324
February 07, 2024 21:31 - 33 minutes - 31.1 MBEaster is the most significant holiday on the Christian calendar, celebrated in solemnity and song, pageantry and prayer, rituals and rejoicing, “hosannas and hallelujahs.” While members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe deeply in Christ’s resurrection, they have not participated as a church with the rest of Christendom in immersive traditions like waving palms on Palm Sunday, washing feet on Maundy Thursday or carrying a large cross for Good Friday. So, many Latter-...
Abuse and forgiveness — How gender imbalances sometimes protect LDS predators | Episode 323
January 31, 2024 22:23 - 41 minutes - 37.7 MBChelsea Goodrich was a returned missionary pursuing a graduate degree in California when she came forward with allegations that her father, John Goodrich, had molested her throughout her childhood. (In a statement to The Salt Lake Tribune, John Goodrich has denied the accusations of sexual assault.) The alleged abuse, the subject of a recent Associated Press investigation, is not the reason, however, that Chelsea, now a 38-year-old licensed counselor, no longer identifies as a member of The...
Why can’t Latter-day Saint girls pass the sacrament? | Episode 322
January 24, 2024 13:00 - 26 minutes - 24.2 MBEvery year, a new crop of young Latter-day Saints turning 12 by December will graduate from Primary, the faith’s program for children. The boys will get a new title — “deacon” — and start passing the bread and water of the sacrament (known as Communion in other Christian faiths and mostly distributed by priests and pastors), while the girls will start attending the Young Women’s program and get no new identity. Why is there such a gender difference around the sacrament in The Church of Jesus...
Benjamin Park on a fresh take of 200 years of Mormon history | Episode 321
January 17, 2024 19:39 - 29 minutes - 27 MBScholar Benjamin Park’s new book, “American Zion: A New History of Mormonism,” tells the sweeping saga of the rise, rifts and resilience of the nation’s most successful homegrown religion. “The Mormon story,” he writes, “is the American story.” Under the guidance of founder Joseph Smith, this new movement was cradled in upstate New York and nurtured in the heartland. But mounting persecutions and prosecutions left leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints feeling so abandon...
Why believers and critics miss the complexities of the Book of Mormon | Episode 320
January 10, 2024 21:10 - 25 minutes - 23.6 MBGrant Hardy is among the preeminent scholars of the Book of Mormon. The North Carolina history professor has produced two volumes on Mormonism’s sacred text: a study edition from Brigham Young University’s Maxwell Institute, and a reader’s edition from the University of Illinois Press — and now, from Oxford University Press, a third, The Annotated Book of Mormon. His latest effort is hailed as “the world’s first fully annotated, academic edition of the Book of Mormon.” Indeed, its 900 pages...
A look at LDS Church growth and what the membership stats really reveal | Episode 319
January 03, 2024 13:00 - 33 minutes - 31 MBAt every spring General Conference, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints offers a glimpse of its growth by reporting worldwide membership statistics, including the number of converts and children added to the faith’s rolls the previous year. A more reliable barometer for tracking church expansion, however, can be found in the congregations created (or subtracted). So when the governing First Presidency recently announced new requirements for establishing wards and stakes, or clust...
The LDS army that made its mark in history without firing a shot against a foe | Episode 318
December 27, 2023 13:00 - 41 minutes - 38.2 MBThis is a war story unlike any other. It’s about a fighting force of nearly 500 men who were drafted, in a very real sense, not by the president of their nation but by the prophet of their faith. Though they were prepared to die for a country they were fleeing, they labored to live for the families they were supporting. Though they were armed and marched through hundreds of miles of hostile territory, they never fired a single shot against their enemy. Though they never tasted death from co...
Remembering a Latter-day Saint humanitarian who truly lived his religion | Episode 317
December 20, 2023 19:42 - 41 minutes - 38.4 MBLowell Bennion was among Mormonism’s greatest humanitarians, while also being one of its most prominent thinkers and teachers. Indeed, he was among the few non-general authorities or officers ever to speak in General Conferences of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As the first director of the church’s Institute of Religion at the University of Utah, Bennion spoke powerfully and courageously against the church’s former priesthood/temple ban on Black members — which may have co...
What to expect from Patrick Kearon, not your typical LDS apostle | Episode 316
December 13, 2023 19:25 - 29 minutes - 26.9 MBNewly named Latter-day Saint apostle Patrick Kearon brings an unusual biography to second highest leadership council of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A British convert, he joined the faith at age 26. Kearon has lived and worked in the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and the United States. He does not have a university degree, but, having been trained in communication, his speeches are earnest, eloquent and evocative. He is the second European in the current Quorum of the Twe...
Booting women’s leaders off the stand was ‘hurtful’ and ‘heartbreaking’ | Episode 315
December 06, 2023 21:25 - 30 minutes - 28.3 MBFor more than a decade, women’s Relief Society leaders were invited to sit on the stand facing the pews during Sunday services among some Latter-day Saint congregations in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was an uncontroversial tradition until October, when an area president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ordered an end to the practice. The move felt arbitrary to many members and was made without consulting any of the women affected, all of whom were devout believers. After...
The woman who runs the church’s most visible publisher and retailer: Deseret Book | Episode 314
November 29, 2023 13:00 - 37 minutes - 34 MBDeseret Book has been the church-owned commercial publisher for more than a century, producing landmark theological volumes such as James E. Talmage’s “Jesus the Christ” and LeGrand Richards’ “A Marvelous Work and a Wonder.” It is a sought-after brand for Latter-day Saint leaders, scholars and writers, and remains the go-to retail outlet for rank-and-file members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Through the decades, the focus of D.B., as it has come to be known, has expan...
Apostle vacancy spurs questions about men who run the church — for life | Episode 313
November 21, 2023 13:00 - 31 minutes - 28.4 MBWith senior apostle M. Russell Ballard’s death, church President Russell Nelson’s back injury and apostle Jeffrey Holland’s recent illnesses, the focus has fallen once again on the top men who lead the 17 million-member Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Years, even decades, of policy, practice and precedent have established how the hierarchy is ordered — a governing First Presidency, usually made up of the faith’s president and two counselors, at the pinnacle, followed by the Quor...
Steve Young lays out a new game plan for life: the law of love | Episode 312
November 15, 2023 13:00 - 51 minutes - 46.7 MBHall of Fame quarterback Steve Young, the former BYU star who earned multiple MVP awards and Super Bowl rings with the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers, ranks among the most famous members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Recently, though, Young has turned from tactics for victory on the football field to strategies for winning at life — namely by living his religion, following Christ, helping to heal others, and, ultimately, loving all people, no matter whether they are in their...
We aren’t perfect. Life isn’t perfect. The church isn’t perfect. Why that’s OK. | Episode 311
November 08, 2023 13:00 - 33 minutes - 30.6 MBNo one likes pain or poverty, bigotry or war, frustration or failure, disease or doubt, joblessness or homelessness or loneliness. That includes this week’s “Mormon Land” guest, Melissa Inouye. The Latter-day Saint scholar has endured more than her share of heartache. She inexplicably lost her hair at a young age and then, at 37, the marathon-running mother of four, was diagnosed with colon cancer, an affliction she has been suffering from and through ever since. But as Inouye reminds herse...
Can Latter-day Saints become as good at peacemaking as they are at proselytizing? | Episode 310
November 01, 2023 12:00 - 40 minutes - 37.4 MBAmid today’s polarized political scene, many Americans throw up their hands and say, like Patrick Henry, “‘peace, peace,’ but there is no peace. The war is actually begun.” To some, the partisan divide seems deeper than ever — with no way to bridge it. Even religions sometimes seem to battle with other faiths, as well as those within a faith. Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith America and author of “We Need to Build: Field Notes for Diverse Democracy,” has done a lot of thinkin...
McKay Coppins on Mitt Romney — his faith, his politics and his legacy | Episode 309
October 24, 2023 12:00 - 37 minutes - 34.5 MBLots of national politicians are keen to learn how Mitt Romney may skewer them in McKay Coppins’ newly released biography, “Romney: A Reckoning.” Coppins, a Brigham Young University alum who writes for The Atlantic, had access to the journals and emails, as well as candid interviews with the Republican Utah senator, who made history as the first Latter-day Saint to top a major party’s presidential ticket and first senator to vote to remove a president of his own party. But because Romney an...
A Palestinian Latter-day Saint's view on the Israel-Hamas war | Episode 308
October 18, 2023 21:26 - 28 minutes - 25.8 MBAs the war in Israel and Gaza rages on with civilians caught in the violent crossfire, those watching from across the globe are asking what it must be like to live in such a conflict-ridden space. What does it mean to face possible violence every day? Sahar Qumsiyeh can offer a firsthand description of how routine activities were affected by such a fraught environment. Qumsiyeh is a Palestinian born in Jerusalem and raised Orthodox Christian outside of Bethlehem. She converted to The Church...
The rise and fall of Brigham Young’s wine mission | Episode 307
October 11, 2023 12:00 - 22 minutes - 20.5 MBFor today’s faithful, believing, temple-recommend-carrying members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sipping a Chardonnay with their salmon entree would be unthinkable, off the table, a no-no. They know that the faith’s Word of Wisdom health code strictly forbids consumption of alcohol. But there was time in the church’s history when teetotaling wasn’t the order of the day. In fact, there was a time when Latter-day Saints not only drank wine but also produced it, sold it a...
Only 3 women spoke at General Conference — what they said and why it matters | Episode 306
October 04, 2023 18:08 - 39 minutes - 36.4 MBThis past weekend, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints held its biannual General Conference in Salt Lake City. In five sessions, held Saturday and Sunday, Latter-day Saints around the world heard sermons, instructions and announcements from their top leaders. Of the dozens to take the pulpit, just three were women: President Emily Belle Freeman, head of the global Young Women organization; her first counselor, Tamara Runia; and Amy Wright, first counselor in the children’s Primary...
Tim Ballard uproar reveals divisions between LDS Church and its far-right members | Episode 305
September 27, 2023 19:16 - 36 minutes - 33.5 MBWhen a spokesperson for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints offered a stinging rebuke of Tim Ballard, a fellow member and the charismatic founder of Operation Underground Railroad, an anti-human-trafficking organization, his defenders went ballistic. They were especially incensed when the statement said M. Russell Ballard, acting president of the faith’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, disavowed Tim Ballard, who is no relation, and condemned the activist for using the senior apost...
Live with eminent scholars Richard and Claudia Bushman | Episode 304
September 20, 2023 12:00 - 52 minutes - 47.6 MBIn his new book, “Joseph Smith’s Gold Plates: A Cultural History,” historian Richard Bushman calls the Book of Mormon, the signature scripture of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a “book about the importance of books.” One could also say that this book, which church founder Joseph Smith said he translated, sprang from plates that were about the importance of plates. In this special live episode, celebrating the more than 300 “Mormon Land” shows, we talk about the “important”...
‘September Six’ ousters were in the past, but the tug of war isn’t over | Episode 303
September 13, 2023 12:00 - 31 minutes - 28.8 MBTickets for Mormon Land Live can be found here: givebutter.com/Vl1q3T In September 1993, six Latter-day Saint scholars and activists were disciplined for their critical writings about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was an extraordinary confluence of events, one that has echoed down through the decades. The censures had a chilling effect on a generation of would-be Latter-day Saint scholars but within 10 years or so the church felt the impact of the internet, with its wi...
‘E.T.’ meets Joseph Smith? A new book shows the intersection between religion and UFOs | Episode 302
September 06, 2023 12:00 - 29 minutes - 27.4 MBTickets for Mormon Land Live can be found here: https://givebutter.com/Vl1q3T Kolob, the star “nearest” to where God dwells. “Worlds without number.” And “worlds [plural] are and were created.” Yes, these Latter-day Saint scriptures seem to affirm that, in Mormonism, we are not alone in the universe. Given that theology, it appears there is space, so to speak, for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to believe or have an interest in alien beings, intergalactic travele...
LDS singles sing, dance and rock out. Will such connections keep them in the church? | Episode 301
August 30, 2023 12:00 - 24 minutes - 22.1 MBTickets for Mormon Land Live can be found here: https://givebutter.com/Vl1q3T Nearly 20,000 young single adult members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sang, danced, played, prayed, served, ran and worshipped over three weekends in August for a Utah YSA Conference. Events, all under the theme “Together in Christ,” included a concert at Salt Lake City’s Delta Center, a dance at a Sandy convention hall, a 5K run at the new Saratoga Springs Temple, devotionals, games and othe...
All about the tithing lawsuit facing the church | Episode 300
August 23, 2023 19:03 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBA multimillion-dollar fraud lawsuit against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints appeared dead and buried nearly two years ago after a federal judge threw out the case. But a divided appeals court revived part of James Huntsman’s suit this month, flatly stating that “a reasonable juror” could conclude that the faith’s top leaders, including then-President Gordon B. Hinckley, misrepresented how they spent $1.4 billion in church funds to build the for-profit City Creek Center mall i...
Fighting hunger among Latter-day Saints in developing nations. Can the church do it? | Ep. 299
August 16, 2023 22:46 - 34 minutes - 47.2 MBLast week, officials with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced a combined donation of $44 million to a number of nonprofit organizations dealing with global hunger. “No humanitarian effort is more foundational to Christ’s church than feeding the hungry,” Relief Society President Camille Johnson, head of the faith’s global women’s organization, said in a news release. “We are grateful to have the means to collaborate with wonderful organizations and provide relief to chil...
Is ‘Barbie’ an allegory of Mother Eve in LDS theology? | Episode 298
August 09, 2023 22:04 - 32 minutes - 30.1 MBOn the face of it, the blockbuster “Barbie” film seems like a light romp through gender-swapping universes — the first where women rule (Astronaut Barbie, Nobel Prize winner Barbie, President Barbie) in perfect harmony and the second where men dominate. But some, including an author at Christianity Today, see it as a reverse allegory of the Christian Garden of Eden story with Barbieland as the world untouched by human tragedy. The heroine must commit “original sin” to travel to the “real wor...
From temple divorce to a thriving interfaith marriage | Episode 297
August 02, 2023 21:30 - 35 minutes - 32.2 MBCarolyn Homer, a Latter-day Saint attorney in Washington D.C., expected her life to be the epitome of Mormonism’s teachings on marriage and family. She planned for a temple wedding and didn’t expect to work outside the home after children were born. But that marriage failed (“It was just a disaster”) and thrust her into an all new spiritual journey, since “everything that supposed to happen wasn’t happening.” Now married to a Catholic and a relatively new mother, Caroyln and her husband, Bra...
Meet Eli McCann — lawyer, writer and humorist on LDS culture | Episode 296
July 26, 2023 19:53 - 41 minutes - 37.9 MBYou might know Eli McCann as The Salt Lake Tribune’s guest humor columnist and storyteller. But there’s a lot you probably don’t know. Eli, let’s just call him that, is an attorney who discusses religious freedom cases while teaching at the University of Utah’s law school. He served a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ukraine and became a vocal supporter of helping that country after Russia attacked it last year. He’s an LGBTQ advocate and a board member...
Gordon Monson talks tithing, politics, patriotism and his new beat: religion | Episode 295
July 19, 2023 12:00 - 28 minutes - 25.7 MBPaying tithing at a time when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has tens of millions of dollars in surplus assets. Lauding the faith’s explicit neutrality stance in U.S. partisan politics — along with its implicit call for more Democrats in the pews — and then seeing the church’s Utah Area Presidency embrace an effort to celebrate the Constitution by endorsing a group with multiple far-right ties. Add to that senior apostle Dallin Oaks’ plea for young members to stop delaying m...
Should an ‘inspired’ but imperfect Constitution be celebrated? | Episode 294
July 14, 2023 20:15 - 37 minutes - 34.4 MBThe Utah Area Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sent a memo last month to the faith’s lay leaders in the Beehive State, urging their congregations to join a September celebration of the U.S. Constitution. Nothing remarkable about that. Church teachings and culture have long embraced America’s founding and the role its governing document plays. But the missive also endorsed a grassroots group with ties to conservative — some say extremist — causes. This seemed to ...
How British Latter-day Saints swayed their church on background checks | Episode 293
July 05, 2023 21:13 - 52 minutes - 48.3 MBThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints repeatedly has proclaimed that it has zero tolerance for abuse of any kind. That’s all well and good, some British Latter-day Saints reasoned, but not enough. They wanted their faith to do more, to undertake concrete reforms that could help prevent abuse from happening in the first place. So they launched a widespread public and private lobbying effort. They surveyed members. They wrote to their church leaders. They contacted national lawmakers...
Voice and views of LDS historian Kate Holbook live on after death | Episode 292
June 28, 2023 16:50 - 37 minutes - 34.3 MBBarely a month after Kate Holbrook died, her widowed husband, Dr. Samuel Brown, heard her voice. He was walking around New York and listening to the Maxwell Institute’s interview with Holbrook, a professional historian with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. During her five decades of life, Holbrook connected to hundreds of Latter-day Saint women in the present and elevated the lives of scores of women from the past. Now Holbrook’s voice is speaking to a new, even wider audie...
Deconstructing Carthage — Why Joseph was slain and why it was about more than religion | Episode 291
June 21, 2023 17:09 - 25 minutes - 23.5 MBMembers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints learn early on about the murder of their faith’s founder, Joseph Smith. They know that, on June 27, 1844 (179 years ago this month), he and his brother Hyrum were gunned down by a mob at a jail in Carthage, Ill. They know that no one was ever convicted of the killings. And they know that the ugliness that took place outside their “City Beautiful” marked the beginning of the end to the Saints’ stay in nearby Nauvoo. What many insider...
Ben McAdams' high hopes but low expectations for a politically balanced LDS electorate | Episode 290
June 14, 2023 20:01 - 31 minutes - 29 MBFor years, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has proclaimed its neutrality in partisan politics, a position reaffirmed in the faith’s recently updated policy on the matter. But in a strongly worded letter to U.S. members, the governing First Presidency added a new wrinkle, denouncing strict party-line voting. “Merely voting a straight ticket or voting based on ‘tradition’ without careful study of candidates and their positions on important issues,” the top leaders warned, “is ...
How temple garments affect LDS women spiritually, physically, socially | Episode 289
June 07, 2023 21:31 - 36 minutes - 33.6 MBMany faiths feature clothing they consider part of their religious identity or obligation. Muslim women don headscarves. Jewish men wear yarmulkes. Sikh men cover their hair with turbans. Married Hindu couples sport sacred threads. These are all visible symbols of commitment. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have adopted religious clothing known as “temple garments” to remind them of covenants they have made. But they are worn under street clothes — and are meant to...
Why LDS couples should — or shouldn’t — marry ‘younger’ or ‘older’ - Episode 288
May 31, 2023 20:00 - 29 minutes - 26.6 MBYoung Latter-day Saint couples are delaying marriage and having fewer children nowadays, according to recent statistics cited by Dallin H. Oaks, a top leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While acknowledging that the financial climate can be difficult for this generation, Oaks, first counselor in the faith’s governing First Presidency, nonetheless urged a global gathering of 18- to 30-year-old members to fight those trends. “Marriage is central to the purpose of mortal...
LDS growth — where it’s up, down and how many are actually active | Episode 287
May 24, 2023 12:00 - 34 minutes - 31.5 MBWith the COVID-19 pandemic increasingly in the rearview mirror, worldwide membership for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints topped 17 million by the end of 2022, a 1.17% increase from the previous year. But that growth was hardly wall to wall. Some places grew much faster, some much slower, and some saw their rolls shrink. There were encouraging signs. Africa, for instance, led the way — again — boasting eight of the 10 nations with the fastest rates of membership growth. Ther...
Mountain Meadows Massacre — What did Brigham Young know and when did he know it? | Episode 286
May 17, 2023 12:00 - 52 minutes - 47.6 MBThe infamous and inexcusable Mountain Meadows Massacre lives on as the bloodiest stain on the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The 2008 book “Massacre at Mountain Meadows” offered modern readers the most complete look to date at the atrocity, when, on Sept. 11, 1857, Mormon settlers deceived a wagon train of emigrants on their way to California through southern Utah and then slaughtered about a hundred men, women and children. Now comes the eagerly anticipated fol...
The richness of religious diversity and what kids and adults can learn | Episode 285
May 10, 2023 14:15 - 39 minutes - 35.7 MBIn 1998, a Utah publisher released “A World of Faith,” a children’s book by The Salt Lake Tribune’s award-winning religion writer, Peggy Fletcher Stack, with illustrations by celebrated Latter-day Saint artist Kathleen Peterson. Praise for the volume was wide and deep, including from former President Jimmy Carter. A commemorative version followed in 2001 to celebrate Salt Lake City’s hosting of the 2002 Winter Olympics. The book’s approach is simple: Take many of the world’s major faith tra...
A sex abuse survivor details his painful path to healing | Episode 284
May 03, 2023 12:00 - 38 minutes - 35.1 MBNote • This podcast discusses sexual assault. If you need to report or discuss a sexual assault, you can call the Utah Sexual Violence help line at 801-736-4356. Rabbi Avremi Zippel was 8 years old when his nanny began sexually abusing him in a basement bathroom in his Salt Lake City home. For Zippel, the abuse, which continued for a decade, violated everything he believed as an Orthodox Jew and threw him into a whirlwind of shame, guilt, depression, anxiety and even questions about God. He...