Mormon Land

Kathleen Flake, a Latter-day Saint historian and emeritus Bushman professor at the University of Virginia, reflects on Russell M. Nelson's impactful leadership as he turns 101. She discusses his recent Time magazine essay advocating for peacemaking in a divided world. The conversation highlights Nelson's transformative approach, inclusive temple practices, and the church's response to contemporary issues like COVID-19. Flake also examines his efforts to combat racism and how he’s reshaped the Church’s identity, focusing on women's roles and community engagement.

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.

Join Taylor Kerby, a popular blogger from By Common Consent, as he dives into the intriguing discussion about artificial intelligence and its role within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He questions whether AI could serve as a valuable tool or a detrimental crutch during sacrament meetings. The conversation touches on the importance of personal expression versus technological shortcuts, the delicate balance between spiritual growth and machine assistance, and the ethical ramifications of rapid advancements in AI.

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.