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Are you really ‘pro-life’?
While many Latter-day Saints may stand firmly against abortion — though the church’s official policy allows for it in certain circumstances — some wonder if confining the “pro-life” label to that issue is too limiting.
Pope Leo XIV seems to think so.
“Someone who says ‘I’m against abortion but says I am in favor of the death penalty’ is not really pro-life,” the pontiff said earlier this fall. “Someone who says that ‘I’m against abortion, but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”
Exponent II blogger Heidi Toth argues, for instance, that a true “pro-life” Christian would:
• Back affordable and accessible birth control as the “most effective” preventer of abortions.
• Support aid such as food stamps, Head Start, Medicaid and free school lunches to keep children “fed, housed, safe, healthy and able to go to and succeed in school.”
• Oppose, as the pope said, executions. “I struggle with society being the one to say a person deserves to die,” Toth writes, “and the message it sends about the place of violence in our society.”
• Favor reasonable gun control. “I don’t see a way to stop men with guns,” she says, “without starting with guns.”
All this and more, the blogger adds, “is what I envision as being pro-life.”
Around the world
(Tribune file photo) The former priesthood/temple ban against Black members started under Brigham Young, second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
• In a recent “From the Desk” interview with Kurt Manwaring, scholar W. Paul Reeve explores the racist teachings of Brigham Young that led to the church’s former priesthood/temple ban against Black members.
“Brigham Young’s teachings about the curse of Cain were unequivocally wrong and grounded in racism,” says Reeve, a leading expert on the genesis of the ban. “In a church that teaches the concept of eternal progression, do Latter-day Saints really believe that Brigham Young is in some corner of the eternities stuck on his position on race from 1852? No. I believe that Brigham Young has repented and progressed — and wants us to do so as well.”
Reeve also discusses this issue in this “Mormon Land” podcast.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) From left, former Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.; former U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah; and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox.
• By heeding a prophetic push for peacemaking, three Latter-day Saint politicians — former Sens. Jeff Flake and Mitt Romney, along with Utah Gov. Spencer Cox — offer a cure for the nation’s venomous politics, argues Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank.
“Secular Americans often are suspicious of those in politics who wear their religion on their sleeves,” Milbank writes. “But the Latter-day Saints preach about compromise, civility, pluralism and reverence for constitutional boundaries. … Could it be that this uniquely American religion has come up with a solution to America’s political crisis?”
Yes, says writer and scholar Jonathan Rauch, who makes his case in this “Mormon Land” podcast.
(Matthew Abbott | The New York Times) Muslim men pray at an impromptu memorial to the victims of the deadly shooting attack at Bondi Beach in Sydney.
• The church condemned the deadly shooting on a popular Sydney beach that targeted a Hanukkah celebration, saying Latter-day Saints “feel acutely the pain of such a senseless act and mourn with our brothers and sisters in the Jewish community around the world.”
• The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square will perform at the Hollywood Bowl in June 2026, its first show at the famed Los Angeles venue since 1963.
From The Tribune
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) A family in South Africa reads the Holy Bible. The church has approved modern translations of the Bible for wider use by members.
• Modern translations of the Bible are now fair game for members to use, though the King James Version remains “preferred” for English speakers.
• The first new temple of Dallin Oaks’ presidency is announced. It will be Maine’s first Latter-day Saint temple.
• In fresh updates to its General Handbook, the church spells out how members can use, not abuse, artificial intelligence.
• U.S. Gen Z and millennial members are indeed leaving the church, reports researcher and Religion News Service columnist Jana Riess.
• “You shouldn’t come to the temple drunk” — The evolution of temple worship and worthiness. Listen to the podcast. Read the excerpts.
•Two Broadway stars go from “Wicked” to a wedding to making music and history with The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square holds its annual Christmas Concert with special guests Stephanie J. Block and Sebastian Arcelus.