The Mormon Land newsletter is The Salt Lake Tribune’s weekly highlight reel of developments in and about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Support us on Patreon and get the full newsletter, exclusive access to Tribune subscriber-only religion content and podcast transcripts.
Wedded to your beliefs
You and your spouse attend church every week. You both have temple recommends. You have callings. You pay tithing. You live the Word of Wisdom.
It may not seem like it on the surface, but you are in a mixed-faith marriage.
So argues Wheat & Tares blogger Hawkgrrrl. How so? Because, the writer reasons, “beliefs are unique.” A couple’s beliefs “may be on the same page, but you may not like that page while your spouse may love it.”
“Even if you believe the same things, you believe those things to different degrees. You may define those things you believe differently. Your experience with those beliefs are also unique to you,” the blogger states. “And your orientation toward any belief you hold could be positive, negative or apathetic, but it will differ from how others feel about that belief, even if they also believe it.”
Even if that “other” is sleeping next to you in bed.
The response to responsibility
(Morry Gash | AP) In this Oct 14, 2003, photo, Steve Bartman, top center, catches a ball as Chicago Cubs left fielder Moises Alou's arm is seen reaching into the stands, at right, against the Florida Marlins in the eighth inning during Game 6 of the National League championship series.
It’s time now for the next life lesson from the baseball diamond.
Fourth inning • Steve Bartman helps foil the Cubs’ date with destiny.
Yes, that 2016 crown — after a 108-year reign delay — helped soothe a lifetime of letdowns for this Cubs loyalist, but I’m still a bit bitter about 2003. Seeing a fellow fan with a prime seat down the left-field line spoil the North Siders’ World Series bid remains galling. Even in the agony of defeat, though, baseball again delivers a teaching moment:
With a great “seat” comes great responsibility.
It happens when you are promoted from the employee’s seat to the manager’s chair. It happens when you go from being the child in a highchair to the parent on the couch. It happens when a senator shifts from one of 100 seats in a square chamber on Capitol Hill to the chair that matters most in an Oval Office on Pennsylvania Avenue.
As we go through life, we add not only years but also responsibilities. More is expected of a veteran tax lawyer than a rookie attorney, fresh out of law school. Of course, greater responsibility brings its rewards. The longtime attorney gets the window office. The young upstart is relegated to the cramped cubicle.
The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: Church’s image troubles
The church’s image took another hit: A new Pew poll shows Americans view Jews, Catholics, mainline Protestants, evangelical Christians, Muslims and atheists more favorably than Latter-day Saints. Brigham Young University political science professor Quin Monson explores why that is, what it means and whether it matters. Listen to the podcast. Read the story.
Missionary dies in Africa
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Jean Lendo Phuati, 26, of the Democratic Republic of Congo, died March 10, 2023, while serving in the Mbuji-Mayi Mission.
A 26-year-old missionary from the Democratic Republic of Congo has died while serving in his home country.
Jean Lendo Phuati had been laboring since August 2021 in the Mbuji-Mayi Mission.
Phuati died March 10 in the hospital “a short time after he began feeling ill,” church spokesperson Sam Penrod wrote in a news release. “The cause of death remains undetermined at this time, although he experienced symptoms related to a cardiac event while in the hospital.”
This was the first publicly known death of a full-time Latter-day Saint missionary this year. In 2021, 11 proselytizers died while serving.
Honoring women
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson plays with a group of young children in a drought-stricken area of northeastern Uganda in March 2023.
The church’s top female leaders paid tribute to women’s contributions across the globe on March 8′s International Women’s Day.
“The opportunity for women to see beyond their current situation and help someone else is really the power of what women are doing to make a difference in the world,” President Bonnie Cordon, churchwide head of the Young Women organization, said during her African tour.
Worldwide Relief Society President Camille Johnson, meanwhile, teamed up with UNICEF to deliver food and medical care to drought-stricken northeastern Uganda.
“This is an effort to go beyond our members to address the needs, the humanitarian needs, of the world’s children, and we found them. It was glorious,” Johnson said in a news release. “It was heartwarming and heart-wrenching at the same time.”
From The Tribune
(Wire and courtesy photos) President Russell M. Nelson, below, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will receive the Gandhi-King-Mandela Peace Prize from Morehouse College. Above are the prize's namesakes.
• President Russell Nelson will be honored by a historically Black college with a peace prize named after a who’s who of human rights legends: Gandhi, King and Mandela.
• Have you been wondering what the church is going to do to help the Great Salt Lake? Well, wonder no more. It is donating about 20,000 acre-feet of water shares to the imperiled lake.
• Family and friends in southern Utah are helping a 20-year-old missionary recover from a brain injury he suffered while serving in Boston.
• Tribune guest columnist Natalie Brown makes the case for always making room on Zoom for church services.
From history
In 1842, Joseph Dart and Robert Dunbar invented grain elevators in Buffalo, N.Y., blessing lives by enabling farmers to produce and move more grain in less time.
That same year, church founder Joseph Smith invented an organization intended to bless the lives of women and, by extension, the world.
And it turns 181 years old Friday.
Since its March 17, 1842, founding, the Relief Society now ranks among the globe’s largest and oldest women’s groups, with more than 7 million members in some 170 countries.
