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.
Celebrating the end of the Black priesthood/temple ban
This week represents the 45th anniversary of the end of the church policy that barred Black members from entering the priesthood or temples for nearly 130 years.
To celebrate the occasion, go back and listen to our “Mormon Land” podcast from earlier this year with Latter-day Saint scholar W. Paul Reeve, a leading expert on the genesis and aftermath of that prohibition and author of “Let’s Talk About Race and Priesthood.”
Reeve, who flatly states that he doesn’t believe the now-discarded ban was of “divine origin,” discusses the church’s evolution on race and the challenges that still lie ahead.
You can also read excerpts from that interview in which the historian calls Brigham Young’s 1852 defense of the policy the “worst speech” in the faith’s history.
For a musical interlude, view Gladys Knight’s soul-stirring rendition of “Somewhere” from “West Side Story” at the 2018 “Be One” event.
More recently, three scholars — Brigham Young University’s Michael Lee Wood, Grace Soelberg and Jacob S. Rugh — published a paper last month in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion that explores the experiences of dozens of Black Latter-day Saints.
Titled “Making Space Behind the Veil: Black Agency Within a Predominantly White Religion,” the researchers discovered that these members encounter “spiritual conviction, joy and meaningful communion on one hand,” according to an online abstract, “and racism and isolation on the other.”
Read our story about the study.
The templeless top 10
(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 African nation has the most Latter-day Saints with no temple.
Even as the church builds more and more temples, a number of nations with significant Latter-day Saint populations remain templeless.
At the top of the tally of countries with the most members and no temple is Uganda, researcher Matt Martinich writes at ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com, with 20,693 Latter-day Saints.
That African nation is followed by two in Asia: Mongolia, with 12,477 members, and Malaysia, with 10,829 members.
See the rest of Martinich’s top 10 templeless nations. (FYI, this link has been corrected.)
The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: All about garments
(Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)
A researcher explores her survey about what Latter-day Saint women like — and dislike — about wearing temple garments. Listen to the podcast. You can also read the story and view graphics of the survey results.
A Native Book of Mormon
(Rick Bowmer | AP )The complete Book of Mormon soon will be available in Navajo.
The full Book of Mormon soon may be available in Navajo.
That translation is now before a church review committee, BYU’s Daily Universe reports, with work on the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price due to wrap up next year.
“When we are spoken to in our mother language, we really feel the love, peace, hope and harmony,” co-translator Charlotta Lacy told the newspaper. “All those words come to not only our minds but also to our hearts.”
Battling ‘bride prices’
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) General authority Seventy Thierry Mutombo shows The Family: A Proclamation to the World to Imam Sheik Amuri Lumumba Wa Kayembe, head of the Islamic community in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Kinshasa on May 25, 2023.
To combat soaring “bride prices” that have made legal marriages difficult to obtain for many in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the church has joined with other religious leaders to lobby for laws that lower these financial barriers.
Helping to lead the effort, a news release reports, has been general authority Seventy Thierry Mutombo, who was born in the capital of Kinshasa, and emeritus general authority Joseph Sitati, a native of Kenya.
The church has been booming in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is home to nearly 103,000 members, more than 260 congregations and three existing or planned temples.
From The Tribune
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) “I voted” stickers are shown in 2022. The First Presidency is warning members against straight-ticket voting.
• In a remarkably frank letter to U.S. congregations, the governing First Presidency warned Latter-day Saints against straight-ticket balloting, stating that blindly voting for one political party without weighing individual candidates and their stances on important issues “is a threat to democracy” and inconsistent with church teachings. Tribune columnist Gordon Monson explores the message members should take from this counsel.
• The church’s centerpiece scriptures — the Bible and the Book of Mormon — find themselves caught up in a debate about what books are appropriate for school libraries. A Utah school district already has decided to remove the King James Version of the Bible from grade schools and middle schools for its “vulgarity or violence.” Now the Book of Mormon is under review. That begs a question: How graphic is the Book of Mormon?
• Apostle Jeffrey Holland reports that he is “slowly returning to work” after grappling with “serious health issues.”
• The church’s updated policy on political neutrality offers clues as to why the Utah-based faith hasn’t condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) The plaza south of the Church Office Building, on Friday, June 2, 2023. Part of it has reopened.
• Part of the revamped plaza south of the Church Office Building in downtown Salt Lake City has reopened. Work on the rest is expected to wrap up by year’s end, with the massive makeover of the neighboring temple set for completion in 2026.
