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.
Empty chair, full slate
As with all General Conferences, speaker after speaker filled the podium this past weekend, but an empty chair may have spoken the loudest.
Church President Russell Nelson didn’t attend any sessions in person after injuring his back in a fall the day after his 99th birthday. He did provide a videotaped message at the close, urging members to “think celestial” and naming 20 new temples.
Here are a few other key conference moments:
• Dallin Oaks, Nelson’s right-hand man who presided in person at Salt Lake City’s Conference Center and is next in line to lead the faith, said the family proclamation is “irrevocable.”
• Brazilian apostle Ulisses Soares denounced prejudice, expressing deep sorrow for “those who have been mistreated, belittled or persecuted by unfeeling and thoughtless people.”
• One of only three women to speak at this conference, Young Women leader Tamara Runia advised members to “zoom out” and view themselves and their families, as God does, with “hope and joy.”
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Tamara W. Runia, first counselor in the global Young Women presidency, speaks at General Conference on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023.
• In a moving account of leaving behind his son temporarily, British Seventy Alan Phillips urged members to minister to “fellow travelers [who] feel lost, alone, forgotten or removed.”
• At a time when the church faces increasing criticism over its wealth and lack of financial transparency, apostle Neil Andersen said top leaders “deeply feel the weight of being ‘answerable to the Lord’” for how they tend to tithing money.
• Brazilian Seventy Carlos Godoy warned “lukewarm” members that they run the “risk of losing their children … in this life and in eternity.”
Read a full summary of Saturday’s sermons and Sunday’s sessions.
Democracy newsletter for members
(Photo by Mariam Zuhaib | AP) The U.S. flag flies at the Capitol in Washington in February.
Rob Taber, the head of Latter-day Saints for Biden-Harris, has announced a new platform, the LDS Democracy newsletter, which, he writes in an email, is “focused on inspiring and mobilizing Latter-day Saints and friends to take civic action around the core principles of democratic governance, pluralism, and promoting the general welfare.”
The inaugural edition stated that the LDS Democracy Network offers “a big tent, but one built on the recognition that we all have inherent dignity, that the society that best protects and cares for us is the one that protects and cares for all of us, and that voting and other forms of civic engagement are part of the responsibility we shoulder to create a brighter shared future.”
The third installment warned against a federal government shutdown, which then was looming.
“There’s a temptation to grab popcorn and watch [House] Speaker [Kevin] McCarthy try to wrangle the extreme right wing of his caucus. … We encourage you to remember that 1) this shutdown is entirely optional on the part of the House Republicans, and 2) it will hurt fellow Americans across the country.”
In the end, McCarthy fashioned a compromise that kept the government open but closed the door on his speakership. Republicans gave him the boot days later.
The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: So few women at the pulpit
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) The three women who spoke at the most recent edition of General Conference: President Emily Belle Freeman, left, head of the global Young Women organization; her first counselor, Tamara Runia; and Amy Wright, first counselor in the children’s Primary general presidency.
What Latter-day Saints learned from the three women who spoke at General Conference and what members may be missing by not hearing from more female leaders. Listen to the podcast.
Author gets pushback for comments about ‘Mormons’
(Victoria Will | AP ) Author James McBride, shown in 2012, is drawing some criticism for calling Mormonism “a little bit weird.”
James McBride, author of the recently released novel “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store,” is coming under fire from a Jewish editor for calling Mormonism “a little bit weird” with a history full of “barbaric” violence.
“I really don’t know that much about it,” McBride reportedly told an audience at a California university, “other than I hope my kids don’t become Mormons.”
Those remarks didn’t sit with Andrew Esensten. “If he had made similar statements about Jews … I suspect many members of our Jewish community would be offended, as I would be,” Esensten wrote in The Jewish News of Northern California. “… I believe we Jews must always call out prejudice, especially when the target is a religious minority.”
From The Tribune
• The new hymnbook’s utilitarian title may not sing, but members sure will when the songs are finally released.
The church revealed last week that “Hymns—for Home and Church,” boasting 450 to 500 hymns and children’s songs, will become available by the end of 2026 (eight years after the project began) with “some” new tunes trickling out digitally early next year.
• Church-owned Deseret Book and its subsidiaries have yanked the books by embattled anti-trafficking activist Tim Ballard from their websites and store shelves. At least some scholars are relieved, with historian Benjamin Park saying Ballard’s historical works rely on “bad evidence to reach even worse conclusions.”
This screenshot, taken Sept. 24, 2023, shows this Tim Ballard book available from Shadow Mountain Publishing, a registered trademark of Deseret Book, which is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The book was removed from the Shadow Mountain site after an inquiry from The Salt Lake Tribune.
• In a Q&A appearance at a Utah high-technology summit and at a time when church finances are under fire, apostle David Bednar pointed out that the faith’s assets are “primarily income-consuming,” not “income-producing.”
• You already know that Latter-day Saints love meetings, and historian Ardis E. Parshall points to these historic conferences staged far from Utah to prove it.
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