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.
An environmentally friendly sacrament
Latter-day Saints view the sacrament, or Communion, as an ordinance that helps save partakers in the eternities.
Turns out, it can also help save the planet in the here and now.
Starting early next year, the church will switch to 100% recycled plastic cups for its sacrament.
“Working with third-party consultants to evaluate various sustainable alternatives,” Presiding Bishop Gérald Caussé said in a speech delivered virtually at a recent environmental stewardship conference in Brazil, “we discovered that the sacrament cups made from 100% recycled plastic will reduce overall carbon emissions compared to our current cups and even paper cups.”
At the same conference, hosted by an organization of members and friends of the church, apostle D. Todd Christofferson said that “people of faith have a great deal to contribute to the discussion about what makes a healthy person, a healthy society and a healthy environment.”
“You should not be shy about supporting what you know to be true and the goals you feel are just,” he said in a transcript of his in-person address. “And there is no reason your voice should not be heard in discussions about how to achieve those goals.”
Christofferson pointed out that top church leaders don’t take an official position on every issue — nor are they “obligated” to do so — but more commonly relate “gospel principles to the issues and circumstances of our time.”
“This principle pertains to everything from abortion to climate change and the many things in between,” he said. “... Individuals will react to these prophetic statements as they will, given their moral agency to choose. But the church and you and I are free to make our case and actively support what we know to be true.”
Mitt the Mormon
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, shown in August 2023, is the subject of a new political biography.
There’s that word. Right there. In black and white. Not just once or thrice but more than a dozen times. And on the website of the church’s own newspaper.
Huh? Gasp! Say it ain’t so!
It’s so. Yes, the Deseret News ran an extended excerpt from McKay Coppins’ new political biography, “Romney: A Reckoning,” with liberal use of the generally barred “Mormon” term.
“The house style of Deseret Magazine is to refer to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by the name of the church,” the publication explained in an editor’s note. “The book, as excerpted here and in Deseret Magazine’s November issue, refers to members of the church as Mormons.”
Of course, that’s because Mormon pops up a lot in Coppins’ book. As the author told us in our “Mormon Land” podcast, “I basically decided to use it [the word Mormon], because he [Romney] uses it.
“... We actually had a conversation about this at one point,” Coppins recalled, “and he said, ‘I’m all for the project of trying to associate our faith more with Jesus Christ,’ but I’m not sure, you know, abandoning Mormon, and using Latter-day Saint does that, because neither of those terms has Jesus’ name in it, right?”
So maybe we could call this the Deseret News’ “Mormon moment.”
The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: McKay on Mitt
(Courtesy) Atlantic staff writer McKay Coppins, author of "Romney: A Reckoning."
In another sign of this “Mitt moment,” Atlantic staff writer McKay Coppins, author of the hot new biography “Romney: A Reckoning,” discusses the history-making senator, his faith, his politics, his public persona, his private reflections and his legacy — along with whether he would have made a good president. Listen to the podcast.
Vietnam visit
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) During apostle Ronald A. Rasband's first visit Vietnam, he met with Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang, who expressed appreciation to the church for its teachings and humanitarian efforts in Vietnam.
A half-century ago, apostle Ronald Rasband was drafted — but never deployed — to fight in Vietnam.
He visited the nation for the first time earlier this month, not as a soldier armed with a weapon of war but as a servant packing a message of peace.
During his trip to Hanoi, a news release notes, Rasband met with Vietnam’s deputy prime minister and its head of religious affairs, along with members and missionaries (officially volunteers). Church membership in the nation has been estimated at about 2,500.
During a devotional, according to the release, he welcomed a local leader onto the stage.
“Some 54 years ago, I would have come to Vietnam as his enemy,” the apostle said. “Now he stands by me as my brother.”
The two men then hugged.
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Apostle Ronald A. Rasband embraces a local church leader, who he said could have been his enemy some 54 years ago, had he come to Vietnam then; but today, they are brothers in the Latter-day Saint gospel.
From The Tribune
• See what Mitt Romney, who made history as the first Latter-day Saint to top a major party’s presidential ticket and the first senator to vote to remove a president of his own party, sees as the most pressing challenges facing the church.
• Tribune columnist Gordon Monson notes that if the Great Salt Lake dies, Missouri may become not only the Latter-day Saints’ Zion but also their savior.
• Bonnie Cordon, the former worldwide leader of the church’s Young Women program, finds herself in a new job: president of Southern Virginia University.
(Southern Virginia University) Bonnie Cordon is pictured on the campus of Southern Virginia University, where she now serves as the school's 10th president.
• Guest columnist Michael Patrick O’Brien shows how a Latter-day Saint family is nurturing a Halloween tradition in a Catholic field.
• View the first photos from inside the new Orem Temple.
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) The brides' room inside the Orem Temple.
