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, podcast transcripts and exclusive access to all Tribune religion content.
Your ideas for the church in 2024
We asked you for New Year’s resolutions for the church, and more than 700 responses poured in. This week and next we’ll offer a sampling of those suggestions. So let’s get right to it. Here is the first batch:
• Trust us, the members of the church, with information about the finances.
• Make it a trillion.
• Make tithing optional.
• Women on the stands. More women speakers at conference. Women taking part in all important decisions. A true embracing of our unique doctrine of Heavenly Mother.
• Get out of the routine programming of General Conference. Maybe let Gladys Knight select the music.
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Grammy winner Gladys Knight performs at an event in the Conference Center on June 1, 2018, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the church's end to the priesthood/temple ban for Black members. A reader suggested letting her choose the music for General Conference.
• Let nonmember or inactive parents attend their children’s temple weddings.
• Equal sealing policies for men and women.
• Buy The Tribune and shut it down.
• Ignore the voices of the leftist media.
• Be honest. Protect children from abuse. Do what is right and let the consequences follow. Be inclusive.
• Spend at least $1 billion to build permanent homeless shelters and low-income housing, starting in and around Salt Lake City.
• Start talking seriously and clearly about issues of social justice in this country and abroad.
• More baptisms. More temples.
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) A Latter-day Saint baptism in New Zealand.
• Give women the priesthood.
• Retire apostles at 75.
• Abolish polygamy once and for all. And, yes, that means in the temple ceremony.
• Take a proactive role getting more water to the Great Salt Lake.
• Allow our LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters who are living authentically to worship with us in full fellowship.
• Eliminate family expenses for missions.
• Let people enjoy a cup of coffee.
• Provide education grants rather than loans to all members.
• Continue following the revelation it gets from the Lord through his prophets.
Big buy in Florida
Much has been written about the church’s vast landholdings in northern and central Florida. The Utah-based faith owns hundreds of thousands of forested acres in the Panhandle, for instance, and an expansive collection of pasturelands outside resort-rich Orlando.
Well, it just bolstered its property portfolio in the southern part of the Sunshine State.
Property Reserve Inc., a commercial real estate arm of the church, recently bought large swaths of an industrial park in the Miami area, in three separate purchases totaling $174 million, The Real Deal reports.
The church now owns four warehouses at Beacon Logistics Park in Hialeah and two more that are under construction, the Commercial Observer noted, amounting to more than 1 million square feet.
Top stories of 2023
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Patrick Kearon speaks at General Conference in 2022. He is the faith's newest apostle.
Religion News Service columnist Jana Riess shared her tally of top 10 stories about the church in 2023, dividing it into five positive developments and five negative ones. See how her list compares to the one from Public Square Magazine.
You’ll notice the two lineups actually agree on the following six stories. You’ll also notice they sometimes disagree on how to view those episodes.
Patrick Kearon’s call as an apostle; the increase in humanitarian aid; the Securities and Exchange Commision’s fine against the church and its investment arm; The Associated Press probe of sexual abuse cases in the church; the legal troubles facing embattled Operation Underground Railroad founder Tim Ballard; the jump in Latter-day Saint missionaries and the corresponding creation of 36 new missions.
The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: Membership stats
Independent researcher Matt Martinich, who tracks church movements for the websites cumorah.com and ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com, explains what membership statistics in Utah and around the world really reveal about further church expansion and contraction.
Listen to the podcast.
From The Tribune
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Clockwise from top left: The Church Office Building; the Church Administration Building; the Plaza Hotel; and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.
• While a draft proposal suggesting demolition of the Church Office Building, Church Administration Building and Joseph Smith Memorial Building has been shelved, it nonetheless spurs the question: What might Salt Lake City’s Temple Square of tomorrow look like?
• For now, the church announced that the pioneer-era Assembly Hall will close this week to undergo “limited” renovations. A number of Temple Square plazas, however, will open.
• Turns out, Latter-day Saints are a minority, a new study shows, even in Utah. This week’s “Mormon Land” podcast covers this research as well.
(Photo by Chris Samuels and Graphic by Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)
• New online resources for members with questions remind all Latter-day Saints that church leaders are human. “They make mistakes. They sin.”
• A new book reveals that, for Latter-day Saints, encounters with the “spirit world” are just part of the religion.
• A leak at a meetinghouse in south-central Utah led to nearly 50 people being treated for carbon monoxide poisoning.
