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.
Closing more gender gaps
By Common Consent blogger Sam Brunson sees opportunities for the church to increase the visibility and responsibilities for girls and women in the church through simple policy changes.
“There are a string of callings that we only let men hold,” he writes, “notwithstanding there being no priesthood requirement and no gendered reason.” Here are some possibilities:
• Let girls pass the sacrament. “Nothing in scripture requires priesthood or maleness to pass the sacrament,” Brunson notes. “In fact, D&C 20:58 says expressly that deacons and teachers don’t have authority to administer the sacrament, so passing the sacrament is not administration. It’s purely a policy choice church leaders made.”
• Call women to Sunday school presidencies. “Teachers can be men or women, priesthood holders or not,” the blogger states. “The Sunday school presidency doesn’t administer any ordinances.”
• Assign women as ward clerks. “They serve critical administrative capacities, ensuring, among other things, that necessary records and reports are done,” Brunson writes. “And that doesn’t require priesthood.”
To bolster his argument, Brunson, a tax law professor, points to a policy change that now allows women and men to serve as stake auditors.
More 2024 resolutions
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City is pictured on Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2023.
As promised last week, here is another sampling from your 750-plus New Year’s resolutions for the church in 2024:
• Strive toward church leadership becoming diverse like God’s children.
• Increase diversity, equity and inclusion.
• No longer shield abusers under the guise of penitence or religious freedom.
• Reestablish the Word of Wisdom as an invitation rather than a commandment.
• Make new sections in the Doctrine and Covenants for “The Living Christ” and “The Family: A Proclamation to the World.”
• “Clearly” denounce the support from church members of immoral, corrupt, conspiracy-spewing politicians, whose actions and policies are in direct violation of principles the church professes.
• Stand up against the tyrannical Biden regime.
• Institute genuine political neutrality.
• Send messages of peace by speaking out in favor of gun control.
• Add mission flexibility.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Missionaries at the Missionary Training Center in Provo in June 2023.
• Do fewer groundbreakings, more breaking of new ground.
• Add more temples, another day of General Conference, more devotionals.
• Listen to what The Tribune has to say, and then do the opposite.
• Eliminate BYU sports programs.
• Start construction on the Russian temple and announce a temple to be built in Israel.
• Make the hot chocolate recipe from Nauvoo House public; it’s delicious.
• Hire janitors for church buildings. Pay people for that work.
• Do not tear down the Provo Temple.
• Form a new stake in Malaysia.
• Bring more joy.
Your ideas for Temple Square
The Tribune reported earlier about ideas a committee from the church drafted for expanding Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City. We want to hear from you: Does Temple Square need reimagining? What would you like to see change? Share here.
The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: New look at the book
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Scene from a Book of Mormon video depicting Lehi, his wife, Sariah, and their family as they sail to the promised land on the ship built by Nephi, Lehi's son, and his brothers, Laman, Lemuel and Sam.
A conversation with scholar Grant Hardy about his new Annotated Book of Mormon, billed as the “first fully annotated, academic edition” of the faith’s foundational text and why he finds the book “amazingly coherent and consistent.”
Listen to the podcast.
A new history of the church
(Amazon) "American Zion: A New History of Mormonism" from scholar Benjamin Park.
Scholar Benjamin Park’s highly anticipated “American Zion: A New History of Mormonism” — which tells the church’s sweeping story from its beginnings to the present day — is spotlighted in The New Yorker.
“Throughout,” the magazine notes, “Park delves into Mormon history and lore to produce a picture of the institution as one that is both marginalized and marginalizing.”
More on this significant new work will be coming soon in The Salt Lake Tribune and on our “Mormon Land” podcast. Stay tuned.
From The Tribune
(Leah Nash | The New York Times) A holiday feast of Russian food.
• In a slight twist on Doctrine and Covenants 104:17, “the table is full, and there is enough and to spare” — at least when it comes to Latter-day Saint potlucks, parties and other feasts. Tribune guest columnist Eli McCann chews on why that’s so in his latest serving of laughs.
• Upon closer examination, says independent researcher Matt Martinich, membership statistics show the church isn’t “falling apart.”
• Tribune columnist Gordon Monson shares his ideas for creating a bigger and better Temple Square.
• See how top Latter-day Saint leaders set about mending relations with descendants of the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre.
• A special ProPublica report explores what role Latter-day Saint culture may play in Utah lawmakers’ resistance to funding child care.
