The Mormon Land newsletter is The Salt Lake Tribune’s weekly highlight reel of news in and about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Join us on Patreon and receive the full newsletter, podcast transcripts and access to all of our religion content — for as little as $3 a month.
Church buys an Aussie farm
What’s the church up to Down Under?
Well, for starters, it’s snatching up farmland.
A subsidiary of the faith’s Farmland Reserve just bought more than 64,000 acres of cropland in Queensland, reports Australia’s Financial Review business newspaper. The price tag topped $300 million and included tens of thousands of water rights.
“Australian agriculture continues to be an attractive proposition for both domestic and global investors, providing genuine portfolio differentiation in a region that has a strong reputation globally,” an investment director over the deal told the Financial Review. “We are excited by the opportunities available in Australian agriculture and continue to see value from an investment in the sector that has the potential to drive strong returns into the future.”'
The church’s financial practices came under scrutiny in Australia in 2022, when questions arose about whether the Utah-based faith had been dodging the country’s taxes by forming a “charitable trust fund” and directing members to send their tithing there.
Australia is home to 157,000 Latter-day Saints, more than 300 congregations and five operating temples with plans for a sixth.
A peek at 1924
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) President Russell M. Nelson, with wife Wendy, waves to attendees after a session of General Conference in April 2024. He turns 100 on Sept. 9.
As the church prepares to celebrate the 100th birthday of its oldest-ever prophet-president, Russell Nelson, on Sept. 9, here are other significant events that took place the year he was born: 1924.
• Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin died.
• The first Winter Olympics took place in Chamonix, France.
• Astronomer Edwin Hubble formally announced the existence of other galactic systems.
• Composer George Gershwin premiered his “Rhapsody in Blue.”
• The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade debuted in New York.
• The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co. changed its name to International Business Machines Corp, known better as IBM.
• Dual explosions killed 171 people at a mine in Castle Gate, Utah.
• J. Edgar Hoover became head of the FBI.
• The first “Little Orphan Annie” comic strip appeared.
Church membership back then stood just short of 600,000; today, it tops 17.2 million. There were six operating temples. Now, there are nearly 200 dedicated temples. Of the 350 planned or existing temples, Nelson has announced 168, or 48%, of the total, since he assumed the faith’s helm in January 2018.
The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: The anti-Trump GOP mayor
(Ruth Fremson | The New York Times) John Giles, mayor of Mesa, Arizona, speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August. A Republican, Giles is nonetheless supporting the Democratic ticket.
Mesa Mayor John Giles is a Republican. Yet he landed a prime-time speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention. Learn why this Latter-day Saint Arizonan hopes the GOP “fails miserably” at the ballot box, along with his decision to buck Donald Trump and instead back Kamala Harris as he works for the reemergence of a more-centrist Republican Party and a less-polarized political climate.
Listen to the podcast.
Apostle visits South America
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Apostle David A. Bednar visits with Plinio Vergara Serrano of the Seventh-day Adventist Church relief agency ADRA in Lima, Peru, on Aug. 26, 2024. The Utah-based faith contributed $1.6 million to the humanitarian group.
Apostle David Bednar wrapped up a 10-day visit to Peru and Ecuador, where he met with humanitarian and governmental leaders, along with church leaders, members and missionaries.
The trip included a $1.6 million contribution to a relief agency operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
“Some would say, ‘But there is so much to do.’ You hear from them, ‘What you do makes no difference,’” Bednar said in a news release. “No, we cannot do everything that needs to be done. But it would be a sin of omission if we did not do what we can.”
Tab Choir to sing on 9/11
During the upcoming tour of Georgia and Florida, The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square will perform at the Georgia Capitol on Wednesday, Sept. 11, as part of a ceremony marking the anniversary of 9/11.
From The Tribune
(The New York Times) Clockwise from left: actors Ryan Gosling, Katherine Heigl, Amy Adams and Aaron Eckhart. They all grew up as Latter-day Saints.
• Ryan Gosling, Katherine Heigl, Aaron Eckhart, Amy Adams, Dan Reynolds, David Archuleta. They all have Latter-day Saint roots but now stand outside the faith. It makes Tribune guest columnist Rebbie Brassfield wonder: Do Mormonism and fame mix?
• The church’s new policies on transgender individuals are not only flawed and needlessly fear-based, Tribune columnist Gordon Monson writes, they are also impractical and un-Christlike.
