Latest from Mormon Land: Debunking a popular myth about LDS political history

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Political party hopping

Election Day is past, but politics is ever present — as is a persistent folk yarn about Latter-day Saint leaders in the late 19th century directing some members to join this party or that party.

“The oft-repeated tale has it that leaders stood before congregations and ordered those seated to the right to become Republicans and those seated to the left to become Democrats,” independent research historian Ardis E. Parshall writes on her Keepapitchinin.org blog. “There is no substantial contemporary evidence — no unambiguous mention in ward minutes, no reporting of such divisions in local newspapers — to confirm that legend, which is, frankly, insulting to the intelligence and self-determination of any people. It also contradicts the documentary evidence that Latter-day Saints were, with few exceptions, encouraged to follow their own political leanings.”

Parshall, who doubles as a Tribune guest columnist, notes that just after the 1890 Manifesto (marking the beginning of the end of polygamy) and before Utah achieved statehood in 1896, there was indeed a mass exodus of Latter-day Saints from a political party.

“The People’s Party [which church members had formed as a counter to the non-Mormon Liberal Party] dissolved in June 1891,” Parshall writes, “its former members joining the Republicans or Democrats, according to their preference.”

That practice largely continues to this day.

“Church leaders do not direct the flock to lend support to or withhold support from any particular party,” Parshall states. “As in the past, they urge voters to carefully study candidates and issues, and to cast their votes according to that study. What is different now is the warning [from the governing First Presidency last year] that voting by ‘tradition’ or straight-party support ‘is a threat to democracy.’”

So, did you cast a straight-party ballot this year?

The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: Grading ‘Heretic’

Is “Heretic” anti-Mormon and anti-religion? Is the movie too violent? Are the entrapped missionaries believable? What does the film get wrong and right about the church and its proselytizers?

Our award-winning faith reporter Peggy Fletcher Stack and our longtime film critic Sean P. Means offer their take on the new Hugh Grant thriller.

Listen to the podcast.

Work on ‘Saints’ is history

The fourth and final volume of the church’s official history, “Saints: Sounded in Every Ear (1955-2020)” is now available.

The latest installment covers a range of milestones in the faith’s unfolding story, including the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the end of the priesthood/temple ban against Black members, the struggles over LGBTQ rights, and the church’s opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment.

There are, however, a number of notable omissions. Times and Seasons blogger Chad Nielsen, for instance, points to the lack of any mentions of Sonia Johnson’s headline-grabbing push for the ERA; the Ordain Women movement; and the now-discarded exclusion policy against same-sex couples.

Creator of ‘The Chosen’ speaks at BYU

For his recent address at church-owned Brigham Young University, the creator of the hugely successful biblical film series “The Chosen” chose an unlikely theme: failure.

After one of his films flopped, Dallas Jenkins was reminded by a friend of Jesus’ miracle in feeding the 5,000. “Remember,” Jenkins was told, “it’s not your job to feed the 5,000; it’s only to provide the loaves and fish.”

“Starting now, get to this place — this superpower, actually — that comes from giving that up to God,” Jenkins advised. “It is not your job to feed the 5,000; it is only to provide the loaves and fish” and let the Almighty do the rest.

From The Tribune

• Thanks to the new designs for temple garments, faithful Latter-day Saint women may be able to don sleeveless wedding dresses, sexier underwear and more classic outfits. But they still will encounter plenty of wardrobe limits.

• The church has expanded full-time mission options for single adult men and women ages 40 and older.

• Mere hours after Kamala Harris’ concession, the church congratulates Donald Trump on his presidential victory — unlike four years ago, when Trump refused to acknowledge defeat and the faith’s traditional message came nearly six weeks after Election Day.

• When satanic panic swept through Utah in the early 1980s, parents in Heber City, a mountain town then-described by The New York Times as being made up of “5,000 solidly Mormon citizens,” sought to root out the devil’s work in an after-school club for the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons. The game, once shunned by Latter-day Saints, turned 50 this year.

• With a Jewish quarterback leading the Cougars, Utah rabbis have become BYU football fans.

• A look back at the Latter-day Saint German teen who stood up to Hitler and became the youngest “resistance fighter” executed by the Nazis.

• The ongoing renovation of the iconic Salt Lake Temple has reached a new pinnacle: Work on the six spires is finished.

In a puzzle challenge of the highest order, more than 6,000 steeple stones were removed, cataloged, cleaned and returned to their original spots — freshly strengthened to resist earthquakes.

The overall temple remake is expected to wrap up in 2026.