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.
Meditation: the ‘language of the soul’
Latter-day Saints are no strangers to the virtues of “pondering.”
A popular children’s song (“Search, Ponder, and Pray”) touts it. Church founder Joseph Smith practiced it (“I reflected on it again and again,” he wrote, and “I was again left to ponder on the strangeness of what I had just experienced”) as did a namesake successor, church President Joseph F. Smith (“I sat in my room pondering over the scriptures”).
But members talk little about pondering’s cousin: meditating.
Why might that be? One reason, Patheos commentator Alex Koritz argues, is “due to misconceptions about meditation being tied exclusively to Eastern religions or secular mindfulness trends.”
Ah, but that’s not how David O. McKay viewed it. In a 1967 General Conference, Koritz notes, the then-church president called meditation “one of the most secret, most sacred doors through which we pass into the presence of the Lord.”
McKay lamented, according to the faith’s website, that Latter-day Saints “pay too little attention to the value of meditation,” which he labeled the “language of the soul.”
Attention: Latter-day Saint shoppers
(Joseph Pisani | AP) A photo shows toilet paper at a CVS in New York. The satirical Babylon Bee joked about Costco stocking up on "Mormon Family Size" items.
Why settle for four rolls of bathroom tissue when you can buy 30 at once — and save loads of cash in the long run? A can of sunscreen? Forget it. Grab a case. A tube of toothpaste? Heck, get a five-pack.
Hey, it’s the Costco way. But it turns out the bulk buys aren’t bulky enough for Latter-day Saints, so the retail giant is introducing “Mormon Family Size” items.
So jokes The Onion-like Babylon Bee, the satirical conservative Christian news site full of truly fake news.
What’s in store for bargain-hunting members with mega households?
“A 9-foot-tall box of Cheez-It crackers,” The Bee blathers, “milk that comes in 50-gallon drums instead of gallon jugs, eggs that come in a gross rather than a dozen, and bananas sold by the tree instead of by the bunch.”
Fictional Latter-day Saint mom Tiffany Thueson embraces the bigger boxes at the big-box chain. “Now I only have to buy 10 grosses of eggs,” she says, “instead of 150 dozen every week.”
The Bee, with its sometimes funny but always phony articles, has, however, run into some very real criticism: The Southern Poverty Law Center, known as a civil rights watchdog, has accused the site of “amplifying far-right rhetoric and disinformation” — despite its parodic bent.
The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: Gratitude works
(Illustration by Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Several Thanksgivings ago, church President Russell Nelson encouraged members to share online expressions of gratitude.
He may have been onto something. Turns out, such efforts can reduce loneliness, ease depression, and improve your mental health.
Listen to the podcast.
Amazing Africa
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Latter-day Saints in the Democratic Republic of Congo celebrate their then-new temple in the capital of Kinshasa. The nation is experiencing rapid Latter-day Saint growth.
Independent tracker Matt Martinich notes the astonishing church growth taking place in the Democratic Republic of Congo on his ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com website.
If current trends continue, he boldly predicts, the African nation will have 300,000 members (up from the current 130,000), 700 congregations (up from 289), 50 stakes (up from 29) and 10 planned or existing temples (up from four) by 2030.
And member retention rates in the DRC run above 80%, Martinich notes, ranking it “among the highest in the world.”
Wyoming’s second temple
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Latter-day Saints gather to attend the dedication of the Casper Wyoming Temple on Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024.
Apostle Quentin Cook dedicated the Casper Temple on Sunday.
The single-spired, single-story, 9,950-square-foot building is Wyoming’s second Latter-day Saint temple after the one in Star Valley, with a third planned in Cody.
From The Tribune
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Lavina Fielding Anderson, who was excommunicated in 1993 as part of the "September Six" and died in 2023, is shown in 2019. She has been readmitted posthumously into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
• One of the “September Six” writers — excommunicated three decades ago — has finally achieved in death what she sought in life: readmission into the church.
• From ‘condescension toward conservatism’ to minimization of marginalized voices, Brigham Young University students cite a lack of free speech on campus.
• Santa welcomes the church’s Giving Machines to his North Pole house.
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Santa Claus gives Patrick Moulton a high-five in front of the Light the World giving machines at Santa Claus House in North Pole, Alaska, on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. Santa told Patrick he was not on the nice list, he was on the "extra nice list."
