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.
Word of warning
Score another one for the Word of Wisdom?
It is well known that smoking causes cancer. Hence the warnings mandated on packs of cigarettes.
Now, The New York Times reports, the U.S. surgeon general recommends similar labels on alcoholic beverages, cautioning that drinking (another no-no under the Latter-day Saint health code) directly contributes to 100,000 cancer cases and 20,000 related deaths a year.
One of every 6 breast cancer cases is attributable to alcohol use, outgoing surgeon general Dr. Vivek Murthy told The Times.
The World Health Organization has long stated that there is no “safe” limit for alcohol consumption.
Read more here about the Word of Wisdom and whether it might ever change.
Lauding a Latter-day Saint and a Catholic
(The Salt Lake Tribune; AP) George Romney, left, and Robert F. Kennedy posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
President Joe Biden honored the following two 1968 candidates for the White House — one a Latter-day Saint Republican and the other a Catholic Democrat — with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian salute:
• George Romney, a civil rights advocate and opponent of the Vietnam War, served as Michigan’s governor, secretary of Housing and Urban Development and is the father of former Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, who, like his Latter-day Saint father, also sought the Oval Office. The elder Romney died in 1995.
• Robert F. Kennedy, who pushed for civil rights and fought against poverty and the Vietnam War, served as U.S. attorney general and senator from New York. He was assassinated during his presidential campaign. His son Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has bucked his storied family’s Democratic politics and embraced Republican Donald Trump. He has been tapped to be the nation’s next health secretary.
The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: BYU blue
A significant number of Brigham Young University professors are feeling down and frightened as new rules, which go beyond those required for a temple recommend, compel them and prospective faculty members to embrace a conservative interpretation of church doctrine.
Read our special report and listen to the podcast discussion.
Around the world
• In a New Year’s Day Instagram post, church President Russell Nelson noted that it has been 25 years since the faith issued a proclamation called “The Living Christ,” which he and three other living apostles (Dallin Oaks, Henry Eyring and Jeffrey Holland) signed.
Nelson also invited members to attend the temple as “often as your circumstances allow.”
“In the House of the Lord, we focus on Jesus Christ. We learn of him and his gospel,” he wrote. “...My dear friends, may this new year be filled with the light, love, joy and power of our Savior and Redeemer, who is the Living Christ.”
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Vertical coring underway on the northwest tower of the Salt Lake Temple on Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024.
• See the latest update on the renovation and seismic upgrade of the Salt Lake Temple, including the 46 vertical holes that have been drilled through its stone walls from its six towers down to its new upper foundations. A new statue, meanwhile, titled “Come, Follow Me,” has been placed on the surrounding square.
From The Tribune
• Tribune columnist Gordon Monson chimes in on conditions at BYU.
• Nine Latter-day Saints are part of the newly installed 119th Congress. That’s the same total as the previous Capitol gang but remains significantly behind the tally from a decade or two ago.
• New research reveals how sexual orientation and educational attainment can affect whether a member sticks with the church.
(Netflix) Kim Coates, at right, plays Brigham Young, in the Netflix limited series "American Primeval," set in the West in 1857. The series' first episode includes an account of the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
• The new Netflix series “American Primeval” — depicting the gritty, grimy and bloody West of the mid-1800s, and portraying pioneer-prophet Brigham Young — premieres this week with an opening episode that includes the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Learn more about the 1857 massacre here.
• Wayne Osmond, a member of the singing siblings who became pop music symbols of their Latter-day Saint faith, has died.
(Isaac Brekken | AP) Wayne Osmond, second from right, during an Osmonds 50th anniversary show in Las Vegas in 2007.
• Pioneering eye doctor Merrill Oaks, a younger brother of senior apostle Dallin Oaks and who himself rose to a high-level leadership position in the church, has died.
(Courtesy) Merrill Oaks, 88, died Dec. 30 from complications related to cancer. The brother of Latter-day Saint apostle Dallin H. Oaks, he was a pioneering eye doctor and leader in the church.
