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.
Elevate Easter
President Dallin Oaks, who once famously delivered a major General Conference address on the U.S. Constitution on Easter Sunday, is urging Latter-day Saints to lean into the true meaning of Christianity’s holiest day this spring.
“As we enter this new year, let us prepare for an Easter celebration of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, culminating in his resurrection — the most glorious event in history,” Oaks, first counselor in the governing First Presidency and next in line to lead the global faith, says in a new video message. “And this causes us to contemplate our own future resurrection. No matter what others believe or do, we should celebrate the resurrection of our living Savior by studying his teachings and helping to establish Easter traditions in our society as a whole, especially within our own families. We challenge you to do so.”
The church plans to help with that effort by publishing a Holy Week study guide, a news release noted, and airing a special Easter episode of “Music and the Spoken Word,” focused on the church’s 2025 Easter theme of “Greater Love.”
So expect Latter-day Saints to unite with much of the Christian world in marking Holy Week — from Palm Sunday to Maundy Thursday to Good Friday and more.
To understand Holy Week, tune in to previous “Mormon Land” podcasts — here and here — with Eric Huntsman, a Brigham Young University professor of ancient scripture and co-author of “Greater Love Hath No Man: A Latter-day Saint Guide to Celebrating the Easter Season.”
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Latter-day Saint apostle Dallin Oaks appears in the video "He Is Risen! | A Special Easter Season Message from the First Presidency." In an aside before delivering his message, Oaks, a former Utah Supreme Court justice, joked, “Tell them where to start and I’ll try to manage a smile. My wife tells me I always look like a judge instead of an apostle.”
“For Latter-day Saints, the resurrection means that all who have ever lived will be resurrected,” Oaks said, “and the resurrection is literal.”
15 new hymns
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) A choir sings at a regional stake conference in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, on Feb. 11, 2024. Fifteen new hymns have been added to the faith's emerging new songbook.
Latter-day Saints around the world will now be singing an African American spiritual with a toe-tapping tune and missionary-minded lyrics in their Sunday services.
“This Little Light of Mine,” which sprang from the slavery days of the South and swelled in popularity during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, is one of 15 new hymns added to the church’s growing global songbook, “Hymns — For Home and Church.”
“Singers sometimes changed the words to represent their personal trials, creating what became known as freedom songs,” the hymnal website explains of “This Little Light.” “Many different versions of the text and tune exist today, but the overall message remains the same — that we can all share our God-given light with others.”
The other new hymns are:
• “Close as a Quiet Prayer.”
• “Come, Hear the Word the Lord Has Spoken.”
• “Faith in Every Footstep.”
• “Holy Places.”
• “I Can’t Count Them All.”
• “I Have Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.”
• “I Know That My Savior Loves Me.”
• “Let Easter Anthems Ring.”
• “Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling.”
• “Standing on the Promises.”
• “Take My Heart and Let It Be Consecrated.”
• “To Love Like Thee.”
• “Welcome Home.”
• “Were You There?”
The latest additions boost the tally of new tunes to 37.
The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: Bigotry against BYU
(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver/punt returner Britain Covey, shown in 2023, appears in the latest "Mormon Land" podcast.
Football star Britain Covey and Tribune sports writer Kevin Reynolds discuss the vulgar anti-Latter-day Saint chants that sometimes erupt at BYU road games.
Listen to the podcast.
The year in Jerusalem
BYU’s Jerusalem Center will reopen this spring some 18 months after the Israel-Hamas war shuttered operations.
“Jerusalem has been quiet for several months,” Jim Kearl, assistant to the university president for the center, said on the school’s website, “and there are strong signs of improved security throughout the Holy Land as ceasefire agreements in both Gaza and Lebanon appear to be holding.”
From The Tribune
(Illustration by Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)
• How social media is shaping Latter-day Saint men’s views of masculinity — for better or worse.
• ‘The teachings of Jesus Christ are a whole lot closer to the teachings of [James] Madison than to the teachings of MAGA.” So said writer Jonathan Rauch in last week’s “Mormon Land” podcast. Listen to the show and/or read excerpts.
• A Utah attorney points to a Supreme Court ruling and the church’s endorsement of the so-called Utah Compromise as evidence that discrimination against transgender workers remains illegal and immoral.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) L. Tom Perry, then a Latter-day Saint apostle, left, shakes hands with Equality Utah Executive Director Troy Williams in 2015 in celebrating the Utah Compromise on LGBTQ protections.
• How a dusty missionary cookbook changed Tribune guest columnist Eli McCann’s diet and his life.
• Lawmakers have advanced a bill that could close more Utah stores on Sundays and other “religious days.”
• To learn the real lessons of history, scholar Janiece Johnson argues, “American Primeval” needed to tell the real story.
• The Salt Lake Temple will reopen in 2027 — after more than seven years of extensive renovations, repairs and seismic upgrades — with public tours running from April to October 2027.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Work continues on the Salt Lake Temple on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025.
