David NoyceThe 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 to receive ad-free podcast episodes, the full newsletter and access to all of our religion content.
‘G’ whiz — check out all the sleeveless styles
Thank heavens those sleeveless garments are out because sleeveless styles are in.
And in a big way.
Vanessa Friedman, chief fashion critic for The New York Times, reports that sales of sleeveless clothing are exploding.
Friedman notes that the global sleeveless market is expected to swell to $51 billion by 2033 — more than double what it was just five years ago. And sleeveless looks have jumped by 133% in the past year alone.
Why the surge? Credit, in part, climate change.
“In increasingly sweltering summers, everyone’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of less fabric,” Friedman writes. “Fitness culture also plays a role, as do changing gender norms.”
Sleeveless temple garments, worn underneath regular clothes by devout members, debuted in 2024 and arrived in the U.S. last fall as eager Latter-day Saints flooded distribution centers and swamped the church’s online store to obtain the breezier designs.
Now they can don those hot new sleeveless styles and be much cooler doing so.
The latest garments, of course, do not accommodate all the sleeveless fashions. Plenty of wardrobe limits remain for Latter-day Saint women and men.
(Illustration by Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Mormon misconceptions
We wrote last week about myths, misconceptions and misunderstandings about Latter-day Saint teachings, policies and practices. Again, we’re talking about officialdom in today’s church, not what general authority so-and-so preached from the pulpit 40 years ago or what the faith’s handbook stated in the 1990s.
We asked for your input and received dozens of suggestions, which we’ll continue to explore in coming weeks. Here’s one:
• Good Latter-day Saints cannot be Democrats.
Wrong. Members can be Democrats, Republicans, independents, libertarians, socialists, even communists, for that matter.
Granted, Latter-day Saints have been among the most reliably red voting blocs for decades in the U.S. — though that trend appears to be shifting among younger members — but the faith’s statement on political neutrality and participation notes Latter-day Saints “come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences and may have differences of opinion in partisan political matters.”
And the General Handbook says plainly that “faithful Latter-day Saints can belong to a variety of political parties and vote for a variety of candidates. All should feel welcome in church settings.”
So forget, for instance, what conservative apostle Ezra Taft Benson, a former church president, once said about how it would be hard to be a liberal Democrat and a good Latter-day Saint. He wasn’t — and isn’t — speaking for the worldwide faith. In fact, the highest-ranking elected Latter-day Saint in U.S. history was a fiercely partisan — yet decidedly devout — Democrat named Harry Reid, who rose to become the Senate majority leader.
(Dennis Cook |AP) Then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, in 2007. He was a Latter-day Saint convert.
Latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: Nauvoo polygamy
The diaries of William Clayton, church founder Joseph Smith’s scribe, document daily life in Nauvoo, Illinois, including the building of the temple and the early practice of plural marriage. Two church historians, preparing the journals for publication, provide details.
Listen to the podcast.
(Church History Library) William Clayton was a confidant, clerk and scribe to church founder Joseph Smith.
Around the world
• Award-winning scholar Benjamin Park, a guest from time to time on “Mormon Land” podcasts, is scheduled to deliver Utah State University’s Arrington Mormon History Lecture on Sept. 24 at 7 p.m. in the Logan Tabernacle.
The title of his speech: “Declarations of Interdependence — Why the Latter-day Saints Just Can’t Quit the United States.”
“This presentation,” USU reports, “traces the long, topsy-turvy, and evolving saga” between the nation and this homegrown global faith.
(Grand Teton National Park) Moulton Barn at Grand Teton National Park's Mormon Row.
• Restoration of Mormon Row, a historic farm community established by Latter-day Saint homesteaders in the 1890s and one of the most picturesque places in Grand Teton National Park, is entering its final phase.
“We can’t wait for visitors to experience the end result,” Leslie Mattson, president of the Grand Teton National Park Foundation, said in Buckrail, a Jackson Hole news website.
From The Tribune
Joseph Smith, top left, and some of his reported wives, clockwise from top middle: Emma Hale Smith; Eliza R. Snow; Martha McBride (Knight Smith Kimball); Marinda Nancy Johnson (Hyde Smith); and Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs (Smith Young).
• When it comes to Joseph Smith’s polygamy, the truth is out there, and the pending publication of his scribe’s diaries provides further evidence of the church founder’s then-hidden practice of plural marriage.
• Meet the gay Latter-day Saint fashion designer at the center of the latest online controversy.
(Nico Daniels) New York City fashion designer Pono Skousen found himself at the center of the latest debate over the place of LGBTQ members in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after the faith's Instagram shared his story.
• Conservative writer Cleon Skousen not only shaped how members read the Bible but also how they view politics. Listen to our “Mormon Land” podcast. Read the excerpts.
• A Methodist minister, a Presbyterian pastor and a Latter-day Saint singer take a hike together on the famed Camino.
• The church soon may swap land with the U.S. government to gain ownership of a sacred pioneer site.
• Latter-day Saints aren’t the only ones unhappy with the Pentagon’s religious changes.
• The bestselling tradewife satire “Yesteryear” understands Christianity better than most Americans, writes Religion News Service columnist Jana Riess.
