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‘Something had to give’

Jacinda Ardern, the former progressive prime minister of New Zealand, talked in a recent podcast about the “cognitive dissonance” that prompted her to step away from the church.

“I was always aware of the fact that here I was in my 20s, campaigning for civil unions, campaigning for our LGBTQI+ community, and, on Sunday, I was going to a church that didn’t believe in that, and something had to give,” Ardern told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. “And in the end, I made the decision to leave.”

After her exit, she “wasn’t cut off from anyone,” she said. “My family [was] very kind.”

Ardern won public acclaim for her compassionate response to mass shootings at two mosques and personal praise from then-church President Russell Nelson for her peacemaking and leadership abilities.

Gong rings an AI warning bell

Apostle Gerrit Gong, the church’s ecclesiastical point person on artificial intelligence, is concerned not just about how AI treats his religion but rather how it handles any religion.

A recent survey, he notes, showed that respondents expected AI to include a religious perspective to questions involving grief, major life decisions and personal challenges. But rarely did AI models deliver a faith viewpoint at all.

“This does not mean AI should preach. It should not. Nor should one religious tradition be privileged over another, or belief privileged over nonbelief,” Gong writes in a Diplomatic Courier article. “But neutrality cannot mean omitting religious perspectives and treating the religious dimensions of human life as though they do not exist.”

This booming technology “lacks sufficient moral grounding,” Gong argues. “AI will not reach its full potential until we make it as moral as we make it powerful.”

Diplomatic Courier notes that it verified “no AI was used in the production” of Gong’s article.

Conference prep

Here are stories from our pre-General Conference special section to whet your spiritual appetite for this weekend’s sessions:

• Falling birthrates — inside and outside the church — suddenly are all the buzz. We help you understand why members are having fewer kids, how the church might counter the trend, and whether Latter-day Saint couples ultimately could reverse the baby bust.

• She held no office. She was never sustained. But for more than three decades, she was the most powerful woman in the church.

• Latter-day Saints are no strangers to socialism — in the past and the present.

• We need to listen to what the Catholic pope and the Latter-day Saint prophet have to say, argues Tribune guest columnist Natalie Brown.

• Temples have been around from the faith’s earliest days, but their functions have evolved. When was the last time, for instance, that a Latter-day Saint temple staged a dance?

• Remembering his Grandpa Hinkle, Tribune guest columnist Eli McCann notes that recording a loved one’s history is a “sacred act.”

• It’s OK to complain to God, says Tribune columnist Gordon Monson, but not necessarily at God.

Check back at sltrib.com this weekend for complete and continuous coverage of the latest conference talks and announcements.

Latest ‘Mormon’ Land podcast: The ‘perfect wife’

How Latter-day Saint women helped shape conservative Christian ideals around womanhood.

Listen to the podcast.

Around the world

• The church continues to home in on housing.

Continuing a notable trend, the faith’s real estate arm recently bought a luxury apartment complex in the heart of Northern California’s Silicon Valley for $296.7 million in cash, The Mercury News reported.

The three-building Villages Residences complex features 331 units, the newspaper reports, and 43,000 square feet of shops and restaurant spaces.

• Next year’s RootsTech, the world’s largest family history gathering, will spotlight a keynote address by Jane Seymour, who starred in the 1990s TV show “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” and the 1980 romance “Somewhere in Time.”

The theme for FamilySearch’s premier 2027 event, set for March 4-6, is “Celebrate!”

• Apostle Dieter Uchtdorf and his wife, Harriet, recently visited the St. George grave of a “cherished friend,” fellow apostle Jeffrey Holland.

“It was a tender moment for us,” Uchtdorf wrote on social media, “as we reflected again on the life of a truly remarkable man.”

Holland, a St. George native, died late last year at age 85. His wife, Pat, died in 2023 at age 81.

The couple, Uchtdorf said, “left behind a legacy of faith that will continue to inspire followers of the Savior for years to come.”

• A recent gathering of young single adult Latter-day Saints in New York featured an appearance by apostle Ulisses Soares.

“The Lord needs your light here in New York City and wherever he may lead you,” Soares said in a Lincoln Center devotional, according to a news release. “He needs your faith, goodness, education, skills, moral courage and willingness to stand as his witnesses.”

• The church’s Institutes of Religion were born in, of all places, Moscow.

Not the one in Russia; the one in Idaho.

The program’s first building opened near the University of Idaho in 1926 under the direction of then-church President Heber J. Grant. A centennial celebration marking the occasion is planned this weekend in Moscow.

Institutes for young adults are now located in more than 2,700 locations in over 170 countries, a news release notes, and boast hundreds of thousands of students.

• A regional Latter-day Saint leader participated in an interfaith gathering during the final day of Pope Leo XIV’s visit to France.

“It is a wonderful experience to gather with our brothers and sisters,” Michael Ulrich, president of the church’s Nancy Stake, said in a news release, “and sense a common conviction that Christ is the answer to building peace and becoming better neighbors.”

From The Tribune

• A new Latter-day Saint chapel will rise at the site of a deadly shooting and arson attack.

• How a pro-church podcast might have complicated the faith’s copyright case against “Mormon Stories.”

• What a former federal judge says church President Dallin Oaks taught him about the Constitution. Listen to the “Mormon Land” podcast. Read the excerpts.

• Seven male Latter-day Saint leaders have signed official statements opposing abortion ballot measures in Idaho and Nevada. See what Latter-day Saint women are saying on the topic.

• Read also what members are saying about the new Sunday meeting schedule.

• BYU’s cross country teams are drawing flak for having the audacity of wearing — wait for it — running gear, writes Tribune columnist Gordon Monson.

• A Utah meetinghouse will be torn down to make way for a highway expansion. See what was in its time capsule.