Mormon Land

Starting in September, the Sabbath experience will change for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints around the world.

Services each Sunday will feature all of the faith’s traditional classes for adults and youths, rather than every other week. That means an hourlong sacrament meeting, the faith’s main worship gathering, followed by 25 minutes of Sunday school for adults and teens, and then 25 m...

The on-again, off-again debate about retention in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is, most definitely, on — again.

And in a big way.

The latest round began with a report by BYU Studies, which found a number of positive signs of high religiosity among members. But it also noted that retention among U.S. Latter-day Saints has plunged from 82% in the heady 1980s to about 50% today.

Stories appeared in T...

After a failed attempt at a mediation, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sued the influential podcast “Mormon Stories,” known for its criticism of the faith and its leaders.

In their complaint, church attorneys alleged trademark infringement.

They argued that the show’s use of the term “Mormon,” combined with church-trademarked visuals as well as copyright images, could lead some lis...

On this crossover episode between ‘Mormon Land’ and ‘Mormons in Media, ’ Rebbie and Nicole are joined by Meg Walter, host of the ‘Hive Mind’ podcast.

There is a new season of a Provo "dating show" that the three of them watch and discuss. This is truly an act of public service, so you can cringe with us about not only the new generation of dating, but the new generation of dating in Provo without...

Jeff McLean grew up as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Heber City. As the son of renowned Latter-day Saint composer and playwright Michael McLean, faith and music were large parts of Jeff’s life.

From his earliest memories, Jeff recalls his father’s stardom and the expectations of being his son. But he never anticipated the struggle of trying to reconcile his faith and his sexuality.

After...

William Clayton is likely known to most members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the author of the beloved pioneer hymn, “Come, Come, Ye Saints.” To historians, though, Clayton was a key figure in Mormonism’s beginnings, especially during the years in Nauvoo, Illinois. He served as secretary and scribe for church founder Joseph Smith, keeping a detailed diary of all the happenings — and ...

Brazilian Helvécio Martins was the first Black general authority in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He was named a dozen years after the Utah-based faith ended its 126-year priesthood/temple ban in 1978.

His son Marcus Martins had just turned 19 and thus, by most accounts, became the church’s first Black missionary after the change.

The younger Martins went on to earn a master’s degree in organizational...

“As a Latter-day Saint artist, Joseph Brickey had painted church founder Joseph Smith dozens of times. So he was naturally skeptical in 2022, when he first saw headlines about a recently discovered daguerreotype that was reported to be the only known photo of Smith.

He had studied extensively the human form, including facial structures. He had seen other photos making similar claims that were easily dismissed as frauds. So he...

There was a time in the 1960s when W. Cleon Skousen, who died in 2006 at 92, was a widely known and controversial conservative figure in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Skousen was a popular speaker, teacher and writer, whose books about scriptures reflected a literal, nonmodernist approach to the Bible.

He was a zealous anti-communist who freely mixed his Mormonism with his political views. He worked for a time as...

Earlier this month, general authority Seventy historian Kyle McKay apologized for remarks he made at a regional worship service in Oklahoma.

In his controversial comments, McKay, the official historian for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, briefly reenacted a racist rendition of the African American spiritual “This Little Light of Mine,” which he described as “a song where white ...

There was a time in the 1960s and ’70s, when Marion Duff Hanks was better known than almost any other Latter-day Saint leader.

The boyish, handsome, charismatic and deeply literate Hanks was tapped in 1953 at age 31 as a general authority in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was not released from full-time service in the faith until 1992.

“Duff” (as his friends called him) was beloved for his win...

For about a decade, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been in a costly rebrand aimed in part at shoring up its bona fides as a Christian denomination.

Not everyone is convinced, including, it appears, inside the federal government.

Late last week, the U.S. Department of Defense, helmed by conservative evangelical Pete Hegseth, issued a new, vastly pared down list of codes for religions recognized by its Chaplain C...

Carol Lynn Pearson, renowned Latter-day Saint poet, playwright and activist, began keeping a nearly daily diary when she was a senior at Brigham Young High School in 1956. And she never stopped.

The first of her four volumes, which is out now, reads like a chronicle of Mormonism’s intellectual history from the 1960s through 1980s.

Pearson, who grew up in Utah and now lives in California, comments on the battle over civil righ...

Jeff Strong, a former bishop, mission president and BYU faculty member, finds himself in a similar position to an increasing number of parents in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While he remains a believing, practicing and devout member, he has loved ones (including three of his five children) who have left the faith. Thus, his new book, titled “Torn: Why People We Love Are Leaving the Church and What We Can ...

Ronell Hugh says he was recently hiking a trail in Highland, Utah, when a white man in a gray truck leaned out his window and shouted a racist threat.

It was a moment both startling and deeply troubling for the president of the Genesis Group, a support organization for Black Latter-day Saints.

Hugh hadn’t been threatened like that before since living in the Beehive State. But he had heard lots of stories from other ...

It’s the late 1960s to mid-1970s. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints continues a century-old priesthood and temple ban against its Black members. It takes a high-profile public stance against the proposed Equal Rights Amendment. And a persistent patriarchy urges women to abandon careers and return home to care for their children and husbands — all the while limiting their leadership and other opportunities ...

On April 4, millions of Latter-day Saints worldwide raised their hands to show symbolic support for their new prophet-president, Dallin H. Oaks.

It was a rare ritual, called a solemn assembly, done primarily at the time of a new leader for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But this act of “sustaining” is also commonly used in congregations as a way to express goodwill and welcoming to new m...

Nearly 50 years ago, Latter-day Saint prophet-president Spencer W. Kimball warned boldly and directly about the dangers of war, including the vast resources used in the destruction of America’s enemies. The Yoda-like leader cautioned that members were becoming a “warlike people.” His successors in the office, though, have rarely spoken with such passion and purpose. Their condemnations of war and proclamations of ...