Mormon Land

Brigham Young University star football recruits Ryder Lyons and Brock Harris are stepping away from the gridiron and stepping up to serve missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Nothing new there. After all, about half the players on coach Kalani Sitake’s roster at the church-owned Provo school are former missionaries.

But wait. Lyons and Harris say they are going on one-year missions. Is this some new excepti...

If you ask members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints if they know about the “Three Nephites,” chances are most will know the allusion.

The story comes from the Book of Mormon in chapters where the risen Christ visits the Americas and chooses 12 apostles. Of those, three ask to linger in mortality until Jesus comes again, ministering to the people.

From the time when the book of scripture was first published until t...

A grassroots movement centered in Salt Lake City more than 40 years ago kept Utah and Nevada from hosting the world’s largest nuclear weapons system. During the final years of the Cold War, a peaceful rebellion against the MX mobile missile saved the Great Basin from significant environmental impacts and helped change the course of the arms race.

Aiding the activists was a powerful ally: the then-president of The Church of Jesus Ch...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently announced plans to add 55 missions across the globe next year.

That’s the most since the Utah-based faith of 17.5 million members created 58 missions in 2013 and brings its total tally worldwide to 506.

At the same time, the current corps of full-time missionaries has topped 84,000 and, according to apostle Quentin Cook, convert baptisms during the first six months of 2025 ra...

The heroic tale of Helmuth Hübener, a teenage Latter-day Saint activist who was executed in 1942 for trying to warn Germans about Hitler’s lies, is familiar to many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the United States and abroad.

He has been the subject of plays, articles, books and a documentary. For those who still don’t know it, though, there is now a feature film, “Truth & Treason,” that recounts ...

On the November crossover episode between ‘Mormon Land’ and ‘Mormons in Media, ’ Rebbie and Nicole are joined by humor columnist Eli McCann to talk Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. Rebbie is coming in blind to the Real Housewives franchise, so this go around, she's the one with the questions. The three discuss differences between 'Secret Lives of Mormon Wives' and 'Real Housewives of Salt Lake City' and why one is so much easier ...

If there is a constant in the history of Latter-day Saint temple worship, it is change. Language used, covenants made, clothing worn and meaning ascribed to all of it — each has evolved since the early 1830s, when Joseph Smith introduced the idea of sacred rituals beyond baptism and confirmation.

In his newly published book, “Holiness to the Lord: Latter-day Saint Temple Worship,” historian Jonathan Stapley explores those changes i...

Of the major Western religious traditions in the United States, only The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints retains the service-until-death policy for its top leader.

Last week, Dallin H. Oaks, at age 93, became the 18th prophet-president of the faith, succeeding Russell M. Nelson, who died Sept. 27 at 101. Unlike a leader in any other American-based faith, Oaks will be expected to serve until the end of his life — as Nels...

It’s fitting this week to revisit our 2021 “Mormon Land” podcast with the biographer of President Dallin H. Oaks, the newly installed leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In this episode, historian Richard Turley discusses his book “In the Hands of the Lord: The Life of Dallin H. Oaks," which documents the personal journey of a church leader known for his devotion to religious liberty, his doctrinal dissection...

The 195th Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints looked much like any other in recent years.

There were talks by apostles and general authority Seventies, along with three women, punctuated by music by The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square and other Utah choirs.

But it might be remembered mostly for what didn’t happen.

It was presided over by the Dallin Oaks-led Quorum of the Twelve Apostle...

As accolades and adoration continue to pour in after the death of President Russell M. Nelson, it could be time to assess the historical perspective and place of the oldest prophet-president in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

What will be his legacy? How did his leadership and innovations impact the global faith?

Then there’s the question of how his presumed successor, Dallin H. Oaks, will be “chosen...

Passion. Intimacy. Eroticism. Arousal. Sex.

These terms are as much a part of God’s plan in the theology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as agency, repentance and baptism. Yet they are rarely discussed or even mentioned — save for in hushed, almost apologetic, tones — among members.

Such hesitancy is not found in Latter-day Saint therapist Jennifer Finlayson-Fife’s new book, “That We Might Have Joy: Desire, Divin...

In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issuing two news releases condemning violence and calling for greater kindness and love, we are reprising this 2023 “Mormon Land” podcast.

Recorded a few days after church President Russell M. Nelson delivered his widely praised General Conference address on peacemaking, it is as timely now — if not more so — than when it originally aire...

When Russell M. Nelson, already the oldest-ever president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, turned 100 last year, the Utah-based faith celebrated him with a televised birthday party.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox declared Sept. 9, 2024, as Russell M. Nelson Day. Throngs of young single adults signed a giant birthday card. And members everywhere reflected on the centenarian’s accomplishments and leadership.

By comparison,...

A new nine-part video series about Mormonism, titled “An Inconvenient Faith,” was recently uploaded to YouTube.

It tackles the thorniest issues — LGBTQ relations, feminism, church history, race, polygamy, Book of Mormon historicity and divine revelation — currently faced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The ultimate approach seems to be to defend the church and help explain how members can wrestle honestly with t...

Is the following playing out more and more among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?

• The bishop asks Brother So-and-So to give a talk next week on being kind to strangers.

“No problem,” the member thinks. “I’ll just make a couple of queries in ChatGPT and, voila, instant sacrament sermon.”

• Or the Sunday school president calls on Sister Such-and-Such to pinch-hit in Gospel Doctrine.

“Sure,” the fill-in te...

The mission statement of Brigham Young University, the flagship school of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, says nothing about pursuing spots in the College Football Playoff or the Final Four.

It does say that BYU graduates “should be capable of competing with the best in their fields.”

So, in this era of “name, image and likeness,” with athletic budgets soaring into the mega-millions, does that mean the Cougars are ...

For many early Utah pioneers, James Brown Jr. was a hero of sorts. He led a Mormon Battalion company into the Salt Lake Valley just days after Brigham Young. He and his family settled Ogden, which became known for a time as Brownsville, and he served as a Latter-day Saint bishop.

As a prominent leader, he married 13 women — all sealed to him in temple rites — and fathered 28 children.

What most church members didn’t know was that J...