The Mormon Land newsletter is The Salt Lake Tribune’s weekly highlight reel of developments in and about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Support us on Patreon and get the full newsletter, exclusive access to Tribune subscriber-only religion content and podcast transcripts.
The quest for the Holy Grail, er, gown
With a temple recommend in your purse, fresh temple garments in your drawer and a credit card in your hand, you set off to fill a closet in need of a new dress or two.
Now comes the hard part: Finding “garment-friendly” clothes. That is essentially the task By Common Consent blogger Laura assigned herself, and the results — unlike the desired dresses — are revealing.
Of the 8,160 off-the-rack dresses at macys.com, the writer discovered (given certain parameters), 619 could reasonably cover the covenant underwear. That’s fewer than 8% of the total.
That percentage drops even further, to 4%, for formal wear.
What about Latter-day Saint men? Their garments cover similar parts of their bodies, so do they face the same frustrations with business attire?
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) The faith published photos of its temple garments, which faithful members wear beneath their clothes. This photo shows men's garments.
In a word, no. In fact, in two words, heck no. Exponent II blogger Kaylee took up that challenge and learned it wasn’t much of a challenge at all.
She found all 185 options for dress pants appeared compatible with garments. All 431 tuxedos and suits would work as would all but two of the 505 dress shirts. So, Kaylee states, “it’s harder to find a ‘garment-unfriendly’ dress shirt than it is to find a ‘garment-friendly’ dress.
“A man can walk into a store and be assured that practically any dress shirt in his size will fit his body and cover his garments, even without trying it on,” the blogger writes. “A woman may need to spend hours locating a comparable item.”
Read more about Laura’s arduous shopping quest and Kaylee’s breezy online search. While you’re at it, tune in to our “Mormon Land” podcast from June exploring what Latter-day Saint women like — and dislike — about wearing garments.
The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: ‘Barbie’ for members
(Warner Bros. Pictures) Barbie (Margot Robbie, front) drives her pink Corvette out of BarbieLand, with Ken (Ryan Gosling) as a stowaway, in director Greta Gerwig's "Barbie." Some have compared Barbie's journey as echoing the biblical Garden of Eden story.
What does the blockbuster “Barbie” film say about Latter-day Saint theology and culture, including the roles of women and men, the need for choices, the all-male priesthood, patriarchy and perfectionism? Rachel Rueckert, an award-winning author and editor-in-chief of Exponent II, a magazine for and about Latter-day Saint women, discusses those questions and more. Listen to the podcast.
Celebrating British beginnings
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Cast of the British Pageant from a performance in August 2023.
Most church pageants are no longer staged, but the British Pageant — which tells the story of the faith’s first missionaries and converts in England — takes place every four years.
The 2023 performances drew enthusiastic crowds, including politicians, diplomats and other dignitaries, to the grounds of the Preston Temple.
“It was fabulous,” Ambassador Agnes Oshawa of South Sudan said in a news release. “Words cannot capture my feelings as we relived their journey.”
Where’s the map?
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) This scene from a Book of Mormon video depicts inhabitants of Zarahemla kneeling and praying to God when their spiritual and governmental leader, King Benjamin, invites them to do so.
A writer for a Catholic advocacy group discusses what he sees as the “biggest problem with the Book of Mormon.”
“There is no Mormon consensus on where these historical events took place,” Trent Horn states in Catholic Answers. “In short, in order to believe in the Book of Mormon I need a map of the Book of Mormon and there isn’t one. Anywhere. … So, the next time a Mormon missionary asks you to read the Book of Mormon, ask them to show you on a map where the events of the book took place.”
From The Tribune
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Church Administration Building in downtown Salt Lake City in shown in February 2023. The faith faces a revived fraud lawsuit from a former member.
• In a legal setback for the church, a federal appeals court has revived James Huntsman’s multimillion-dollar fraud lawsuit, declaring that “a reasonable juror” could conclude the faith’s top leaders misrepresented how funds were used to build a shopping center in downtown Salt Lake City.
• Less than a week after attending his wife’s funeral, 82-year-old apostle Jeffrey Holland has been hospitalized to undergo “treatment of ongoing health complications.”
• How do asexual Latter-day Saints navigate a faith that views marital sex as holy, divine and celestial?
• Tribune guest columnist Eli McCann comments on Latter-day Saint wedding receptions, where streamers dangle from basketball hoops and kids dart down carpet-walled hallways wearing “clip-on ties and their most recent grass-stained Easter dresses.”
Pat Bagley | The Salt Lake Tribune Tribune columnist Eli McCann writes about large Latter-day Saint families and how they celebrate weddings in his latest article.
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