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Latest from Mormon Land: Angels with wings? They’re false doctrine, but why not?

Also: Is paying tithing on government benefits OK? Apostle attends combined audience with Pope Leo; special report from Africa; and Trump tariffs prove costly for the LDS Church.

(The Salt Lake Tribune; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Carl Bloch's "The Resurrection" at the BYU Museum of Art, left, and Tom Lovell's "The Angel Moroni Appears to Joseph Smith," right. One famously depicts angels with wings; the other doesn't.

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‘I saw another angel…with wings’

When it comes to depicting angels, more and more Latter-day Saint artists are, well, winging it.

At the 13th International Art Competition, now on exhibit at the Church History Museum in downtown Salt Lake City, several paintings clearly show angels with wings.

Such portrayals, of course, fly in the face of Latter-day Saint doctrine, which holds that these heavenly hosts are either spirits (awaiting birth or awaiting resurrection) or those with bodies of flesh and bone (post-resurrection or translated), i.e., no wings.

“An angel of God,” church founder Joseph Smith taught matter-of-factly, “never has wings.”

In the past, the church went to great lengths to reinforce this belief, sometimes removing wings when publishing famous works of art.

No more. Soaring seraphs now grace Latter-day Saint paintings, sculptures, even a book cover from church-owned Brigham Young University and Deseret Book.

(Amazon) This publication from BYU's Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book includes art depicting a winged angel.

Certainly, there are still plenty of portrayals of wingless angels (think Angel Moroni), but nowadays, it seems, the symbolism can coexist with the canon.

A tithing question

A reader reached out to a financial columnist for The Daily Telegraph in Britain recently concerned that a 92-year-old aunt was donating 10% of the government care aid she receives to the church as tithing.

“If a Mormon does not pay their tithes, they cannot get a recommend. If they cannot get a recommend, they cannot go to the temple,” the reader wrote. “If they cannot go to the temple, they cannot go to the Celestial Kingdom — hence they receive damnation in the next life. … I feel that giving 10% of [this benefit] to the LDS is wrong. Taxpayers are contributing, albeit unknowingly, to the Mormon church.”

(Illustration by Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)

The newspaper’s “Moral Money” columnist, Sam Secomb, a chartered financial planner, responded that the aunt was free to make religious contributions.

“Your aunt is not being manipulated or misled — she is making a conscious, faith-driven choice,” Secomb explained. “You may feel strongly that she should prioritize her physical needs, but she may believe — equally strongly — that her spiritual well-being is paramount.”

Secomb also noted that this particular benefit allows recipients to spend the allowance as they choose. As for the aunt’s fear that failing to tithe may jeopardize her place in the afterlife, the columnist stated, “that belief system may seem coercive or even unfair to some, but it is nonetheless real to her.”

The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: Succession models

(The Salt Lake Tribune; AP) Russell M. Nelson, left, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Pope Leo XIV, leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

Secret Catholic conclave vs. predictable Latter-day Saint succession. Experts from both faiths discuss the precedents, the politics, the pluses, the minuses and how each religion sees God’s hand in the result.

Listen to the podcast.

Around the world

• General authority Seventy Matthew Holland, son of apostle Jeffrey Holland, attended Pope Leo XIV’s inaugural Mass on Sunday and joined other global faith representatives for a private audience with the new Catholic pontiff.

Holland also shared a congratulatory letter from the First Presidency, praising the pope’s “lifetime of faith and admirable character” and expressing an eagerness to work together for a world where “peace, human life and dignity, and religious freedom are cherished and protected.”

• Young Women General President Emily Belle Freeman visited Liberty Jail — where church founder Joseph Smith was held for more than four miserable months in the winter of 1838-39 — and other church historic sites in Missouri last week.

(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Young Women General President Emily Belle Freeman speaks at Liberty Jail Historic Site on May 15, 2025.

“I hope every one of us, on that day when Christ returns, will be believers,” Freeman told the assembled teenage girls, according to a news release. “We will have walked through hard things, even Liberty Jail moments in our life. But instead of making us bitter, I hope those things help us to believe and help us to see that Christ has been in every moment of our story.”

From The Tribune

• From this special report from Africa, learn about a country where the church is growing rapidly despite deep challenges posed by a young membership, wide poverty, even modern polygamy.

(Michael Stack | Special to The Tribune) The newly dedicated Nairobi Temple’s steeple rises above a neighborhood in the Kenyan capital.

• What if, Tribune columnist Gordon Monson asks, Latter-day Saint apostles picked their prophets the way Catholics elect their popes?

• How President Donald Trump’s tariff turmoil cost the church billions of dollars.

• See where BYU’s new medical school will be built.

• How Latter-day Saint women can achieve true self-reliance — and why they need to.

• Two stars from “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” say there is more to them than their religion.

(Pamela Littky | Disney) Layla Taylor, left, and Miranda McWhorter, cast members on Hulu's "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives."

• Utah is the place not only for Brigham’s band of Saints but also for a benevolent batch of Catholic nuns.

• Big names in Latter-day Saint art are staging a big festival.