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Spirit of the law
In a deeply personal piece, Times and Seasons blogger Stephen Fleming reflects on a time he felt “persistent prompting” to buck his church on a ballot issue and essentially go with his gut instead.
The issue: California’s Proposition 8, a 2008 measure that effectively sought to ban same-sex marriage in the Golden State.
Fleming recounts feeling torn between the church’s public position — and intense campaigning — in favor of the ballot proposal and the views of his more liberal neighbors and “this nagging spiritual feeling” that he should think more about this topic.
Just days before the election, Fleming recalls getting a “clear answer that God wanted me to vote no on Proposition 8.”
“I REALLY remember,” he writes, “staring at the Proposition 8 question in the voting booth and thinking, ‘What’s it going to be, Steve? [Then-church] President [Thomas] Monson said vote yes, but the Spirit told me to vote no.’”
In the end, Fleming said, he sided with the Spirit and voted against the measure.
Since then, of course, Prop 8’s passage has become moot. The U.S. Supreme Court has legalized same-sex marriage across the nation and Congress — with the church’s blessing — has codified it.
The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: immigration and the church
Scriptures and Latter-day Saint history are full of immigrant stories — from Moses to Lehi to Brigham Young and even Jesus himself. So how should the church and its members view the current immigration crackdown? A Latter-day Saint immigration attorney shares his perspective.
Listen to the podcast.
A.I. — the good, the bad and the blasphemous
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Apostle Gerrit W. Gong participates in a panel discussion about artificial intelligence at the Religions for Peace World Council in Istanbul on Tuesday, July 29, 2025.
Apostle Gerrit Gong has a warning for the disciples of artificial intelligence.
And to put it in Moses-like, biblical parlance, it’s this: Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
“Those who seek to deify A.I. may unwittingly discover a modern Tower of Babel. Human efforts to create utopia or to reach heaven always fall short,” Gong cautioned at a Religions for Peace World Council in Istanbul. “For children of God, platforms and technologies cannot substitute for authentic divine connection and relationship.”
Jeffrey Holland’s grand entrance
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints apostle Jeffery R. Holland rides in the Days of '47 Parade in Salt Lake City on Thursday, July 24, 2025.
As grand marshal, senior apostle Jeffrey Holland had a primo spot in Salt Lake City’s Days of ’47 Parade last week.
“I’m OK with the marshal part,” Holland joked. “I don’t know about the grand.”
Historic chapel with a special mission
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) For nearly a century, this church building in Ogden was home to the church’s first-ever congregation organized entirely for deaf members.
For 80 years, a historic northern Utah chapel served as the spiritual home for the church’s first congregation dedicated to deaf members, followed by two decades as a meetinghouse for those recently released from prison.
After an 18-month restoration project, Ogden’s Water Tower Branch will continue its role in the church’s efforts to help former inmates.
“It’s just unbelievable to see this building and the renovation and how beautiful it absolutely is,” Darlene Cochran, whose family has been part of the Ogden branch for the deaf for three generations, said in a video celebrating the reopening of the Prairie School-style building.
David Archuleta’s cover story
People magazine has blown David Archuleta’s cover, so to speak.
The pop star has given the publication a first peek at his coming memoir. Check it out here. Titled “Devout,” and due out in February, it carries the subtitle: “Losing My Faith to Find Myself.”
“This searing memoir,” states a news release shared with People, “reflects on David’s ventures with ‘American Idol,’ a tour with Demi Lovato and a two-year sabbatical as a missionary in South America, charting his path through heartbreak, estrangement, three engagements, thoughts of suicide and, finally, his courageous decision to leave the Mormon church in order to live authentically as a queer man.”
From The Tribune
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Brent Ashworth shows a homemade fiddle from pioneer times among his collection of antiquities in his office in Provo.
• Joseph and Emma Smith’s family Bible? A Book of Mormon signed by Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin? A Bible that crossed the Atlantic on the Mayflower? History lives in this Latter-day Saint’s vast collection.
• A Utah man has been charged with sexually abusing boys while serving a mission in Tonga and luring them with video games.
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Then-Relief Society General President Bonnie Parkin with then-President Gordon B. Hinckley during a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Salt Lake City to commemorate the renovation of the historic Relief Society Building in 2006. Parkin died this week at age 84.
• A former president of the global women’s Relief Society has died.
• A court ruling has cleared the way for construction to move forward on Utah’s Heber Valley Temple.