Latest from Mormon Land: A pro-immigrant church; praying about whether to ordain women

The Mormon Land newsletter is The Salt Lake Tribune’s weekly highlight reel of news in and about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Join us on Patreon and receive the full newsletter, podcast transcripts and access to all of our religion content.

Immigration is in LDS DNA

The Latter-day Saint saga is — at its heart — an immigrant story. It includes the epic 19th-century journey of migrants fleeing persecution and prosecution in the United States under a modern Moses, Brigham Young, to find safety and solace in a promised land under the Western skies of the Great Basin.

So how many of these pioneers were actual immigrants (born outside of the U.S.) and where did they hail from?

Numbers nerd Stephen Cranney did some data deciphering in a recent Times and Seasons blog post and discovered that a third of early Utahns (33%) in 1860 were born outside the current U.S. — with nearly a fifth (18.56%) coming from England, followed by more than 5% from Scotland and Wales, and almost 4% from Denmark.

Fast forward to today: The church has publicly pushed immigration-friendly policies, twice endorsing the Utah Compact, which calls for federal reforms with an eye toward compassion and keeping families together. And, in the first major policy statement of Russell Nelson’s presidency, leaders urged Congress to protect from deportation “Dreamers” who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children by family members.

Prayer, priesthood and women

Frequent commentator Sam Brunson, who has argued time and again to let Latter-day Saint girls pass the sacrament (or Communion), tackles women and the priesthood in a recent By Common Consent blog post.

After the church ended the racist ban in 1978 preventing Black men from holding the priesthood and Black men and women from entering temples, Brunson notes, speculation sprung up about whether women, too, would ever be ordained.

Apostle N. Eldon Tanner, then a member of the governing First Presidency, explained at the time that he was “not currently praying that women will someday hold the priesthood.” (See historian Matthew Harris’ recent book, “Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality.”)

Brunson hopes that church President Russell Nelson & Co. are not taking Tanner’s tack.

“At the very least,” he writes, “church leaders need … to sincerely explore whether it’s God’s will for women to (finally) have the ability to receive priesthood ordination.”

Brunson is convinced that “expansion of priesthood to women and girls will not devalue it for men and boys,” he says, and will ultimately boost the church.

“When the church ordains women to the priesthood, it will have more priesthood holders,” Brunson explains. “The priesthood will be able to bless more lives. We’ll be able to form more wards, more stakes.”

The nastiest ‘Unspoken Divide’

In the third installment of our multiyear exploration of the “Unspoken Divide” between Latter-day Saints and other Utahns, we dissect the most pernicious, the most polarizing, the most protracted of all the chasms: the one between practicing members and former members.

Read the main story, quotes from all sides and advice from top church leaders on the topic.

The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: The A.I. dilemma

Apostles have warned about the dangers of artificial intelligence, especially as a substitute for human insight and divine revelation. So how can and should the church and Latter-day Saints use it in a way God would sanction?

Listen to the podcast.

Football and faith

Latter-day Saint Britain Covey — an undersized but overachieving football star with the world champion Philadelphia Eagles — doesn’t shy away from taking on the big bodies in the NFL or speaking publicly about his faith.

“I’m not the biggest guy. I look more like a Ping-Pong player than a football player,” he says in a video posted on the church’s social media account. “... You learn pretty quickly in the NFL that, to most people, your value is determined strictly by how you perform. … To God, I know that your value does not lie in your performance but rather in your existence."

Tab Choir’s tour continues

The rotating, multiyear world tour of The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square took the church’s premier performing troupe to Argentina for a pair of concerts last week.

Accompanying the choir, apostle Quentin Cook met with Argentine President Javier Milei. “There are opportunities, particularly on the humanitarian side of things,” Cook said, “where we can work together.”

From The Tribune

• It’s three strikes for tithing lawsuits against the church as a federal appeals court tosses out yet another case.

• Despite pushback, BYU isn’t going to abandon its “unique mission,” says church education commissioner.

• The church takes a big step forward in the world’s third smallest country.

• To prepare for Christ’s return, focus on becoming “pure vessels in his hands,” a top Latter-day Saint women’s leader counsels.

• A mission president wounded by a gunman leaves the hospital and credits God for “miraculously” saving his life.

• “My shoulders have never been more tan.” More Latter-day Saint women can now go sleeveless this summer — guilt-free.

• A senior missionary is killed in a lawn mower accident at a historic church site.

• The new temple rising along Provo’s east bench has a familiar look and that, some members say, is the problem.