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Thus saith … A.I.?
When Latter-day Saints gather for General Conference twice a year to hear sermons from their top church leaders, they can rest assured that those words are coming not from computer algorithms.
So said apostle Gerrit Gong at a Nov. 5 “Organized Intelligence” conference about Latter-day Saint perspectives on artificial intelligence.
“Because A.I. cannot replace divine inspiration, nor the individual work that invites it,” Gong said, “we ask General Conference speakers not to use A.I. to create initial drafts or final versions of their messages.”
A.I. can be a positive and proficient tool, he conceded, “but A.I. algorithms do not love, bless or relate to us by divine covenant.”
The apostle noted the church will always label as such any A.I.-generated images and voices, and bans A.I. depictions of deity.
In an August speech at Brigham Young University, Gong urged members as well not to let A.I. “write our sacrament [meeting] talks or do our seminary homework.”
New chapel to rise from the ashes
(Mark Vancleave | AP) Little remains of Grand Blanc Township meetinghouse. The church plans to rebuild it.
The church plans to rebuild the Grand Blanc, Michigan, meetinghouse destroyed in a Sept. 28 shooting and arson attack.
“Just being on that property brings a lot of peace and is special to a lot of us, so we know that they’re working on it. We know they’re working on plans,” Bishop Jeffrey Schaub told Flint-based WJRT. “It can never come fast enough. We all wish it was here, but we have faith that we’ll be back there soon.”
The Grand Blanc community also received 20 tons of food from the church as a thank-you for its support after the deadly assault.
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Grand Blanc Bishop Jeffrey Schaub attends a news conference held at the FISH of Grand Blanc warehouse in Michigan, on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025, after a truckload of food donations was delivered by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The shipment is part of a nationwide initiative in which the faith is sending 250 semitrucks, each loaded with 40,000 pounds of provisions, to 250 food banks across all 50 states to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: The ‘Three Nephites’
Like the “Three Nephites” themselves, stories about this Book of Mormon trio live on. Why do they continue to enlighten, entertain and enthrall Latter-day Saints?
Listen to the podcast.
In defense of Oaks’ civic theology
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) President Dallin H. Oaks speaks at the University of Virginia in 2021 about the need for compromise on public policy disputes.
(Photo courtesy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) President Dallin H. Oaks speaks at the University of Virginia in 2021 about the need for compromise on public policy disputes.
Some conservative Latter-day Saints see church President Dallin Oaks’ repeated calls for compromise on public policy issues (such as LGBTQ+ rights) as an abandonment of religious doctrine.
They’re wrong, Oxford scholar Joshua Topham argues in First Things, a journal of religion and public life.
“To dismiss Oaks’ civic theology as a surrender to secularism is to misunderstand it,” writes Topham, a BYU graduate bound for Yale Law School. “He is not urging the dilution of Christian teaching on matters of moral importance but the application of Christian charity to political life. His civic theology is rooted in the conviction that building a harmonious pluralistic society will entail the hard work — and the Christian virtues — of persuasion, compassion and love unfeigned.”
Like author Jonathan Rauch, Topham views Oaks’ peacemaking as a potential remedy for healing an ailing society.
New LDS space in Logan
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Inside the lobby of the new Institute of Religion in Logan.
• The church opened a new Institute of Religion near Logan’s Utah State University.
“This new building is not just a place of study — it is a sacred place where you can come to teach one another, feel the Spirit, gain wisdom and deepen your testimony of Jesus Christ,” new apostle Gérald Caussé, who dedicated the structure Sunday, told students. “May the time you spend here now become some of the most precious memories of your university experience.”
Ah, that ‘Mormon’ term
A religion reporter for The New York Times recently noted getting a letter from a reader upset that she had used the term “Mormon” in a headline.
“We make an effort to use that term minimally, often only in headlines,” Ruth Gordon explained. “The church changed its approach to that language pretty abruptly a few years ago. … I wrestle with wanting to be respectful, and use the terms people prefer for themselves, while also needing to be clear to readers who have not kept up on these changes.”
We, at Mormon Land, certainly can relate, Ruth.
From The Tribune
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Missionaries study at the Missionary Training Center in 2023. Young women now can serve full-time missions starting at age 18.
• “I can put my papers in now” — Young women welcome news that they can serve full-time missions starting at age 18. Could the move impact college enrollments, marriage ages and birthrates?
• The marathon weekend of General Conference sessions will be shorter. Why? No more Saturday evening sessions.
• She backed the church. She bucked Donald Trump. And it cost this Latter-day Saint her City Council seat.
(Cassidy Araiza | The New York Times) Mesa City Council member Julie Spilsbury campaigns in October.
• Latter-day Saints and evangelicals are divided on doctrine, but they stand united in Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point.
• Anti-Latter-day Saint chants erupt again at a BYU game. The University of Cincinnati apologizes, and Tribune columnist Gordon Monson says it’s time for these offensive occurrences to stop.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Former BYU Presidents Merrill J. Bateman, Cecil O. Samuelson, Kevin J Worthen and current BYU President Shane Reese listen as President Dallin H. Oaks speaks on video at the Marriott Center in Provo on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025.
• Four past BYU presidents praise the Provo school as a “temple of learning” and a place where “the heavens open up.”
• A trailblazing historian and an expert on Latter-day Saint icon Eliza R. Snow has died.