Latest from Mormon Land: Will Dallin Oaks continue his constitutional concerns during Trump II?

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Keeping the Constitution in his prayers

It’s fair to say that the constitutional debates (some argue “crises”) that keep springing up under Donald Trump’s administration remain top of mind for church President Dallin Oaks.

Oaks, a former Utah Supreme Court justice who has used his General Conference megaphone to urge Americans to peacefully abide by election results and reminded them that their loyalty should be to the Constitution, not to any officeholder — sent that signal in his recent dedicatory prayer for Idaho’s Burley Temple.

“We thank thee for thy blessings to this nation,” he implored, “and pray that thou wilt inspire and strengthen those who seek to preserve our constitutional form of government and the rule of law.”

Oaks offered a similar refrain in 2023, when he dedicated Virginia’s Richmond Temple, a couple of hours south of the nation’s capital, amid the presidential campaign.

“We thank thee for thy blessings to this nation and pray that thou wilt inspire and strengthen those who seek to preserve our constitutional form of government,” he pleaded at the time. “We pray especially for its leaders and for all that reside here that we may qualify for thy promises that if we will serve thee and keep thy commandments, we will prosper in the land.”

During Trump’s 2016 campaign, Oaks dedicated the Provo City Center Temple in the church leader’s hometown using the same words, while including a salute to the “freedom of religion that is so vital to the on-rolling of thy work.”

Oaks uttered similar sentiments when he rededicated Arizona’s Mesa Temple in 2021 at the end of Joe Biden’s first year in the Oval Office. The senior apostle bypassed that language in 2019, when he rededicated California’s Oakland Temple in a supplication that repeated much of what former church President David O. McKay said in his 1964 dedicatory prayer.

Of note, Oaks also prays for foreign nations when he dedicates temples in those lands.

“We thank thee for thy blessings to this Philippine nation and its citizens,” he said in 2024 at the Urdaneta Temple, “and pray that thou wilt inspire and strengthen its leaders and all who seek to preserve its independence and administer its government with wisdom and justice for all.”

And, in 2018, for the dedication of the Barranquilla Temple, he asked God to “bless the leaders of this great nation of Colombia. Inspire their minds and motives as they lead. Please bless the citizens of this nation and its neighboring nations that they may enjoy freedom and be prospered in their spiritual and temporal activities.”

In this U.S. midterm election year, eyes will be on Oaks to see if he again raises his constitutional concerns in a prominent public platform.

A big buy in a big state

The church, already one of the largest private landholders in the U.S., just added nearly 3,000 acres in central Texas to its vast portfolio.

Property Reserve Inc., a real estate arm of the Utah-based faith, bought 2,898 acres of mostly ranchland in Kyle, the San Antonio Express-News reports. The price tag remains undisclosed.

Home to the historic Nance Ranch, the property has been at the center of an environmental lawsuit seeking to prevent development of the site.

The Express-News noted that a disputed, decade-old city-approved agreement would allow up to 9,000 housing units, along with commercial outlets, to be built on that land.

The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: Why all the hoop-la?

Latter-day Saints sing about “courts on high,” but they play on them right here. In fact, many meetinghouses sport basketball hoops next to the chapel. From its beginning as a display of “muscular Christianity,” basketball has enjoyed a vaunted place in the faith.

Learn about that history in this week’s podcast.

Oaks’ new book

President Dallin Oaks’ new book, titled “Learning the Great Fundamentals: Jesus Christ, Priesthood, and the Plan of Salvation,” is available for preorder. The Kindle edition comes out Jan. 24.

Created under the leadership of President Russell Nelson before he died, church-owned Deseret Book explains, the volume “presents the doctrinal explanations and insights that have come from President Oaks’ careful studies.”

Chapter headings include:

• Be not conformed to this world.

• Priesthood authority and power in the church and family.

• Avoiding contention and becoming peacemakers.

• Love and law.

More on Michigan attack

Authorities say the shooter/arsonist who attacked a Latter-day Saint meetinghouse in Michigan last fall phoned in fake bomb threats to other houses of worship just before unleashing his deadly assault, the New York Daily News reports.

Elijah come to the temple

A new statue, depicting Old Testament Prophet Elijah restoring “sealing” keys to church founder Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, graces downtown Salt Lake City’s Temple Square.

From The Tribune

• The church’s embrace of modern Bible translations “could and will lead to faith crises” for some, says scripture scholar Dan McClellan. See why he believes that could be healthy. Listen (or relisten) to our “Mormon Land” podcast. Read the excerpts.

• BYU-Hawaii students find themselves in immigration limbo under President Donald Trump’s travel ban on Tonga.

• Latter-day Saint scholar Matthew Bowman gives a thumbs-up to the film “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” for its treatment of religion.

• General authority Seventy Matthew Holland has been finding comfort in the pages of the Book of Mormon since his father’s death.

Temple updates

• Nearly a decade in the making, Zimbabwe’s first Latter-day Saint temple, in the capital of Harare, has opened to public tours, which will run through Feb. 7. Apostle Gerrit Gong is scheduled to dedicate the single-spired, single-story, 17,250-square-foot building on March 1.

• Apostle David Bednar dedicated the Philippines’ Alabang Temple on Sunday. The single-spired, two-story, 36,000-square-foot building is the nation’s fourth Latter-day Saint temple and the second in metropolitan Manila. Temples in Davao and Bacolod are scheduled to be dedicated in May, and six more are being built in the Philippines.