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Who ELSE should speak at conference?
As a “general” rule, at least in the church’s modern era, General Conferences are when general authorities and other general officers speak to the global membership.
Next month, for instance, Latter-day Saints can look forward to hearing Dallin Oaks deliver his first conference talk as the faith’s 18th president. In addition, Gérald Caussé and Clark Gilbert will give their inaugural apostolic addresses.
But conference speakers need not come from the faith’s leadership hierarchy. For instance, on Oct. 8, 1845, Lucy Mack Smith, mother of church founder Joseph Smith, became the first woman to speak at General Conference. Much later, legendary Brigham Young University football coach LaVell Edwards took the mic in fall 1984, mere months before his Cougars won a national title. And two teens gave talks in spring 2020.
Surely there are other Latter-day Saint A-listers who could command the conference pulpit. Perhaps:
• Gladys Knight, the “Empress of Soul.” Word is the Latter-day Saint convert can carry a tune as well. May we suggest a sermon and a song — such as her stirring rendition of “Somewhere,” which wowed the 2018 “Be One” celebration.
• Ken Jennings, the “Jeopardy!” trivia champ turned show host. Maybe he could deliver his talk via answer-and-question style.
• Elizabeth Smart, the author and advocate who survived a hellish kidnapping and became a leading voice for child safety.
• Darius Gray, the beloved Black Latter-day Saint convert and co-founder of the Genesis Group.
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Darius Gray, Genesis Group president from 1997 to 2003, speaks at the 50th anniversary of the Genesis Group in 2021.
• Richard Bushman, the patriarch of Latter-day Saint historians.
• Jennifer Finlayson-Fife, the acclaimed author and therapist, for some honest talk about sex in earthly practice and heavenly theology.
• Andy Reid, the three-time Super Bowl champion and Hall of Fame-bound football coach.
• Bryce Harper, the two-time MVP, highest-paid Latter-day Saint athlete and Hall of Fame-bound baseball slugger.
• Marie and Donny Osmond. She’s a little bit country, and he’s a little bit rock ’n’ roll, but they’re both a whole lot of Mormon.
• Brandon Flowers, frontman for the rock bank The Killers.
• Jane Clayson Johnson, the nationally known broadcast journalist who also conducted the first interview with Dallin Oaks as church president.
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) President Dallin H. Oaks, left, and President D. Todd Christofferson of the First Presidency greet award-winning journalist Jane Clayson Johnson in October.
• Carol Lynn Pearson, whose plays, poems, prose and personal journey have inspired generations.
• Jen Affleck. OK, this may be a stretch, but the cast member from “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” would certainly boost conference curiosity and viewership.
• Mitt Romney. At the risk of crossing the line into partisan politics, he remains the member who came closest to winning the White House.
Outside of the top church leaders, whom would you like to see speak at the April 4-5 General Conference?
Cast your votes: https://forms.gle/Rexz73DmqgeTPz399
The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: Eli and Skylar
(Eli McCann) Eli McCann and his husband, Skylar Westerdahl, at Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City.
Tribune guest columnist Eli McCann discusses his new book, “We’re Thankful for the Moisture: A Gay Guy’s Guide to Mormon Faith, Family, and Fruit Preservation.”
He recounts classics like his first date with his nonmember husband-in-waiting at, of all places, the Kirtland Temple, and his awkward — but somehow appropriate — resignation from the church.
Join Eli and his physician husband, Skylar Westerdahl, as they talk about his writings, their life, and why Eli still finds laughter and love in the religious culture that bred him.
Listen to the podcast.
(Signature Books) Tribune guest columnist Eli McCann will discuss his new book, "We're Thankful for the Moisture: A Gay Guy’s Guide to Mormon Faith, Family, and Fruit Preservation.”
A moment with Jesse Jackson
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) General authority Seventy Steven D. Shumway, left, shakes hands with the Rev. Jesse Jackson at the Rainbow Push Coalition headquarters in Chicago in September 2025.
Civil rights champion Jesse Jackson, who died Tuesday at age 84, met with church leaders last September when his Rainbow PUSH Coalition united with Latter-day Saints in distributing food to more than 1,000 people in Chicago.
It “brightened his face [and] put a smile in his heart,” his son Yusef said at the time. “Feeding the hungry — the mission directly from Jesus Christ — is important to us.”
Emma’s ally
Learn more about William Marks, the stake president in Nauvoo, Illinois, who bucked polygamy and was backed by Emma Smith as the likely successor after husband Joseph’s death.
“While Marks acknowledged that the doctrine of plural marriage was introduced during Joseph Smith’s lifetime, he uniquely portrays the prophet as regretting the practice and planning to denounce it,” researcher Cheryl Bruno, co-auther of “Come Up Hither to Zion: William Marks and the Mormon Concept of Gathering,” explains in a recent “From the Desk” interview. “No other contemporary witness supports this version.”
Marks later affiliated with the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, now called Community of Christ.
Honoring Oaks at BYU
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) President Dallin H. Oaks and his wife, Kristen (far right), stand near the Carillon Bell Tower by a new plaque with a quote from President Oaks that will be placed at the tower’s base. They are joined by BYU President C. Shane Reese and his wife, Wendy, on Feb. 10, 2026.
A plaque honoring Dallin Oaks’ salute to BYU on its 150th anniversary will be mounted on the Provo campus’s Carillon Bell Tower, which was erected as part of the school’s 1975 centennial celebration.
“With the consecration and leadership of this community,” Oaks said in his speech last week, “BYU will become the great university of the Lord — not in the world’s way but in the Lord’s way.”
From The Tribune
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Newly ordained apostle Clark Gilbert conducts an interview with The Tribune at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026.
• Clark Gilbert, the church’s education commissioner, is now its newest apostle, a move that is proving to be one of the most consequential and controversial of President Dallin Oaks’ 4-month-old administration.
• “I’m not the arbiter of orthodoxy,” Gilbert tells The Salt Lake Tribune in an interview.
• Gilbert has been called as an apostle. Now, Tribune columnist Gordon Monson writes, we’ll see if he’s chosen.
• See what young members say about the new apostle.
• Why is the church dumping billions in stocks?
• NAACP President Derrick Johnson is eager to see what comes next in the civil rights organization’s alliance with the church. Listen to our podcast. Read the excerpts.
(Ryan Galbraith | The Salt Lake Tribune) Gordon B. Hinckley was the keynote speaker at a NAACP Western Region conference in Salt Lake City in 1998. Seated by Hinckley are Salt Lake Branch NAACP President Jeanetta Williams, left, and corporate life membership chairman Edward L. Lewis Jr., right.
• Even before Russell Nelson, a previous church president broke barriers with the NAACP.
• From Latter-day Saint “poster boy” to coming out — singer David Archuleta tells his story.
• If Latter-day Saints hope to become peacemakers, a commentator writes, the church must stop funding war machines.
• Another commentator calls for the church and its members to cry out against immigration raids.