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Oaks returns to an oldie but goodie

Next month, church President Dallin will deliver a major address on one of his favorite topics: the Constitution.

On Sept. 16, the eve of Constitution Day, at the historic Washington National Cathedral, the lawyer-turned-justice-turned-apostle will give the keynote address on faith, religious liberty and the nation’s founding document.

Oaks’ 2021 General Conference sermon, titled “Defending Our Divinely Inspired Constitution,” along with his 2021 speech at the University of Virginia and a 2022 talk in Rome, remain bedrock barometers of how this global faith leader views the balancing of religious rights in a pluralistic society.

Will next month’s address join his pantheon of public policy discourse?

Trump’s Tonga pick

Tonga reportedly has the highest concentration of Latter-day Saints of any sovereign nation, so where did the White House look for a U.S. ambassador candidate to the multi-island kingdom in the South Pacific?

The church’s membership, of course.

The Trump II administration has nominated Utah Latter-day Saint Justin Bytheway, a Brigham Young University graduate, to the prestigious post.

After serving in seven countries since joining the U.S. Foreign Service in 2013, Bytheway will, if confirmed, be the first American ambassador ever to live in Tonga, notes retired diplomat John Dinkelman. “All of his predecessors have been resident in Fiji and covered various countries simultaneously.”

It is, Dinkelman says, a “true example of ‘boy from central Utah makes good.’”

Latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: Church v. ‘Mormon Stories’

We explore the church’s trademark lawsuit against John Dehlin’s “Mormon Stories” podcast. Is it on solid legal ground? Does the faith control the “Mormon” term even as it strives to distance itself from it? Could the church win the courtroom battle but still lose the public relations war?

Listen to the podcast.

Around the world

• You can listen to an interview with Jacinda Ardern — a former Latter-day Saint who won global acclaim for her committed and compassionate response to mass shootings at two mosques and personal praise from then-President Russell Nelson for her peacemaking and leadership abilities — in this Australian Broadcasting Corp. podcast.

• Ohio soon will be home to the church’s oldest temple and its newest temple.

The new Cleveland Temple, located in the suburb of Independence, is scheduled to be dedicated Sunday by apostle David Bednar.

A mere half hour away sits the historic Kirtland Temple, which church founder Joseph Smith dedicated in 1836 and the Utah-based faith bought from Community of Christ in 2024.

“It is fitting that today, in the same region where the first temple was built in this dispensation, another temple now stands,” general authority Seventy Mathias Held said in a recent Associated Press story.

• On the other side of the world, Cambodia is home to thousands of temples (Buddhist ones, of course), but the Southeast Asian now has its first Latter-day Saint temple.

The Phnom Penh Temple is opening its doors to journalists, dignitaries and the general public this week.

Tours of the 10,000-square-foot building — with a central steeple surrounded by four smaller spires — will run through Aug. 22 in advance of an Aug. 30 dedication by apostle Patrick Kearon.

• Out West, Wyoming’s Cody Temple, which ran into opposition from a number of residents in a grassroots fight that reached the state’s Supreme Court, will welcome public tours Aug. 27 through Sept. 12 in advance of an Oct. 25 dedication by apostle Clark Gilbert.

• The son of newly inducted Latter-day Saint Hall of Famer Jeff Kent has been acquired by his famous father’s former baseball team.

The Deseret News reported that the New York Yankees traded minor league shortstop Kaeden Kent last week to the San Francisco Giants, where his dad piled up the bulk of his eye-popping stats during a 17-year career in the majors.

The elder Kent, who was seen as a tad surly during his playing days, said after his recent induction at Cooperstown, that “you have to play with a little hatred.”

“It’s a little bit of anger. Maybe you’re mad,” he told MLB.com. “And I’m not mad anymore.”

• Latter-day Saints have been opening their meetinghouses, homes and hearts to the thousands of evacuees fleeing wildfires in Spokane, Washington.

Members throughout the church’s Spokane North Stake have had to leave their homes, according to a news release, as have some in the Mount Spokane Stake.

From The Tribune

• The missionary ranks are at an all-time high. Will those numbers continue to climb or will a falling birthrate stall the surge?

• Marriage rates at BYU are slipping. See how the school is stepping in to play Cupid.

• Free speech groups file briefs urging a federal court to dismiss the church’s lawsuit against podcaster John Dehlin’s “Mormon Stories.”

• The church pledges another $65 million to a Relief Society-led initiative that has improved the health and well-being of 52 million women and children in Africa and Asia.

• An “up-and-coming” Latter-day Saint podcaster and influencer was killed in a car crash at age 27.

• Latter-day Saint composer Michael McLean discovers that “relationships are more important than rules,” and reconnects with his son Jeff, who is gay, after years of distance and dissonance. Listen to our “Mormon Land” podcast. Read the excerpts.

• Dallin Oaks will make his first trip abroad as church president this weekend to dedicate a temple 6,000 miles away.