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 to receive ad-free podcast episodes, the full newsletter and access to all of our religion content.

Vote of confidence

Religion News Service columnist Thomas Reese, who also is a Jesuit priest, is encouraging churches to protect the electoral process and bolster faith in U.S. democracy.

The call comes as President Donald Trump and his allies continue to cast doubt — with unsubstantiated claims — on the 2020 presidential race and future elections.

Church President Dallin Oaks, then a member of the governing First Presidency, warned about the undermining of elections in the fall 2020 General Conference, a month before Americans went to the polls and three months before the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“We peacefully accept the results of elections,” Oaks, a former Utah Supreme Court justice, said at the time. “We will not participate in the violence threatened by those disappointed with the outcome. In a democratic society, we always have the opportunity and the duty to persist peacefully until the next election.”

Add the voice of former federal appellate Judge Thomas Griffith, a Latter-day Saint, to those defending the 2020 tally and Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.

Co-author of a report titled “Lost, Not Stolen: The Conservative Case That Biden Won and Trump Lost the 2020 Presidential Election,” Griffith is at a loss as to why some many Latter-day Saints still question those results.

“I don’t know why people struggle with it,” he said on this week’s “Mormon Land” podcast. “This is the most studied election in the history of our solar system. We know exactly why President Trump lost. There’s no mystery about it. And there wasn’t fraud that changed the outcome of a single precinct. … People who go around making these baseless claims based on anecdotes that aren’t supported by evidence that our election system is rife with fraud, I’m sorry, that’s just wrong.”

Next week’s General Conference will come a month before the 2026 midterms. Will Oaks — or other Latter-day Saint leaders — return to the topic?

Latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: Reviewing Oaks’ speech

Griffith, who was present for Oaks’ address last week on the Constitution at Washington’s National Cathedral, explains why the speech may be key to healing the “toxic polarization” paralyzing the nation.

Listen to the podcast.

Around the world

• For the first time in its 196-year history, the church has more than 90,000 missionaries serving across the globe.

The milestone comes two months after the faith reported a then-record 88,500 missionaries.

Credit young women for the surge. They account for more than a third of the overall missionary force, thanks largely to last November’s lowering of the minimum age for their service to 18 (as it is for men).

Will the total top 100,000?

Perhaps, demographers say, but a falling birthrate — including among Latter-day Saints — could stand in the way.

“We should expect to see flat or decreasing missionary numbers mirroring the continually decreasing birthrates,” Mormon Metrics data scientist Alex Bass previously told The Tribune. “But, of course, we can never perfectly predict the future.”

And, as we’ve witnessed with prior missionary age changes for men and women, church policy can dramatically alter the trend.

• The latest “Mormon Book Reviews” podcast explores the soon-to-be-released documentary “Brother Joseph Again: Exploring the Visual Image of Joseph Smith Jr.”

You can also reread our story about the daguerreotype recently bought by the church and believed by many to be the only known photograph of the church founder, and relisten to our “Mormon Land” podcast on the topic.

• A church semitruck delivered 20 tons of food to Cheyenne, Wyoming, this month as part of the faith’s effort to send 250 shipments to charities across all 50 states in celebration of the nation’s 250th birthday.

“It’s the Christian way,” area Seventy Thad Brown told Cap City News. “It’s the cowboy way.”

• Apostle Gérald Caussé and his wife, Valérie, serve up a family favorite, French crêpes, in the latest “Friend to Friend” video for children.

“Nobody is perfect, and sometimes there are imperfect times in families, but we keep trying, right?” the church leader says. “As we prepare food together, we can have beautiful discussions together.”

Like different ingredients in a recipe, Valérie adds, different characters, personalities, talents and skills in a family can create something beautiful.

• A memorial service recently honored three Mormon Battalion members buried in Utah’s American Fork Cemetery.

Special medallions, noting their military service in the “U.S. Army of the West,” were added to their graves, the American Fork Citizen reported.

Learn more about this ragtag band of reluctant riflemen who made a mark in history without firing a shot against a foe in this “Mormon Land” podcast.

• President Rosemary Chibota, the newly installed leader of the church’s worldwide children’s Primary, met this month with a mayor in the Philippines and helped deliver care kits for 150 newborns.

“Each newborn represents hope, promise and the future,” Chibota said in a news release. “When we care for mothers and infants, we are investing in generations to come.”

From The Tribune

• A recent “Ted Lasso” episode takes a good-natured jab at the church. See what the cheerful coach said.

• Church leaders speak out on abortion ballot measures in Idaho and Nevada. Will their words swing the elections?

• Memo to Latter-day Saint parents: Want to keep your children active in the faith? Send them to college.

• How a Muslim convert found “a lot of connections” between Mormonism and Islam.

• Yes, it happened again. Anti-Latter-day Saint chants broke out at a BYU football game, and the opposing school apologized.

• What does the future hold for large church-owned parking lots sitting on prime property in downtown Salt Lake City? And what would readers like to see in their place?

• Southern Utah’s St. George is named after a larger-than-life apostle who never lived there.