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Trick-or-tract

The Babylon Bee has, once again, set its satirical sights on the church’s missionaries.

The premise of its latest “fake news” barb: that Halloween is a treat for the faith’s foot soldiers since it’s the one evening people open their doors to strangers.

“It’s my favorite time of year,” Elder Jon Grant says in The Onion-like spoof. “Going house to house and eating Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups — it’s the kind of world I’ll make someday when I become a god. Just like Jesus.”

Forget Halloween’s dark underside. This haunting holiday is parodied as a proselytizing palooza for helping prospective converts see the light.

You can visualize it, right? The young men, dressed up in their white shirts and ties, and young women, decked out in dress slacks or skirts, packing buckets around neighborhoods, exchanging Books of Mormon for Butterfingers and pamphlets for PEZ.

Explains apostle Ronald Rasband in the silly story: “This is our Super Bowl. It’s go time.”

Cooper’s town

Star rookie shortstop Cooper Pratt took to social media the day after his Milwaukee Brewers won the World Series and touted his Latter-day Saint bona fides.

“Reading the Book of Mormon, paying my tithing, and living the Word of Wisdom are commitments I carry with me,” Pratt said on the church’s social media. “As I’ve lived them, the foundation my parents helped me build in the gospel of Jesus Christ has become stronger through my own experiences.”

Pratt — who famously celebrated in the clubhouse by spraying Fanta instead of the traditional Champagne (“I didn’t even want to hold alcohol,” he said, “because I didn’t want to give the impression I was drinking it”) — hit .421 in the series, racked up seven RBIs and blasted a dramatic go-ahead home run.

Now, he’s also going to be coughing up more tithing when he and his Brewer teammates — the toast of Milwaukee — collect their six-figure payouts for winning the crown.

More new hymns

The church’s new hymnal is being printed, and we now know that a familiar green hue will grace its cover.

Along with that, eight new songs have been released, including an Advent favorite, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”

The other seven are:

• “Be Thou My Vision.”

• “How I Love the House of God.”

• “Jesus Is the Strength of Youth.”

• “God’s Armor.”

• “Our Savior Brings Us Joy.”

• “A Quiet Night.”

• “Seek Peace.”

The printed volume, titled “Hymns for Home and Church” and decked out in green similar to the current book, will boast 394 songs, according to a news release, with additional selections in the Gospel Library app and online.

A church music festival, meanwhile, is scheduled for Nov. 7 at 7:30 p.m. in the historic Tabernacle on downtown Salt Lake City’s Temple Square.

Latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: Why it’s not a Holy War

When No. 3 Utah hosts No. 7 BYU this weekend, it will be a big game. But, Tribune columnist Gordon Monson explains, it should not be dubbed a “Holy War.”

Listen to the podcast.

Around the world

• Apostle Patrick Kearon has some advice for young people when it comes to their smartphone time:

“Use it well,” he said in a recent devotional at church-owned Ensign College in Salt Lake City. “You can make this really work for you if you are smart and selective.”

• Changes are coming in January to the Children and Youth program to help the rising generation: “Believe in Jesus Christ (gospel learning); belong to Jesus Christ and his church (service and activities); become more like Jesus Christ (personal development).”

A news release notes that the young people will receive a crystal statue of Jesus when they enter the program.

• Former BYU star AJ Dybantsa impressed in his NBA season debut for the Washington Wizards, racking up 19 points against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

“I just tried to be aggressive from the jump,” the top pick in the league’s draft told The Athletic. “It’s kind of always been my game regardless of the level.”

• Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds, who grew up a Latter-day Saint and filled a full-time mission, explained recently why his college education was cut short.

“I got kicked out [of BYU] because I confessed to having sex with my girlfriend,” he told social media reporter Kate Mackz in a walking interview. “I [went] through a yearlong repentance process, read a lot of the Bible and [said] a lot of prayers, and then God forgave me.”

Reynolds, who explained that he’s “not really religious anymore,” has said previously that he’s not raising his four children in the church.

From The Tribune

• Apostle Quentin Cook warns Latter-day Saints against online anonymity, calling it spiritually dangerous.

• The church wins one and loses one on abortion ballot measures.

• Is God making a comeback? A new survey shows young adults are rediscovering religion.

• BYU’s law school joins the likes of Harvard, Yale and Stanford with its own Religious Liberty Clinic.

• The church joins the battle against an invasive enemy threatening the Great Salt Lake.

• It was the site of a deadly shooting. Now this Latter-day Saint meetinghouse is for sale.

• As a presidential candidate, Joseph Smith stood up for the marginalized. Do today’s Latter-day Saints do the same? Listen to our “Mormon Land” podcast. Read the excerpts.

• Those anti-Mormon chants against BYU wound up costing the University of Central Florida $100,000 as the Big 12 cracked down.

• Religion News Service columnist Jana Riess notes the main message from the new Salt Lake Temple Visitors’ Center: We’re Christians, darn it.

• Singer Donny Osmond will perform two shows in Salt Lake City next year.