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Christmas: An Immigration Story
It always makes me unduly happy that the story of Christmas starts with a tax.[fn1] But the tax is just stage-setting; while it puts all the right people in all the right places, it then disappears,...
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Happy 2024!
And like that, it’s a new year! Look, I’m not much of a write-down-formal-goals-or-resolutions person, but I have some things I’d like to accomplish this year, and thought it would be fun to hear what...
View ArticleDeliberate Policy Choices
It’s a new year at church! And, among other things, that means that a new crop of kids has graduated from Primary! Boys and girls who turn 12 in 2024 are now attending Young Men and Young Women. The...
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CFM: 1 Ne. 1-5 and Refugees
Sometime last year, Osmar Emilio Mata left Venezuela with his partner and their two young daughters. They made a 2000-mile trip through dangerous landscapes to arrive in the United States. I don’t...
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On Learning New Hymns (or This Little Light of Mine)
For a year or two while I was a teenager, in addition to sacrament meeting, Sunday school, and RS/PH/YM/YW, we had a fourth church period. After sacrament meeting ended, the Primary teachers would...
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Child Abuse, Confession, and Mandated Reporters
Yesterday, Harrisburg, PA’s local ABC affiliate reported that Pennsylvania police had charged a local stake president of being aware of, but not reporting, child sexual assault allegations. Allegedly,...
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On Fat Tuesday
I really don’t have time to post today, so this is going to be short, but I thought it important to point out that today is Fat (or Shrove) Tuesday. That may not really resonate, since Mormonism...
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Up and To the Right
The other day, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that the church’s wealth had increased substantially yet again. According to Ensign Peak Advisors’ Form 13F, as of Dec. 31, 2023, it held about $50.5...
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Reading the Fiery Meteor: Stephen Taysom’s Biography of Joseph F. Smith
I’ve been looking forward to Stephen Taysom’s biography of Joseph F. Smith (Like a Fiery Meteor: The Life of Joseph F. Smith) for years now. Like, ever since I learned he was writing it. And it’s not...
View ArticleGarments: Standards vs. Rules
My sophomore year at BYU, freshly off my mission, some friends invited me to hot springs somewhere in the Provo vicinity. (I didn’t end up going, so I have no idea where in the Provo vicinity these...
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Tax Day and Missionary Companionships
It is, again, April 15, Tax Day in the United States (except in Maine and Massachusetts, where Tax Day will be Wednesday, April 17). As happens most years (at least when I remember and am not too...
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4’33” and Reverence
This morning, after I woke up and played Wordle and Connections, I opened up Bluesky and discovered that at least my corner of the social media site was consumed with discussion of postmodern...
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Special Musical Numbers
Six or nine months ago, I finally bought a classical mouthpiece for my soprano sax. And in December, I played a special musical number in Sacrament meeting. (Funny story: I was originally going to...
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Lawsuit Updates: Teichert v. the Church
Yesterday morning, I decided to log on to Bloomberg Law to check out the status of the Huntsman lawsuit against the church. You know, as one does. It turns out the Ninth Circuit hasn’t really made any...
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On Singing New Hymns
On Thursday, the Church has announced, we’re going to get to see the first 12 hymns in the forthcoming new hymnbook. (There will be periodic drops of new hymns between Thursday and whenever the actual...
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Did You Sing Any New Hymns on Sunday?
As I wrote in my last post, the church was going to release a batch of songs from the forthcoming hymnbook on Thursday (though it actually released them on Wednesday). My ward didn’t sing any of the...
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I Was a Stranger (and You Supported Me)
Last night, a friend sent me a New York Times article about Utah’s recent reaction to Central American migrants. She suggested that this would be a great way for the church to spend some of its...
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Some Thoughts While Singing “Carry On” During Sacrament Meeting In Chicago
This is definitely not Illinois Mountains may well be firm, but, well, they’re definitely not “around us.” In fact, Illinois is both the second-flattest and the second flattest-looking state in the...
View ArticleCan a Faithful Latter-day Saint Vote For Donald Trump?
If you’re familiar with Betteridge’s Law, you already know what the answer here is going to be. The initial skeleton for this post came several weeks ago, when attendees at the Republican National...
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Head’s-Up On Huntsman Suit
DOUGLAS C. PALMER I last wrote about James Huntsman’s suit against the church about 11 months ago. (Short version: he sued for the return of some or all of his tithing, saying he’d been fraudulently...
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