Latest from Mormon Land: Another fight arises over a temple steeple; should singles wards vanish?

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 and receive the full newsletter, podcast transcripts and access to all of our religion content — for as little as $3 a month.

Temple tension: the California edition

Heber City, Utah; Cody, Wyoming; Las Vegas, Nevada; Fairview, Texas; and now Bakersfield, California.

All are currently playing host to tense grassroots debates over proposed Latter-day Saint temples, whose soaring steeples and vaulted granite walls don’t fit — some locals insist — with the rural or residential sites for which they’re slated.

The church held a meeting in Bakersfield last week to engage neighbors about a planned single-story, 30,000-square-foot edifice, with a 124-foot-high steeple.

Whether the gathering did the trick of smoothing over residents’ displeasure with the building’s tower — more than double the 60 feet permitted by city code — remains to be seen.

But Latter-day Saint Alan Christensen, a project spokesperson for the church, said he’s been “impressed” by the neighbors. “To a person,” he said, they have told him their concerns are not with the temple itself, which they welcome, but issues surrounding its light and height.

Christensen said he’s been logging their complaints and sending them up the chain to church officials, who, he said, are taking them seriously.

Area Latter-day Saints currently commute more than 100 miles each way to visit the nearest temples in Fresno and Los Angeles.

Goodbye, singles wards?

(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Young adults listen and dance as Kaskade performs at the Mountain American Expo Center in Sandy, Utah, on Friday, Aug. 11, 2023. A blogger is suggesting doing away with singles wards, especially for older members.

Singles wards are “highly sociable,” says the church’s website, giving younger members “a chance to meet those with similar values and interests.”

They’re also highly problematic, says Aleah Ingram on the LDS Daily news site, especially for Latter-day Saints beyond their mid-20s.

“When I take a step back and think celestial, singles wards make less and less sense for me on a spiritual level,” Ingram writes. “I believe continually segregating members of the body of Christ based on marital status does more harm than good when it comes to building Zion.”

Ingram embraces singles wards for college students between ages 18 and 25. They “provide young people with the opportunity to find a potential marriage partner,” she states, and “marriage is important doctrinally and socially” for members.

For older singles, though, Ingram suggests:

• Establishing regular “age-specific and church-sponsored activities and programs.”

• Dividing church classes and other “second-hour” Sunday meetings, where possible, by age and marital status.

“I have been brought closer to Christ because of the singles wards I’ve been in,” Ingram concludes. “...Still, I think it’s time for us to take a closer look at singles wards and how we might get closer to achieving Zion.”

The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: Exponent II turns 50

(The Salt Lake Tribune and Rachel Rueckert). Exponent II, a magazine for Latter-day Saint women, is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2024. Claudia Bushman, left, was its first editor-in-chief. Rachel Rueckert is the current one.

As Exponent II, a magazine for Latter-day Saint women, celebrates its 50th anniversary, we talk with its first editor-in-chief, Claudia Bushman, and its current editor-in-chief, Rachel Rueckert.

Listen to the podcast.

Governors, U.S. lawmakers visit with church officials

(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Members of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee visit the bishops' storehouse on Welfare Square in Salt Lake City on Friday, July 12, 2024. The group, which is concerned about unemployment and welfare, was given a tour of the facility to better understand the church’s world-renowned welfare system.

Members of the U.S. House’s powerful Ways and Means Committee learned the ways and means of how the church takes care of those in need recently by visiting Welfare Square in Salt Lake City. Meanwhile, a dozen U.S. governors, in Utah for a national conference, received individual family pedigree charts in a meeting with apostle Gary Stevenson.

“We’ve received some extraordinary gifts coming to this conference each year,” Democratic Delaware Gov. John Carney said in a news release, “but this is really special.”

From The Tribune

(Michael Stack | Special to The Tribune Frankfurt Temple from above. The building in the left lower corner is a historic-style German timber frame in Friedrichsdorf, Germany, on May 16, 2024.

• Don’t miss our special report from Europe. See how migrants are “saving” the church and building Zion on the Continent.

• During his stop last week in Salt Lake City, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sat down not with church President Russell Nelson — as visiting dignitaries often do — but rather with apostle Quentin Cook, a move that may reflect the faith’s desire to remain publicly neutral in the Russia-Ukraine war.

(Ukrainian Presidential Press Office) Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and first lady Olena Zelenska, middle right, meet with leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City on Friday, July 12, 2024. At middle left is apostle Quentin L. Cook.

• Missionary stories are as ubiquitous in the church as foyer chats, crying babies and tiny sacrament cups. Tune in to last week’s “Mormon Land” podcast and enter the witty, wacky and wonderful world of missionary folklore.

• A study suggests a darker side to the DezNat movement, which says its only aim is to support Latter-day Saint leaders. The online forum, says a researcher, includes influences from the “ugly corners of American conservatism.”

• Forget doubt, disbelief and dissension. What about dullness? Tribune columnist Gordon Monson worries that boring church services and lessons may be chasing away members.

• A returning Latter-day Saint missionary had a chance encounter with Post Malone at an airport and did what missionaries do: He gave the rap star a book. Bet you can guess the title.

Latest from Mormon Land: Another fight arises over a temple steeple; should singles wards vanish?

Latest from Mormon Land: Another fight arises over a temple steeple; should singles wards vanish?

Latest from Mormon Land: Another fight arises over a temple steeple; should singles wards vanish?

Latest from Mormon Land: Another fight arises over a temple steeple; should singles wards vanish?

Latest from Mormon Land: Another fight arises over a temple steeple; should singles wards vanish?