Like all charitable donors, church members – even those who make donations to remain in good standing with their religious institution – give up their legal right to control that money.
Many faiths face conflicts over dissent and institutional control. In Latter-day Saints history, the episode around the ‘September Six’ is particularly memorable.
Joseph Smith encouraged early Latter-day Saints to pool their resources. Two centuries later, one of the results is an investment portfolio estimated at $100 billion.
Recent years have put more attention on LGBTQ people’s struggle for acceptance in the LDS church, but asexual Latter-day Saints face unique challenges.
Latina women hold few top leadership positions in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but their contributions help keep congregations going.
Many Republicans have wrestled with whether to embrace Donald Trump and his brash political style. Latter-day Saints are an especially telling example.
The Utah holiday is a reflection of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ slowly changing identity, a historian of Mormonism and migration writes.
LDS leaders still stress that men should ‘preside’ over their families. But in recent years, messages about marriage have stressed more equal partnership.
Rebecca Tippett, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The 2020 census will now count some groups differently than it has in the past. That could make a difference in the final count – affecting which states receive funding and congressional seats.
A valedictorian at Brigham Young University came out in his address as a ‘gay son of God.’ And his admission met with loud applause. An expert explains how big a change this is for the Mormon Church.
In 2015, the Mormon Church barred children from same-sex marriage from the church. An expert explains why this policy was tied to a larger conservative battle against gay rights.
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah is one of the very few GOP critics of President Trump’s character and leadership. Why has he staked out this lonely position? His Mormon faith.