In the mid-1980s, my dad came home with his first CD player and two CDs: Neil Diamond's The Jazz Singer and Billy Joel's An Innocent Man. Our house was frequently filled with shouts of "Today!" and the soaring "I aaaaaaam an innocent ma-a-a-a-an." My dad had one rule, though: we weren't allowed to listen to the first track on An Innocent Man. I'm sure I looked at the titles on a semi-regular basis---even when my parents weren't listening to it, that CD was in frequent rotation when I had control of the CD player---but for years I never once put that song on.

Just in time for General Conference, we have a guest post from Emily Jensen. Last week, in my ward, something subtle but important shifted without most people knowing it. Actually without me knowing it, until it wiggled out of my subconsciousness last night and my brain started writing this post as I went to sleep. But it’s slowly happening in many wards and I don’t think the church understands what will shift because of it. What happened? Our ward’s new all-female Sunday School presidency gave sacrament meeting talks. BOOM! Ok, not really.

My thoughts on the "type" of person "wasting" time on these games has shifted.

Abraham Heschel said that, at their core, prophets disclose divine pathos.[1] That is to say, to be a prophet isn’t (primarily) to pronounce oracles, or to pass judgement, or to perform miracles, or to guide institutions, or to articulate commandments. To be a prophet is to help us understand how God feels. True prophets reveal something about God. I realize this may be a hot take, but I think that Dolly Parton was, in the ways that matter most, a modern-day prophetess. Why? Because of what she left us. Yes, yes, she left behind great songs.

Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of John Coltrane. I've written about Coltrane before, fortunately, because I don't really have time to do him justice today. But I nonetheless want to post, not just to mark this anniversary, but because he has something important to teach us about our relationship with the Divine. Last week, Ronan wrote about Sun Ra as an American prophet in a similar visionary manner as Joseph Smith. Coltrane was a prophet in a different way. Less a (literally) visionary, he exemplified the seeker.

In my estimation, the letter and the underlying positions that supposedly informed it are conspicuously lacking three important things: women signatories, intellectual consistency, and courage.

I’m mindful that I am now the second male from BCC to post about this topic in as many days. I realize that (no matter the situation) I will never have to personally make a choice about whether or not I will have an abortion. And, so, I come to this issue as an outsider. And frankly, I am quite aware of my outsider status; and it is my outsider status that informs my reaction to the letter. But I’ll get to that in a moment. First. Sam is exactly correct: if the Church wants to take a stand on important moral issues, we are swimming in them.

Yesterday, I saw some chatter on social media that the Area Presidency had instructed the leaders of Idaho wards, stakes, and branches to read a letter to their congregations over the next two Sundays, urging members to oppose the Idaho Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act. After some searching, I found what purported to be the letter, though I was skeptical (it didn't look or feel accurate). But now the Deseret News and the East Idaho News have reported on it, pulling out phrases that are in the document I found through my searches, so it looks like the Area Presidency has directed this letter to be read.

Fifty-six years before Joseph Smith* gathered a small band of followers in Fayette, New York to establish his own Church of Christ, Ann Lee and eight other “Shakers” — the United Society of Believers ...

In his October 1932 General Conference address, Apostle Richard R. Lyman prefaced his main remarks by reminding the assembled Saints that he was a staunch

As we Mormons all know, there is no rest after death. There is no cool glass of lemonade sitting at the end of the mortal marathon. Rather, upon the shedding of this tabernacle of clay, we will continue in the ongoing work in close collaboration with the living. There’s not even a weekend; we die on Tuesday and clock in Wednesday morning.

Question: How does one avoid using religion or religious language as merely a tool to justify policies privilege one group over another? *** In the United States, many used Christianity to justify the enslavement of others and as the basis for laws that enshrined racial segregation. The Ku Klux Klan used the language of Christianity to justify all sorts of abhorrent behavior and statements.

As part of a project I'm working on, I've been looking at the Church's use of The Family: A Proclamation to the World in litigation. For the most part, that means where the Church's attorneys have referenced the Proclamation in amicus briefs. The Proclamation has largely not shown up in litigation where the Church is party to the litigation and is also largely absent from judicial opinions.

I'm still harping on Joseph Smith's remarks at the Nauvoo Lyceum, January 5, 1841. (See my previous post published on US Tax Day 2026). One of Joseph Smith's occasional references in sermons was the NBNE. The acronym means, No Beginning, No End. More precisely, "Anything that has a beginning, has an end." There is a fun mathematical proof of the idea that I will mention later.

From, MS 155, Box 4, fd 4, Church History Library, a manuscript's opening salvo. This excerpt was taken from a William Clayton text, from a Joseph Smith teaching apparently delivered at a community school (Lyceum), January 5, 1841. Clayton's original is not extant. The content is clearly Joseph Smith's teaching, though the archetype is unknown. I only bring it up because it's so closely related to the content of the current temple teaching, at least some of which is likely sourced from this document.

On August 30, 1921, Utah Senator and Apostle Reed Smoot sent a telegram to Heber J. Grant. William Brady and Paul Rogers, high-ranking employees of the Fox Film Company, had just promised him that they would stop showing the movie Riders of the Purple Sage and would never show it again. Grant sent a return telegram the following day, asking Smoot to wire his "sincere thanks for their generous actions," and congratulating Smoot.

When the first Mormon art propagandist, CCA Christensen, began painting Mormon history in a flat, literalistic, maudlin style, he could not have predicted that another Mormon would one day deeply influence artificial intelligence with a similar flat, literalistic, maudlin style. But, that is so. I'm speaking, of course, of LDS artist and MAGA propagandist John McNaughton, who will not hang his political art or Trump-theme NFTs in his home, and who has a reach that has extended so far art historians of the future may call his “fantastical scenes rendered in a flat, hyperrealist style” the single most important training source of AI slop.

I was married on December 13, 2013. After some debate, we chose the Mesa, Arizona, temple rather than the recently dedicated Gilbert temple. The Mesa temple was a staple of my youth. I had grown up seeing its Christmas lights, doing Baptisms for the Dead in its font, and had taken out my own Endowment there. It felt like a part of who I was, like an extended family member in and of itself, without whom the wedding wouldn't feel right.

On March 30, 2026, the First Presidency announced a new meeting schedule for the two hour block. Unsurprisingly, we have thoughts:

I’m writing this at 11pm a few weeks before Easter, an hour or so into spending the night with my son in the emergency department. He’s fine, at this point they’re just observing him as a precautionary measure. He is sound asleep. I am watching over him and I cannot sleep. And I’ve been thinking about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane on Maundy Thursday.

According to Mark's gospel, on what we call Palm Sunday: "[T]hey brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!

A couple of years ago I posted a brief reflection about the LDS Church’s complicated relationship with the cross. The short story is this: despite the fact that early saints wore the crucifix as jewelry, that early churches were adorned with cross-related imagery, and that the Laie, Hawaii and Cardston, Alberta temples both have a cruciform design, the cross fell out of fashion with the LDS Church… but it’s making a comeback!

Yesterday I learned from Peggy Fletcher Stack that the Church had made a massive policy change: ward Sunday School presidencies are no longer the exclusive domain of men. Effective immediately, women can serve as Sunday School presidents and counselors. It should surprise nobody that I have thoughts about this. After all, more than two years ago(!) I wrote a…

LDS leaders have been unequivocal when it comes to the importance of the temple. Reiterating past leaders’ statements, and consistent with subsequent leaders’ views, Gordon B. Hinkley asserted that “no member of the Church has received the ultimate which this Church has to give until he or she has received his or her temple blessings in the house of the Lord.” This sentiment is ubiquitous in LDS teachings—it is…

If a woman's voice falls in the forest and nobody hears it, did the woman speak at all? Recent changes have gradually reduced the visibility and speaking time of women in worldwide Relief Society broadcasts. Find out what has changed.

In a recent post of mine, the comments took a quick (and interesting) diversion into whether people preferred “high church” or “low church.” For those not familiar with those terms: “High church” is used to describe worship that emphasizes ritual, formal liturgies, ordinances, and have strong priestly presence. A Catholic Midnight Mass is an example of “high church”— heavy on ritual, use of formal liturgies, celebration of the Eucharist, and all of it is overseen and administered by a strong priestly presence.

Once again, posting while it’s still Monday in Hawaii. Also, note that the new garments poll is still active, and I will aim to publish the results next week. I look forward to reading your thoughts! You know how in the Pixar movie Inside Out, Riley has all those emotions in her head, and they all talk to each other? There’s a reason that movie is popular.

Every community has boundaries. Boundaries are, in many ways, what helps define a recognizable community. The community does this, but not that. It wears this, but not that. It believes this, but not that. Every community—from sports teams, to gamers, to religious groups, to political parties—has these sorts of markers. And these markers can be  both explicit and implicit.

.. Aye. TW: funerals, death I'll be honest: I've never been to an informal funeral that didn't beat the socks off of a funeral run by any religious leader of any religious persuasion. Not Catholic. Not Baptist. Not LDS. Not non-denominational. Not Methodist. None. Give me the imperfect real over the perfectly planned any day. Growing up my daddy was pallbearer for hundreds of funerals.

This morning I opened Facebook and, to my surprise and enormous sadness, learned that Ardis Parshall had passed away. For those who are unfamiliar with her, Ardis was, among other things, the founder and principal blogger at Keepapitchinin, a delightful blog full of forgotten moments and people in Mormon history and wonderful analysis. Not just a blogger, Ardis was contributor to and on the advisory board of…

Last month, my kids and I started volunteering at our local chapter of the Burrito Project (note, their website is several years out of date, but the program description is still accurate!). At ages 6 and 8, my kids are beginning to meet the real human struggles of the world, and they both want to help correct injustice and alleviate human suffering.

This Sunday was Stake Conference. I decided not to go and, instead, participate in the worship services of my local Episcopal church. This is why: They have sharp, thoughtful, and deeply spiritual female leadership—at Stake Conference it would be an entirely male-led service. The homily delivered was impactful, beautiful, and profound—at Stake Conference it would be just more of the same-old ‘follow the prophet,’ ‘we’re so lucky to be in this church,’ ‘the…

16 And it came to pass that when I, Nephi, had spoken these words unto my brethren, they were angry with me. And it came to pass that they did lay their hands upon me, for behold, they were exceedingly wroth, and they did bind me with cords, for they sought to take away my life, that they might leave me in the wilderness to be devoured by wild beasts.

In my first post here on BCC, I shared a little about the ten years I worked to try and get someone with authority to change the church's policy that resulted in stake Seminary teachers shouldering nearly the entire cost of Seminary. I didn't share the proverbial "last straw" that finally drove me to the nuclear option of involving the Salt Lake Tribune in hopes that press coverage would effect change.

Last year's One Big Beautiful Bill Act made a handful of substantial changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), making it harder for poor individuals and families to qualify for food assistance. The CBO estimates that these changes, which went into effect on February 1, will cause roughly 2.4 million people to lose their eligibility for SNAP. For our purposes, the two biggest changes (in section 10102 of the bill linked to above) both affect work requirements.

Happy Fat Tuesday! I hope today you're able to enjoy your pancakes, king cake, pączki, or whatever sugar- and fat-laden treat your region uses to celebrate the approaching Lenten season. Lent---the 40-day period leading up to Easter, where Christians traditionally prepare for the Resurrection---begins tomorrow, on Ash Wednesday. And in Chicago, where about one in three people…

Unlike many of my fellow BCC authors (and readers), I'm fairly new to the world of religious studies. But I've been listening to The New Testament In Its World, by N.T. Wright [1] and Michael Bird, and I'm captivated hearing stories we tell ourselves in the church told in the context of another comparatively small, young (<200 year old), religion with radically different ideas than its contemporary culture about who God is and how God relates to humanity.

In their analysis of Genesis 4:9, Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler observe that the LORD’s question “Where is your brother Abel?” is one that asks about “more than location.”[1]  Presumably, the LORD already knew that Cain had killed his brother. Rather—and there is a lot of this in Genesis—this question sets a theme that will be carried throughout the entire rest of the Hebrew Bible.

Yes, there are Mormons in the Epstein files. Are LDS influencers exploiting the moment?

Derivatives I have left out much of the story here, and it would take much more space to tell the rest (and this part ended up being far longer than I originally imagined--something my editors always complain about), so I think I will end the series with this post, for the time being at least.1 Many forces and personalities were at play in the genesis of the Proclamation on the Family.

I went to a "Migration With Dignity" forum with a friend yesterday. It was all about ways Christians at this church could support the dignity of immigrants in our city, supported by their organizational leadership. It got me thinking. What might that training have looked like if it had been optimized for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints -- both in America and beyond?

Yesterday, BYU's Office of Career Services hosted a career fair. One of the potential employers? Customs and Border Patrol. The inclusion of CPB led to a massive protest and demonstration and outrage among community members and alumni of the school. Before I definitely weigh in, I have a couple questions about BYU career fairs: What are the criteria for participating?

Happy love / friendship / warm regards / commercial exploitation of affection season, everyone! This Mental Health Monday (at least in American Samoa!) let's break down the difference between love and codependency (and abuse), using various hymn examples and others from church. However, let's start by ruining this iconic photograph celebrating V-J Day (the end of WWII).

First, I’m not a lawyer. Second, this is not a political post. With that out of the way…. Part of the American Mythology is the notion that God has, many times, intervened to establish and preserve the territory of the United States, the representative republic that serves as its form of government, and, specifically, the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.

It’s a cruel irony, what ICE has done in the land of Minnesota Nice. People are not okay. People are mad. People are dead. I'd always heard it the other way, but apparently the only thing that can stop a good guy with a gun is a bad guy with a gun. To stay engaged in current events despite the multifaceted darkness of the world, I don’t watch the videos.

Over the last weeks and months, I've been thinking about the Church's self-image. How does it view itself? What does it think its mission is? What does it believe its obligations are? This is, naturally, in the context of the Church's silence in the face of a concerted assault on the U.S. Constitution, a terror campaign against immigrants, to whom the Bible assigns especial duties, and an…

By the time my youngest brother, Baden, and I arrived at the Spokane Valley Hospital in Washington state on Thursday, November 13, 2025, our mother, Kathleen Jolley Fox, was no longer truly communicating with others. Baden and I, residents of Nevada and Kansas respectively, had the furthest to travel out of our seven other siblings to get to our mother’s bedside.

A decade ago, Elder Ballard gave a talk admonishing members of the church to "Stay in the and Hold On!" Apparently Brigham Young referenced this metaphor frequently. Enough people asked for specific directions on -- what, exactly, is "The Old Ship of Zion" -- that Elder Ballard offered a second talk the next year, describing it as the modern restored church led by apostles and prophets.