EP 522 – The Great and Wondrous Missionary Vaccine

Sariah Wilson is back with us in the studio. She's got a new book coming out in April, The Seat Filler, which is a super fun read about a woman sent to fill seats at an awards show and winds up next to an A-list hunk. Witty banter ensues! Love abounds! You can pre-order your copy here.

In what is arguably Geoff's favorite news, after public outcry the murals in the Manti Utah Temple have received a stay of execution, at least we hope. The Church announced it was reversing course on outright destroying the murals to accommodate necessary interior remodeling of the temple, and will now at least try to preserve the famous work by Minerva Teichert to be displayed elsewhere in the future.

FAIRMormon is rebranding, dropping "Mormon" from its name and also reworking what the "FAIR" acronym stands for. It has also unpublished some glib videos that attempted to take down the CES Letter. Sariah is a big supporter of FAIR's work and goes into detail on the rebranding.

Don't miss temple predictions!!

http://www.thisweekinmormons.com/2021/03/latter-day-saint-temple-predictions-april-2021/

James Huntsman, of the famed Utah Huntsmans, is suing the church for fraud over its alleged misuse of his tithing funds. Will a case like this stand up in court?

Curiously, despite encouraging its employees and missionaries to be vaccinated, and even requiring vaccines for missionaries to serve abroad, the Church is not formally requiring missionaries in Utah to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. This one has folks scratching their heads, to say the least.

Utah wants to commemorate the 175th anniversary of the pioneers arriving in the Salt Lake Valley. That's cool! And like many states, it wants to issue commemorative license plates for the occasion. Great! But the design is, um, interesting.

Also in Utah, a bill in the legislature that would block pornography on phones sold within the state. But would this violate the 1st Amendment? Do we want the government formally codifying what defines pornography and what doesn't?

If you were hoping to geek out about Star Wars, enjoy Sariah's hardcore fandom. She even met Adam Driver one time, which served as the inspiration for The Seat Filler.

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