This Week in Latter-days

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]mall in stature but huge in spirit, Devin Thorpe, our beloved "resident communist," is in the studio to break down the news. He also has some updates on his experience campaigning in Utah's 3rd Congressional District.

Before inevitably dipping into COVID-19 news, let's talk about how the Church is now mandating that only approved imagery of the Savior be used in meetinghouse entrances and foyers. To be clear, this means that anything that is not Jesus in this places must be removed, including any bulletins, tables, easels, etc., that might have other information on them. It is all Jesus and furniture. That's it.

Utah is the second-most religiously biased state in the country against irreligious people, a study funded by atheists says. Are you in Utah? Are you a random atheist who follows this podcast? Let us know your thoughts! Props to Mississippi for being #1 in so many bad ways. It is probably also the leader in floating casinos.

Famed Church historian Richard Turley is retiring. He came to the Church right after the Mark Hofmann scandals and has played an enormous role in opening up archives and facing our history. You can listen to the godless and evil Salt Lake Tribune's interview with him below.

Alright, coronavirus! Week 543. In the wake of dumb Latter-day Saints flouting social distancing guidelines to welcome Mikaeyluh and Janathhyn home from their missions, the Church issued a very clear reminder not to be dumb when dropping off these missionaries as they head out for their new assignments.

The limited reopening of some temples represents the first phase of returning to some sense of normalcy after coronavirus. The Church announced last week 17 temples would open solely for living sealings, then a few days ago added 17 more to the list. How "phased" can an approach be if we don't take time between phases to gather and analyze data before taking next steps?

In other temples news, shocking the region - nay, the world - the Orem City Council approved the site plans for the upcoming Orem Utah Temple. Devin claims this temple will also lack a statue of the angel Moroni, and he also doesn't like that Moroni was actually added to some temples that originally didn't have one.

Site work is also underway at the Washington County Utah Temple. This means dirt is being moved around.

And the plans for one of our favorite upcoming temples, that of

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]fter a few weeks of bearing kids and delving into Church history, we're back with the news! And who better to guide us through the items of the week than our resident Idaho experts, the TWiM Sisters, Arianne Smith and Tiffany Hales.

What do you think of the Church's new logo? Or what about what we have editorialized as the Tabernacle Choir's "bad" new logo? A graphic designer sounds off on the Church's latest branding efforts in an interesting discussion with the Daily Herald.

The Salt Lake Tribune exposes corruption at the highest levels of temple planning! OK, not quite, but it does reveal that the upcoming Shanghai China Temple is not quite as planned or approved as we might have supposed. Worth a read.

Also worth a read: BYU Magazine published fascinating research about the roles of women, and notably, how women are not listened to and what to do to enable women in your ward, social circle, or business.

You'd be forgiven if you thought this had already happened, but due to coronavirus, the Church has canceled all youth treks and other gatherings in 2020. As erstwhile Young Women's advisers who have ample experience with trek, Tiffany and Arianne have some thoughts!

Perhaps this is a good time to cover other COVID news. Church welfare farms are having a productive year and expect to thrive in the COVID climate.

The First Presidency released updated administrative guidelines during our home-at-church saga. There's nothing terribly earth shattering here, but it does give specifics where specifics have been needed.

How have aspirants husbands and wives responded to temple closures and the inconvenience of a small, socially safe gathering at a courthouse or elsewhere in order to be married civilly? KSL has you covered with the scoop!

Being forced to return early from your mission because of coronavirus is a drag, but many are finding rich blessings in the experience. Also, the April 30 deadline to decide whether to return to th...

In this week's episode, Jared Gillins and I have the opportunity to interview Benjamin E. Park, author of Kingdom of Nauvoo: The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier, which explores the evolution of Nauvoo as a city and a religious experiment. 

Nauvoo means many things to many people. To Latter-day Saints in the 1840s, it represented a reprieve, a salvation from the troubles that befell them in Missouri. At first, the locals in Illinois were warm and accommodating toward the Saints. But as the Mormons grew in size and political influence, so too did animosity toward what, to many outsiders, appeared to be a theocracy at odds with American democracy, particularly as the practice of polygamy quietly grew and Nauvoo’s municipal courts shielded Joseph Smith from extradition and other legal action. It is a fascinating take on a landmark period of Latter-day Saint history, made possible by newly available resources.

What lessons do we learn from this period? How do we react to uncomfortable truths about venerated Latter-day Saint leaders? How can we apply this knowledge going forward?

Benjamin E. Park received his BA in English and history from Brigham Young University, a MSc in historical theology from the University of Edinburgh’s School of Divinity, and his MPhil in political thought and PhD in history from the University of Cambridge. 

After serving as the inaugural postdoctoral fellow at the University of Missouri’s Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy, he has been an assistant professor of history at Sam Houston State University. His scholarly articles have been published by over a dozen academic journals, including Church History, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Journal of the Early Republic, Early American Studies, and Journal of American Studies, and his popular essays have appeared in national venues ranging from Washington Post to Newsweek. 

He has served on the executive boards for the Mormon History Association and Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, and is currently the co-editor of Mormon Studies Review. Park’s first book, American Nationalisms: Imagining Union in the Age of Revolutions, 1783-1833, was published by Cambridge University Press and was a finalist for the Lasky Prize in Political History, and he is the editor of the forthcoming textbook A Companion to American Religious History, published by Wiley-Blackwell. His most recent monograph, Kingdom of Nauvoo: The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier, appeared in February with W. W. Norton/Liveright, and has been featured in, among other venues, The New Yorker and The Wall Street Journal.

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hat better way to commemorate 10 years of This Week in Mormons by making you suffer through our very first episode? An episode so green and amateurish, and yet we still had to rerecord the entire thing because we didn't know what we were doing!

So our first show, dubbed "The Thirty-Foot Temple" after some design tweaks to the then-in-progress Phoenix Arizona Temple, dabbled in only a few topics, including the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center, technology in the Church, obese Mormons, and so many other topics discussed with our signature maturity and sensitivity!

Those years ago, we had no idea what TWiM would become, and we're thankful to all of you for being part of the community.

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]e'll try to keep the COVID-19 news to a minimum this week as we come down from our General Conference recap high. Josie Gleave has kindly hopped into the hot seat, which means great international news!

How was your global fast on Good Friday? Did it work? Is coronavirus over? In all seriousness, it was cool to see everyone come together to fight this thing, but it's also worth noting that other Christians have been fasting on Good Friday for centuries. Latter-day Saints did not invent the Good Friday fast! We are not leaders here!

Blogger and author Jana Riess, herself a convert to the Church, has her own thoughts on how to Make Fasting Great Again, including to bring a more somber contemplative approach to it, rather than a transactional one.

You can also learn about five times a prophet has called for a global fast, but it was only done by three men. Tricky!

The Church is busy helping with the COVID-19 relief effort in many ways around the world:

* Since its initial donation of medical masks, goggles and gowns to China, the Church has received numerous requests for similar assistance. Those requests are being evaluated and addressed as the Church is able to do so, although our ability to supply and deliver those products is limited by a global demand for such resources.

* Support via donations to LDS Charities is providing supplies and raw materials for medical care in hospitals and emergency rooms for medical personnel and patient care.For now, the Church of Jesus Christ, through Latter-day Saint Charitable Services, has managed to provide aid in Cambodia, China, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Italy, Iran, Japan, Mongolia, the Philippines, Singapore , South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.

* Church donates use of official building in San Antonio, Chile to be used as a hospital for patients with mild virus symptoms. Estimated 48 beds are being installed. (Same building was similarly provided to be converted into a hospital during the 1985 earthquake).

* Food and supplies from Bishop's Central Storehouse sent to Navajo reservations in SW area. Volunteers dropped off 100 boxes of food to help out.

* First Presidency approves massive relief campaigns in 57 countries.

Coronavirus has affected the youth of the Church in different ways. The Church was forced to

What a terrific weekend. General Conference, even in its new, temporary setting due to COVID-19, went off without a hitch, and the lower-key affair was actually appealing in many ways and made a nice parallel to the humble beginnings of the restoration of the Church, which we celebrated throughout the weekend.

COVID-19 cast something of a pall over everything, but boy did Church leaders rise to the occasion, culminating in President Nelson encouraging us to fast once more on Good Friday that the virus may stop its spread and that health are workers may be safe.

Join your favorite TWiM personalities, Al Doan, Kurt Francom, Josie Gleave, Jared Gillins, and Devin Thorpe, as they sit with Geoff Openshaw for a lively discussion recapping the entire weekend, including temples, new logos errr "symbols," a new proclamation, youth speakers in conference! So much happened!

You can also watch our live stream of this episode below!

If you can spare two dollars a month, that'd help us a ton! Just join Patreon, put in some quick info, and become part of the proud community of This Week in Mormons supporters.

Photo: Cheryl Taylor/The Church News

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hat a week in news, and as you might expect, a large chunk of if is COVID-19 related. But this week is especially notable because we've finally arrived at our lower-scale General Conference, and Kurt Francom of Leading Saints is with us after his global fast to fight coronavirus to break it all down.

Will there be more temples announces or will President Nelson hold off because of how serious coronavirus is? We talk both in our temple predictions, to which you can both read and listen.

Our biggest story came right before recording. The Church has announced new options for the bevy of missionaries forced to come home early for an indefinite period of time because of COVID-19. They will face two choices: 1) wait out COVID-19 and return to the field when it is safe, perhaps in a different location, and then finish their missions at the originally planned date; 2) stay home for a year or so and reenter the field at a later date, moving the completion date. In both cases, the missionaries are to be temporarily released, which is a huge bummer, because it would have been amazing to see a bunch of set-apart missionaries living at home, with nothing to do.

Those missionaries also make the upcoming US census complicated, especially in Latter-day Saint-rich areas like Utah. The undercounting of Utah's population due to missionaries in the field has even resulted in being denied a seat in the US House of Representatives. Utah went to court over it 10 years ago!

Hopefully none of you missed this video of families ignoring social distancing protocol for the sake of receiving inbound missionaries at Salt Lake City International Airport.

Hundreds of missionaries from the Philippines are coming back to Salt Lake City today. Social distancing is out the window as people welcome back their family members with posters, balloons, and hugs. @KUTV2News pic.twitter.com/CeyRDtRv9x

— Kelly Vaughen (@KellyVaughen) March 22, 2020

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There are also many missionaries who've yet to enter the field, or the physical missionary training center, for that matter. Those missionaries have gone online with their training and study, and the Church published a piece providing a pretty cool window into the new world of virtual MTCs. Also, the Church must be spending a ton of money on Zoom.

Let's move to General Conference, a weekend that is supposed to focus on the bicentennial of the Restoration, but now has coroanvirus rampaging through it.

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]ure, you could read our new temple predictions for the April 2020 General Conference, and we hope you'll do so, but if you're on the go and want to listen through things, our new temple predictions podcast has you covered!

http://www.thisweekinmormons.com/2020/03/temple-predictions-april-2020/

Join Geoff Openshaw and Joe Peterson for a full breakdown of our choices. We also encourage you to check out this great Temple Matrix that assigns scores to temple choices based on the input of this strange little corner of the internet.

We'd love your comments and input on this Conference's picks!

Ed Kosmicki/Reuters

[dropcap]G[/dropcap]eoff is currently dying from COVID-19, so we have the TWiM Sisters up in the house to cover for the foreseeable future. OK, that's not exactly true. Geoff is fine. But the Sisters are here!

How's coronavirus response looking from western Idaho? Arianne's ward did a full-blown "sacrament meeting" (minus the ordinance of the sacrament), replete with assigned speakers and everything. What has your ward or branch done in response?

First, missionaries. The Church is sending most missionaries in Africa home for isolation or reassignment. This represents a humongous shift in resources, particularly as Africa is currently the fastest-growing area of the Church.

Missionaries in the United States and Canada have been instructed not to go door to door (which isn't their job, anyway), and are largely under house arrest due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Robert Kirby of the Salt Lake Tribune had something similar happen to him during his mission.

In addition, the Church chartered flights out of the Philippines to get all non-Filipino missionaries out of the country before a government deadline.

On to Brigham Young University - Idaho, where a student tested positive for COVID-19 after interacting with many other students. Idaho remains one of the states in the United States within minimal restrictions placed on public gatherings.

Also in Idaho, massive amounts of toilet paper, latex gloves, and cases of hand sanitizer were stolen from BYU-I. You rock, Idaho.

Deseret Industries, a wonderful resource and employer within the Intermountain West, is closing its doors due to coronavirus, although it will continue to serve some individuals. Bishop's storehouses, at the time of writing, are to remain open.

Also in the realm of provident living, one McKay Coppins wrote a great piece in The Atlantic about his own experiences with food storage as a Latter-day Saint.

The upcoming General Conference was initially closed to the public, but due to rapidly escalating health concerns, the weekend-long series of meetings has now been moved to a studio somewhere on Temple Square (mysterious, no?), and only key participants for each session will be in the room.

Latter-day Saint YouTuber Mark Rober is at it again, this time with an informative video for your family that shows how easily germs transmit, and how much good washing with soap for the appropriate amount of time actually does.

Photo: Historic LDS Architecture

[dropcap]C[/dropcap]oronavirus or the sickness caused by it, COVID-19, has officially enveloped our society, leading to drastic restrictions across everyday life, including church activity. The Church has been proactive in erring on the side of caution, resulting in a cavalcade of new practices, closures, and other measures. Jared Gillins is here, and this week is pretty much all coronavirus and the Latter-day Saint Response.

First off, if you want to bookmark a useful page, the Church produces a single portal listing all relevant articles pertaining to coronavirus restrictions and actions, along with the dates the material was last updates. Worth keeping around.

It is important that we take coronavirus seriously. Seriously! Jana Riess, no stranger to fusillades from our end, rightly calls out Latter-day Saints for inaction during this crisis. It is about all of us at this point.

Likewise, By Common Consent ran a terrific piece challenging us not to be selfish as we protect ourselves, but to think of others and to think collectively.

So here we are. All Church activity has effectively come to a screeching halt. It started a few weeks ago, as missionary activity scaled back and temples closed in Asia. Then the shoes came a-droppin'.

First, the inevitable announcement that General Conference would still take place, but that the Conference Center and other facilities would be closed to the public. What will Conference be like with speakers speaking to an empty room and choirs' singing into the empty expanse?

Of course, it gave us this great bit of the internet:

Then we learned that missionary training centers (MTC) would largely go virtual. That is, MTCs in Provo and England would stop taking in new missionaries, requiring them instead to be trained online from home. Other MTCs around the world will restrict who can arrive based on country of origin.

Eventually, the closures hit the Church Education System, with BYU canceling commencement and the Women's Conference. The Church also moved to close more temples at this time.

Finally, the big one. On Thursday evening, the First Presidency announced an end to all meetings and activities, encouraging bishops and stake presidents to work together to outline protocols for administering the sacrament while ward members were encouraged to use their skills learned from a year of Come, Follow Me to hold church at home with their families.

So how was your first week of home church?