Mormon Land

A sex abuse survivor details his painful path to healing | Episode 284

Note • This podcast discusses sexual assault. If you need to report or discuss a sexual assault, you can call the Utah Sexual Violence help line at 801-736-4356.
Rabbi Avremi Zippel was 8 years old when his nanny began sexually abusing him in a basement bathroom in his Salt Lake City home.
For Zippel, the abuse, which continued for a decade, violated everything he believed as an Orthodox Jew and threw him into a whirlwind of shame, guilt, depression, anxiety and even questions about God. He eventually told his wife, his parents, his siblings, a therapist and the police, which was an agonizing but ultimately healing journey.
Zippel, who followed in the footsteps of his father, Rabbi Benny Zippel, a Chabad Lubavitch leader in Utah, tells the harrowing story in his new book, “Not What I Expected: A 20-Year Journey to Reclaim a Child’s Voice.”
On this week’s show, Avremi Zippel discusses his book, what he endured and what religious leaders can do in the fight against sexual abuse.

Why all R-rated movies need not scare away faithful Latter-day Saints | Episode 283

Devout Latter-day Saints don’t, or at least think they shouldn’t, watch R-rated movies.
This belief has permeated their religious culture for decades. And while top leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have warned about such films, there has never been a general proscription against viewing them.
In fact, a popular Latter-day Saint blogger recently argued that some R-rated and TV-MA productions are worth watching, listing titles from “Saving Private Ryan” and “Marriage Story” to “The Passion of the Christ” and “Good Will Hunting.” He stated that swearing off such movies can lead to “consuming disproportionately infantile content.”
So where did this supposed blanket ban on such films originate? Does it still have the same hold on Latter-day Saint culture? And are there movies that adult members not only could watch (without any guilt) but indeed should watch?
On this week’s show, David Scott, a communication professor at Utah Valley University and an expert on Mormon culture, media and their intersection with religiosity, discusses those questions and more.

Church’s internet presence — how and why it changed | Episode 282

In the wake of President Russell M. Nelson’s decree to remove the “Mormon” name from common parlance in person and in publications, the need to replace its use on the internet with the faith’s full name was no easy feat.
After all, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were widely known as “Mormons.” The faith even promoted a popular advertising campaign, called “I’m a Mormon,” highlighting the lives and beliefs of its followers.
The website mormon.org featured those mini-videos, while lds.org went to the church’s official website.
On this week’s show, technology expert Spencer Greenhalgh, who teaches in the School of Information Science at the University of Kentucky, discusses what it took to get those domain names changed and why church officials when to the time, trouble and expense to do so.

The General Conference gender gap — why it should change and how it can | Episode 281

President Russell Nelson, worldwide leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has urged women to be seen and be heard, to speak up and speak out — in their communities, in their homes and in their congregations.
That may be happening at the grassroots level, but it isn’t occurring in the patriarchal faith’s highest-profile forum: General Conference. In the most recent gathering, only two of the 33 speakers were women. Even in past conferences, that number rarely reached a handful.
Researcher Eliza Wells, a doctoral student in philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studied this phenomenon in conferences over a 50-year period for Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought and discovered an even deeper chasm: Men were at least 16 times more likely to be quoted over the pulpit than women — a gap that holds true even when women were speaking.
It’s an inequity that many women and men in the church notice and hope to change.
On this week’s show, Wells discusses her findings, the implications, the message sent, how to change that pattern and why it matters.

How to heed Russell Nelson’s plea to be a peacemaker and why it isn’t easy | Episode 280

When President Russell M. Nelson took to the podium at this past weekend’s General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and steadfastly called on members and all others to eliminate contention and become, like the Prince of Peace, peacemakers, Patrick Mason and David Pulsipher had to be cheering.
After all, the two scholars wrote a book about that very ideal. Titled “Proclaim Peace: The Restoration’s Answer to an Age of Conflict,” their volume explained how “peace is possible” and explored how the Mormon message — along with writings from other faiths and other thinkers — can bring help, healing and harmony to the world, nations, communities, homes and individual hearts.
On this week’s show, they discussed Nelson’s address, other conference speakers who also pleaded for harmony and unity, and how true Christian discipleship can end political polarization and cultural conflicts, and convey peace to one soul and all souls.

Two former missionaries open up about their mental health challenges | Episode 279

Depression, attention-deficit disorder, anxiety, anorexia, insomnia, scrupulosity, obsessive-compulsive disorder and more. Like people from every walk of life, missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are not immune from mental health challenges.
In fact, the stresses of full-time proselytizing, with its high demands and high expectations, can exacerbate the unsettling symptoms and the sometimes-crippling complications.
As missionaries increasingly encounter mental health challenges, the church is increasingly responding — with better trained mission presidents, mission therapists and mission health councils.
On this week’s show, two former missionaries — Cora Longhurst, who served in the Philadelphia Mission, and Michael Skaggs, who labored in Las Vegas and on a service mission at church headquarters — share the struggles they endured during their stints, the help they received and how they are coping now.

Writers discuss their identities as Indigenous scholars and Latter-day Saints | Episode 278

In the 1830s, Mormonism’s founder, Joseph Smith, offered Latter-day Saints an expansive view of education. In his mind, temple (a religious space) and school (a secular place) were linked in a joint spiritual and intellectual venture. Smith urged followers in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint to gather “every needful thing” to further that kind of learning.
Now, writer/editor Melissa Inouye and the late Kate Holbrook, who directed women’s history for the church, have gathered two dozen essays by Latter-day Saint women wrestling with what it means to “flourish in a world of complexity and abundance.”
The book is titled “Every Needful Thing: Essays on the Life of the Mind and the Heart.” On this week’s show, two of the authors, Farina King of the University of Oklahoma, and Tanya Wendt Samu of New Zealand’s University of Auckland, discuss their views of the Book of Mormon, seen by some as an exploration of racism, and their identities as Indigenous scholars and Latter-day Saints as they navigate a life of learning and a life of faith.

So Americans don’t view Latter-day Saints favorably. What that means? Does it matter? | Episode 277

It seems to be a common human trait to wonder how others see us. Who among us is most likable? Most respected? Most trusted? It is, of course, of particular value to those in the minority, perceived as outcasts or threats or newcomers to the scene. This may be especially pertinent to faith groups.
A new poll from the Pew Research Center found that respondents viewed Catholics, Jews and mainline Protestants more positively than they do members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Evangelical Christians, Muslims and even atheists also scored higher than Mormons, as they are referred to throughout the survey.
“A quarter of Americans say they hold very or somewhat unfavorable views of Mormons,” the Pew report stated, “while 15% express favorable opinions.”
On this week’s show, Brigham Young University political science professor Quin Monson, himself a pollster and co-author of “Seeking the Promised Land: Mormons and American Politics,” discusses those perceptions, whether they have changed through the years and if it should be a cause for concern in the missionary-minded faith.

How Latter-day Saints can immerse themselves in Easter | Episode 276

Many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints complain about the fact that there’s no expansive or universal celebration of Easter in their religion.
While much of Christendom builds up to the holiest day on the calendar with preparation rituals like Lent or immersive traditions such as waving palms on Palm Sunday, washing feet on Maundy Thursday, or carrying a large cross for Good Friday, Latter-day Saints have no accepted traditions for Easter. Some have begun to develop their own way of commemorating Easter with prayers, readings and discussions.
Eric Huntsman, a Brigham Young University professor of ancient scripture, has spent his career reading biblical texts in their original languages. Huntsman, who is currently the academic director at BYU’s Jerusalem Center, has just published a book in time for the holiday, with Trevan Hatch, “Greater Love Hath No Man: A Latter-day Saint Guide to Celebrating the Easter Season” that explores the scriptural accounts for each day of Holy Week, explains how those events have been celebrated in various Christian traditions and shares suggestions for how Latter-day Saints can commemorate the occasions in their own homes.

How Brigham Young instituted a racist policy that lasted for more than a century | Episode 275

In 1833, a leading Latter-day Saint, William W. Phelps, published a column under the headline “Free People of Color,” making it clear that, since its founding three years earlier, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints exercised no racial barriers.
Black members were not only welcome in the fledgling faith but also eligible for all of its rites and privileges.
It was a stance that did not sit well with many Missourians at the time and with the racist views scarring much of America in those pre-Civil War days. It’s also a position that did not last inside the church itself.
The faith’s second prophet-president, Brigham Young, eventually departed from the ways of founder Joseph Smith and instituted a ban barring Black Latter-day Saints from priesthood ordinations and temple ordinances.
That prohibition endured for nearly 130 years, a racist stain that the global faith and its members grapple with to this day.
In his new book, “Let’s Talk About Race and Priesthood,” from church-owned Deseret Book, W. Paul Reeve, head of Mormon studies at the University of Utah, relies on historical records and scriptural passages to examine how and why the Utah-based church shifted from an inclusive approach on race to a restricted one and, ultimately, back to its original universalist theology.
In this week’s show, Reeve, who flatly states that he doesn’t believe the former priesthood/temple ban was of “divine origin,” discusses the faith’s evolution on this sensitive topic and the challenges that still lie ahead.