Nelson’s headstone gets assist from temple renovation
(Michael Stack | Special to The Tribune) This notation appears on the monument that will mark church President Russell M. Nelson s grave in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. May 10, 2021.
It has become a common practice for a husband or wife to erect a headstone for the couple after only one has died waiting to list the death date for the surviving spouse to be engraved later.
Still, mourners strolling through the northwest quadrant of the historic Salt Lake City Cemetery might be startled to see a tall granite shaft emblazoned with the name Russell M. Nelson and the words “Seventeenth President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”
What started as a way to adapt university talks to COVID-19 precautions may continue as a new forum for Latter-day Saint history and culture.
Podcast âThe Foyerâ began last year as Patrick Mason was looking for ways to continue discussions about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the larger movement of Mormonism. As Utah State Universityâs Leonard J. Arrington Chair of Mormon Studies, Mason felt a responsibility to keep bringing people content that they could normally get from the schoolâs religious studies guest speakers and panels.
âWhen the pandemic shut everything down this past year, we were no longer able to have on-campus events like we normally do,â Mason said. âSo âThe Foyerâ was a way that we thought about how do we still reach out to the public, because of course USU, as a state university part of its mission is public outreach.â
| Updated: May 9, 2021, 11:06 p.m.
Mormonism’s Heavenly Mother has gone mainstream.
She is the topic of a number of books on sale at Deseret Book, which is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She has spawned essays (including an official one from the faith), poetry, a one-woman play, hymns, art shows, even academic debates.
She has been embraced as part of the church’s Young Women theme, which was updated in 2019 to say: “I am a beloved daughter of Heavenly Parents, with a divine nature and eternal destiny.”
There is a tidal wave of interest in this divine feminine among Latter-day Saints, observers say. It has become almost a movement.
X-ing out the MX
Forty years ago Wednesday, the church helped shoot down controversial plans to base a nuclear missile system in Utah’s West Desert.
In a detailed, descriptive and impassioned 700-word statement issued May 5, 1981, the governing First Presidency decried the arms buildup, the destabilizing nature of the proposed MX deployment, and the impact the weapons plan could have on the environment, the economy and all of humanity.
“By way of general observation, we repeat our warnings against the terrifying arms race in which the nations of the earth are presently engaged,” then-church President Spencer W. Kimball and his counselors wrote. “We deplore in particular the building of vast arsenals of nuclear weaponry.”