Here are my charts for the LDS Membership Statistics Report, updated with the numbers reported April 6, 2019. These statistics are for calendar year 2018. See last year’s statistical report here.   Total membership: 16,313,735, raw growth of 1.21% on prior year Stakes: 3,383 Wards and Branches: 30,536 New children of record during 2017: 102,102 Converts […]

I picked up the Kindle version of Jana Riess’ new book The Next Mormons: How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church. and skimmed through it. The book contains data, charts, and personal anecdotes from an extensive study of over 1,000 LDS and former LDS millennials. This is a groundbreaking book that we have anticipated for […]

I also was given topic of charity with scriptures 1 Corinthians 13 and Moroni 7. I love these two passages. I love how they interact with each other. The Book of Mormon is quoting the Bible here. And that’s a common criticism of the Book of Mormon, that it’s plagiarizing the Bible. But that criticism […]

  In 2013, Smoot published an article The Imperative for a Historical Book of Mormon, in which he lays out his case for the requirement for the Book of Mormon to be ancient and historical in order for the book to be true and Joseph Smith to be prophet. Recently, in Oct 2018, Smoot reworked […]

  Dieter F. Uchtdorf spoke at the BYU devotional this week, on the subject of doubt and belief, which ties into a very interesting, recent four hour debate on religion between Jordan Peterson and Sam Harris. Elder and Sister Renlund spoke on faith crisis Sunday night. I wrote about that earlier. It was a very […]

  Elder and Sister Renlund spoke on faith and doubt in a world wide devotional last night. Today, there is some pretty harsh criticism of the talk from the Progmo-Exmo community. I sustain Elder Renlund as a prophet, seer, and revelator and I try to have patience and faith when hearing his words. But I […]

    The new year brought new changes in LDS temple ceremonies, effective Jan 1, 2019. I have not been yet personally, so I am reporting this based on what I have read from reliable sources while avoiding talking about the changes directly, as LDS Church leaders requested. I highly suggest you hear what LDS […]

I recently became aware of an interesting study related to beliefs on evolution among members of the LDS Church. The study led by BYU professors, including Steven Peck, polled LDS BYU students over 30 years to identify changes in these beliefs. From the abstract of the study: Polling data reveal a decades-long residual rejection of […]

With the excommunication of Bill Reel pending, there is discussion in the Progmo world that there is a void in the Mormon podcast world in the faithful but nuanced (Middle Way) category. I’m passionate about popularizing and modeling the paradigm I have of the LDS Church, whatever you call it, knowing as soon as I […]

  Happy Thanksgiving. It’s a time to be grateful. When I was in a tough time of life, with a lot of difficult tasks going on and not many things that felt happy or joyful, I spent some time looking for something that could help me out of the rut and help me feel happy. […]