All posts tagged: LDS

The LDS church posted about supporting working moms. The influencers’ hot takes took off.

The LDS church posted about supporting working moms. The influencers’ hot takes took off.

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Last month, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints shared a young man’s story about deciding to support the career of his wife, a pediatric neurologist — a career he says she was born for. “Supporting her doesn’t shrink my purpose — it expands it,” he said, according to a post from the church’s official Instagram account. Judging from some of the 2,100 comments across Instagram and X, you’d think the guy had just proclaimed motherhood was dead and the church had planned the funeral. The dude-bros came out in force, with comments like, “How is she gonna have children if she’s busy being a doctor all day?” and accusations that the church’s public relations department had suffered from “estrogen poisoning.” But then there was a backlash to the backlash — a string of social media posts from orthodox young Latter-day Saints who applauded the church’s new positive messaging about women’s careers. Some are claiming that position isn’t new for the church, and that it has always been supportive of women achieving …

Former LDS mission president explains what we get wrong about people leaving the church

Former LDS mission president explains what we get wrong about people leaving the church

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Thirteen years ago, Jeff Strong received an email from his son who had just left to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This son had entered the church’s Missionary Training Center only days earlier, but he’d already decided to come home. “As I read the email, it became very evident to me, just from the tone and the words that he used, that it was much bigger than just leaving the MTC,” Strong told RNS. “He was going to leave the church.” Strong “immediately went into fix-it mode,” he said, as he and his wife dealt with their shock and grief about their son’s decision. They saw it as a wrong move that could potentially damage the rest of his life — and their whole family’s eternity. They weren’t sure how to talk to him about it. “In our community, we literally believe that these conversations have eternal consequences. There’s the idea of ‘sad heaven’ or empty chairs at the dinner table in the Celestial Kingdom,” he …

How the LDS Church is growing — and shrinking

How the LDS Church is growing — and shrinking

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints just reported its highest convert growth in history. Over the weekend at its semiannual General Conference, the church released its 2025 membership statistics that indicate an almost 25% increase in convert baptisms in 2025, compared to 2024. But at the same time, 2025 data from the Cooperative Election Study, also made available last week, tells a different story. In the United States at least, fewer adults are self-identifying as Latter-day Saints than at any other time since the survey began nearly 20 years ago. Both of these stories are true. But how? Let’s dive into the data, starting with the church’s rosy internal membership numbers. A surge of growth Each April, the LDS Church releases its global statistics about the number of members, congregations, missionaries, enrolled students and temples it has. There have been some extremely lean years in the last decade, even before the COVID-19 pandemic. A decade ago this month, I wrote a column about how Mormon growth had slowed to its lowest …

New LDS apostle expected to be a strident culture warrior and doctrinal watchdog

New LDS apostle expected to be a strident culture warrior and doctrinal watchdog

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced the calling of its newest apostle, Clark G. Gilbert, on Thursday (Feb. 12). He will replace the beloved Jeffrey R. Holland, who died Dec. 27, 2025, after serving in the church’s Quorum of the Twelve for over 30 years. In some ways, Gilbert is a predictable choice. Like the apostle he’s replacing and also like Dallin H. Oaks, the new president of the church who just chose Gilbert for this lifelong appointment, he is a former president at one of the Brigham Young University schools. He represents a strain of LDS church leadership that has been deeply involved in religious education. Gilbert’s appointment also signals that doctrinal conformity may be a chief priority for the church during Oaks’ presidency. After Gilbert’s stint as president of BYU-Idaho from 2015 to 2017, he spearheaded the fledgling BYU-Pathway Worldwide program from 2017 to 2021. BYU-PW is an extremely popular low-cost, online college program through which students can complete a bachelor’s degree in three years from nearly anywhere …