“We want people to understand the history of this church,” says Elder Marcus Nash, a leader of the LDS church who worked on a series of essays about questions of faith and contested church issues. But while this generation of Mormons may be “craving a more complicated narrative” about the church’s past, as Mormon historian Paul Reeve has said, former Mormon Edward Hoefer thinks “some people will accept the essays…and be comforted,” while for others “it will just accelerate their process” of leaving the church behind. More →

June 26, 2015

City planner Stephen Goldsmith says this private development project of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints creates a “we-they” divide. Jason Mathis of Salt Lake City’s Downtown Alliance says the church is creating “a community that is going to last for the next hundred years.” More →

November 6, 2009

A century and a half ago, Brigham Young led 600 Mormon settlers to the Salt Lake Valley and predicted it would blossom as a rose. Today, the valley is headquarters to what may be the fastest-growing church in the U.S., blossoming so fast it is continuously redefining itself. More →

March 2, 2001