Lucifer's Lantern

For decades, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who received their temple endowment on the same calendar day were given the same "new name." Since January 1, 1965, the name assigned to a patron has been determined almost entirely by two factors: their gender and the day of the month. A man endowed on the 12th of any month, for example, would receive the same name as every other man endowed on the 12th, regardless of the temple or country.  That system quietly changed in June 2026. According to the independently maintained Temple Name Oracle database , the Church has retained the same list of male and female names, but it no longer assigns them to fixed calendar dates. Instead, the names now follow a rotating sequence that changes each month. Male and female name pairs remain linked together, but the pair assigned on one date in June may appear on a different date in July.  The change means that simply knowing a person's endowment date is no longer ...

In April 2026, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its intellectual property arm, Intellectual Reserve, filed a federal lawsuit against the Open Stories Foundation and John Dehlin. The complaint alleges trademark infringement, copyright infringement, and consumer confusion arising from the use of the name Mormon Stories, its branding, and its use of Church-related images.      The Church portrays the case as a straightforward effort to protect its trademarks and prevent confusion among people seeking information about the faith. Mormon Stories sees the case very differently. In its response and counterclaim , the organization argues that the Church is attempting to claim ownership over a word that belongs to an entire religious movement while using intellectual property law against one of its most visible critics. Here are the major arguments at the center of the dispute.

At first glance, The First Book of Napoleon: The Tyrant of the Earth  (1809) by Eliakim the Scribe (likely a pseudonym of Michael Linning) appears to be nothing more than a biblical retelling of the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. However... although The First Book of Napoleon and the Book of Mormon describe vastly different peoples, places, and historical events, both books present a remarkably similar explanation for the rise and fall of civilizations.  One of the most recognizable themes in the Book of Mormon is commonly call the " pride cycle ." Throughout the Nephite record, societies prosper when they are faithful to God. Prosperity eventually leads to complacency, complacency gives rise to pride, pride produces wickedness, and wickedness brings suffering and destruction. Affliction humbles the people, leading to repentance and a return to righteousness before the cycle begins again. Eliakim the Scribe similarly argues that political collapse is m...

The U.S. Department of Defense recently found itself at the center of an unexpected religious controversy after restructuring the way it categorizes faith groups within the military. In an effort to simplify its system, the Pentagon reduced more than 200 religious affiliation codes to just 31 broader categories. The initial version of the new list grouped many denominations under explicitly Christian classifications, including Catholics, Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Orthodox Christians, and Jehovah's Witnesses. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, however, appeared outside those Christian categories. miltary.com The reaction from many Latter-day Saints was immediate. ABC4 Utah Utah politicians publicly criticized the change, church members voiced their frustration online, and critics of Mormonism pointed to the classification as evidence that even the federal government did not view the faith as Christian. Facing mounting criticism, the Department of ...