Lucifer's Lantern

Recently , the LDS church announced updated guidance on the "approved" list of Bible translation for use in local congregations, spanning both English and international language versions. You can find the specifics of this guidance in the LDS General Handbook . The Updated Narrative On January 6, 2026, an interview was hosted by BYU to highlight the updated LDS Bible recommendations: Josh Sears, Associate Professor of Ancient Scripture [L]anguage just keeps evolving. That's a natural thing. And that's nothing to be afraid of. That's just how language works. And we see out throughout history that as language gets of the scriptures gets too far removed from what people are speaking, there's always a need to update and modernize ... So, when the announcement came about the handbook updates that were going to be more flexible and allow for a variety of translations to work alongside the King James, it didn't really surprise me because to me this was aligned ...

 An upcoming event called the Peacemaker Summit , organized by The Holy Rebellion , is being promoted as a gathering for faithful LDS creators. The organizing vision for this event is explicitly about displacing critics of the faith by flooding social media platforms with coordinated, high-volume pro-Mormon content. That goal deserves scrutiny. My initial reaction to the original video The Stated Aim: Outnumber the Critics Travis Lish and Christian Williams from The Holy Rebellion have been clear about their motivation. They believe critics of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints dominate online spaces and that faithful voices need to overwhelm that presence. The solution being proposed is to create enough volume to hide criticisms from search results.  ... our goal is 1 billion views per month  collectively  as Latter Day Saint creators. Imagine a world where when you search Mormon or LDS or Joseph Smith  across any platform, what you would see...

 Jeffrey R. Holland, who died in December 2025 at age 85, was one of the most prominent and polarizing leaders in modern Latter-day Saint history. Known for his emotional delivery and uncompromising rhetoric, Holland helped shape the public tone of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at a time of growing internal strain. His sermons consistently framed belief as a matter of loyalty and resolve rather than inquiry. Doubt was often described as weakness or spiritual failure,  a posture that resonated with committed believers but alienated members grappling with historical, doctrinal, or personal concerns. One of the most vivid examples of that tone came from an April 2016 devotional address in Tempe, Arizona, often referred to in online communities as the “Stay in the Boat” or “Tempe Rescue” talk. It became infamous for the way Holland framed belief as a test of loyalty and resolve and cast doubt and departure as signs of weakness or betrayal.  View th...

 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has clarified its position on Bible translations. In its official statement, “ Holy Bible Translations and Editions Used by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ,” the Church explains that it values multiple Bible translations because they help people understand scripture “in the language they know best” .  The statement affirms that the King James Version (KJV) remains the preferred English Bible for Church use, while also acknowledging that some readers benefit from more modern language. That group includes youth, new converts, and people learning English. The recommended English Bible translations are as follows: Source: churchofjesuschrist.org Concerns about KJV comprehension have existed for decades. Yet only now does the handbook clearly frame Bible use around reading level and understanding. The update formalizes what many families were already doing.  The challenge is easy to identify. The KJV was trans...

 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced fourteen new members of the Young Men General Advisory Council , a group that aids the Young Men General Presidency in council and leadership of boys ages twelve to eighteen. The announcement has cause quite an online stir in Mormon spaces as several of these men already have established online followings. Religious youth retention is slipping and institutional messaging struggles to compete with platforms where teens spend most of their time.  Youth these days have a tendency to put a lot of trust in creators, sometimes even more than official statements. By calling men with YouTube channels, filmmaking schools, and large digital classrooms, the Church gains access to people who already know how to package a message and keep an audience engaged. These are essential skillsets for any organization to have in our online world. Who the New Council Members Are Derral E. Eves helped build The Chosen and spent years sha...

     On September 28, 2025, a man named Thomas Jacob Sanford drove a truck into a Latter-day Saint meetinghouse in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, opened fire, and then set the building on fire.      The FBI described it as “ a targeted act of violence believed to be motivated by the assailant’s anti-religious beliefs against the Mormon religious community .” ( NBC News )      That phrasing—“anti-religious beliefs”—is technically accurate but misses the mark. It’s careful. It’s broad. And it hides the real truth: this was an anti-Mormon attack.      1. The violence targeted a specific faith      Sanford didn’t attack a church because he hated religion in general. He attacked Mormons. Witnesses and online posts show he fixated on the LDS Church, calling its members “the antichrist.” That’s not generic hostility toward religion—it’s directed hatred toward one particular group.      2. “...

       All right. So, for this post today, I’m going to be talking about a pretty sensitive subject. And that’s going to be satanic ritual abuse and potential ties to leadership of the Mormon church.      It should go without saying that this is going to be a little bit more of a sensitive subject. I’ll say up front that I have no intention of diving into specific examples—detailed descriptions of what satanic ritual abuse looks like—outside of broad definitions. My goal is just to give an idea of what makes ritual abuse a little bit different than regular abuse (for lack of a better word). Consider this your heads up that this is going to be a sensitive subject.      I typically wouldn’t really give this type of subject very much attention. I certainly never planned on making a post about it. But I did have an interesting conversation the other day with an LDS content creator that I message with sometimes. I was a little surprised whe...