Lucifer's Lantern

 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced on December 14, 2025 that a temple will be built in Portland, Maine . The announcement came during a regional Christmas devotional and was delivered by Elder Allen D. Haynie, a member of the Church’s Area Presidency, rather than during a General Conference session or directly by the Church president. What makes this announcement stand out is not the location, but the method. For years, temples were almost always announced during the April or October General Conference, usually by the Church president, at the close of a major session watched by a global audience. Under Russell M. Nelson, this practice became especially prominent, with long lists of new temples read out twice a year. These announcements have often been used rhetorically to imply numerical growth, even in regions with small or stagnant membership.  Announcing a temple outside of General Conference reduces the performative aspect of that claim.   T...

 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...

 The request for Mormon Stories to rebrand has spread quickly through Mormon spaces. Followers learned that om November 14th 2025, the LDS Church had reached out with claims that the podcast was infringing on the “Mormon” trademark. The demand leaned on the legal idea that the Church owns the word.  The request was shared on social media by @mormstories, but those posts seem to have been removed. Fortunately, copies of the email were  shared on reddit. But there is a significant detail sitting behind this entire dispute. The Church will have to renew the "Mormon" trademark in the 2026 to 2027 window.  Source: USPTO database When that time comes, they must prove that they still use the word “Mormon” in active commerce. USPTO rules are clear on this point. A trademark only survives if the owner can show that it is still printed on actual goods or services that are still being sold or distributed. The official guidelines spell it out at uspto.gov under “ Keeping your r...

Temple worthiness isn’t just about "good behavior" in Mormon teaching. It’s a gate that determines who qualifies for the highest blessings the religion offers. The church teaches that only people judged worthy can enter the temple, make covenants, and receive the ordinances that lead to exaltation, which is the belief that humans can become like God and live forever with their families in the celestial kingdom.  This makes worthiness interviews a spiritual checkpoint that can shape someone’s identity, their standing in the community, and even their hope for eternity.    Are You Worthy to Enter a Mormon Temple? Are You Worthy of the Mormon Temple? Yes No Restart Enter the Temple

Members of the Mormon church are expected to give ten percent of their income as tithing. It’s treated as a basic requirement of faithful membership. But even though members contribute a significant portion of their earnings, they aren’t given a clear accounting of how that money is used.  The Utah church does not release detailed budgets, financial reports, or yearly accounting. Members of the church donate fully on trust, without the kind of transparency they would expect from almost any other major charitable organization. Ensign Peak This lack of transparency became harder to overlook during the Ensign Peak investigation. For years the church separated its investment funds into thirteen shell companies and failed to fulfill federal reporting requirements.  The SEC found that this structure used by the church was designed to conceal the true size and unity of Ensign Peak’s holdings.   Per the SEC's 2023 report: " The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced c...

Sexual abuse within religion is not limited to one faith or one culture. It appears in churches, temples, synagogues, and mosques around the world.  The same systems that promise moral direction and community can also aid abusers in hiding their wrongdoing. When power is concentrated in spiritual authority, questioning leaders can feel like questioning God. That fear keeps many victims silent for years. Across history, investigations have revealed deep problems in multiple religious institutions. The Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others have faced reports of abuse and cover-ups. The pattern is painfully consistent across the board. Allegations are dismissed, offenders are quietly moved, and victims are told to stay quiet for the sake of the church’s reputation . Each time the truth surfaces, it raises the same questions: -How could this happen? -Who allowed it to continue? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is no...

People keep asking whether Mormons are Christian, as if that’s the issue that matters. It’s not. Mormons love this question since its probably one of the tamest aspects of the faith to question. The other day I was reading some comments on an online post that was debating the issue of whether or not Mormons were Christian, and this interaction caught my eye. One individual declared that the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) “never were and never will be Mormon.”  Now, I can't imagine that many Mormons will share this same sentiment, considering that the FLDS church literally emerged from the exact same roots as the Utah church. But this interaction ironically demonstrates the exact same mindset that other Christians have about Mormons. Some Christians don’t consider Mormons Christian because Latter-day Saint teachings reject key doctrines established by early Christian creeds, like the Trinity, original sin, and the belief that Go...

     A Smithsonian Magazine article titled “ Native Americans Spread Horses Through the West Earlier Than Thought ” (2023) has been circulating in Mormon spaces as supposed proof that horses existed in the Americas during Book of Mormon times.      The article summarizes a legitimate scientific study published in Science titled “ Early Dispersal of Domestic Horses Into the Great Plains and Northern Rockies .” (2023) But when you read what the researchers actually found, it’s clear this does not support the Book of Mormon’s claims at all.      What the Study Actually Found      The research team, led by William Timothy T. Taylor, analyzed horse remains found across the Great Plains and northern Rockies. Using radiocarbon dating, DNA sequencing, and isotopic analysis, they discovered that the animals were of Spanish origin. In other words, these were not remnants of ancient, native North American horses that somehow...

In his April 2007 General Conference talk To the Aaronic Priesthood: Preparing for the Decade of Decision, Elder Robert D. Hales told the story of a young pilot who disobeyed orders, attempted aerial stunts at night, and crashed into oil rigs below. He used this as a metaphor for spiritual life, warning that even small acts of disobedience can lead to complete ruin. For Hales, obedience to God is an all-or-nothing matter, like flying a plane where any deviation can be fatal. But people are not aircraft. And life is not a flight path. Demanding an all-or-nothing approach does not just promote commitment, it conditions fear. By insisting that safety lies only in strict obedience, it discourages critical thinking and builds identity around compliance. It teaches young minds to measure their worth by how well they follow commands. For some, the damage runs deeper. LGBTQ youth, people with mental health challenges, and those wrestling with doctrine often hear these messages a...

I came across the poem "The Hollow Men" by T. S. Eliot, and it honestly perfectly describes the religious practices of countless people. We are the hollow men we are the stuffed men leaning together headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Our dried voices, when we whisper together are quiet and meaningless as wind in dry grass or rats' feet over broken glass in our dry cellar... Many people claim to believe in God, but their lives tell a different story. They say they have faith, but that faith has little influence on what they do, how they treat others, or what they value. Their heads may as well be stuffed with straw. Its my opinion, that for most people, religion has become more about identity than conviction. Real belief shows up in choices. It changes behavior. It means living as though your faith is true even when it costs you comfort or pride. Comfort plays a huge role in this. Religion can offer security, tradition, and a sense of belonging. There’s nothing...

     The word “cult” usually brings to mind the most destructive examples of control, where people lose their freedom, identity, or even their lives. That harm is real and should never be minimized. But the psychology behind those groups does not appear only in the extremes.       The same methods of influence exist in more common institutions too, but often differ in intensity. Religion, politics, and corporate systems all use similar tools to shape belief and loyalty. Mormonism belongs on that spectrum, not because it is as harmful as the worst examples, but because it relies on many of the same patterns of authority and conformity.      One way to see this clearly is through the BITE Model of Authoritarian Control. The model, created by Steven Hassan, outlines how groups shape members through four areas of influence: B ehavior I nformation T hought E motion.       Each form of control helps a system maintain stabil...