Mormon Land

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is opposed to gambling. … [It] is motivated by a desire to get something for nothing. This desire is spiritually destructive. It leads participants away from the Savior’s teachings.”

With those words, the faith’s position is clear. No gambling — of any type.

So when The Atlantic staked staff writer McKay Coppins, a practicing Latter-day Saint, $10,000 to place bets while investigating the booming business of sports betting, he felt the need to consult with his bishop.

Since the money wouldn’t be his own and the assignment was for research, the wary church leader gave Coppins the go sign but added a caution: “Be careful.”

During the ensuing months, Coppins learned the wisdom behind that warning as he came to understand the addictive nature of gambling and the odds against winning at it.

“I started with $10,000,” he said. “I ended with less than $200. I lost, basically, all of it.”

On this week’s show, he discusses his article, titled “Sucker: My year as a degenerate gambler,” along with what he discovered about the industry, himself and the implications of sports betting for Latter-day Saints.

Scott Howell is a well-known figure among Utah Democrats. He served for a decade in the state Senate and was twice the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate.

During the past dozen years, though, Howell donned a different mantle: service missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He and his wife, Linda, spent their days teaching workshops on self-reliance, addressing the problems of homelessness, helping those living on the margins get the care they need, even helping a toothless member get dentures.

On this week’s show, the Howells discuss the church’s program, its challenges and rewards, and what they learned along the way.

Sexual standards set by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints seem clear — no sex before marriage, total fidelity during marriage.

Guidelines for sexual activity are set out for young Latter-day Saints in publications like “For the Strength of Youth.”

But what about older singles who have never wed or those whose marriages end in divorce or death? How do they then navigate the possibility of intimacy?

Jennifer Finlayson-Fife, a well-known Latter-day Saint sex therapist and author of “That We Might Have Joy: Desire, Divinity & Intimate Love,” addresses older singles as they encounter complex realities that don’t fit neatly into a pamphlet.

She talks about these realities and how to understand the difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law.

Starting in September, the Sabbath experience will change for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints around the world.

Services each Sunday will feature all of the faith’s traditional classes for adults and youths, rather than every other week. That means an hourlong sacrament meeting, the faith’s main worship gathering, followed by 25 minutes of Sunday school for adults and teens, and then 25 minutes for all-male priesthood classes, along with women’s Relief Society and Young Women classes. Children’s Primary will remain 55 minutes long.

Essentially, church leaders are cramming classes and meetings that used to take three hours into the two-hour block the faith adopted in 2019.

Latter-day Saints see allowing men, women and teens to gather each week in their groups as a plus. But members worry about the 25-minute classes. Is that enough lesson time for meaningful discussion and deep gospel and scripture study?

On this week’s show, Cynthia Winward, co-host of the Latter-day Saint podcast “At Last She Said It,” and Michael David Huston, a contributor for the Latter-day Saint blog By Common Consent, discuss the Sunday shift.

The on-again, off-again debate about retention in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is, most definitely, on — again.

And in a big way.

The latest round began with a report by BYU Studies, which found a number of positive signs of high religiosity among members. But it also noted that retention among U.S. Latter-day Saints has plunged from 82% in the heady 1980s to about 50% today.

Stories appeared in The Salt Lake Tribune and the church-owned Deseret News, followed by a post from statistician Ryan Burge under the headline “The LDS Church Has a Retention Problem,” pointing to a 54% rate.

Religion News Service columnist Jana Riess weighed in on the issue, and her commentary spurred a pair of responses from BYU researchers and a number of entries on Mormon blogs.

Of particular concern to Riess, who is a Latter-day Saint, is the even lower retention rate among young women and the remarkable reversal that shows women (especially younger ones) are now more likely to leave the faith than men.

On this week’s show, Riess, author of the forthcoming book “Leaving Mormonism: Who Is Exiting The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—and Why,” discusses this data debate, what it means for the overall church, and why more Latter-day Saint women appear to be struggling with staying in the fold.