Mormon Land

The U.S. Central Area Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued an official statement last month opposing the Idaho Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act, better known as Proposition 1.

The memo was brief. Its signers, all men, did not get into the debates swirling around the ballot measure widely seen as having a decent shot at passing this November. Instead, it read: “Our long-held stance on abortion remains clear and unchanged.”

A few weeks later, the church cut a check for $1 million to the group opposing the measure.

Official church policy opposes “elective abortion for personal or social convenience.” However, it has long noted that there are circumstances in which abortion is not a sin. Those include a pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, if the “life or health” of the mother is in “serious jeopardy,” and instances when a fetus is found to have “severe defects that will not allow the baby to survive beyond birth.”

Current Idaho law is more restrictive, barring abortion at all stages of pregnancy with an exception for the life of the mother. Survivors of rape and incest who have reported the crime to law enforcement can also seek an abortion during the first trimester.

In contrast, Prop 1 goes, arguably, further in its allowances than church policy, establishing “a right to make private reproductive healthcare decisions, including abortion up to fetal viability and in medical emergencies.”

The result is a Latter-day Saint community split on the measure, along with heated arguments online and off over what these laws and proposed laws mean for maternal and newborn health.

This week, Heather Pugmire, a Latter-day Saint and OB-GYN, describes her own experience practicing in Idaho and her wrestle with the question of how to vote come Election Day.

The explosion in gambling — especially through the emergence of online sports betting and so-called prediction markets — has been debated in the courts, Congress and now Latter-day Saint living rooms. The latter comes after President D. Todd Christofferson’s blistering broadside against all types of wagering in this past weekend’s General Conference.

While the church’s anti-gambling stance is hardly a revelation, the environment, energy and extent to which it was delivered made headlines and even caught some members by surprise.

Gambling, Christofferson said, is “morally wrong” and incompatible with Christ’s gospel.

Joining us remotely to discuss his message, its theological roots and potential culture impact — along with other conference moments — is Latter-day Saint scholar Matthew Bowman, chair of Mormon studies at Claremont Graduate University and co-author “Game Changers: AJ Dybantsa, BYU, and the Struggle for the Soul of Basketball.”

Six years ago, the book “Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation” hit shelves. A 75-year history of evangelical masculinity, The New York Times bestseller laid out the forces that, according to author Kristin Kobes Du Mez, turned President Donald Trump into a hero of the religious right.

Now the professor of history at Calvin University is out with a new book, “Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made.”

Precious Moments figurines. Purity culture. “Little House on the Prairie” and free enterprise. They’re all connected in Du Mez’s telling of a system that promised women everything — and often demanded the same.

Although primarily focused on white evangelicals, the names of women of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are woven throughout the often biting history that has joined its predecessor on The New York Times’ bestseller list.

Despite their theological differences, the women from both traditions came together through the years to, she writes, “define conservative femininity for generations to come.”

This week, Du Mez traces the contributions of Latter-day Saint women past and present to this ideal.

President Dallin H. Oaks, leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, gave a landmark address recently in a soaring cathedral at the nation’s capital to a packed audience of Washington politicos and insiders.

The former lawyer, law professor and Utah Supreme Court justice schooled his audience on how the U.S. Constitution offers a clear-cut manual for how to deal with profound differences — including political and religious ones — in a pluralistic society.

It is a message he has offered in several diverse venues, including to scholars in Virginia, Catholics in Rome and Latter-day Saints in their General Conferences.

He has brought his powerful mind to the topic, obviously believing it is an urgent issue at a chaotic and polarized time.

Retired federal Judge Thomas Griffith, a Latter-day Saint, was in the audience at the Washington National Cathedral when Oaks spoke.

On this week’s show, Griffith reviews the speech, Oaks’ counsel, and why it may be crucial for this time.

“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.