Mormon Land

Jeff McLean grew up as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Heber City. As the son of renowned Latter-day Saint composer and playwright Michael McLean, faith and music were large parts of Jeff’s life.

From his earliest memories, Jeff recalls his father’s stardom and the expectations of being his son. But he never anticipated the struggle of trying to reconcile his faith and his sexuality.

After serving a church mission, entering a brief marriage to another man, and battling a drug addiction, Jeff finally gathered the courage to come home and confront the people he thought he had lost long ago: his parents.

His new book — co-written with his father, Michael, and therapist Brad Reedy, and titled “Stay in the Room: How a Gay Son and a Mormon Father Found Themselves and Each Other” — shares the insightful story of how this family found healing and common ground.

Told through three voices, the memoir shows the challenging facets of family life, fatherhood and faith.

Jeff shares how he found a place in life where he could express himself fully, all while feeling the love of God. Michael recounts how the Spirit led him to hold on to his son during his moments of pain. And Reedy offers insights for families navigating the tensions in faith, family and identity.

On this week’s show, Jeff and Michael McLean discuss the dynamic changes in their familial relationships, the impact of growing up Latter-day Saint as an LGBTQ+ individual, how parents can respond when their children’s identity challenges their beliefs, and what reconciliation really looks like.

In her new book, “After Happiness: Living with Faith in a Time of Crisis,” Natalie Brown, a Salt Lake Tribune guest columnist, calls on readers to develop a deeper, richer, more resilient faith amid life’s trials and uncertainties.

William Clayton is likely known to most members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the author of the beloved pioneer hymn, “Come, Come, Ye Saints.” To historians, though, Clayton was a key figure in Mormonism’s beginnings, especially during the years in Nauvoo, Illinois. He served as secretary and scribe for church founder Joseph Smith, keeping a detailed diary of all the happenings — and controversies — during that pivotal period.

He recorded Smith dictating passages in the faith’s Doctrine and Covenants, including the section about polygamy, or “plural marriage,” as it was known.

For more than a century, the church kept a tight lid on Clayton’s journals, allowing only select scholars access to them. But next year the Utah-based faith is publishing the full record, with careful annotations, through Yale University Press. Even before the publication, however, Clayton’s account has been questioned by those who do not believe Smith practiced polygamy.

On this week’s show, Matthew Grow, managing director of the Church History Department, and Matthew McBride, director of publications for the department, discuss Clayton, his journals, what they say — and don’t say — about polygamy, and day-to-day life in Nauvoo.

Brazilian Helvécio Martins was the first Black general authority in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He was named a dozen years after the Utah-based faith ended its 126-year priesthood/temple ban in 1978.

His son Marcus Martins had just turned 19 and thus, by most accounts, became the church’s first Black missionary after the change.

The younger Martins went on to earn a master’s degree in organizational behavior and a doctorate in sociology of religion, race and ethnic relations. Eventually, he became chair of religious education at Brigham Young University-Hawaii. He has served as a mission president, twice as bishop, and as a full-time senior missionary with his wife, Mirian.

All this time, Marcus Martins has remained keenly interested in the politics and sociology of Mormonism. He has addressed how geopolitical, sociocultural and technological trends have affected missionary and temple work.

As he prepares to embark on his third church mission in Brazil — which recently surpassed Mexico as having more Latter-day Saints than any other nation outside the U.S. — Martins discusses why Brazilians have embraced this American-born faith and how they view U.S. culture, traditions and politics?

“As a Latter-day Saint artist, Joseph Brickey had painted church founder Joseph Smith dozens of times. So he was naturally skeptical in 2022, when he first saw headlines about a recently discovered daguerreotype that was reported to be the only known photo of Smith.

He had studied extensively the human form, including facial structures. He had seen other photos making similar claims that were easily dismissed as frauds. So he cautiously delved into more research about the new find and now, after four years of careful study comparing it to Smith’s death mask and reading primary documents describing Mormonism’s most famous leader, he is convinced it is the real Joseph.

And he has crafted a new sculpture and painted a new portrait based not on the old images but on the daguerreotype.

On this week’s show, Brickey, co-author of the forthcoming book and documentary “Brother Joseph Again: Restoring the Visual Image of Joseph Smith Jr.,” talks about his research of the daguerreotype, his latest artwork of Smith, and how it better reflects his view of the Mormon prophet.

He is joined by art historian Jenny Champoux, who explains the human fascination with faces and why it matters to believers what Smith looked like.