This Week in Mormons

He ran for president as a conservative alternative to Trump in 2016, now Evan McMullin wants Latter-day Saints to vote for Joe Biden.

It's our 500th episode! The whole gang is here, including Al! We hang. We talk news. We congratulate ourselves.

Students at BYU-Idaho deliberately contract COVID-19 in order to sell their valuable, antibody-infused blood. Oy. Vey.

If you've watched classic Church films, you've heard Merrill Jenson's music, and now you can hear from the man himself about his career.

Join our all-star panel as we recap the best General Conference in recent memory.

We've got the pre-General Conference jitters! What will transpire this weekend? Will there be any major announcements? We talk our predictions, plus temple predictions, and cover some great news along the way. The U.S. presidential election looms large, and Latter-day Saints love to make themselves a part of the mix! The opinion writer at the Utah Daily Chronicle alleges a vote for Joe Biden helps fulfill the so-called White Horse Prophecy. Aside from overlooking issues with the alleged prophecy itself, the author twists logic to a considerable degree to make her arguments. But Trump can't be left out of the fun. A viral Facebook post last week included an image of a Book of Mormon that a man sent to the president. Next to it was a picture of the response the man received - a note from The Donald himself! Latter-day Saints were exuberant! Donald Trump received a book of Mormon! He will know the gospel! Of course, the "response" was a common form letter likely sent from a White House intern. Not to take the wind out of one's sails, but this is how things are. Now let's move on to COVID! BYU can't seem to get its act together. Two BYU students withdrew from the university over what they deemed oppressive overreach by the administration when it came to COVID safety measures. Underground dance parties continue at BYU, causing surges in COVID cases worse than most places in the United States. The situation is so dire that the presidents of BYU and Utah Valley University issued a joint statement about the importance of adhering to COVID safety guidelines. In different COVID news, four missionaries are stranded on the Kiribati island of Kiritimati because they were unable to get out before governments closed borders. Some of them have even exceeded their two-year mark already. Oh, did we mention our temple predictions? You should read them. http://www.thisweekinmormons.com/2020/09/latter-day-saint-general-conference-temple-predictions-october-2020/ Here's something cool and different. The Church has made available its TALL Embark software, which it uses to teach missionaries foreign languages, to all members. You just have to log in with your Church login and have at it. Super cool. http://www.thisweekinmormons.com/2020/09/embark-missionary-language-learning-software-now-available-to-all-members/ Important note: We're coming up on TWiM's 500th episode. We'd love for our listeners to leave us a voice message! It'll take two minutes! A recent study alleges articles that do not use the Church's correct name also lean negative. There's interesting stuff to pull apart here, but we also have to define what "negative" means. Did any of you serve a mission in a developing country?

Romance author Sariah Wilson discusses writing for a broad audience but with an LDS perspective and how her faith informs her journey.

Cobra Kai goes to Geoff's head. Senator Mike Lee wants to cancel KSL. Zelophehad's Daughters tackles LDS cinema on IMDB.

One new temple breaks ground and another loses its president to COVID, children of divorced parents can bein two wards, and new youth theme!

Professor Tyler Lefevor discusses his research showing four options for LGBT Latter-day Saints, which might include leaving the Church.

Latter-day Saints for Trump. Latter-day Saints for Joe. The Mormon vote suddenly matters much more than it did in elections past.

James Strang. The name means more to some and less to most. Perhaps you've heard this name before. Strang surfaces near the end of the Nauvoo era, later claiming he had a letter from Joseph Smith stating Strang was to lead the Church following Smith's death. Although most Latter-day Saints followed Brigham Young, a smaller group followed Strang, wanting a prophet to lead them and not merely what was then seen as a caretaker in Brigham. Strang and his followers eventually settled on an island in northern Lake Michigan, where they ran a pirate ring, waffled on plural marriage, sent Strang to the Michigan state house as a representative, and eventually murdered the "King." Miles Harvey, author of the new book, The King of Confidence: A Tale of Utopian Dreamers, Frontier Schemers, True Believers, False Prophets, and the Murder of an American Monarch, has been kind enough to join us in the studio and elaborate a bit more on this small corner of Mormonism that you might not know as much about. Some of the areas we get into in the episode: * What made Strang appealing? * What was it about antebellum America that made it easier for characters like Strang to rise to prominence? * Why was Strang obsessed with having women wear pantaloons? * Did Strang actually parade his secret first plural wife around as his "male cousin"? * Was Strang ever a threat to Brigham Young's governorship of Utah? * Why did followers eventually revolt against Strang? * What became of Strang's followers? Please support Miles by picking up a copy of this terrific book. Miles will also be appearing in a virtual event sponsored by Weller Book Works in Salt Lake City on Monday, August 24. Head over to Weller's Facebook page to participate! Miles has even created a Spotify playlist to accompany the book, which is basically just awesome. You can read more about the playlist here. Support TWiM!

What is the history of the angel Moroni statue on temples? Are we teaching the law of chastity correctly? What is up with the new Hymns at Home app?

We're excited to welcome Neylan McBaine back to the TWiM dungeon! (Yes, we have a dungeon.) Six years ago, we discussed the role of women at Church, and now Neylan has a new book, Pioneering the Vote: The Untold Story of Suffragists in Utah and the West, which goes into detail about the often unheralded and misunderstood role that women, particularly Latter-day Saint women, played in being the first in the United States to vote legally. Why would such a topic be important to Latter-day Saints? The answers might surprise you. Polygamy played an outsize role in Utah's slow march toward statehood, but it was also a crucial component of the suffrage movement. Many men, even Latter-day Saint men, did not women to vote. Why not? What was B.H. Roberts' deal? What was The Mormon Question? Who were the important figures in the suffrage movement in the West? What drove them? Why was it the norm for so many women to be feminists in the 19th century, but today we largely view feminism as a problem in the Church and a threat to the family? Did you know the language in Utah's state constitution was used in part to author the wording of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)? Yet why is the ERA anathema to Church leadership and most members today? Did you know Latter-day Saints could not legally vote in Idaho until the 1980s? That's right, Boomers of Pocatello. You've been participating in voter fraud! Perhaps most important, what do we learn from the bravery of these women that matters most to us today? Are women fully enfranchised in 2020? Are all races? Support Neylan and the show by buying the book, which is available now!

Not gonna lie, it's a weird mix of stuff this week. We bask in the afterglow of Pioneer Day, and Devin Thorpe is back to regale us with stories from the front lines of his noble mission to turn Utah's Third District blue. Pioneer Day! How was your COVID-affected holiday? The Church seemed to go to greater lengths this year to highlight the international efforts of pioneers as opposed to showing the Saints in Peru taking part in trek. It's a welcome change. Elder Soares remembered his parents, who were pioneers in Brazil. President Ballard remembered other pioneers. The Church news recognized 10 pioneers from around the globe. But how about in the context of Black Lives Matter? Jana Riess argues Latter-day Saints need to do more to let black pioneers in the Church shine. Devin agrees! What about Native American pioneers? In general, Pioneer Day celebrates the Latter-day Saints' arrival in the Salt Lake Valley and subsequent settlement of the Intermountain West, but we forget that for the Native American tribes who were already present, pioneer day represents an incursion. But we can celebrate both without taking away from the other! Latter-day Saints weren't the only ones celebrating Pioneer Day. Donald Trump Jr. was all about it! Pandering is fun! BYU Magazine published a wonderful piece with Lisa Valentine Clark and Chris Clark. You might remember Lisa from our interview with her about BYUtv's Show Offs from last year. Chris was a noted playwright in Utah. He also suffered from ALS and passed away in June. This is a great article that can give all of us perspective on how to be happy and joyous despite what life throws at us. http://www.thisweekinmormons.com/2019/12/episode-452-show-offs-with-lisa-valentine-clark-and-hailey-smith/ In other uplifting news, a six-year-old kid saved his sister from an attacking dog. The kid is amazing and has a healthy attitude toward life and ministering. Can The Book of Mormon Broadway musical survive in our age? After Hamilton hit Disney+, there has been discussion on filming The Book of Mormon for a theatrical release. However, its content has not aged well in the nine years of its existence, particularly its treatment of Africans. Tyler Glenn, he of Neon Trees, is back with new music,