- Stephen C. on The Kids are All Right: Church Activity, the Youth, and the Best and the Brightest: “A Southern department where 1/4 are LDS? Very different from my experience! But that’s really cool.” Sep 3, 07:53
- on The Kids are All Right: Church Activity, the Youth, and the Best and the Brightest: “In my *extremely* anecdotal experience, the number one indicator of staying from the kids I knew in high school is attending university. I can’t think of anyone who didn’t attend university who is still active, and those who did are still going strong. I’m in my first year of a PhD program in a large, public school in the South, and our (huge) ward is primarily composed of PhD students and professors (of the research active faculty in my department, almost 1/4 are active LDS). So I would wholeheartedly agree.” Sep 3, 06:19
- on Cutting Edge Latter-day Saint Research, August 2026: “Thanks Chad! Google Scholar is good about articles, but it’s really hit-and-miss when it comes to books.” Sep 2, 18:16
- on Everything wrong with the new hymn book (1799 edition, colorized): “sute, Thank you! In my ward’s sacrament meeting last Sunday, all the hymns were four-digit. And we probably haven’t had more that three or four of the 30-50 favorite hymns in this year.” Sep 2, 14:13
- on Cutting Edge Latter-day Saint Research, August 2026: “Books from August: * Educating for Eternity: The History of Latter-day Saint Primary and Secondary Schools, by E. Vance Randall, Scott C. Esplin, Casey Paul Griffiths (RSC, BYU; Deseret Book) * Nourishing the Roots: Seeking the Foundations of Latter-day Testimony, by Walker Wright (FAIR) Pretty small crop this month overall, though.” Sep 2, 10:07
- on Seeing Responsibility in our Meetings (Or What Did Church Lead You to Think About Yesterday), 8/30: “Last week I taught my annual bootcamp for grad students starting to do research. While I love teaching, the sheer length of the bootcamp takes a lot of out of me. A big part of it is that I’m a classic introvert who gets drained by interacting with people, but I’m also very hard of hearing and my brain has to do a lot of extra work to try to figure out what people are saying. Going into the weekend, I confess I was feeling a bit resentful about having a ward social, a visit from the missionaries, and a family gathering on my calendar when all I wanted to do was crawl in a hole and play video games. Shouldn’t introverts get a pass on all this socialization? The talks in sacrament meeting were on the character of Christ, and both speakers focused on Elder Bednar’s observation that Christ turned outward in situations where others would turn inward. Once again I recognized the Lord’s message for me immediately. It’s not that I shouldn’t build in recovery time for myself–even Christ needed be alone sometimes (which is classic introvert behavior, and so much for my theory that there should be lower standards for introverts). But interactions with others are what’s important in life. (And I probably could stand to spend less time playing video games.) On who is responsible for us having a good experience at church, I think the fact that the Spirit can inspire us with the messages we need to hear regardless of the quality of the speakers means it is ultimately our responsibility. Often, the people who most need the experience of pondering a gospel principle and becoming an advocate for that principle are the weak members who are not accomplished speakers. Church is not all about us and our experience.” Sep 2, 00:12
- on Everything wrong with the new hymn book (1799 edition, colorized): “To clarify, when I said I see a decline in participation in music in the Church, I meant primarily fewer people singing in choir, to the point that many wards struggle to keep a choir going at all, and fewer musical numbers. I’m quite sure that’s not because choirs are singing too many unfamiliar hymns–choir members expect and want to learn new music. I’m not seeing a decline in congregational singing. People not singing confidently while they’re learning a new hymn is expected and temporary. But there’s certainly a variety of experiences out there.” Sep 1, 23:34
- on Everything wrong with the new hymn book (1799 edition, colorized): “Man, God give me the problem of singing too many unfamiliar hymns! In the wards and branches I have been in across multiple states and countries I have never once had this problem. Instead, the congregation has *always* had a narrow collection of hymns that for the most part they refuse to deviate from. Hymns that I love! But I also love the “less familiar” ones too. And to Jonathan’s point about knowing what songs “are actually familiar to people in your congregation,” the narrow collection of “familiar” hymns that I described varied across units. For example, I had never once sung “Each Life That Touches Ours for Good” until I was a missionary, yet in my current ward we sing it at least twice a year! Or “O Thou, Before the World Began,” which is possibly my favorite sacrament hymn and one I sang somewhat regularly growing up, but I haven’t sung in . . . maybe ten years now? Even though we have such a limited selection of sacrament hymns, and in my current ward we’re singing “Jesus, Once of Humble Birth” every two months!” Sep 1, 17:15
- on Everything wrong with the new hymn book (1799 edition, colorized): “I do think the point that suit is making that some repetition of hymns on a regular basis is a good thing is true. I’ve had wards where the person choosing the music focused exclusively on stuff people weren’t used to singing, and it was not a good situation (and I got blamed for it by ward members, since they assumed I was choosing as organist, when it was the music chair who was doing that). There is always a need for balance between the familiar and unknown, and if you go too far in either direction in music selections, it can be a problem.” Sep 1, 06:22
- on Everything wrong with the new hymn book (1799 edition, colorized): “Sute, you’re making several assumptions that I don’t think are true: – Willingness to sing in a congregations is primarily about familiarity with the song (it’s only one factor of many) – People feel the spirit more with familiar than with unfamiliar hymns (unlikely to be true; people can take special notice of unfamiliar lyrics, or fail to notice lyrics that have become rote) – Choosing unfamiliar songs is a failure of stewardship (some songs are for the 99, but others are for the 1) – The songs you think are familiar are the ones that are actually familiar to people in your congregation (I’ve been surprised several times when I’ve picked a hymn to play for elders quorum, assuming it would be familiar to most people) – You can predict how others will respond spiritually to a song (you generally can’t) If you’re in a position to pick hymns, the best you can do is try to pick good hymns that are within the ability of the accompanist and congregation. If it’s new but a good fit, people will learn it.” Aug 31, 18:54
