- Elder Michael C. Hammer on How Many Latter-day Saints View Pornography?: “(First off—heads up that I no longer attend an LDS church, and haven’t for nearly three years. I just pop by now and then out of curiosity.) Honestly, this isn’t particularly surprising to me. I don’t think I’ve seen any actual evidence beyond the paid subscriptions that the numbers are higher. The only actual data I’ve seen just suggests that levels of *distress* about pornography are much higher among conservative religious groups, which makes more sense. On that note, I have wondered in this and the other surveys how useful the LDS v. non-LDS distinction is, given how diverse the second group is. There are definitely enough members of other very conservative religious groups (or just with very conservative upbringings within broadly more liberal denominations) to contribute disproportionately to the 30% of men who haven’t masturbated in the last month, for instance—I suspect it would be higher if you excluded all the other groups who are actively trying not to. I also just tend to doubt whether, even if you think these are practices worth discouraging*, the cost is actually worth it. Having adult men question children (often alone in a room together) about whether they masturbate or watch pornography is crazy, and would be viewed as creepy and abusive in any other context. The general culture of sex-negativity (token paeans to the goodness of marriage notwithstanding) can also backfire badly when people actually marry. My own partner and I both grew up LDS, and it seriously messed up our ability to have a healthy sexual relationship or even talk about it openly for years. I often think about how much easier it would have been if one of us (especially her) hadn’t been raised with that messaging. I normally have pretty warm feelings towards my upbringing—this is the one thing I feel really, deeply bitter towards the church about. Obviously it doesn’t hit everybody the same (I knew plenty of male missionaries who were bull-headed enough to basically just ignore the messaging) but it can be pretty bad. I don’t know if messing up children’s self-perception and view of sex for decades is worth it so that you can feel proud about your kids not masturbating or watching porn or whatever. *I don’t see any problem with masturbation, and honestly found the stat about more than half of all LDS women never having even tried it more than a little sad, but I’m also generally not a fan of pornography—it tends to really lean into and promote a lot of quite bad sexist and patriarchal stereotypes.” Apr 5, 08:21
- on Cutting Edge Latter-day Saint Research, March 2026: “I love that there’s finally an article in the language/rhetoric space — and on a subject similar to what I will be presenting on at Mormon Scholars in the Humanities in late May. Going to be very interesting to read that article.” Apr 4, 20:27
- on How Many Latter-day Saints View Pornography?: “I was just made aware that Mormonr has a piece on the Utah porn myth that is another good source (and has some additional studies), so in the interest of listing all the Utah/LDS porn studies in one place, here are a few more: https://mormonr.org/qnas/y4j20/masturbation#q-vd6aC75fvRg05KO0Xs80.” Apr 4, 16:19
- on How Many Latter-day Saints View Pornography?: “No, it was a “know it when I see it” kind of thing. It is in fact famously hard to define for all of us, not just Supreme Court justices.” Apr 3, 20:07
- on How Many Latter-day Saints View Pornography?: “Another interesting post, again suggesting that religious teaching does affect behavior. Did the survey offer any kind of definition of pornography, or did it just expect respondents to know it when they see it?” Apr 3, 18:52
- on Beyond the Wasatch: David O. McKay, Overseas Temples, and the International Church: “Interesting read. Allowing for the ordination of Fijians seemed like a test case for later priesthood expansion. Wish the expansion was sooner but enjoy any Fiji mentions in Church history. Doing a mission in Fiji the model of Church schools there contributing to growth and stabilization is one I appreciated and hope we move forward overseas to further grow the Church. I wonder is we get an era of brick and mortar school expansion at some point in the future to match temple expansion. Pathways seems to be testing out learning centers in some countries.” Apr 2, 18:17
- on Cutting Edge Latter-day Saint Research, March 2026: “On the overrepresented white exiters, page 3,9. Lifers outnumber converts 5:1. So for the average Utah member, 16.7% are a convert and 84.3% of that group is white. 83.3% are lifers are 95% of that group is white. Exiters are 96.6% white. Membership is 93.37% white and exiters are 96.6% white. How is whiteness coming into play for exiting if not explained in a confounding variable like SES?” Apr 2, 18:04
- on How Many Latter-day Saints Have Ever Had An Elective Abortion? How Did They Feel About It?: “I invite all of you to remember this conversation when we sing the following lyrics during the Easter Sunday Morning session of General Conference: “Consider the sweet tender children who must suffer on this earth; The pains of all of them He carried from the day of His birth.” I’m the blond guy in the Bass section with tears in my eyes, every single time we sing that one.” Apr 2, 15:07
- on Cutting Edge Latter-day Saint Research, March 2026: “Stephen, thank you for yet another installment in your “cutting edge research” series. These are much appreciated.” Apr 2, 09:45
- on How Many Latter-day Saints Have Ever Had An Elective Abortion? How Did They Feel About It?: “One of my moms gave birth to a 9-pound baby girl early this morning. And another will be having her twin boys by C-section tomorrow. I am living the high life right now, participating in the most impactful and deeply spiritual work that I have ever been involved in. I have no idea why you would pretend to “feel sorry” for me, nor why you expect me to care at all what you think of me. I do know that if we had not been there for these mons those fateful days last summer, these three little children would be dead today, and their mom’s would have been left carrying the psychological trauma of knowing in their hearts that they had killed their own children. If you want to “feel sorry” for someone, maybe you could think of the million other children and their moms, in the US alone, who weren’t so lucky last year. By the way, Dallin Oaks is very much a living prophet, and not a dead one as you imply. And the passage I quoted about repentance and forgiveness “for the sin of abortion” is from today’s General Handbook, wording that was revised just a couple months ago. (https://bit.ly/4m37Bwe) This is current Church policy, much more authoritative than the summary from a Newsroom press release that you are relying on. And if anyone is curious about how Pro-Life Utah helps these women, here’s a short talk I gave last year, telling some of our stories: https://bit.ly/41MLqB6” Apr 2, 04:40
