I really think it’s Bad that so many people are no longer pretending that they have to care about religious freedoms and all religions equally.

One side effect of the Young Women specifically studying the Women in Scriptures/Church History is that there will likely be more recognition of the significance of whatever New Name is bestowed on them when they recieve their Endowment...

✅️ Completed my first complete read-through of Exodus ( Έξοδος ) in the Greek Septuagint (LXX)! #ComeFollowMe

That feeling when you learn a member of the Q12 is coming to your Stake Center down the street next weekend for regional Leadership training, and you both have FOMO that you're not invited, and also relief you're not in a leadership position or demographic TO be specifically invited.

I think for President Oaks, Women's Ordination is completely off the table. But I do think he has outlined a legal framework (with precedent!) which would permit him under current Doctrine to give women access to perform (most of) the ordinances generally restricted to Priesthood Office holders.

Okay, an insight I love from this video: I had seen someone note it seemed they missed the ball doing 'Faith', 'Hope', and then having 'Light' instead of 'Charity'. The Presidency points out this is in preparation for the life of service in Relief Society, whose motto is "Charity Never Faileth".

Fun Fact: I had the unusual experience of Scott Card gently correcting my pronunciation of the name "Lolla-Wossiky" while I was in the back seat of his car as he drove myself and a couple friends to take us out for dinner following a book signing our crew had travelled quite a distance to.

Okay, an insight I love from this video: I had seen someone note it seemed they missed the ball doing 'Faith', 'Hope', and then having 'Light' instead of 'Charity'. The Presidency points out this is in preparation for the life of service in Relief Society, whose motto is "Charity Never Faileth".

Yeah, while I understand the cynicism, I dig the vision the Young Women Presidency is presenting and working to express. This is a good video introduction. www.facebook.com/share/v/18jz...

Just heard in the Maxwell Institute Podcast that they're working on a 'Theological Dictionary of the Book of Mormon', which "[lets] the Book of Mormon answer for itself, rather than just turning to our background knowledge or what we're already thinking on the subject." mi.byu.edu/podcasts/mir...

Okay, I got this post up quick yesterday afternoon, but I revised and expanded it a bit (including making a reference to a great post by @smbrnsn.bsky.social in the links!) to better express my argument and thinking on this subject. www.improvementera.com/2026/04/youn...

Okay, I turned it into a blog post. www.improvementera.com/2026/04/youn...

Oh, these names have some specific precedent! I ... kind of dig that.

Okay, I turned it into a blog post. www.improvementera.com/2026/04/youn...

A 🧵about what I see as potential progress working through the re-establishment of distinct Young Women 'Age Groups', and how Oaks' broadening of Priesthood Authority rhetoric could be put into radical new practice while still claiming The Doctrine Has Not Changed . . .

The full release: newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/youn...

There it is: Builders, Messengers and Gatherers.

Because we tend to be institutionally ignorant of Christian tradition, you'll rarely find a Church resource that gets into the 'Graven Images' part of the 10 Commandments (Elder Anderson's video about the 10C in this week's #ComeFollowMe skips over that one!), particularly the Incarnation Argument.

Elijah, giving a talk in Israel, choosing to allow for plausible deniability that he's really talking about the atrocities of Ahab in his talk "Maybe We Should All Do Good Things", but still hoping Ahab's fans "Get It".

Elijah, giving a talk in Israel, choosing to allow for plausible deniability that he's really talking about the atrocities of Ahab in his talk "Maybe We Should All Do Good Things", but still hoping Ahab's fans "Get It".

Woah, I hadn't considered that the new Visitor Center Temple Room Replica experience would lead to videos like this being authorized/possible, but man, what a new world this is. A literal walk through. Temple Prep will never be the same. youtu.be/N7yI_7qiiJ4?...

Nelson was willing to expand meaning from the Bible by pulling a wider semantic range from the base Greek and Hebrew, seeing KJV as one edition of the Bible. Oaks is reticent in Going There, & wishes to hold the specific English as Received to be the Lord's Approved (and Intentional!) language.

What's interesting is that Oaks is the closest thing to a systematic theologian we've had as President of the Church since probably Joseph Fielding Smith. Looks like part of his present work is to nail down what is scripturally/prophetically known, and what he believes to be as remaining unknown.

Woah, I hadn't considered that the new Visitor Center Temple Room Replica experience would lead to videos like this being authorized/possible, but man, what a new world this is. A literal walk through. Temple Prep will never be the same. youtu.be/N7yI_7qiiJ4?...

Dallin Oaks trying very hard at this moment seeking to justify opening up a Mission in Antarctica so Mike Lee can be called as its new Mission President before Any Of This Can Happen.

"And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand." - Ezekiel 37:17

I would be surprised if some form of MAGA official Church/denomination with Trump as its figurehead WASN'T launched. He's already put out a Bible & has the iconography. They could easily go the Life.Church model where they have physical franchise locations but get a single broadcast Sermon/Talk.

President Oaks has the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever.

"...when the wicked rule the people mourn. Wherefore, honest men and wise men should be sought for diligently, and good men and wise men ye should observe to uphold; otherwise whatsoever is less than these cometh of evil. Therefore, renounce war and proclaim peace" - D&C 98:9-10, 16

One thing I'm REALLY interested in seeing going forward is Oaks' regular insistence on English speakers using the archaized Thee and Thou in prayer. Especially connected with recent encouragement of using modern Translations of the Bible. newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/holy...

I wonder if after this message it was pointed out that there was no scripture or handbook or Church publication or resource that they would have learned this instruction from - and hence, it quickly became a new update in the Handbook.

Okay, I asked someone else with a better memory than me... They didn't remember if he ever offered to bring his own, but we had a lady in the ward that always brought in a slice of GF bread to be broken its own separate tray that he was served off of as well.

Yep. I had assumed Oaks was the one behind the handbook wording about broken bread, and this, from his message to New Mission Presidents in 2017 confirms that it's his thinking: www.thechurchnews.com/2017/6/29/23...

So in listening to President Oaks' biography, I learned for the first time that he has Celiac Disease. Because my spouse has a Gluten intolellerance (but not to severity of Celiac), I, of course, instantly wondered what is his personal preferrered wheat substitute for partaking of the Sacrament.

Chopping up my Oaks thoughts while reading his book 'The Great Fundamentals' into smaller threads, because reading long threads on BlueSky in mobile is terrible. This thread will continue with Chapter 3: Opposition In All Things

A 🧵within a thread digging down into one of President Oaks' foundational personal understandings of Justice, Mercy, and how it directly relates to his views on Divorce, and wider implications for Marriage Law.

I genuinely want to understand President Dallin Oaks more, and also get more insight on his current thinking. So I'm going in on both his recent Bio (Audiobook), and his recently published (Jan 2026!) exposition on doctrine.

“America,” [Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge] Colby and his colleagues told [Cardinal Christophe Pierre — Pope Leo XIV’s then-ambassador to the United States], “has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.”

Uchtdorf was all in on using other Bible translations in his talk!

And with that, Latter-day Saint 'Easter Season' is officially over.

Uchtdorf was all in on using other Bible translations in his talk!

Or give what he said in conference, but provide other public on the record statements! He could do that any time he wants! He did that at BYU, and Goodness, even Nelson as President even let some slip from time to time. I'd love something before, and not in (God forbid) aftermath of destruction.

“Today as we all know there was this threat against all the people of Iran. This is truly unacceptable,” - Pope Leo XIV, continuing to speaking prophetically to Power. #HolyEnvy abcnews.com/Internationa...

Reading again LXX Exodus 4 catching up to the #ComeFollowMe readings, and immediately remembered this upon recognizing the language here again. I just think it's neat.

I've now been LDS for as many years as I wasn't (raised Assemblies of God), I can say it's absolutely baffling to see large portions of both faith communities I've been part of actively celebrating a figure & actions each of their narratives have long distinctly but just as explicitly warned about.

"...and the Wolf chewed up the children and spit out their bones ... but they were Foreign Children and it didn't really matter." - MAGA

Latter-day Saint Temple Liturgy has Literal Satan present his goals and plans in these words: "Then with that enmity I will take the treasures of the earth, and I will buy up armies and navies, false priests who oppress and tyrants who destroy, and I will reign with blood and horror on this earth!"

Amen.

A perfect compliment to President Oaks talk would be this extraordinary article the Church published by Darius Gray in 2020. www.churchofjesuschrist.org/inspiration/...