A Heretic Reviews General Conference, October 2025

Fastest hymn: In Hymns of Praise, Sunday afternoon
Slowest hymn: None stood out.
Best hymn: I really enjoyed hearing good choirs sing hymns that are often just sung as congregational hymns in the middle of a session. High on the Mountain Top, How Firm a Foundation, and Come, Come, Ye Saints were all excellent.
Worst hymn: Let’s please not sing the self-congratulatory We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet anymore.
Hymn so bouncy that I’m surprised it’s in our hymnbook or allowed at Conference: Standing on the Promises. Note that this isn’t a complaint; I liked the hymn.

Longest prayer: 146 seconds, I. Raymond Egbo, Saturday evening benediction
Shortest prayer: 42 seconds, Christophe G. Giraud-Carrier, Saturday afternoon invocation
Worst prayer: I typically don’t comment on the content of prayers, but I just had to mention Jörg Klebingat’s invocation Saturday evening, where he not only had to remind God of President Oaks’s full name, Dallin Harris Oaks (as though God might get mixed up about which Dallin H. Oaks he was praying for), but also repeated the ridiculous condescending trope that behind every good man is an even better woman. Riiiight. That’s why they can’t be ordained.

Longest talk: 1974 words, D. Todd Christofferson
Shortest talk: 1242 words, Matthew S. Holland

Best visual aids: I enjoyed Gerrit W. Gong’s pictures of him visiting church groups in different places. I especially liked this one where he’s shaking hands with a line of people, including a young man who not only isn’t wearing a white shirt, but is wearing a black shirt and a white tie! I appreciate the young man’s subversion of Mormon norms.

Best title: “No One Sits Alone,” Gerrit W. Gong

Worst title: “Smiling Faces and Grateful Hearts,” Carlos A. Godoy. The title alone is fine, but Elder Godoy’s message is that he’s been a GA in Africa, where people always have smiling faces and grateful hearts, regardless of their trials. He comes across as very condescending, like he thinks African members are simpletons who are too stupid to ever complain about anything.

Best story: Michael Cziesla told of his grandmother, who joined the Church in 1926, but after marrying in 1930 could no longer attend because of distance. She kept her faith alive for a quarter of a century with no contact with the Church until in 1955, after a move, her teen son (Elder Cziesla’s father) discovered an LDS church they could attend.

Funniest story: B. Corey Cuvelier told of scrolling in the contacts in his son’s phone to see what he and his wife were listed as. She was listed as “Mother.” He was listed, not as “Father,” “Dad,” or his name, but as “Not Mother.”

Good/bad story: Neil L. Andersen told of a divorced man who, with encouragement from his branch president, considered sending more money to his ex-wife and children than he was required to. Then, at the last moment, he felt inspired to double the extra amount. Certainly so many of us men drop the ball on child rearing and support in divorce that I appreciate a story of a man who realized he needed to do more. But the last-minute doubling grates on me as an example of the idea I feel so strongly in Mormonism that nothing is ever good enough.

Worst stories:

• Gary E. Stevenson told of children in a family who regularly had to deal with a grumpy adult. The children met with their parents and decided to return kindness for this man’s rudeness. They succeeded in bringing him around to being kind in return. This is all well and good, but why is it always the victims of bad behavior who are made responsible for fixing things in stories GAs tell?
• Ronald A. Rasband told joyfully of how the release of the Family Proclamation was shoehorned into the women’s session of Conference at the last minute.
• Ronald A. Rasband also told of how he once made an important decision without his wife’s input. She asked him to not do that again. He concluded “We have pretty much been on the same page ever since.” This might sound nice, but what does it mean? For controlling Mormon men, “being on the same page” might include berating and threatening your wife into agreeing to do what you wanted. I think he needed to be far more explicit if he meant something like that they now make decisions together.
• Kevin G. Brown told a story of John Taylor scolding Parley P. Pratt for criticizing Joseph Smith because, in effect, once a prophet, always a prophet, and once a prophet, always above criticism.
• Steven C. Barlow’s description of how he and his business partner prayed before their meetings and they always had success sounds kind of anodyne at first, but it strikes me as disturbingly prosperity-gospelish. If they hadn’t always had success, would they blame God? Are other business owners whose projects fail just not praying hard enough?
• William K. Jensen told of an American family who moved to Africa, where in a small branch, both husband and wife received big callings, and they then proceeded to straighten out the native noobs and make the branch all better. This was icky and condescending.
• William K. Jensen also told of a district where the leaders carefully badgered anyone whose temple recommend was expiring or expired to get it renewed post haste. It’s stories like this that make clear that people on the fringes need to resign as soon as someone like Elder Jensen take over the top spot in the Church.
• Matthew S. Holland told of a clever schoolgirl who contradicted a teacher who said a whale couldn’t swallow a human. She said she’d ask Jonah about it when she got to heaven. The teacher asked what she’d do if Jonah ended up in hell. She told him that then he could ask him. Oh, how great is the joy of the Mormon persecution complex, especially when we get to borrow from broader Christianity.

Best lines:

• Gary E. Stevenson: “Peacemaking is to lead with an open heart, not a closed mind.”
• Tracy Y. Browning: “Dear friends, Jesus still wants us for a sunbeam.”
• Dieter F. Uchtdorf listed some spiritual gifts and concluded, “You might not see these gifts displayed at the ward talent show. But I hope you can see how precious they are to the Lord’s work and how you might have touched, blessed, or even saved one of God’s children by your gifts.”
• Chad H. Webb: “The gospel is not a list of demands; it’s the good news that Jesus Christ overcame sin and death.”
• Gerrit W. Gong: “On the dusty roads to Jericho, each of us has been laughed at, embarrassed and hurt, perhaps scorned or abused. And with varying degrees of intent, each of us has also disregarded, not seen or heard, perhaps deliberately hurt others. It is precisely because we have been hurt and have hurt others that Jesus Christ brings us all to His inn.”
• Gerrit W. Gong: “Let us not simply accommodate or tolerate. Let us genuinely welcome, acknowledge, minister to, love.”
• Patrick Kearon: “New beginnings are at the heart of the Father’s plan! Fresh starts are the mission of the Son! New dawns, new chapters, and new chances are the simple core of the gospel’s good news!”
• J. Annette Dennis: “our congregations and families can be gathering places where we cheer each other on—covenant communities fueled by the love of Christ for one another—helping each other overcome whatever challenges we face, giving each other strength and encouragement without judging one another.”
• J. Anette Dennis: “Christlike treatment of others goes far beyond our families and congregations. It includes our sisters and brothers of other faiths or no faith at all. It includes our brothers and sisters from other countries and cultures, as well as those of different political persuasions.”
• Steven C. Barlow: “We show our love for Heavenly Father when we serve, listen to, love, lift, or minister to His children. That service may be as simple as truly seeing others without judgment.” [italics in original]
• James E. Evanson: “If teaching missionaries are the Lord’s mouth, then service missionaries are the Lord’s hands, and you are not second-class missionaries.”
• Dale G. Renlund: “We help those in need while being less judgmental, far less judgmental.”

Worst lines:

• Ronald A. Rasband: “The teachings of the [family] proclamation were revealed by our Lord Jesus Christ to His Apostles then and now.”
• Kevin G. Brown: “Choosing to believe is a wise and powerful way to use our agency.” I find this difficult to take seriously. What if I choose to believe in Vishnu? Is that a wise and powerful use of my agency?
• Michael Cziesla: “This [putting off the natural man] includes putting our ‘trust in the Lord’ and letting the complexity go, just as little children do.” This sounds very much like head-patting GAs do when they’re exhorting members to shut up and stop complaining about very real problems in the Church.
• Henry B. Eyring: “these [proving and strengthening] moments are not evidence that the Lord has abandoned you. Rather, they are evidence that He loves you enough to refine and strengthen you. He is making you strong enough to carry the weight of eternal life.” Calling it “the weight” sure doesn’t make eternal life sound all that appealing.
• Dallin H. Oaks: “Families should organize family reunions to remember ancestors, which lead to the temple.” It’s good to know that he considers family reunions that don’t lead to the temple a waste of time.

Most defensive lines:

Jeffrey R. Holland: “It has been hurled at me that the means by which this book came to be were impractical, unbelievable, embarrassing, even unholy. Now, that is harsh language from anyone who presumes to know the means by which the book came to be, inasmuch as the only description given about those means is that it was translated ‘by the gift and power of God.’ That’s it. That’s all.”

President Holland seems like he needs to paint critics as all rabid crazies in order to be able to easily dismiss them. He also appears to have forgotten that we have several accounts of how the Book of Mormon was translated, not just that one verse.

He concludes in his next paragraph, “I am two months away from my 85th birthday. I have been at the edge of death and back. I have walked with kings and prophets, with presidents and apostles. Best of all, I have at times been overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit of God. I trust that my witness should be given at least some consideration here.” Especially with his closing line, his tone sounds a lot like his infamous BBC interview where he concluded that he’d been to a pretty good school and was no dodo, so his testimony should mean something.

Funniest line: B. Corey Cuvelier explained that his great-grandfather hesitated at first to visit an LDS branch meeting in a funeral home “because, really, a church in a funeral home sounded a little too much like a package deal.”

Lines from speakers gunning to take Neal A. Maxwell’s position as the alliterative apostle:

• Gary E. Stevenson included in a list of troubles, “road rage, outrage”
• Brik V. Eyre: “We must seek validation vertically, not horizontally.”
• Dieter F. Uchtdorf titled his talk “Do Your Part with All Your Heart”
• Dieter F. Uchtdorf listed activities we might want to get better at: “flying, rowing, sowing, or knowing”
• Dieter F. Uchtdorf: “Temptations that would never have enticed us begin to look less appalling and more appealing.”

What wasn’t said:

• Jeremy R. Jaggi quoted the story from Moses 5 where Adam and Eve built an altar and offered sacrifices without knowing why first. But rather than take the usual tack speakers do and making a point about the virtue of obeying without knowing why, he abbreviated Adam’s explanation when an angel appeared at “I know not” rather than continuing with “save the Lord commanded me.” Then he proceeded to talk about altars.
• Gerrit W. Gong talked about “gospel culture,” which often sets my teeth on edge when GAs say it, but he then listed standard Mormon rules like the law of chastity and the Word of Wisdom, rather than the too-often hinting at the importance of white shirts and giving up fun music.
• J. Anette Dennis listed a lot of reasons people might not feel welcome at church. I love that she acknowledged them. What I wish she would have done, although I realize it wouldn’t really be possible in Conference, is to explicitly draw the connection between people not feeling welcome and Church teachings. For example, single people might not feel welcome because the Church teaches so much about how marriage is crucial.
• Matthew S. Holland told of how he found inspiration in the story of Jonah while “deep in the belly of a personal hell.” But he didn’t explain further. I think he would have made himself more relatable and human if he had told us more about how it all came about.
• Dale G. Renlund drew a parallel between surgeons at the University of Utah following Russell M. Nelson, after an endowed professorship was begun there in his and his wife’s name, and all of us following Jesus. If it had been anyone else, I wonder if Elder Renlund might not have made the obligatory point that Russell M. Nelson isn’t a god like Jesus, but he decided that he couldn’t, for fear of insulting him.
• Dallin H. Oaks mentioned recreation without reflexively adding the modifier “wholesome.”
• Dallin H. Oaks began a sentence as follows: “In the United States we are suffering from a deterioration in . . .” What could come next? So many things leap to mind! Human rights? The rule of law? Checks and balances of government? Democratic norms? But of course he mentioned none of these things. He finished the sentence with one of his favorite gospel hobby horses, “marriage and childbearing.”

Best quotes:

• Gary E. Stevenson quoted John 14:27: “”Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. … Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” [ellipses in original]
• Brik V. Eyre quoted Patrick Kearon: “Our Father’s beautiful plan, even His ‘fabulous’ plan, is designed to bring you home, not to keep you out. … God is in relentless pursuit of you.” [italics and ellipses in original]
• J. Anette Dennis quoted Russell M. Nelson: “If a couple in your ward gets divorced, or a young missionary returns home early, or a teenager doubts his testimony, they do not need your judgment. They need to experience the pure love of Jesus Christ reflected in your words and actions.”
• Steven C. Barlow quoted Dale G. Renlund: “Our Heavenly Father’s goal in parenting is not to have His children do what is right; it is to have His children choose to do what is right and ultimately become like Him. If He simply wanted us to be obedient, He would use immediate rewards and punishments to influence our behaviors.” [italics in original]
• Ulisses Soares quoted Martin Luther King, Jr.: “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
• B. Corey Cuvelier quoted Joseph Smith: “A man filled with the love of God, is not content with blessing his family alone, but ranges through the whole world, anxious to bless the whole human race.”

Worst quotes:

• Brik V. Eyre quoted Jeffrey R. Holland: “However much you are praying, pray more. However hard you are praying, pray harder.” This is another example of the idea that nothing is ever good enough I mentioned with Elder Andersen’s story.
• Ronald A. Rasband quoted D&C 1:38 (“Whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.”) to suggest that the Family Proclamation was effectively authored by God.
• Peter M. Johnson quoted Russell M. Nelson: “Every sincere seeker of Jesus Christ will find Him in the temple” [italics in original]. It sure is convenient to be able to brand anyone who has a bad experience in the temple as insincere, rather than listening to them.
• D. Todd Christofferson quoted Russell M. Nelson: “The Lord has declared that no unchaste person will attain the celestial kingdom.” This seems harsh, especially considering the standard LDS view that some kinds of sex (e.g., homosexual sex) are unchaste by definition.
• Carlos A. Godoy quoted Russell M. Nelson: “The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.” I think this quote is at least partially true, but I still really dislike this quote. I think it’s a problem because it’s a line we wealthier people can use to comfort ourselves and say that it’s okay if we don’t give to improve the means of poorer people.

Most footnotes: 58, David A. Bednar
Fewest footnotes: 0, William K. Jackson
Longest footnotes: Kevin G. Brown and Gerrit W. Gong both had about 1000 words in their footnotes, a substantial fraction of the length of their entire talks, at 1600-1700 words.
Longest single footnote: Patrick Kearon’s note 17 is 331 words, quoting three separate Russell M. Nelson talks.
Most Russell M. Nelson talks cited in a single footnote: Chad H. Webb did Elder Kearon two better and cited five of his talks in his note 4.
Most unexpected footnote source: Dieter F. Uchtdorf quoted Stephen King in his note 7. And making a good point too: “Of course there has to be some talent involved, but talent is a dreadfully cheap commodity, cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work and study; a constant process of honing.”
Another fun footnote: Gerrit W. Gong in his note 5 discussed “terms that describe the tender things of the heart” in different languages, taking as examples some delightfully long German words like Herzensangelegenheit.

Most mentions of Russell M. Nelson: 22, Dale G. Renlund, along with 15 in his footnotes. It’s actually slightly fewer, because this is just a count of hits on “Nelson,” and a few were mentions of both of his wives, Dantzel and Wendy.
Fewest mentions of Russell M. Nelson: Zero, by four speakers.

Good patterns:

• The choirs sang several new hymns. None were my favorite, but it’s probably just that I’m not familiar with them.
• Several speakers described being called with their wives as “mission leaders.” Jeremy R. Jaggi went a step further and just said he and his wife were called to serve in a mission, without mentioning their position.
• Multiple speakers (J. Anette Dennis, Steven C. Barlow, and Peter M. Johnson) talked about the importance of loving people without judgment.
• Multiple speakers (Gary E. Stevenson, Neil L. Andersen, and Jeffrey R. Holland) mentioned the attack in Grand Blanc, Michigan, but none mentioned the shooting of Charlie Kirk.
• Even better from the point of view of the Church moving beyond concern for only the US, two speakers (D. Todd Christofferson and Carlos A. Godoy) mentioned a tragic car accident that killed 15 Church members in Lesotho.

Mixed patterns:

• Three speakers told stories of or demonstrated the strategy of confronting difficulties with irrelevant preaching. Peter M. Johnson told of how he, a black man, learned of the priesthood/temple ban only as a young missionary. Yikes! His despair was solved by his companion saying repeatedly that he loved him, and by his reading some scriptures. That all had nothing to do with the wrongness of the ban. Along similar lines, Ronald A. Rasband surprisingly acknowledged that not everyone likes the Family Proclamation for various reasons. His response, though, was to just reassure us that we’re children of God, and that the GAs love us. Brik V. Eyre told a story of how his daughter, as a missionary, was called with her companion to the house of a member who had lost her job and would shortly be homeless. Rather than considering the real temporal challenges she faced, his daughter comforted her and read her some scriptures.
• On the positive side, two speakers told stories of people who helped with concrete needs before preaching. James E. Evanson told about a compansionship of service missionaries who met a woman in need in a park. They “provided assistance and then invited her to learn about the gospel.” B. Corey Cuvelier told of his great-grandfather, who checked out an LDS church, but lived too far away to come back. The branch president secured him nearby housing and work. A little pushy maybe, but I think more helpful than preaching at him about the importance of church.

Today I learned.

• Gary E. Stevenson said that “Peacemaking is not a new thing, hot off the press.” I had always thought “hot off the presses” was the more common phrasing, but the Google Books Ngram Viewer agrees with Elder Stevenson’s “press.”
• Quentin L. Cook referred to the “Perpetual Emigrating Fund,” which I thought sounded strange because I swear I had always heard it called the Perpetual Emigration Fund. But Wikipedia agrees with Elder Cook that “Ultimately the fund and corporation operated under the name Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company (PEFC).”

Who needs to study some social science?

• Gary E. Stevenson reported some things primary-age children said in response to the question “what does it look like to be a peacemaker?” He concluded, “These children’s responses are evidence to me that we are all born with divine inclinations toward kindness and compassion.” I think he might be missing the effect of some years of socialization in there.
• Jeremy R. Jaggi reported two correlations that he seemed to think were clearly causal, one between investigators attending church in the first week after contact and later getting baptized, and another between young adults who get their temple endowment sooner more likely to later be sealed in the temple. Of course in both cases there may be a third variable, something like commitment, which actually causes both his ostensible cause and effect.

The dictionary defines ____ as:

• Ronald A. Rasband defied the dictionary in claiming “Preside does not mean dominate, and nurture does not mean a secondary role” [italics in original]. Sorry, but that’s just chicken patriarchy.
• Patrick Kearon, in his note 17, quoted Russell M. Nelson as saying “The doctrine of repentance is much broader than a dictionary’s definition.”
• D. Todd Christofferson argued that “prosper” in the Book of Mormon meant something broader than it usually does: “‘Prosper’ meant enjoying the guidance and blessings of heaven in their lives. ‘Prosper’ meant achieving levels of economic well-being that enabled them to marry, raise families, and minister to the needs of others. ‘Prospering included the capacity to rise above hardship and trial.”
• Henry B. Eyring: “The word prove has several meanings. To prove something is not simply to test it. It is to increase its strength.” [italics in original]
• David A. Bednar eschewed explicit definitions and used synonyms words to define some terms: “The term ‘moral agency’ is instructive. Synonyms for the word ‘moral’ include ‘good,’ ‘honest,’ and ‘virtuous.’ Synonyms for the word ‘agency’ include ‘action,’ ‘activity,’ and ‘work.'”
• Dale G. Renlund, in his note 6: “The word ethos describes ‘the distinguishing character, sentiment, moral nature, or guiding beliefs of a person, group, or institution'” [italics in original]

That isn’t how brackets work.

• Peter M. Johnson quoted Russell M. Nelson as saying “the Book of Mormon “teaches the doctrine of Christ … [and] provides the fullest and [clearest] understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ to be found anywhere” [brackets in original]. But if you follow his footnote 19, President Nelson said “fullest and most authoritative.”
• D. Todd Christofferson quoted Ephesians 4:14: “we need not be ‘children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine [or fashion]'” [brackets in original]. Of course the verse doesn’t say or hint anything about fashion.

Thanks for admitting human weakness.

• Gerrit W. Gong: “I learn from faithful members and friends in every land and culture.”
• J. Anette Dennis told of a time in her 20s and she suffered from deep depression. She didn’t want to go to church, but she also didn’t want to stop because she knew she’d be judged because she herself had previously judged people who stopped coming.
• John D. Amos told of when he was a mission president and a missionary came to him because he didn’t know how to handle an issue with his companion. He confessed, “In that instance, I honestly didn’t know how to respond.”

Thanks for gender neutralizing.

• Gary E. Stevenson said “let your light shine before others,” versus “before men” as it is in Matthew 5:16.
• Kelly R. Johnson used the phrase “between God and humanity” instead of “between God and man” that seems pretty standard in our scriptures and hymns.
• Dieter F. Uchtdorf quoted D&C 46:11, expanding the giving of gifts to everyone and not just men: “There are many gifts, and to every [person] is given a gift by the Spirit of God.” [brackets in original]
• Jeremy R. Jaggi said “During His Sermon on the Mount, the Savior invited us to reconcile with our brothers and sisters before we approach the altar.” Of course, Matthew 5:24 only mentions being reconciled to your brother.
• Gerrit W. Gong quoted 2 Nephi 26:24 and inserted women: “God ‘doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; … that he may draw all men [and women] unto him.'” [brackets, ellipses, and italics in original]
• Quentin L. Cook didn’t single out boys when he said “Young converts should consider serving a full-time mission.”
• Neil L. Andersen quoted John 16:22 “And your joy no [one] taketh from you.” [brackets in original]. I admit I’m a bit suspicious that he was willing to gender neutralize when it’s for a bad thing like taking joy. I feel like he doesn’t like to gender neutralize in general.
• Andrea Muñoz Spannaus quoted Joseph Smith’s line in D&C 128:22, where he said “Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause?” and made an explicit point of replacing “brethren” with “youth.”
• David A. Bednar made an interesting substitution in quoting Mosiah 16:10, about all people being judged before the bar of God according to our works. Where the scripture says “to be judged of him according to their works” [italics are mine], he substituted “his or her.” It almost seems like he didn’t want to admit there’s this singular their in the scriptures, although the antecedent is kind of vague (“this mortal”) so he might just have been trying to clarify.

Best names for Jesus:

• Jeremy R. Jaggi: “Gift Giver”
• Michael Cziesla: “our Rock and Refuge”
• Patrick Kearon: “He is the Beginning and the End—the end of our shame and suffering and the beginning of a new life in Him”

Kudos to Dallin H. Oaks

• He didn’t rush to reorganize the First Presidency or call a new Q12 member before Conference.
• In his opening remarks, he reminded not only the speakers, but also the audience, that the purpose of the Conference wasn’t to give “elaborate tributes” to Russell M. Nelson, which could be held for the funeral. (I imagine the fact that he was open to the possibility of elaborate tributes at all likely had Boyd K. Packer screaming at him from somewhere in the afterlife.)
• He was surprisingly quick and blunt in putting an end to Russell M. Nelson’s vanity project of announcing dozens of new temples each Conference.

Best talks

• J. Anette Dennis. I loved her imagery of people cheering each other on, and how she acknowledged how people can often feel like outcasts at church.
• Gerrit W. Gong. I appreciated his message about the importance of community, and welcoming people who aren’t all the same.
• Patrick Kearon. He gave a great, hopeful message about how we can always start over as many times as we need to.

Worst talks

• Ronald A. Rasband. There’s stealth canonizing the Family Proclamation and then there’s just openly saying it’s revelation. Boyd K. Packer would be proud.
• Dallin H. Oaks. I didn’t want to hear him praising the Family Proclamation either, and it was especially sad to hear him trotting out his complaint that people aren’t marrying or reproducing enough. This seems like a consistent blind spot for him, where he ignores economic pressures, and likely laments the rise of women’s rights, and thinks that all people need to do to get back to having ten kids per couple is a good harangue.

My heretical reviews of past General Conferences:

April 2025
October 2024
April 2024
October 2023
April 2023
October 2022
April 2022
October 2021
April 2021
October 2020
April 2020
October 2019