A Heretic Reviews General Conference, October 2022

Fastest musical number: “Guide Us, O Thou Great Jehovah,” Saturday morning.
Slowest musical number: “God Be with You Till We Meet Again,” Sunday afternoon
Best musical number: “All Creatures of Our God and King,” Saturday morning
Worst musical number: “Let Us All Press On,” Sunday morning. This was a weird and drawn-out arrangement that made an already overly bouncy hymn worse.

Longest prayer: 91 seconds, Susan H. Porter, Saturday evening benediction. This is a really short longest prayer. Typically there is at least one over 100 seconds.
Shortest prayer: 54 seconds, Weatherford T. Clayton, Sunday morning invocation

Longest talk: 2028 words, D. Todd Christofferson
Shortest talk: 374 words, Russell M. Nelson, in the last talk of Conference where he mostly just announced new temples.

Choir successes, non-music category:

• The missionary choir that sang in the Saturday afternoon session for once didn’t only include young missionaries, but also senior missionaries, which I thought was nice.
• The child-and-youth choir that sang in the Saturday evening session included several teen boys with hair to their collars or longer. (One of them was the son of April Young Bennett at the Exponent; she blogged about their experience.) It’s encouraging to me when BYU rules stop being applied to the whole Church.

Choir failure, non-music category: The same child-and-youth choir was seated not in a typical arrangement with boys on one side and girls on the other, but with the boys in the center and the girls around the periphery. This seems like a striking illustration of how we think about the relative importance of boys and girls in the Church.

Changes that are great but that I wish had happened years ago:

• Tracy Y. Browning was the first woman of color black woman to be called to a general auxiliary presidency and to speak in Conference.
• The revision of For the Strength of Youth to make it more principles-based and less in the weeds on particular rules seems like a very hopeful development.

Best stories:

• Hugo Montoya told of how his first winter in Utah, he went out to shovel his driveway and offered to help his older neighbor too. It turned out that his neighbor had a snow blower, and he ended up helping Montoya out instead.
• Ulisses Soares told about how early in their marriage, he bought his wife a piano so she could more easily study music. It was out of their budget, and after they talked about it, he returned it. I love that he admits actually making a mistake (a rare thing for a GA) and that it was from his wife that he took correction.

Worst stories:

• D. Todd Christofferson told of a young mother in Hungary who felt like her friends didn’t understand her everyday trials of marriage and parenthood. Christofferson used the story only to be able to lament about how weak and whiny people are these days.
• Gerrit W. Gong told about a woman who, not surprisingly, didn’t want to be sealed to her deceased abusive father. After a year of pushing herself, and after having a dream that he had repented, she relented. I don’t like that this is the only permissible outcome for such a story to be told in Conference. Even if we’re determined to try to seal everyone together, couldn’t this one have waited a generation or two rather than having this poor woman be pushed into doing it?

Funniest story: Jeffrey R. Holland outlined many arguments that he used when he was in school and a fellow graduate student asked him why Mormons don’t use the cross as a symbol. After having gone on at some length, he realized that he was boring his interlocutor, who then made a hasty escape.

Weirdest story: Russell M. Nelson told of how he went with his wife to visit an aging dignitary who said that while he had been ill recently, he had spent days in his bed contemplating the question “what is true?” That was it. It wasn’t clear why he told the story other than to explain where the title of his talk had come from.

Story most likely to irritate Russell M. Nelson: Gary E. Stevenson told approvingly of a high school student who discussed religion with fellow students while at a student leadership conference. When he was asked if he was a Mormon, the student simply answered “yes,” rather than clarifying “Yes, I’m a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

Best visual aid: Ronald A. Rasband showed a picture of a copy of the Book of Mormon he used as a missionary, complete with Angel Moroni on the cover and red label proclaiming “Elder Ron Rasband.”

Most un-self-aware visual aid: Jeffrey R. Holland, after giving many reasons for not using the cross as a symbol, like that symbols miss the point of “the complete miracle of Christ’s mission,” does concede that the Church has maybe kinda sorta a logo that we do use. But he downplays it as “small.” Then he shows the super-detailed image of Jesus, complete with 39 letters in three different font sizes to give the full name of the Church. But that’s better than a cross that could be drawn with two strokes of a pen.

Best title: Kristin M. Yee “Beauty for Ashes: The Healing Path of Forgiveness”
Worst title: Ryan K. Olsen “The Answer Is Jesus.” This sounds like a talk title for an evangelical youth pastor.

Best scripture story: Kristin M. Yee told the story of Abigail from the Old Testament, who apologized to King David on behalf of her husband after he had rudely rejected the king. I appreciate that Abigail serves as a type of Christ, where most stories, this role is reserved for men.
Worst scripture story: David A. Bednar built his talk around Jesus’s parable of the wedding feast. I find stories like this, that focus on the message of people never being quite good enough, to be discouraging.

Best scripture quote: D. Todd Christofferson “That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.” (1 Cor 12:25-26)

Worst scripture quotes:

• Dieter F. Uchtdorf: “I cannot tell you all the things whereby ye may commit sin; for there are divers ways and means, even so many that I cannot number them.” (Mosiah 4:29). I find this verse incredibly discouraging in its suggestion that life is just jam packed with possible sins I could stumble into.
• David A. Bednar: “for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.” (2 Nephi 25:23). This is another discouraging one, with its suggestion that Jesus only steps up to help out after we first do everything we possibly can.

I don’t think that scripture quote means what you think it does:

• Ulisses Soares cited Moses 3:18 about God making Eve as a “help meet” for Adam as evidence of women’s and men’s equality. What the story shows, though, is exactly the opposite. Adam was the subject, the important one. Eve was the object, the one made to satisfy the needs of the important one.
• Kevin W. Pearson cited 2 Nephi 28:21, about Satan lulling people into “carnal security” so they say “All is well in Zion” and said perhaps this applied to people who have left the Church. I’m wondering how exactly he reached this conclusion, as it seems to me that it’s not the apostates, but rather the GAs who are saying “All is well in Zion.”

Brand new (to me) scripture quote: Jeffrey R. Holland cited 2 Samuel 24:24, where King David turns down an offering of free stuff to sacrifice to the Lord because it wouldn’t be a real sacrifice if it was free. Instead, he offers to pay for it.

Thanks for avoiding that scripture quote:

• Quentin L. Cook talked about Alma preaching to his son Corianton, but he avoided quoting or referring to Alma 39:5, the verse that is sometimes used to argue that any sexual activity other than straight married sex is worse than anything but murder.
• Gerrit W. Gong wanted to make the point that we are told to forgive everyone, but rather than citing or quoting D&C 64:10, which has the usual gender-exclusive construction “of you it is required to forgive all men,” he just paraphrased it as “we (being imperfect) are to forgive all.”

Best quote: Ulisses Soares quoted Madeline L’Engle: “love is not possession, but participation.”

Interesting quotes of possibly unreliable narrators:

• Michelle D. Craig quoted Joseph F. Smith explaining the strength of pioneer women: “Could you turn one of these women away from their convictions in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . . . the mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith . . . the divine mission of Jesus Christ, the Son of God? No, never in the world could you do it. Why? Because they knew it. God revealed it to them, and they understood it, and no power on earth could turn them from what they knew to be that truth.” Joseph F. Smith crossed the plains in 1848 at the age of nine. How did he know all of this about the adult women around him and who followed him?
• Neil L. Andersen quoted a story told to him by a woman who was at an event at a governor’s mansion, where the tradition was to toast the governor with champagne. Although she was told it would be offensive, she insisted on using water. She concluded that the governor was not offended, but she didn’t explain how she knew this. Perhaps the governor was deeply offended, but just chose not to make a stink about it.
• Gary E. Stevenson reported how, after overcoming some misgivings, he bore his testimony to the mayor of a South American capital city at the end of their meeting. He reports: “Everything changed at that moment. The Spirit in the room was undeniable. It seemed everyone was touched.” I would be interested to know whether the mayor agreed, or if Stevenson even checked with him.

References to and quotes of Russell M. Nelson:

• Most total quoted words: Mark D. Eddy, 146 words in 3 quotes.
• Most separate quotes: Neil L. Andersen and M. Russell Ballard, 4 each (although the tiebreaker goes to Andersen for using 96 words versus Ballard’s 94).
• Most unnecessary quote: Dieter F. Uchtdorf quoted him as saying “Hear Him.”
• Most self-aggrandizing quote: Neil L. Andersen quoted something Nelson had said earlier the same day, just to show how in-the-know he is.
• Most mentions of his name: Ronald A. Rasband, 9.
• Best integration of his name into yours: Denelson Silva.
• Favorite phrases that have been repeated enough to enter the Mormon lexicon: Rafael E. Pino mentioned “letting God prevail,” and Gary E. Stevenson mentioned a “higher, holier purpose” and neither mentioned or cited Russell M. Nelson.
• Best refusal to quote him: Steven J. Lund quoted “Hear Him,” but from Joseph Smith History. Jonathan S. Schmitt quoted “let God prevail,” but from the Bible Dictionary.
• Fewest quotes or mentions: Zero, by Dale G. Renlund, James W. McConkie III, Jorge F. Zeballos, Gerrit W. Gong, and David A. Bednar. There may even be more; I wasn’t checking systematically. I’m actually encouraged to see this happening, when most speakers seem to feel like they have to quote him as often as possible.

Mixed messages:

• In his first talk, Russell M. Nelson condemned abuse. The next session, in a talk I otherwise liked, Kristin M. Yee made the very mistake that has so bedeviled Church leaders on abuse. She told about how her father had been abusive to her when she was a child, but she began by explaining that she told the story with his permission. I really don’t like that she said this, even if she had done it, because it perpetuates the norm that we protect abusers and their feelings.
• D. Todd Christofferson lamented people these days, who don’t believe in duty or responsibility or willingness to sacrifice for anyone else. In the very next talk, opening the following session, Gérald Caussé reminded us of the importance of caring for the Earth. This is an issue that has come to crisis because earlier generations like Christofferson’s happily heated and polluted the atmosphere with no concern for generations to come. I do think Christofferson puts his finger on a real trend about ideas like duty and sacrifice being seen as passé, but I also think he’s clearly blind to ways in which his generation was the more selfish one.

Best lines:

• Tracy Y. Browning: “our Savior, Jesus Christ, directs our feet to meetinghouses each week to partake of His sacrament . . . He directs our mouths to testify of Him, our hands to lift and serve as He would lift and serve, our eyes to see the world and each other as He does” I like the concreteness of her imagery.
• D. Todd Christofferson: “each one of us can affirm: Jesus Christ died for me; He thought me worthy of His blood.” The word worthy is so often used to divide and shame people in a Church context, so I really like how this framing applies it to everyone.
• James W. McConkie III: “At different times I have carried the corner of a bed, and at other times I have been the one carried.”
• Gérald Caussé: “From [Jesus’s] mouth, the word neighbor does not merely mean geographic proximity; it implies a proximity of the heart.”
• J. Anette Dennis: “We are commanded to love others, not to judge them. Let’s lay down that heavy burden; it isn’t ours to carry.”

Best lines that sound like call-outs of fellow GAs:

• Dieter F. Uchtdorf: “Is it wrong to have rules? Of course not. We all need them every day. But it is wrong to focus only on rules instead of focusing on the Savior.”
• D. Todd Christofferson: “We may communicate in subtle ways that the worth of a soul is based on certain achievements or callings, but these are not the measure of our standing in the Lord’s eyes.”

Worst lines:

• Ryan K. Olsen: “When we have questions or doubts, we may feel that the solutions are too complex or that finding answers is too confusing. May we remember that the adversary, even the father of all lies, is the architect of confusion.”

Some things are just inherently complex. He’s doing nobody any favors by suggesting that anything complex is by definition Satanic. He’s also likely not going to keep people in the Church if they accept his reasoning, as lots of issues demand explanations that are far from simple.

• Gary E. Stevenson: “Feelings of fear [when deciding to whether to bear your testimony] don’t come from the Lord but most often from the adversary.”

Why the rush to blame Satan when there are other obvious reasons for this fear, like fear of harming relationships with people you know by being overly pushy with your religion?

• Jeffrey R. Holland: “I know many who wrestle with wrenching matters of identity, gender, and sexuality. I weep for them, and I weep with them, knowing how significant the consequences of their decisions will be.”

This strikes me as horribly un-self-aware, coming as it does from Holland, who has recently made it clear that he sees it as his divine calling to protect the Church from being too accepting of LGBT people.

Oddly specific line: Gerrit W. Gong: “To missionaries or others who say following the Spirit means not having to obey mission standards or the commandments, please remember that obeying mission standards and the commandments invite the Spirit.”

Why single out missionaries?

Lines missing an asterisk:

• Dallin H. Oaks: “[The Church’s] 2021 expenditures for those in need in 188 countries worldwide totaled $906 million—almost a billion dollars.”
  • *I find this analysis compelling, which suggests that the Church didn’t suddenly go from donating $50 million a year to $1 billion, but rather just rebranded fast offerings going through the Church as coming from the Church.
• Dallin H. Oaks: “we fast at the first of each month and contribute at least the equivalent of the uneaten meals to help those in need in our own congregations.”
  • *Since 2012, tithing slips carefully explain that any donated money may be used for any Church program, so fast offerings could be used to support missionaries or build temples.
• Dieter F. Uchtdorf: “It’s also important to know what For the Strength of Youth does not do. It doesn’t make decisions for you.”
  • *To be clear, the previous version in some ways did try to do that.
• Ronald A. Rasband: “They [people to whom you might give a Book of Mormon] need to know of the covenant path laid out before them and the Lord’s abiding love for them. It’s all here in the Book of Mormon.”
  • *The full covenant path isn’t in the Book of Mormon. Temples are mentioned, but temple ordinances are not. No initiatory, no endowment, no sealing.
• Russell M. Nelson: “For decades now, the Church has taken extensive measures to protect—in particular—children from abuse.”
  • *”Extensive” is overstating it, especially given how the Church has acted only when publicly shamed, and how it continues to show that it has higher priorities than protecting children, such as maintaining respect for Church hierarchical leadership and preventing the Church from being successfully sued.
• Ulisses Soares: “According to gospel doctrine, the difference between woman and man does not override the eternal promises that God has for His sons and daughters. One has no greater possibilities for celestial glory than the other in the eternities.”
  • *This is far from clear, especially given the continued existence of D&C 132 and its open treatment of women as objects, in our canon, not to mention GAs’ deep concern that Church members be stopped from feeling any connection to Heavenly Mother. Women are thus aggressively prevented from having a model for what the afterlife might look like for them.
• D. Todd Christofferson: “How blessed we are to see the day that Zion is being established simultaneously on every continent and in our own neighborhoods.”
  • *Every continent except Antarctica.

Lines that signal the speakers’ political conservatism:

• Dallin H. Oaks spent his entire talk discussing helping the poor and afflicted, and never once brought up anything like government programs or the importance of voting for politicians who support programs to help poor people.
• D. Todd Christofferson praised the increased diversity in the Church over time as “not a calculated or forced diversity.” He’s clearly not happy with secular trends toward affirmatively promoting diversity, rather than the righteous way of just occasionally letting people of color trickle into leadership.
• Quentin L. Cook lamented that “In our day one of the most significant challenges is contention and verbal abuse related to societal issues.” This is a typical conservative approach, worrying more about the contention that arises in bringing up issues like racism and homophobia than about the issues themselves.
• Kevin W. Pearson warned about “the narrative that the Church consists primarily of outdated or politically incorrect social policies, unrealistic personal restrictions, and time commitments,” where “politically incorrect” is, of course, a right-wing dog whistle.

Line that signals the speaker’s departure from political conservatism: Gérald Caussé is French, and therefore not likely to be as politically conservative as the American GAs. In his talk on stewardship over the Earth, Gérald Caussé, he knew his surroundings well enough not to utter the word government, but he did at least suggest “There are many things that we can do—collectively and individually—to be good stewards.” Collectively!

Things that should go without saying, but thanks for saying them anyway:

• Dallin H. Oaks: “Despite all that our Church does directly, most humanitarian service to the children of God worldwide is carried out by persons and organizations having no formal connection with our Church.” Just how thick is someone’s Mormon bubble that they need to be told this?
• Rafael E. Pino: “No country contains the totality of what is good or admirable.” Ezra Taft Benson rolled in his grave.
• Kristin M. Yee: “Please know that forgiving someone does not mean that you put yourself in a position where you will continue to be hurt.”
• Jorge F. Zeballos: “The joy promised in the scriptures as the purpose of our existence should not be understood to mean that we will have no difficulties or sorrows . . .”
• Jeffrey R. Holland: “I know people, in and out of the Church, who are following Christ just that faithfully.”
• Quentin L. Cook: “The body is not evil . . .” He did go on to kind of qualify this.

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

• Kevin W. Pearson: Told listeners we shouldn’t based our willingness to follow Christ on an “inconvenience index.”
• Jeffrey R. Holland: “This speaks of the crosses we bear rather than the ones we wear.”
• Gerrit W. Gong: “sanctifying symmetry”
• Joseph W. Sitati: “holy habits”
• Steven J. Lund: “I have seen the Spirit of God relentlessly responding”
• Russell M. Nelson: “the world insists that power, possessions, popularity, and pleasures of the flesh bring happiness”
• Jonathan S. Schmitt: “pendulums of popularity”; later quoted Dallin H. Oaks on “holy habits and righteous routines”; later referred to Peter as the “drowning disciple”
• Mark D. Eddy: “prophetic promise”
• David A. Bednar: “we may be distracted from the eternal things that matter the most by making pleasure, prosperity, popularity, and prominence our primary priorities.”

Interesting phrases:

• Paul V. Johnson: “majestic destiny”
• Steven J. Lund: “drenching ourselves in scripture”

Nice gender reversals and inclusions:

• Dieter F. Ucthdorf said that if Jesus were here, he “would declare, in no uncertain terms, that you are a daughter or son of the Almighty God.”
• Both James W. McConkie III and Steven J. Lund talked about serving as “mission leaders” with their wives.
• Steven J. Lund said that he “once served as husband to the stake Young Women president.”

Failed attempts at inclusion:

• Hugo Montoya: “We are willing to help each other because we love each other, and my brother’s needs become my needs, and mine become his. No matter what language my brother speaks or what country he comes from, we love each other because we are brothers, children of the same Father.”

So no matter the language or country of origin, we’ll help. So long as he’s male.

• Ulisses Soares: “Eve was a heavenly blessing in Adam’s life. Through her divine nature and spiritual attributes, she inspired Adam to work in partnership with her to achieve God’s plan of happiness for all mankind.”

So was Adam likewise a heavenly blessing in Eve’s life? Also, who were they working for the happiness of? Men only?

• Ulisses Soares cited the example of single parents who remain true to their covenants and strive to be good parents to show how the Family Proclamation can still apply. I’m disappointed that he couldn’t even bring himself to mention the existence of single, never-married people.

Not even trying to be inclusive: Hugo Montoya, without previously indicating that his audience was only men, exhorted his listeners to “Bless your children, whether they are 5 or 50 years old.”

Good examples of not trying to “faith” your way out of real challenges:

• Isaac K. Morrison told of how, when his wife was pregnant with their third child, “it became medically clear [she] would not be able to have another baby.” He didn’t then go on to tell a story about how, through fasting and prayer, he and his wife chose to put her life at risk by having more kids anyway, as Neil L. Andersen would have preferred. They just stopped having kids.
• Joseph W. Sitati talked about the jet lag he experienced when flying from Africa to Utah for General Conference. He didn’t explain how with enough faith, he was able to overcome it and miraculously not need to adjust. He just matter-of-factly explained that “day and night . . . is an absolute truth of our human existence that we cannot negotiate around according to our own desires and get away with it.”

The dictionary defines ___ as:

• Rafael E. Pino: “A custom is the practice or the frequent and habitual way of thinking for a person, culture, or tradition.”
• M. Russell Ballard: “The word pioneer is both a noun and a verb.”
• David A. Bednar: “Simply defined, the Savior’s parables are stories used to compare spiritual truths with material things and mortal experiences.”

No dictionary needed: In contrast to the above examples, I like how when Jorge F. Zeballos talked about his eagerness to learn about anti-seismic structures when he was studying to become a civil engineer, he didn’t rush to define the term, but rather trusted his listeners to hold onto the idea until the term became clear in the course of the story.

Who and what we still don’t talk about:

• Dieter F. Ucthdorf said that “your Heavenly Father is the most glorious being in the universe,” which seems glaring in its omission of Heavenly Mother.
• Neil L. Andersen told of a woman who was in the hospital in February after having given birth to a son when “the bombings began.” He couldn’t bring himself to say Russia.

Strangest aside: In the middle of his talk about caring for poor and suffering people, Dallin H. Oaks paused to praise the Church for fighting for religious freedom, which of course is code for fighting for the right to discriminate against LGBT people. This seemed really out of place.

Most defensive footnote: After explaining how true personal revelation will never contradict God’s laws, Dale G. Renlund bravely waded into the case of Nephi killing Laban. After offering three weak explanations (including the sadly hilarious “Nephi was sure that it was revelation—in fact, in this case, it was a commandment from God,” as though nobody else is ever sure their revelations are commandments from God), he adds an extensive footnote to explain how it’s perfectly fine for God to sometimes tell people to go against his previous commandments. Really, I think Renlund would have been better off just not even bringing Nephi up.

Missed the memo on the covenant path: Dieter F. Ucthdorf said “plan of happiness” twice and Gerrit W. Gong said it once. M. Russell Ballard said “plan of salvation” twice, although he did also say “covenant path” four times, suggesting they’re not quite synonymous.
Strange wording: Dallin H. Oaks referred to Joseph Smith as “our first President” rather than “the prophet Joseph Smith,” which I think is far more typical.
Stop trying to make by divine design happen: Hugo Montoya, Kevin W. Pearson, Ronald A. Rasband

Encouraging patterns:

• Only Russell M. Nelson gave multiple talks, and even with his three talks, two of them were quite short, leaving more time for a greater variety of speakers.
• I liked that several speakers—Tracy Y. Browning, J. Anette Dennis, Gerrit W. Gong, and Ryan K. Olsen—addressed their listeners as “friends.” I like this form of address because it doesn’t have to bring up gender, and it makes space for non-binary people.

Disappointing pattern: As in other recent Conferences, several speakers—Hugo Montoya, Paul V. Johnson, Gérald Caussé, Joseph W. Sitati— used They to refer to the Father and the Son, but nobody could bring themselves to use it to refer to Heavenly Parents, or to mention or imply the existence of Heavenly Mother at all.

Worst mischaracterization of people who leave the Church: Russell M. Nelson: “I grieve for those who leave the Church because they feel membership requires too much of them.” How does he know this is a reason? Has he talked to people who have left, other than the subset who have later returned? Like his infamous “lazy learners” line, this seems clearly aimed at shoring up the certainty of people on the inside rather than giving anything like a fair accounting of people who have left.

Worst response to a current event: Russell M. Nelson gave a defensive-sounding response to the abuse scandal recently reported by the AP. Of course he didn’t name what he was responding to, for fear of directing more Church members who hadn’t heard about it to look it up, but by clumsily barging into the topic with no preamble, I wonder if he caused the very effect he was hoping to avoid.

Talk I hope is repurposed to argue for use of trans people’s names and pronouns: Jonathan S. Schmitt discussed the importance of the many names and titles of Jesus, as well as of our own names.

Three favorite talks that I would be happy to see lessons based on:

• J. Anette Dennis, “His Yoke Is Easy and His Burden Is Light.” I loved her focus on not being judgmental, especially given that we don’t know what burdens others are carrying.
• Kristin M. Yee, “Beauty for Ashes: The Healing Path of Forgiveness.” I especially appreciated that she told a scripture story where a woman was a type of Christ.
• Gérald Caussé, “Our Earthly Stewardship.” His talk on caring for the Earth is especially needed, considering how many Mormons are aggressive disbelievers in human-caused global warming.

Three least favorite talks that I would be disappointed to see lessons based on:

• Kevin W. Pearson, “Are You Still Willing?” He was very concerned that too many Church members are not sufficiently committed. He opined at one point, “Many leave the Savior and their covenants long before they leave His Church.” The suggestion seems to be that he’d like the Church to have some kind of purity squad, which would rush in and excommunicate people the moment they had any doubts.
• Dale G. Renlund, “A Framework for Personal Revelation.” Much like how Dallin H. Oaks did in 2010, he explained that personal revelation is all well and good so long as it lines up with what the GAs say. He did Oaks one better, though, and said that it’s wrong to even ask for personal revelation when God has already spoken on a topic. This talk seems clearly designed to silence people who have questions.
• Jeffrey R. Holland, “Lifted Up upon the Cross.” I’m sure emboldened by Russell M. Nelson making a big deal about his petty concern about what the Church is called, Holland aired at some length his equally petty concern about Church members using the cross as a symbol.

Two talks I have strongly mixed feelings on:

• Uliesses Soares, “In Partnership with the Lord.” I love that he was so determined to argue that women and men are of equal value. I hate, though, that he so blatantly ignored all the ways the Church treats women as lesser than men. Pretending that equality is solved doesn’t make it so.
• D. Todd Christofferson, “The Doctrine of Belonging.” Sandwiched in between a nice beginning and ending where he extolled the value of diversity and unity, he took a detour into complaining about how young people these days are weak and complainy.

My heretical reviews of past General Conferences:

April 2022
October 2021
April 2021
October 2020
April 2020
October 2019