LightNews — News, ranked by scholars

Liminal LDS

@liminal-lds.bsky.social

#MormonSkyBookClub

Testing Tenets @testingtenets.bsky.social · Mar 9

My current book club read.

March 10, 2025 at 3:16 AM

Liminal LDS

@liminal-lds.bsky.social

#MormonSkyBookClub

Heather M. Collins🗽 @heathersdesk.bsky.social · Jul 14

"Women deserve to exercise all the gifts of the Spirit which God has entrusted to them. They shouldn't have to go outside of the community to get the experience with those gifts."

Restoring Sister Administrations for Healing and Blessing in the LDS Church: Part 1

Relief Society Healing , Anthony Sweat It's becoming increasingly difficult to be a woman in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...

www.memofromheathersdesk.com

July 15, 2025 at 12:38 AM

J D Lomax

@jdlomax.bsky.social

#MormonSkyBookClub #BookClubs #FairyTales #Folklorefolks #Folklore,Myths&Tales #ChildrensBooks #ChildrensLibrarian #KidLitArt #SeriesBooks

J D Lomax @jdlomax.bsky.social · Jun 9

June 9, 2026 at 4:16 PM

Liminal LDS

@liminal-lds.bsky.social

#MormonSkyBookClub

Liminal LDS @liminal-lds.bsky.social · Jun 26

“I gave my husband too much visible power and used mine manipulatively”
-Nancy Freestone Turley in *Women and Authority* edited by Maxine Hanks

In the early years of my marriage, I gave my husband too much visible power and used mine manipulatively instead of openly and honestly. Shared power is still a challenge for us, but we are learning to balance it. As we share power with our children, they exercise it and grow in responsibility and ma-turity. God, along with the Son and the Holy Ghost, does all the parenting on the earth; yet, the matrix of femaleness is the creating, nourishing and sustaining of life. I would like to see God share power with females.

June 26, 2025 at 11:06 PM

J D Lomax

@jdlomax.bsky.social

My first book! #AuthorsandWriters #IndieAuthors #FictionWriters&Authors #BlackskyBookclub #BannedBookClub #BlueskyBookClub #TBReadersBookClub #TheMessageBookClub #CookbookClub #BookClubGang #MormonSkyBookClub

July 19, 2026 at 6:02 AM

J D Lomax

@jdlomax.bsky.social

The book cover for my first book. #CookbookClub #BookClubGang #MormonSkyBookClub #BookClubs #FairyTales #Folklorefolks #Folklore,Myths&Tales #ChildrensBooks #ChildrensLibrarian #KidLitArt #SeriesBooks

May 29, 2026 at 5:16 PM

Liminal LDS

@liminal-lds.bsky.social

We will be reading *The Giant Joshua* by Maurine Whipple next in #MormonSkyBookClub.

July 24, 2025 at 3:03 PM

Liminal LDS

@liminal-lds.bsky.social

#MormonSkyBookClub

Testing Tenets @testingtenets.bsky.social · Apr 24

Had a great time last night talking about “Joseph Smith for President” in book club.

The book “Kingdom of Nauvoo” came up several times and we are thinking about that being our next discussion.

If you have any other suggestions, please let us know here or in the Discord.

April 24, 2025 at 3:14 PM

Liminal LDS

@liminal-lds.bsky.social

I highly recommend Reeve's book "Let's Talk About Race and Priesthood" for anyone wanting to know more about the topic and for takes like this.

I haven't fully read Harris's "Second Class Saints" yet, but initial impressions are good too. #MormonSkyBookClub

Dave Calder @ldsfn.bsky.social · Oct 30

Paul Reeve, on Facebook, about the LDS church confronting its race ban history: …the "we don't know" explanation serves as a scapegoat to alleviate the real work of rooting out racism and of confronting the challenges of prophetic fallibility.

W Paul Reeve
6h • G
This post is bit of insider Latter-day Saint baseball:
In looking ahead to the Come Follow Me curriculum for Sunday, December 14, the lesson topic is Official Declaration 1 (the beginnings of the end of polygamy), Official Declaration 2, the end of a nearly 130 year restriction on priesthood ordination and temple admission for people of Black African ancestry, and the Articles of Faith. Here are the challenges that I see in this lesson:
1. The lesson falls on the second Sunday of the month, which is NOT Sunday School and will thus likely be ignored by those who teach Sunday School on weeks one and three. It is difficult to "lead out in abandoning attitudes and actions of prejudice" and to "root out racism" when we offer no space to address it in our worship experience.
2. Even if a teacher were to address the topics of this lesson, no one could do justice to OD1, OD2, and the Articles of Faith in one lesson. Each topic deserves its own lesson.
3. Under Official Declaration 2, the lesson manual states,
"We don't know why priesthood ordination and temple ordinances were not available to Church members of African descent for a time."
Point three is the most difficult of the three problematic points. In my estimation, the "we don't know" explanation serves as a scapegoat to alleviate the real work of rooting out racism and of confronting the challenges of prophetic fallibility. Brigham Young certainly claimed to know why people of Black African descent should be barred from priesthood ordination. He said so forcefully on more than one occasion.

Read the Pitman shorthand version of Brigham Young's 5 Feb 1852 speech, his most forceful articulation of a racial
"curse" for people of Black African descent. It is available here https://exhibits.lib.utah.edu/s/this-abominable-
slavery/page/4_2 at ThisAbominableSlavery.org with a link back to the Church History Library catalog as verification of its authenticity and origins. He again weighed in on the matter in 1859 in another speech, available here: https:// journalofdiscourses.com/7/45
We also know that Orson Pratt rejected Brigham Young's rationale for a priesthood restriction and advocated for Black male voting rights in 1852, Utah Territory. "We have no proof that Africans are the descendants of old Cain," Pratt insisted.
If reading 19th century speeches is not your thing, then find out what we do know by placing those speeches within historical context with Let's Talk About Race and Priesthood, available at any Deseret Book or on Amazon.
Matthew Lawrence Harris's book, Second Class Saints, will offer evidence for why the restrictions dragged on for so long, and This Abominable Slavery, Religion of a Different Color, and Russell Stevenson's For the Cause of Righteousness deeply contextualize their origins. Alice Faulkner Burch's My Lord, He Calls Me, offers faith filled examples from the lives of Black Latter-day Saints. In other words, there is a lot that we do know, enough to write several books on the topic, including books and articles not mentioned here.

October 30, 2025 at 3:38 AM

Liminal LDS

@liminal-lds.bsky.social

#MormonSkyBookClub

Dave Calder @ldsfn.bsky.social · Oct 30

“I've been saying for quite some time that we do know why the ban existed and it's time to own it.”

Matthew Lawrence Harris
Agree with everything you say, Paul. I've been saying for quite some time that we do know why the ban existed and it's time to own it.
Thanks for these reflections.

October 30, 2025 at 3:13 AM

Liminal LDS

@liminal-lds.bsky.social

We're going to be reading *Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism,* edited by Maxine Hanks. #MormonSkyBookClub

Women and Authority — Signature Books

Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism edited by Maxine Hanks Mormon women today might be surprised to learn about their foremothers' views on feminist theology and women's issues, accordi...

www.signaturebooks.com

May 7, 2025 at 9:36 PM

J D Lomax

@jdlomax.bsky.social

www.tiktok.com/@jdlomax55/v... #AuthorsandWriters #IndieAuthors #FictionWriters&Authors #BlackskyBookclub #BannedBookClub #BlueskyBookClub #TBReadersBookClub #TheMessageBookClub #CookbookClub #BookClubGang #MormonSkyBookClub

Video Project 3

TikTok video by jdlomax55

www.tiktok.com

June 23, 2026 at 4:09 PM

Liminal LDS

@liminal-lds.bsky.social

We're going to be selecting our next book to read in #MormonSkyBookClub within the next week. Post your suggestions in the Discord.

October 8, 2025 at 12:34 AM

Liminal LDS

@liminal-lds.bsky.social

New poll is up for our next #MormonSkyBookClub read. You've got 72 hours to get your preferences in.

October 10, 2025 at 8:49 PM

Liminal LDS

@liminal-lds.bsky.social

Had a great discussion with #MormonSkyBookClub this evening to discuss *Watchman on the Tower: Ezra Taft Benson and the Making of the Mormon Right.*

The book club has been in my brain for a while before I started posting & seeking interested people, and I'm glad to see it finally coming together.

Image of the cover of "Watchman on the Tower: Ezra Taft Benson and the Making of the Mormon Right" by Matthew L. Harris.

February 20, 2025 at 5:41 AM

Liminal LDS

@liminal-lds.bsky.social

Poll results are in and we're going to be reading "Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality" by Matthew L. Harris next in #MormonSkyBookClub.

Cover for Second-Class Saints by Matthew L. Harris. The cover artwork is a chessboard with one black pawn facing the whole set of white chess pieces with a stained glass window depicting a beehive in the background.

October 13, 2025 at 11:33 PM

Liminal LDS

@liminal-lds.bsky.social

Posting here for anyone who hasn't been on the discord and might see this here instead:

#MormonSkyBookClub meeting tonight to discuss Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism. Details on the discord.

Liminal LDS @liminal-lds.bsky.social · May 7

We're going to be reading *Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism,* edited by Maxine Hanks. #MormonSkyBookClub

Women and Authority — Signature Books

Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism edited by Maxine Hanks Mormon women today might be surprised to learn about their foremothers' views on feminist theology and women's issues, accordi...

www.signaturebooks.com

June 25, 2025 at 2:55 PM