There is much to highlight, so let’s get started:

110th Translation of the Book of Mormon Published (LDS Church Growth)

?Kosraean is the 110th language into which the Church has translated the Book of Mormon. Other translations of the Book of Mormon that have been completed within the past seven years include Malay, Slovak, Serbian, and Yoruba.? See also: Kosraean language

Gender equality bake sale causes stir at Utah high school (Good 4 Utah)

?Schott and her friends from the Young Democrats club sold some cookies, raised some money and created controversy, but they got their point across. There was mixed reactions from fellow students.? Controversy: BAKED. Look for a panel on this issue at this year’s MHA!

Mormon Studies Program Funds New Classes About LDS Religion (The Daily Utah Chronicle)

?[N]ext year they plan to use funds to provide three or four Mormon studies classes. Programs will include ?Black, White and Mormon,? which ?explores matters of race and Mormonism.? In addition, courses will be offered that examine the sociological perspective of Mormonism.? MOAR.

?Clear? As Mud: HBO?s Riveting Scientology Documentary (Grantland)

?But so long as we?re talking the difference between religions and cults, try to imagine HBO running a comparable documentary about, say, Mormonism ? in more ways than one, as Wright?s book details, Scientology?s 19th-century equivalent, at least in the popular suspicions (and derision) it aroused when it was founded.? Popular suspicions!

Exploring Mormon ethics of eating (The Signpost)

?The food that is prohibited in certain religions is not what matters most. This was the message to Weber State University students and faculty from Kate Holbrook, leading voice in the study of Mormon women and Mormon foodways.? Kate Holbrook!

Guest Post: Karin Wulf on Open Access and Historical Scholarship (The Scholarly Kitchen)

Good stuff: ?Scholarship is developed in very different ways, within very distinctive research and publication ecosystems. No one would suggest that biologists and film scholars organize, finance, and undertake their research along similar lines. And we know very well that the resulting scholarship is not consumed in the same way. Why, then, should we assume that the results of that research?published scholarship?can be produced and disseminated in the same way??

Conference Recap: National Museum of American History’s Religion in Early America Symposium (Religion in American History)

?The challenge of representing American religion is difficult enough when writing for an academic audience or popular press; when one attempts to do so under the aegis of the National Museum of American History, a whole new suite of troubles is possible. As Prothero said, the study of religion is indeed rocket science, although at least the math is easier.?

Harry Reid to Retire From Senate in 2016 (The New York Times)

Lastly: whatever you think of the man, Harry Reid has wielded substantial power and authority as a statesman and leader of the Democratic Party and has represented Mormonism indirectly for multiple decades. It likely will be a long time before another Mormon leaves a similar mark in American politics.