“I Recommend My Church”

Where Zelph was located — Naples-Russell Mound 8, where the remains identified as those of Zelph were found (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Newly published in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 69 (2026): 49-60: “A Scientific Evaluation of the Zelph Revelation,” written by Jerry D. Grover Jr.:

Abstract: Members of the 1834 Zion’s Camp expedition inspected a large mound along the Illinois River where a skeleton was uncovered and Joseph Smith had a revelatory experience identifying the individual as Zelph. Recent archeological excavations place the revelation in a chronological and ancient cultural context that now allows additional verification and interpretation of this revelatory event. In addition, with this new information, it is possible to determine whether the individual and location can be interpreted as being a part of the Book of Mormon culture and geography.

sfakflfklak. I've wanted to see this temple for quite a while. — The Columbia River Washington Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stands in Richland, Washington, which is only a few minutes away from where we’re staying in Kennewick. This is the “Try-Cities” area. (Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)

With her kind permission, I share here something that Carla Maxwell Whetter posted on her Facebook page a few days ago. I join her in her invitation:

Interesting study about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If you are looking for a church, I recommend my church.

NEW HARVARD STUDY EXPOSES MORMONISM

Study in comments (now pinned).

Harvard just released the latest results from its Global Flourishing Study, a survey of more than 200,000 people across 22 countries measuring happiness, health, meaning, character, relationships, and financial stability. When researchers sorted the U.S. data by religious affiliation, Latter-day Saints landed near the top on nearly every measure that matters.

The findings line up closely with decades of independent research from Princeton, Notre Dame, Pew, and elsewhere.

Harvard finding: Latter-day Saints reported the highest rates of feeling loved by their parents.

Earlier research backs this up. Princeton researcher Kenda Creasy Dean, who is not a Latter-day Saint, found Latter-day Saint teens report stronger relationships with their parents than peers in any other tradition. Roughly 80% of Latter-day Saint parents pray or read scripture with their children, exceeding any other Christian group. Latter-day Saint teens are nearly twice as likely as peers to practice their faith at home, outside of religious services.

Harvard finding: Latter-day Saints were among the highest for being “highly happy.”

Pew data tells the same story. Latter-day Saint women have the highest rate of being “very happy” of any religious group surveyed. Latter-day Saint women and mothers also rated their family lives as excellent at the highest rate of any group. Richard Reeves, drawing on Sutherland Institute data, found the share of men who say they understand their purpose in life is ten percentage points higher in Utah than in the country as a whole, a gap he attributed to the state’s unusually high rates of religiosity and marriage.

Harvard finding: Latter-day Saints were among the highest for finding strength and comfort from their faith.

The most striking corroboration comes from Notre Dame’s Souls in Transition. Most religious groups see a meaningful drop-off in feeling close to God as teens enter young adulthood. Latter-day Saints were the only group to report an increase. The most recent Pew Research Religious Landscape Study found Latter-day Saints are the Americans most likely to report regularly feeling a deep sense of spiritual peace and well-being. They also engaged in prayer, scripture study, worship attendance, and Sabbath observance at the highest rate of any group studied, and held those habits steady while every other tradition declined.

Harvard finding: Latter-day Saints had one of the lowest rates of depression.

A large youth study aligns with this finding. A large randomly-sampled study of Latter-day Saint youth found temple attendance linked to less depression at ages 12, 14, 16, and 18, and lower anxiety at 18. Research by Justin Dyer found Latter-day Saint youth had suicide attempt rates less than half that of most other groups studied. Even LGBQ Latter-day Saint youth showed lower rates of depression than LGBQ peers from every other religious group in Dyer’s data.

Harvard finding: Latter-day Saints had the highest rate of weekly religious service attendance.

Other surveys confirm the pattern. Weekly Latter-day Saint attendance sits above two-thirds, the highest of any major U.S. Christian group. Roughly three-fourths report praying daily. Latter-day Saints rank first among major Christian groups in Bible knowledge. One Pew survey, for example, found Latter-day Saints were the most likely of any Christian group to correctly identify Jesus as the one who delivered the Sermon on the Mount.

The family picture is consistent across studies.

Latter-day Saints have the highest fertility rate among major U.S. Christian traditions, the highest share of children living with their married mother and father, and the lowest divorce rates of any major U.S. Christian group. Among those who attend worship services regularly, Latter-day Saints also have the highest retention rate of any major Christian denomination.

Why the pattern holds

These outcomes are what a coherent system produces. James Clear’s line in Atomic Habits is that people do not rise to the level of their goals, they fall to the level of their systems. The Latter-day Saint life is built like a system designed to help people love God and love their neighbor. Worship, prayer, scripture, service, and family routines repeat on predictable rhythms and reinforce each other. Boys and girls grow up surrounded by adult mentors who model what they teach. The home does the heavy lifting, not the chapel. Covenants tie all of it to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that gets renewed weekly and lived daily. The result is what shows up in Harvard’s numbers: when belief, behavior, and belonging are this tightly integrated, outcomes compound.

What it adds up to

Princeton’s Kenda Dean wrote that it is difficult to read the data on Latter-day Saint teenagers without feeling a hint of awe. The latest Harvard data extends that picture into adulthood. Across happiness, family, faith, mental health, and the relationships that anchor a life, the Latter-day Saint community keeps showing up at or near the top.

Individual experiences vary, as they do in any community. But broadly, those who follow the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints tend to be happier, in strong loving families centered on Jesus Christ.

What Harvard exposed is what researchers at Princeton, Notre Dame, and Pew have been finding for years. The Latter-day Saint community keeps producing outcomes the rest of the country is still trying to figure out.

Half the size of the Portland Oregon Temple. — An artist’s rendering of the Vancouver Washington Temple, which is currently under construction. It will stand just across the Columbia River from Portland. (Fair use)

For part of today, we drove alongside the Columbia River. At places, rather curiously, it reminded me just a bit of the River Nile in Egypt — a broad stream flowing through an arid or semi-arid landscape, sometimes flanked by cliffs, with a narrow fringe of green along each of its banks.

Posted from Kennewick, Washington