- President D. Todd Christofferson said gambling is morally wrong because its structure requires any gain to come at others’ expense.
- Elder Ronald A. Rasband counseled members aching for loved ones who left the faith to love them as God does and trust Christ can change hearts.
- The church will host 5 million visitors next year during a six-month Salt Lake Temple open house.
- Sister Tamara W. Runia, whose son died suddenly, said God’s love helped her shift from asking ‘why’ to seeing adversity as a refining experience.
A crystal clear denunciation of gambling in the morning was followed by tender messages about Jesus Christ and love during the afternoon session of the first day of the 196th Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Saturday.
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A senior leader drew a bright line on the stunning spread of gambling, leaving no question where the church stands.
“We are against it,” said President D. Todd Christofferson, second counselor in the First Presidency.
The other senior apostle on the day, Elder Ronald A. Rasband, empathized with church members whose hearts ache for loved ones who have turned away from God.
He counseled them to love their loved ones the way God does, and to turn their despair over to Jesus Christ.
“We cannot change their hearts, but he can,“ Elder Rasband said. ”He is a God of miracles … who knows and loves them even more than we do … By the power of Jesus Christ’s Atonement, there is always a way back.”
A total of 18 speakers shared messages about the gospel of Jesus Christ’s ability to provide peace and guidance during a conference that is taking place during a dynamic era of growth and visibility for the church.
The church has a record 90,000 missionaries serving in a historic high of 506 missions around the world one year after shattering its mark for convert baptisms with 385,490.
Next year, the church expects to host 5 million visitors during a six-month open house for the Salt Lake Temple.
On Saturday, though, President Christofferson raised a red flag about the new flood of online sports betting. From 2017 to 2025, American wagering on sports climbed from $4.9 billion to $160 billion. He also took on online casino games and gambling’s hottest new format, prediction markets, which in his footnotes he called “wagering that happens to use a financial-market structure.”
“For us as Latter-day Saints, overarching all other concerns is the fact that gambling is morally wrong,” he said. “Gambling is built on the desire to obtain something for nothing. Its structure requires that any gain comes at others’ expense. It’s hard to reconcile that with the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves.”
The industry’s entire business model ”is built on its customers losing money,” he said.
President Christofferson quoted previous teachings by church President Dallin H. Oaks on gambling.
“The attitude of taking something from someone else in order to enhance our own position — (which is) the essence of gambling — leads us away from the giving path of Christ and toward the taking path of the adversary,” President Oaks said at Ricks College, now BYU-Idaho, in 1987. “The act of taking or trying to take something from someone else without giving value in return is destructive of spiritual sensitivities.”
Speaking out against gambling is nothing new for the church. Its general handbook states that “the church opposes and counsels against gambling in any form. This includes sports betting and government-sponsored lotteries.”
But President Christofferson cited statistics that show 46% of the world’s adults, or 2.3 billion people, gambled in the last year.
In footnotes made available to journalists, he wrote about the difference between investments and bets.
“Investments tend to make money on average over time, while bets tend to lose money,” he wrote. “The returns on investment come from the creation of value to others. In contrast, the winnings from betting come from the losses of someone else.”
He also wrote that government-sponsored lotteries essentially act as a regressive tax on people who often can least afford it.
Recently released data shows that Latter-day Saint retention rates rank among the highest in American religion, but Elder Rasband noted that most members feel sad about loved ones who have left the faith.
Elder Rasband counseled members to remember that divine design requires everyone to choose for themselves to follow Jesus Christ. He counseled members in this situation to give up guilt but not to give up on their loved ones.
The answer to bringing them back, he said, is love them and to be peacemakers, charitable, patient, forgiving and kind.
“Love can positively influence those who have strayed,” he said. “Love is not stepping back or sanctioning others’ decisions and actions. Love is being interested in their lives, their successes and their challenges. Love is being there with arms outstretched and a cheerful countenance. Love is lifting with faith and hope in our Lord and Savior.”
Adversity is intended to develop into something more, said Sister Tamara W. Runia, first counselor in the Young Women general presidency.
“God is shaping us into something only he knows we can become,” she said.
Sister Runia shared the story of the sudden death of her own son when he was a young father.
“God’s love has moved me from questions that begin with ‘why’ to reflections that begin, ‘I know that God loves me, so what is supposed to be happening here?’” she said. “… It is precisely because he loves us that we’re having these tempering, refining experiences.”
Sister Runia said she doesn’t understand everything, “but I absolutely believe God sees you, loves you and knows your story, a story that is both personal and purposeful…. I don’t pretend to know how it works, but it feels like a sort of divine mending that changes what’s happening to you into something happening for you.”
Four other apostles spoke Saturday.
One explained why the gospel of Jesus Christ makes it possible to feel spiritual peace even in the worst circumstances. But it requires continued focus and effort, said Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve.
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Too often, he said, “We focus on the here and now and lose sight of the bigger picture, both where we have been and God’s promises to us.” When that happens, doubt about God’s care can creep in.
But Latter-day Saints have a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ. When their faith is centered on him, they are freed from uncertainty “because our hope rests on his faithfulness and righteousness, not on our own,” he said.
“We can trust him,” Elder Renlund said, adding, “You can rely on God’s promises.”
The most powerful reason peace is available in all human circumstances is because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, which made his redemptive reach infinite, he said.
“The power of the Messiah to save and exalt is profoundly intimate and infinite beyond human comprehension,” he said. “There is more than enough to cover any breach, need or deficit for all of us, for each of us.”
Elder Gerrit W. Gong said God is inviting his children to the church’s rapidly growing number of temples because they are sanctuaries of peace, blessings and learning in a world meant to challenge and shape us.
“In a world of commotion, contention and cares, the Lord invites us to a place of spiritual safety, harmony, and holiness — the House of the Lord,” he said.
Leaders will dedicate 21 temples this year, the second most in a single year in church history. Elder Gong will dedicate one in Guatemala next Sunday.
He encouraged church members to celebrate and treasure “even more” the spiritual blessings temples bring.
“Let us always be grateful for the gifts of eternity sacred temples bring,” he said. “Look for the miracles.”
Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve told listeners that fasting provides sanctifying spiritual power that brings each person closer to God in ways that provide a better understanding of God’s plan.
“This divine pattern of devotion brings strength, guidance, peace and divine help to sustain us throughout our mortal journey,” he said.
Elder Soares noted that Jesus Christ himself set an example of fasting and prayer, one that shows that they may not remove every burden but “draw heaven near and endow us with divine power to overcome or endure whatever circumstances we may face.”
He said he has witnessed how the blessings of fasting often enter a person’s life quietly and tenderly, “softening hearts, strengthening testimonies, sanctifying souls and transforming lives.”
Another apostle compared the empowering love of Jesus Christ to piloting a glider plane.
Elder Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the Twelve said the crucial skill in gliding is finding rising air called lift. There is also sinking air. Called sink, it shortens the distance a glider can fly and may threaten a safe landing.
“At the heart of our faith is the glorious truth that we have an adoring Father in Heaven, whose Son, our Savior, loves to lift,” Elder Kearon said.
He said that in both gliding and life, one who is notactively climbing is descending.
“How easy it is to slowly slip from spiritual heights we have worked so hard to climb when we neglect the practices and behaviors that brought us there,” he said. “We rarely intend to sink. We want lift — its joy and blessings — but we may not recognize the quiet cost of neglecting vital communion with our Father, Savior and the Holy Spirit.”
He asked listeners to pay close attention to what he described as the sweet, peaceful feelings that come with spiritual lift and the dim and dampening feelings that lead away from the Christ’s infinite love.
“Your Savior is your lift,” Elder Kearon said. “He is your ever-rising air. There is no limit to how high you can climb with him. Jesus Christ lives to lift.”
One leader who joined the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles last year said that his calling came with an immediate invitation to share his testimony of Jesus Christ with the quorum and the First Presidency.
“I knew that nothing could be more meaningful, as my first act as a newly ordained Apostle, than to bear witness of the Redeemer of the world,” Elder Gérald Caussé said. “… Today, in the restored Church of Jesus Christ, the apostolic witness remains central to our doctrine and compelling evidence of its truth.”
He said that each person’s testimony is different from any other, and it is disciple’s foundational responsibility to share it.
“Please trust it, nurture it and bear it, because it is uniquely yours,” Elder Caussé said. “… Our testimony is not a talent to be hidden. It is a gift to be shared — with grateful hearts and in a spirit of humility and love.”
The first day of the conference began with thousands walking across Temple Square in the sunshine of a nice fall morning. Wisps of white clouds streaked the pale blue sky as the day turned unseasonably warm with the temperature reaching a high of 82 between sessions.
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Summaries of all the day’s conference talks are available here.