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Why Utah’s governor says America needs a ‘religious revival’

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Why Utah’s governor says America needs a ‘religious revival’


  • Gov. Cox said religion is a “shortcut” to strong communities and successful states.
  • Utah has the highest religious affiliation and attendance in the country.
  • Latter-day Saints are more active than most faith groups in the U.S.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Americans must look beyond politics for the solution to the country’s problems.

“We do need, I believe, a religious revival,” Cox told the Deseret News.

Cox spoke Thursday at the annual luncheon of the Utah Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank.

The subject of his remarks was social capital, an academic term used to describe the connections that create high-trust communities.

Multiple surveys have identified Utah as having the highest level of social capital in the nation because of its No. 1 ranking on measures of family unity, charitable giving and neighborhood friendships.

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But there is one factor that underlies Utah’s social capital, and its status as the best state overall, the best place to start a business and the best environment for upward mobility, according to Cox.

“The truth is, we’re the most religious state in the country, and that absolutely matters,” Cox said.

Religiosity is not the only way for a state to have strong social capital, Cox said.

Individuals can also build community by forming sports clubs, social groups and volunteer organizations.

But, the governor said, recent research and U.S. history tend to point in one direction.

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“Religion is a shortcut to making it easier,” Cox said.

Why does religiosity matter?

As the keynote speaker at Utah Foundation’s annual luncheon, Cox said that religious organizations can unite people across different backgrounds in a time of increasing loneliness and polarization.

Churches force people to meet others they otherwise would not associate with and they create an environment of social norms that can hold people accountable, Cox told the room of business leaders, policymakers and philanthropists gathered in Salt Lake City.

“Every Sunday, I get to sit down with like 30 dudes in a room where we talk about how messed up and screwed up our families are and how many problems we have,” Cox joked. “Where else do you get an opportunity to do that?”

As these kinds of gatherings disappear, they are often replaced by political identities that are more tribal and divisive, Cox said.

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“How do we prevent that from happening? We have to build institutions,” Cox said. “We have to use our social capital. We have to be rooted in our place.”

In his conclusion, Cox encouraged attendees to continue contributing to help “the least of us, those who are struggling.”

It is in family, neighborhoods, schools and congregations where individuals — and society — find fulfillment, Cox said, not in “self-centered pursuits, in pursuits of money and stuff.”

“And we need more of those connections,” Cox said.

The Utah Foundation event served to celebrate the organization’s 80th anniversary and to preview its upcoming 2025 Utah Social Capital Project.

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The unfinished report found that Utah tops the nation in the strength of its middle class and low levels of fraud, corruption and violent crime, Utah Foundation President Shawn Teigen said.

The most religious state

Utah is by far the most religious state in the country on multiple metrics.

More than three-quarters, 76%, of Utahns identify as adherents of a religion — more than any other state, according to a 2024 analysis by the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.

This is 12 percentage points higher than the next highest state of Alabama, the analysis found.

Utah also has the highest rate of weekly church attendance in the country.

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A comparison made by data scientist Ryan Burge determined that 41% of Utahns attend church weekly, compared to the average of 25% across the U.S. and 14% in Europe.

A separate Deseret News/Hinckley Institute poll put Utah’s attendance rate slightly higher, at 43%, with 58% of respondents saying they attend religious services at least once a month.

Bucking the trend

Recent decades have tracked a precipitous decline in religious affiliation and attendance in the U.S.

Between 1991 and 2020, the number of religiously unaffiliated Americans went from about 5% to nearly 30%, making this group the largest and the fastest-growing religious demographic in the country.

In 2021, U.S. church membership fell below 50% for the first time in recorded history, down from 70% in 1999.

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Over that same time, church attendance fell from 42% to 30%, according to a Gallup survey.

But Utah — while having a slightly larger share of religious “nones” compared to the national average — seems to be experiencing the opposite trend.

Utah is one of the few areas in the country where the number of religious congregations has actually gone up in recent years: increasing from 5,557 in 2010 to 6,018 in 2020.

The state’s dominant faith organization, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has the highest rate of church attendance among religious groups in the U.S.

Two-thirds, 67%, of Latter-day Saints attend church weekly or nearly weekly, compared to 44% of Protestants, 38% of Muslims, 33% of Catholics and 22% of Jews, according to a 2024 Gallup survey.

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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also has one of the highest percentages of younger people among its congregants.

The share of adults between ages 18 and 29 makes up 25% of the church’s members, compared to 14% of evangelical Protestants and Catholics, as the Deseret News previously reported.

A Deseret News/Hinckley Institute survey conducted in 2024 found that a slight majority, 51%, of Utahns identify as Latter-day Saints.

A recent analysis of three different surveys found that the rise of the “nones” — those not affiliated with any organization — appears to have plateaued at around 35% of the population.

“I’m grateful to see that those numbers are starting to turn, that people are looking for something more,” Cox said.

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Utah man dies of injuries sustained in avalanche in Big Cottonwood Canyon

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Utah man dies of injuries sustained in avalanche in Big Cottonwood Canyon


A man died after he was caught in an avalanche in Big Cottonwood Canyon over the weekend.

A spokesperson for the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office confirmed on Thursday that Kevin Williams, 57, had died.

He, along with one other person, was hospitalized in critical condition after Saturday’s avalanche in the backcountry.

MORE | Big Cottonwood Canyon Avalanche

In an interview with 2News earlier this week, one of Williams’ close friends, Nate Burbidge, described him as a loving family man.

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“Kevin’s an amazing guy. He’s always serving, looking for ways that he can connect with others,” Burbidge said.

A GoFundMe was set up to help support Williams’ family.

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911 recordings detail hours leading up to discovery of Utah girl, mother dead in Las Vegas

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911 recordings detail hours leading up to discovery of Utah girl, mother dead in Las Vegas


CONTENT WARNING: This report discusses suicide and includes descriptions of audio from 911 calls that some viewers may find disturbing.

LAS VEGAS — Exclusively obtained 911 recordings detail the hours leading up to the discovery of an 11-year-old Utah girl and her mother dead inside a Las Vegas hotel room in an apparent murder-suicide.

Addi Smith and her mother, Tawnia McGeehan, lived in West Jordan and had traveled to Nevada for the JAMZ cheerleading competition.

The calls show a growing sense of urgency from family members and coaches, and several hours passing before relatives learned what happened.

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MORE | Murder-Suicide

Below is a timeline of the key moments, according to dispatch records. All times are Pacific Time.

10:33 a.m. — Call 1

After Addi and her mother failed to appear at the cheerleading competition, Addi’s father and stepmother called dispatch for a welfare check.

Addi and her mother were staying at the Rio hotel. The father told dispatch that hotel security had already attempted contact.

“Security went up and knocked on the door. There’s no answer or response it doesn’t look like they checked out or anything…”

11:18 a.m. and 11:27 a.m. — Calls 2 and 3

As concern grew, Addi’s coach contacted the police two times within minutes.

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“We think the child possibly is in imminent danger…”

11:26 a.m. — Call 4

Addi’s stepmother placed another call to dispatch, expressing escalating concern.

“We are extremely concerned we believe that something might have seriously happened.”

She said that Tawnia’s car was still at the hotel.

Police indicated officers were on the way.

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2:26 p.m. — Call 5

Nearly three hours after the initial welfare check request, fire personnel were en route to the scene. It appeared they had been in contact with hotel security.

Fire told police that they were responding to a possible suicide.

“They found a note on the door.”

2:35 p.m. — Call 6

Emergency medical personnel at the scene told police they had located two victims.

“It’s going to be gunshot wound to the head for both patients with notes”

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A dispatcher responded:

“Oh my goodness that’s not okay.”

2:36 p.m. — Call 7

Moments later, fire personnel relayed their assessment to law enforcement:

“It’s going to be a murder suicide, a juvenile and a mother.”

2:39 p.m. — Call 8

Unaware of what had been discovered, Addi’s father called dispatch again.

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“I’m trying to file a missing persons report for my daughter.”

He repeats the details he knows for the second time.

3:13 p.m. — Call 9

Father and stepmother call again seeking information and continue to press for answers.

“We just need some information. There was a room check done around 3:00 we really don’t know where to start with all of this Can we have them call us back immediately?”

Dispatch responded:

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“As soon as there’s a free officer, we’ll have them reach out to you.”

4:05 p.m. — Call 10

More than an hour later, Addi’s father was put in contact with the police on the scene. He pleaded for immediate action.

“I need someone there I need someone there looking in that room”

The officer confirmed that they had officers currently in the room.

Addi’s father asks again what they found, if Addi and her mother are there, and if their things were missing.

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The officer, who was not on scene, said he had received limited information.

5:23 p.m. — Call 11

Nearly seven hours after the first welfare check request, Addi’s grandmother contacted police, describing conflicting information circulating within the family.

“Some people are telling us that they were able to get in, and they were not in the hotel room, and other people saying they were not able to get in the hotel room, and we need to know”

She repeated the details of the case. Dispatch said officers will call her back once they have more information.

Around 8:00 p.m. — Press Conference

Later that evening, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police held a news conference confirming that Addi and her mother, Tawnia McGeehan, were found dead inside the hotel room.

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The investigation remains ongoing.

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Ban on AI glasses in Utah classrooms inches closer to passing

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Ban on AI glasses in Utah classrooms inches closer to passing


AI glasses could allow you to get answers, snap photos, access audio and take phone calls—and now a proposal moving through the legislature would ban the glasses from Utah school classrooms.

“I think it’s a great idea,” said Kizzy Guyton Murphy, a mother who accompanied her child’s class on a field trip to the state Capitol on Wednesday. “You can’t see inside what the student is looking at, and it’s just grounds for cheating.”

Mom Tristan Davies Seamons also sees trouble with AI glasses.

“I don’t think they should have any more technology in schools than they currently have,” she said.

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Her twin daughters, fourth graders Finley and Grayson, don’t have cell phones yet.

“Not until we’re like 14,” said Grayson, adding they do have Chromebooks in school.

2News sent questions to the Utah State Board of Education:

  • Does it have reports of students using AI glasses?
  • Does it see cheating and privacy as major concerns?
  • Does it support a ban from classrooms?

Matt Winters, USBE AI specialist, said the board has not received reports from school districts of students with AI glasses.

“Local Education Agencies (school districts) have local control over these decisions based on current law and code,” said Winters. “The Board has not taken a position on AI glasses.

MORE | Utah State Legislature:

Some districts across the country have reportedly put restrictions on the glasses in schools.

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“I think it should be up to the teachers,” said Briauna Later, another mother who is all for preventing cheating, but senses a ban could leave administrators with tired eyes.

“It’s one more thing for the administration to have to keep track of,” said Later.

The proposal, HB 42, passed the House and cleared a Senate committee on Wednesday.

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