This article was first published in the State of Faith newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Monday night.
What might once have been dismissed as isolated sports fan misconduct now resembles more of a pattern.
The derogatory chants against members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have become something of an unfortunate trend. In recent years, they’ve been heard at BYU football and basketball games in Arizona, Colorado, Rhode Island, Ohio and most recently in Oklahoma.
BYU basketball head coach Kevin Young called out the latest chants against his own faith.
“You know, it’s a great win for Oklahoma State University, their fans should be proud. But it would be great if, you know, some class was (shown) in there as well,” Young said at a press conference. He has kids at home, he said — what were they learning from this?
The Big 12 Conference fined Oklahoma State $50,000 for “inappropriate chants which referenced the Mormon religion.”
“It obviously hurts,” said Chad Ford, who teaches conflict and peace building at Utah State University and is a Latter-day Saint. In his previous career, Ford used to report on NBA drafts for ESPN.
If you replaced the word “Mormon” with any other world religion, he told me, the backlash would likely be more severe.
“ I don’t always quite understand why this particular faith group is sort of exempted from the sort of anti-defamation concerns that so many other religions have, especially given the long history of persecution.”
But he made a point that it’s worth trying to understand this inconsistency.
Ford placed the latest chants within the broader culture of sports fandom, where it’s common to ridicule opponents and cross social boundaries. Sports culture often encourages the kind of behavior people would never engage in face-to-face or even online, he said.
“There is a culture of online trolling that has brought some of this back into vogue,” he said.
The chants, he added, reflect a broader tendency to dehumanize athletes and public figures as opposed to seeing them as people who have feelings and could be directly impacted by offensive words.
Ford recalled that the BYU fans themselves haven’t always been perfectly cordial at sporting events. And in 2012, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland addressed BYU fans in a devotional address.
“You never check your religion at the door,” Elder Holland said firmly. And that includes the way fans act at arenas and stadiums.
From a peace-building perspective, Ford cautioned against “selective” outrage — stirring up backlash against chants targeting Latter-day Saints, while being silent when other groups, like Jews, Muslims or Black people, are attacked with offensive language.
“When we are selective in only speaking out and condemning when it’s with our group, it sounds less like this is a principle of not using derogatory language towards others, and more like it’s just a principle related to us,” Ford said.
To combat the alarming trend, Ford recommends responding with curiosity. Measures should go beyond statements and policing students. A long-term solution should involve a larger conversation with a question at the core: Why is it that in America in 2026, there continues to be some people who consider this behavior toward Latter-day Saints to be OK?
According to Pew Research Center, nearly 25% of Americans hold unfavorable opinions about Latter-day Saints and 15% have more positive opinions. But nearly 60% in the study also said they didn’t know enough about the faith to make the judgment.
“ I think we haven’t maybe done enough work to try to understand: Is this ignorance, is this a sense from some people that members of the church are not Christian?” Ford said. “What’s the thinking?”
One path forward could be BYU students reaching out to the students at Oklahoma State with a question about why they felt the chant was warranted, Ford advised.
“When I think about conflict, the desire to demonize the person who misunderstands me is strong, but the only real antidote is to respond with curiosity,” Ford told me. “To respond with patience and love towards people who misunderstand us and to try to understand where that misunderstanding is coming from.”
Fresh off the press:
- Thirty-one people died and at least 169 were injured after a suicide bomber detonated explosives outside a Shiite mosque in Islamabad on Friday.
- My colleague Tad Walch attended the International Religious Liberty Summit in Washington, D.C. Here’s what Rep. Mark Walker of North Carolina said: “The biggest threat to these autocrats is whether we fundamentally believe something that changes the whole dynamic,” Walker said. “It’s simply this, do we believe that our rights come from God Almighty, our Creator, or do we believe they come from man, from an autocrat, from a dictator, from a government?”
Trump on religion
For over an hour, President Donald Trump spoke at his sixth White House National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 5. Here are some highlights from his remarks:
Getting into heaven: Trump lamented that the national media doesn’t understand his jokes. He was simply having fun, he said, when he previously remarked that he might not make it to heaven. “But all of these good things I’m doing, including religion. You know, religion is back now hotter than ever before,” he told his audience.
“I really think I probably should make it. I mean, I’m not a perfect candidate, but I did a hell of a lot of good for perfect people,” he said.
Democrats and faith: Trump touted his own efforts to support religion. “I’ve done more for religion than any other president,” he said. He also suggested that being a Democrat is incompatible with being a person of faith. “I don’t know how a person of faith can vote for a Democrat.”
On Mike Johnson: He singled out Speaker Mike Johnson for being a “very religious person” who “does not hide it.” “He’ll say to me sometimes at lunch, ‘sir, may we pray?’ I, ‘excuse me, we’re having lunch in the Oval ... ’ It’s OK with me,” Trump said. He praised Johnson for doing an “unbelievable job.”
“I think God is watching over you. God is watching over him. I don’t know about me. So, I hang around with him because I feel I’m protected a little bit.”
Faith and young people: Young people’s church attendance has doubled since four years ago. In light of this resurgence, Trump announced that on May 17, 2026, he has invited Americans to the National Mall to pray. “We dedicate America as one nation under God.” To have a great country, you need religion, he said.
“You need to believe in something. You have to believe in what we’re doing, there’s a reason for it. There has to be a reason for it. We’re all working and we’re behaving.”
Looking upward, Trump said he “behaved” because he was afraid not to.
Johnson Amendment: Trump criticized the Johnson Amendment — which bars churches from endorsing political candidates without risking their tax-exempt status — as an infringement on free speech. “People want to hear from their ministers. They want to hear from priests.”
On anti-Christian bias: Trump reaffirmed his commitment to combating antisemitism and anti-Christian bias, both abroad and in the United States. “My administration is confronting head on the militant and really intolerant campaign that tried to drive religious believers out of public life and out of society.”
Faith in the news
- A suicide bomber killed 31 people at a Shiite mosque Friday. Here is a look at the investigation and what Pakistani leaders are saying. — Deseret News
- Clowns packed a church in London to honor the memory of Joseph Grimaldi, a pioneer clown. “We can be faithful to God and also have a laugh,” said the church’s vicar. — The New York Times
- Savannah Guthrie has invoked her faith after the abduction of her 84-year-old mother. She wrote in an Instagram post after the abduction: “we believe in prayer. we believe in voices raised in unison, in love, in hope. we believe in goodness. we believe in humanity. above all, we believe in Him.” — CNN
- The cover of the latest New York magazine features a group of “Mormon influencers” who have recently been captivating the screens and feeds across the U.S. — New York magazine
- A recently restored chapel inside Rome’s San Lorenzo in Lucina basilica has turned into a political flashpoint after visitors noticed that one of its angelic fresco figures bears a striking resemblance to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. — ABC News
- Emily Henderson, an interior designer who grew up in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has some ideas about why there are so many “Mormon Influencers.” She dove into the question in her latest Substack post. — Brian & Em
End notes
Prayer and Jon Bon Jovi made an appearance during the Super Bowl commercial break last night. (By the way, the disappointment over the Patriots’ loss was very palpable in the Boston air this morning.)
The ad from State Farm parodied Bon Jovi’s “Living’ on a Prayer” to dissuade people from settling for non-State Farm coverage. Bon Jovi told PEOPLE that he agreed to do the commercial because “these commercials are sort of part of American pop culture and I enjoy them.” Watching football is an all-day tradition in his family, he said, and sometimes it even spills into the week: “We are a football household.”