VICE: Inside the Newly Reopened, Socially Distanced Strip Clubs of America

Groups of ethnically diverse patrons aren’t standing in line but rather in clumps, strategically placed six feet away from other groups. And while venues such as Trails used to have strict dress codes regarding hats and facial coverings, everyone in line has their face covered. Some wear medical grade N95 masks. Some wear makeshift Western-style bandanas. A large majority wear high-end ski balaclavas, a subtle nod to a ski season that was abruptly cut short due to the pandemic.

A bouncer in an N95 mask pulls double duty, checking IDs before taking temperatures. (Those with temperatures above 99 are denied entry.) Once all members of a group pass the temperature scan, the group is escorted to a table as the bouncer recites the rules of the new world [...]

Inside Trails, the LED lights surrounding the stage shine extra bright due to the absence of patrons sitting around the “tip rail” (the counter immediately next to the stage). At the end of each performance, a masked employee dutifully uses a Swiffer to remove the dollar bills from the stage (where they will then be counted and handled by a separate gloved employee) while another sterilizes the performing area in preparation for the next masked dancer. [...]

Morgan, the bartender, estimates that the club is about 60 percent fuller than usual, a similar approximation provided by staff at Trails.

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The Guardian: Mormon polygamists who believe Missouri is the 'promised land'

The Laubs live in a polygamous community of perhaps 400 people in rural Missouri between the towns of Humansville and Stockton. The residents call it “the Ranch”, though the agriculture is limited to a hay field and a few cows and chickens. People in the neighboring towns refer to the community as “the Compound”, but you won’t see any high walls or armed guards — just brown dirt roads winding through clusters of trees and homes. [...]

Today, some fundamentalist Mormon polygamists believe plural marriage is necessary to reach the highest level of heaven. Others practice polygamy simply to follow Smith’s teachings. These polygamists tend to believe in big families: women often give birth to 10 or more children. While some of the polygamist leaders have been known to have 20 or more wives, most men have two or three. [...]

A review of marriage licenses in south-west Missouri shows most residents of the polygamous community marry in their 20s, though a few brides and grooms have been as young as 17. In Mormon polygamy, the husband usually has one legal wife; subsequent marriages are ordained in a religious service, but there’s no license on file with any county clerk.

In Missouri, you can be convicted of bigamy if a married person “purports”, to quote the statute, to marry another person. The offense is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. That’s a lesser punishment than, say, Utah, where polygamy is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison or 15 years if it’s committed in conjunction with a fraud or violent offense.

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99 Percent Invisible: Plat of Zion

The urban grid of Salt Lake City, Utah is designed to tell you exactly where you are in relation to Temple Square, one of the holiest sites for Mormons.

Addresses can read like sets of coordinates. “300 South 2100 East,” for example, means three blocks south and 21 blocks east of Temple Square. But the most striking thing about Salt Lake’s grid is the scale. Blocks are 660 feet on each side. That means walking the length of two football fields from one intersection to the next. By comparison, nine Portland, Oregon city blocks can fit inside one Salt Lake block.

Created by Mormon settlers, the grid of Salt Lake was part of an effort to create a spiritual utopia. Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, began this plan with a document called the Plat of Zion. The plat provided details as to the measurements of roads, how lots would be arranged, how many people would live there. The original document can be found on display in the Church History Museum in Temple Square.

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From soldiers to monks: the end of a monastery founded by veterans of the Second World War

There was a surge of American GIs joining monasteries after the end of the Second World War, seeking solace and refuge in a violent and increasingly complicated world. It was at this time that the Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity, a Trappist monastery in the town of Huntsville in Utah, was founded, and at its peak it housed 84 monks. Some 70 years later, only a handful of elderly men remain, and without a younger generation to continue the legacy, the monastery has been forced to close its doors. This poignant short film from RadioWest quietly observes the monastery’s last moments, as the elderly monks commence their final, sparsely attended service and pack their bags for an uncertain future.

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The Atlantic: Donald Trump Isn't Relying on Faith Alone

Typically, a religious outreach director for the Republican presidential nominee has a fairly easy job. In past elections, evangelical Protestants and Mormons have been a shoo-in. Conservative Catholics have often supported Republican candidates, as have some of their more progressive counterparts. All that staffer has had to do is host a few events and slip some religiously coded language into the candidate’s speeches and the job is done.

But Trump is turning out to be a little more complicated nominee when it comes to religious voters. Trump currently has more support from white evangelicals than Mitt Romney did four years ago, but some conservative Christian leaders vocally oppose him and are encouraging their constituents to follow suit. He has less support from Catholic voters and Mormons than Romney did in 2012, and his struggles with the latter group means that even Utah may now be in play.

Trump hasn’t exactly helped matters with his religious blunders on the campaign trail: placing money in a church communion plate, being unable to cite his favorite Bible verse, admitting he’s never asked God for forgiveness, and committing his now-infamous “Two Corinthians” gaffe. It didn’t help that he picked a fight with the pope, either.

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