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  The Polygamists A sect that split from the Mormons allows multiple wives, expels The first church members arrive at the Leroy S. Johnson Meeting House in Colorado City, Arizona, at about 6 p.m. Within a half hour the line extends out the front doors, down the side of the building, and out into the parking lot. By seven, it stretches hundreds of yards and has grown to several thousand people—the men and boys dressed in suits, the women and girls in Easter egg–hued prairie dresses.The mourners have come for a viewing of 68-year-old Fo­neta Jessop, who died of...

Mormonism owes its continual rise much more to Brigham Young, the man who led the incipient movement across the Plains, than to Joseph Smith, who began it all with talk of angels and gold plates. At least that's how Utah researcher Richard Van Wagoner sees it after spending the past 15 years compiling every known Young sermon and discourse from 127 sources. Van Wagoner sought out original transcripts, rather than the LDS Church-sanctioned Journal of Discourses , in which Young's words were edited and polished. He also found speeches and statements recorded in other people's journals. "Brigham seems to me...

The likelihood of outrage seems inevitable this year in college football: The BCS controversy, which even President Obama has issued proclamations about, seems ready to explode, since six undefeated teams - two from minor conferences - survive with only three games left in the season. Two conferences, Mountain West and Western Athletic (WAC) are excluded from automatic participation in the BCS, and must compete for one of two wildcard teams, and both still have undefeated teams. But should a team which has gone undefeated and unchallenged take a slot from Alabama or Florida, which are likely to also go undefeated......

70 years ago today in Utah History --- Heber J. Grant writes Twentieth Century Fox "I hope we shall not appear to you to be over anxious ... but we are tremendously concerned..." But nearly a year later the Mormon church president declared "This is one of the greatest days of my life." His involvement in helping with the film "Brigham Young" influenced the making of the movie and subsequently the public perception of the LDS Church. Early movies depicting Mormons were not flattering. In 1910 the first anti-Mormon film, 'Victim of the Mormons' was "publicly condemned by Apostle David...

He wanted an apology to Emma Smith's family. "What?!" Brigham Young's descendants said, according to Mary Ellen Elggren. "What are they talking about?" In 2007, Elggren was president-elect of the Brigham Young Family Association when she first heard that Michael Kennedy, president of the Joseph Smith Jr. Family Organization, wanted an apology. "I was totally puzzled over this," Elggren said. Kennedy, however, was not puzzled. He was baptized as a Mormon in 1973 -- the first male descendant of Joseph and Emma Smith to join the LDS Church and be ordained an elder. He knew firsthand the prejudices that kept...

Ancient writings unearthed in the last century and a half, primarily in Egypt, are lending support to doctrines and teachings of Joseph Smith, founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Brigham Young University professor of antiquities said Sunday. C. Wilford Griggs, who has written extensively on Egypt and is working on excavating Christian burial grounds in Egypt, said scholars are now admitting that "Joseph Smith got into the antiquities" before experts in the field began their discoveries, but they won't accept his explanation. Smith, an uneducated farm boy, claimed he translated the Book of Mormon...

DALLAS - When a pair of Mormon missionaries knocked at the door of Jerry Pierce's home in a north Dallas suburb last month, he marshaled his arguments and stood his ground. "I look forward to encounters like that. I like to talk to them about the nature of Christ and who Jesus is," said Pierce, a staunch Southern Baptist, the biggest Protestant denomination in the United States. Mitt Romney, a Mormon, is running into similar resistance as he tries to win over Southern Baptists and other evangelical Protestants in the race for the Republican Party's nomination for the 2008 U.S....

Romney 'unlikely' choice of evangelicals Posted on Jun 21, 2007 | by Rachel Waligorski KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP)--The "overarching and primary concern" why evangelicals likely will not vote for a Mormon for president is the Mormon claim to be the only true Christian church, a Southern Baptist seminary president said during the International Society of Christian Apologetics' annual meeting in Kansas City, Mo. If Mormons were to call themselves "a new religious movement," that would be one thing, said R. Philip Roberts, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, which hosted the June 1-2 meeting. "But I have a very difficult...

LONDON — Even the Seven Dwarfs are guilty. Well, two of them anyway. Grumpy and Dopey are no longer just the loyal friends of Snow White but must now line up with the likes of the Wicked Queen and Cruella de Vil to be accused of fostering negative images of elderly people.

Mitt Romney is a picture perfect Republican candidate for President. Some on the left have suggested that Romney carries extra baggage: He is a member of the LDS (Mormon) Church. Will traditional Christians vote for a Mormon? Traditional Christians believe their faith can inform politics. Other faiths can reach similar conclusions and become allies. Americans are electing the President of the United States not the Patriarch of Antioch, the Bishop of Rome, or the President of the Southern Baptist Convention. Any labeling of Mormons as too “weird” to serve the public sets a risky precedent that will come back to...

Woman testifies Jeffs pressured her into marrying at 14. A young woman who said she was ordered to marry her cousin at age 14 by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs testified in court Tuesday that she repeatedly begged Jeffs to let her out of the union. Jeffs refused, she said, telling her the marriage was God's will. During a felony preliminary hearing for Jeffs under tight security in Washington County, Utah, District Court, the woman, now 20, gave her first public account of her arranged marriage to a first cousin. "I told him (Jeffs) I just wanted two years before I...

A Brigham Young University physics professor who suggested the World Trade Center was brought down by explosives has resigned, six weeks after the school placed him on leave. Steven Jones' retirement is effective Jan. 1, 2007. Jones recently published theories about U.S. government involvement in the events of Sept. 11, including one suggesting that explosives inside the World Trade Center - not airplanes striking the twin towers - brought the complex down.

Smithsonian tweaks show after Mormon complaints Associated Press Salt Lake City, Utah — Smithsonian Museum curators changed a new Washington exhibit after two Utah congressmen and others complained that it portrayed Mormon church founders in a negative light. The National Portrait Gallery's American Origins display pays tribute to influential Americans from 1600 to 1900, including Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Brigham Young, the second leader of the faith. The text accompanying portraits of Smith and Young offended at least two Washington-area church members who got a sneak preview of the display. The...

But Indonesia failed to heed him; Utah isn't listening either, he says PROVO — Brigham Young University geology professor Ron Harris has had trouble sleeping since the earthquake he predicted seven years ago killed an estimated 150,000 people along the rim of the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26. Research by Harris indicated an earthquake with a magnitude of at least 8.0 was due in the ocean west of Sumatra and would cause a devastating tsunami. He published the research in an Indonesian journal and pleaded with the government there to prepare, but little was done. "It might not have made...

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997. Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world. A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in...

BYU Student Group Returns Web AwardsSaturday, May 31, 2003 - Page updated at 2:13 p.m. Brigham Young University's student news organization has given up two national awards for Web page design because the two students who crafted the page copied material from another Web site.This spring, the BYU site NewsNet won first place among colleges for Web page design in a contest sponsored by the University of Missouri chapter of the Society of Newspaper Design. The site also won a second place for best college newspaper online in a contest sponsored by the trade publication Editor & Publisher.NewsNet officials were...

By Joe Bauman Deseret News staff writer LEES FERRY, Ariz. #151; The authenticity of a letter allegedly written by Mountain Meadows Massacre figure John D. Lee was called into question Thursday as the letter went on display for the media. The writing, which implicated pioneer leader Brigham Young in the slaughter, was discovered on a rolled-up piece of lead inside Lee's fortress here, which is now near the launch ramp on the Colorado River maintained by Glen Canyon National Recreation area. The lead was discovered with only about a quarter-inch of animal droppings on it, but it rested on top...