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Police in eastern Idaho say they're investigating after vandals defaced three Mormon churches in the small town of Chubbuck. Gov. Butch Otter condemned the vandalism in a written statement released Sunday. Here is the governor's full statement: "Defiling or defacing houses of worship — of any faith or denomination — is an attack not just on religious beliefs or even our law, but also on our culture and our values. It disturbs the sanctuaries of our spiritual well-being. These are not merely the acts of misguided individuals. They speak to a more fundamental disregard for sacred places, social order and...

<p>The Mormon church stands to own nearly 2 percent of Florida by completing a deal to buy most of the real estate of the St. Joe Co. for more than a half-billion dollars.</p> <p>The megapurchase was announced jointly Thursday by a corporate representative of church, which owns the nearly 295,000-acre Deseret Ranches in Central Florida, and by the real-estate and timber business, which has built several communities along the Panhandle coast.</p>

SALT LAKE CITY — Politico reported Wednesday night that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had said The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members are changing their views on gay rights. The church reacted Thursday evening by issuing a statement that indicated its doctrine about traditional marriage has not changed... ..."As the church has said before, elected officials who are Latter-day Saints make their own decisions and may not necessarily be in agreement with one another or even with a publicly stated church position..." "...On the question of same-sex marriage, the church has been consistent in...

OREM — Missionaries who return early from their service need additional help from ward members and clinical professionals to cope, a new study says. Kris Doty, Ph.D, chair of the Department of Behavioral Science at Utah Valley University and a clinical therapist, led a team of students in studying the effects of a missionary’s early return on their faith and lives. Doty found that 74 percent of participants had feelings of failure and 65 percent were uncomfortable in social settings due to early release... The 348 study participants were males and females, ages 20-29, who returned early from the mission...

Two Utah Boy Scout leaders are facing significant backlash after posting a video online of the men tipping over a nearly 200-million-year-old rock formation in Goblin Valley State Park. Glenn Taylor and David Hall, from Highland, Utah, have now been removed from the Boy Scouts of America. An investigation is underway to determine whether the men will face felony charges. SNIP ...leadership of the Utah National Parks Council, the Boy Scouts’ local chapter, consulted with leadership of the chartering organization for the men’s unit — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — including ward and stake leaders, according...

MARTINSBURG - A lawsuit filed in Berkeley County against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, otherwise known as the Mormon Church, and local church officials accuses church leaders of covering up allegations that the son of local church officials sexually abused 12 children over the course of more than five years. Christopher Michael Jensen, 22, of Cheswick Drive, Martinsburg, was found guilty of one count of first-degree sexual assault and two counts of sexual abuse by a custodian Feb. 6 following a jury trial in Berkeley County Circuit Court. The criminal charges involved only two of the 12...

Mormons are known for proselytizing other faiths, rather than being the subject of being proselyted. I hadn’t considered why Protestants get upset at Mormon missionaries, or even why Mormons get so upset when evangelicals try to proselyte during General Conference weekend. I also hadn’t considered Mormons proselyting or getting upset as being a double standard. There was an interesting exchange in Season 3 of Sister Wives. (I know that there are at least 6 seasons, but I don’t have cable and have refused to pay for episodes when I have Netflix already. Netflix has recently added season 3, so I...

Latayne Colvett Scott wrote about her experiences in being "proxy baptized" on behalf of the dead when she was a Mormon teen. And even though the process is quite mechanical, activity at Mormon temples can range greatly from the mechanical to the mystical, where, Scott wrote: "This sort of mechanical processing of proxies goes on daily in the...temples around the world. Literally millions of dead persons have had proxy baptisms done for them in this assembly-line fashion...the righteous dead can intermingle with and teach those who have not received the Gospel in mortal life." (Latayne Colvett Scott, The Mormon Mirage:...

As most know, I truly believe in Sidney Rigdon's participation in the creation of the Book of Mormon. But, what I'd really like to touch on is the character of Rigdon. His own grandson said he was a religious "crank," and I'd agree. He went from one group to another (Baptist to Campbellite) seeking someone who would promote his personal beliefs, and when he found Joe Smith he thought he had an answer to his long quest. Sidney Rigdon, however, was an occultist, someone who practices magical arts which are forbidden in the Scripture. We all know that "spiritism" or...

In 2001 I was serving a Mormon mission in Guayaquil, Ecuador. As you might know, missionaries are paired up in twos and are called companionships. My particular companion at this time was a young guy from Chile. We lived in a little two level home made of cinder blocks and cement just on the outskirts of a small town near Guayaquil. We lived on the lower level. My companion had lived in this home for a couple of months before I moved in, and at this time, I had moved in 2 months prior. As you may know, missionaries have...

SEVERAL YEARS ago the Sons of the Pioneers, a Mormon fraternal organization permitted me to accompany them as the only nonmormon on a re-enactment of the original mormon trek from Nauvoo, Ill. to Salt Lake City. Our seven day trip was made in simulated Conestoga wagons, modern cars rigged up with rounded canvas tops and life-sized oxen carved out of plywood firmly clamped on each side of the hood. We followed the original Mormon trail which led over prairie roads and mountain passes -- 1600 miles over which the intrepid pioneers had trudged on foot, pushing their two-wheeled handcarts, defying...

...Former LDS historian D. Michael Quinn...Quinn's meticulous research, enriched by his access to LDS historical archives, paints a very different picture of Joseph Smith than that recounted by church elders. According to Quinn, Smith was a man deeply influenced by the Renaissance "magic worldview" imported from Europe and kept alive in America through the folkways of British and German immigrants. Quinn, who has since been excommunicated from the LDS, argued that the legend of the discovery of the golden plates reflected the practices and lore of early American dowsers. Had he, rather than Elder Mitchell, escorted me through the visitors'...

I was once married to a bona fide, white-shirt-and-tie, bike-riding, garment-wearing Mormon missionary. And not just any Mormon missionary—a master soul-winner for this Christianesque cult. Of course, I had no idea when I met him that he was even a Mormon. All I knew was he had just returned from a two-year mission to Europe, he never said an unkind word about anybody and he had a sweet heart. He seemed righteous enough—more righteous than me. But I wasn’t born-again and I didn’t know the difference between a false religion that incorporated Jesus into the mix and true Christianity. My...

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:07:53 — 46.6MB) Clay hosts with a discussion with Amy and guest panelist, Dennis, about the Mormon approach to demons, possession, and exorcism. References Saints of Sage and Saddle—Austin Fife Newel Knight Exorcism–1830 An Address to all Believers in Christ—David Whitmer, p. 64-65 Heber Kimball’s mission experience(…)

SNIP Section 50 Historical background ...The Prophet Joseph Smith observed: “Soon after the Gospel was established in Kirtland, and during the absence of the authorities of the Church, many false spirits were introduced, many strange visions were seen, and wild, enthusiastic notions were entertained: men ran out of doors under the influence of this spirit, and some of them got upon the stumps of trees and shouted, and all kinds of extravagances were entered into by them; one man pursued a ball that he said he saw flying in the air, until he came to a precipice, when he jumped...

"...and the truth shall make free" said the real Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible.

Who was Joseph Smith? Was he a fraud or a prophet? Was he a charlatan or a chosen seer of God? Was he a conscious imposter or a deranged visionary? The Joseph Smith of history is vastly different from the common Mormon perception and the current LDS Church presentation of him. He has been cleaned up and somewhat sanitized in some present biographies. Some of his false predictions and erratic behavior have been deleted or changed in contemporary histories. Yet, many of the original records in the LDS archives have been copied by their scholars and reproduced for us to...

The Church completes 100 million endowments for the dead (August) Ezra Taft Benson urges members to flood the earth with the Book of Mormon [Source: Madsen, Truman G., The Presidents of the Church]

A Voice from the Dust 67 Isaiah saw the coming forth of this record as the voice of one that has a familiar spirit whispering out of the dust: 67 Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices. 67 Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel. 67 And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee. 67 And thou shalt be...

I have recently been in conversation with some LDS bloggers on the topic of modern revelation. One of the bloggers expressed concern when I brought up the issue of demonic spirits having the ability to masquerade as deity or angels of light. He pointed out that if this were true how could anyone be sure that their personal revelations were of God? He expressed precisely the concern that evangelicals have regarding the place of revelation in LDS theology. The contention of evangelicals has consistently been that modern revelation should not be exactly backwards from previous revelation. If it is, we...