Free Republic

When: September 18, 2014 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pmWhere: Albrecht Auditorium Claremont Graduate University The Claremont Colleges,925 North Dartmouth Avenue,Claremont,CA 91711 USA Title: “Zombies, Vampires, and the Book of Mormon” Abstract: Zombies and vampires bend the rules of time. Death arrives for them but, even after its arrival, their lives continue. They die but, rather than passing on to the next world, they continue in this one. In this sense, zombies and vampires model an important aspect of Christian life: the Christian’s preemptive abandonment of their own life (their willingness to be crucified with Christ), in order to begin...

...Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight books...featuring atypical vampires and werewolf champions are allegories...a re-telling of the Garden of Eden drama—with a Mormon twist. Here, the Fall is a good thing, even the key to salvation and divinization, just as Joseph Smith...the Latter-day Saint prophet, said it was... The key word in...Meyer’s dream is not “vampire”...but “meadow.”...“Mountain Meadows,”...means something much less pastoral and positive and much more visceral and painful to...LDS. ...2003 saw the publication of three books...focused on the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre, in which...Mormon faithful in Southern Utah executed...120 men, women, and children on their way to California from Arkansas. All...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Court decisions this week paving the way for same-sex marriage to become legal in dozens of states, including Mormon strongholds like Utah, Idaho and Nevada, have emboldened a growing group of Latter-day Saints who are pushing the conservative church to become more accepting of gay members. The church's stance toward gays has softened considerably since it was one of the leading forces behind California's ban on gay marriage in 2008, but high-ranking leaders have reiterated time and again the faith's opposition to same-sex unions....

A federal appeals court will review a ruling that struck down parts of Utah's anti-polygamy law and was hailed as a landmark decision removing the threat of arrest for plural families in Utah. The Utah's attorney general's office filed an appeal Thursday with the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, two weeks after it ended speculation by announcing it would challenge the ruling. The lawsuit was brought by the family on the TLC reality TV show "Sister Wives." In December, U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups ruled in favor of reality show star Kody Brown and his four wives, saying...

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected gay marriage appeals from Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin, in essence allowing lower courts to legalize same-sex couples. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), an institution that has vigorously opposed gay marriage for some time now, conceded that the political battle over marriage is over. “As far as the civil law is concerned,” the Mormon Church admitted, “the courts have spoken.” Actually, nothing is over until God says it’s over. At least, this is my understanding of how religion operates. So while I don’t want to accuse Mormons of...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says its doctrine on marriage will remain unchanged despite Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision that effectively legalized gay marriage in five states, including Utah, and opened the door for legalization in six more. “As far as the civil law is concerned, the courts have spoken,” the church said in a statement reacting to the Supreme Court’s decision. “Church leaders will continue to encourage our people to be persons of good will toward all, rejecting persecution of any kind based on race, ethnicity, religious belief or nonbelief, and differences in sexual orientation.” In...

A Mormon St. Peter’s in RomeA new Latter-day Saints temple looms large on the Roman horizon, and the Vatican’s prelates, truth to tell, are not too enthusiastic about what they see. ROME, Italy — On the outskirts of Rome along the ancient Catholic pilgrim route known as the Via Francigena and not far from a giant shopping center featuring a massive IKEA and the French do-it-yourself Mecca called Leroy Merlin, cranes are hoisting giant spires onto the top of a Baroque-revival-style church. But unlike most of the religious edifices erected in Catholic Rome, this Roman temple is being built by...

“Same sex marriage leads away from polygamy, not for it,” said the Brookings Institution’s Jonathan Rauch in 2012. Joining him was the Economist, which wrote just last year that “gay marriage” to polygamy was “A not-so-slippery slope.” But more and more it seems that these and other crystal-ball watchers have slipped on their own prognostication. Headline Aug. 28, 2014: “Federal Judge Opens Door Further to Group Marriage.” That’s from Breitbart’s Austin Ruse, who reports: The Utah ban made it illegal and punishable by up to five years in prison for anyone to cohabit with someone they are not legally married...

Eighty legislators from Utah have submitted an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in which the legislators warn the Court that legalizing same-sex marriage would lead to the legalization of incestuous and polygamous marriages. The brief comes following the request for a writ of certiorari from both Utah's Attorney General, Sean Reyes, and the plaintiffs in Kitchen v. Herbert, the case that found both both a district court and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in favor of marriage equality in Utah. As Joe.My.God points out, "the brief is signed by 22 of the 29 members of the state...

According to Latter-Day Saints (LDS, Mormon) President Orson Hyde, Jesus was married to several women, including Mary Magdalene, and had biological children. "..[In John 2,] Jesus was the bridegroom at the marriage of Cana of Galilee, and he told them what to do. Now there was actually a marriage; and if Jesus was not the bridegroom on that occasion, please tell who was. ... We say it was Jesus Christ who was married, to be brought into the relation whereby he could see his seed, before he was crucified. ... I do not despise to be called a son of...

Mitt Romney loyalists are trying to gin up the narrative that Republicans just can't get enough of Romney.“Democrats don’t want to be associated with Barack Obama right now, but Republicans are dying to be associated with Mitt Romney,” Spencer Zwick, "a longtime Romney confidant who chaired his national finance council," claimed to the Washington Post. The Chamber of Commerce, which has vowed to wage war on the Tea Party and push through amnesty legislation, glowingly praised Romney, alleging he would be in a "commanding position" if he entered the 2016 race. Romney is reportedly set to make trips to West...

Mormons have some really weird beliefs. For example, many (all) Mormons believe they (males only) can take a cooking/salad oil, pour just a small drop on the crown of your head and their god will heal them of almost anything. Mormons believe that by wearing ugly underwear bought from a specific company, their god will protect them from harm. Mormons believe that by wearing a really weird looking costume they are taught secret ways to touch angels so after they die, the angels will let Mormons get into heaven quicker. Mormons believe their god requires women to not wear outer...

As I’ve thought about the issues of asking questions, faithful agitation, and looking for a much-needed change regarding gender inequality in the Church, I have come to the conclusion that we as a church don’t know all there is to know about God. None of that has to take away from the truthfulness of the Gospel, but the suggestion that the Church is perfect makes the declaration of having a living prophet seem a bit confusing. If there are not things that we are waiting to open our eyes to (which means God is waiting on us to ask him)...

In the US, polygamy seems to be most commonly associated with Mormons. TV shows like Big Love, Sister Wives, and My Five Wives offer looks at polygamy, but only from a specific viewpoint. For some Americans, TLC’s reality series Sister Wives, which centers on a fundamentalist Mormon family, may even teach them all they know about polygamy. But the practice of polygamy hasn’t been sanctioned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (which is the official name of the Mormon church) since 1890 when Church President Wilford Woodruff ended the practice. The Mormon church has actually denounced the...

SALT LAKE CITY — Sexual assaults in Utah are going underreported, but the work of a BYU professor is helping to convince lawmakers and law enforcement to pay more attention to prosecuting such cases. Julie Valentine, a sexual assault nurse examiner and nursing professor at BYU, found that only 6 percent of cases in Salt Lake County have been prosecuted. Valentine examines rape victims and collects forensic evidence for cases. As she examined victims for prosecution, she would not hear back about any follow-up and wanted to find out why. “We would do these examinations — we’d do hundreds —...

A Provo, Utah jury found MacNeill guilty Thursday of assaulting his daughter Alexis Somers in 2007. Read more here: dailymail.co.uk

Announcement: 9 November 1871 Groundbreaking and Site Dedication: 9 November 1871 by Brigham Young Private Dedication: 1 January 1877 by Wilford Woodruff, Erastus Snow, and Brigham Young Dedication: 6–8 April 1877 by Daniel H. Wells (with Brigham Young presiding) SNIP The St. George Utah Temple is the first temple where endowments for the dead were performed. The Founding Fathers of the United States of America appeared twice to Wilford Woodruff in the St. George Utah Temple asking why their temple work had yet not been performed on their behalves. A striking painting depicting this singular event hangs in the temple...

Marriott International launched its #LoveTravels marketing campaign on June 2, targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender customers—as well as pro-LGBT consumers—with a campaign designed to “convey the company’s commitment to make everyone feel comfortable being who they are.” The campaign already has its own dedicated website (two of them, actually); hotel-mounted billboards in Washington DC; and is spreading in social and LGBT media. Shot by the photographer Braden Summers, it features the recently out-of-the-closet basketball player Jason Collins and the transgender model Geena Rocero, and invites people to share their stories of travel on social media with the hashtag #LoveTravels....

Lawsuit claims teen girl was repeatedly abused by Mormon missionary in 1985 in Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert.PALM SPRINGS – A lawsuit filed Friday against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a church bishop and a missionary, claims a woman was repeatedly sexually abused when she was a teenager in Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert, and it was covered up. The lawsuit, which was filed in Riverside County Superior Court in Palm Springs, contends that from July to November 1985, Jacqueline Tyler, then 13, was repeatedly abused by a missionary and that after a church bishop learned of...

TROUTDALE, Ore.–Jared Michael Padgett was a straight-arrow kid who had a fascination with guns, planned a career in the military and was deeply devoted to his Mormon faith, those who knew him say. And they're all wondering why the 15-year-old took an assault rifle, a handgun and nine ammunition magazines to his high school and killed a fellow freshman, injured a teacher and took his own life. Police said Wednesday that they have not been able to establish a link between Padgett and Emilio Hoffman, the 14-year-old who was shot dead in a locker room. Police have not said whether...