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This is the third and final post on B. Carmon Hardy’s Doing the Works of Abraham: Mormon Polygamy: Its Origin, Practice and Demise (Arthur H. Clark Co., 2007). The simple story of the end of LDS polygamy is that it ended in 1890 with the Manifesto. The not-so-simple story involves a Second Manifesto in 1904, which raises the obvious question, “If the First Manifesto ended polygamy, why the need for a Second Manifesto?” The First Manifesto did not end the officially sanctioned LDS practice of polygamy. In fact, it took twenty years to fully execute that momentous institutional change of...

As Mormonism enters its third century, it faces a Goldilocks dilemma: Too much tension with the surrounding culture invites scorn; too little threatens its uniqueness. But finding just the right balance to ensure a thriving — and distinctive — faith won't be easy. {SNIP} So, what are the Baby Bear options in Mormonism's future? Too much conflict with the wider society, say on gay rights or women's roles, premier Mormon sociologist Armand Mauss argues, would bring "not only popular disdain but even repression and persecution." {SNIP} Female elders? • Third, the LDS Church runs into much debate and even clashes...

Perhaps you will find no issue reflecting a greater divide among Utahns that whether LDS Church leaders have too much influence in the Utah Legislature. A new UtahPolicy poll by Dan Jones & Associates finds that three-fourths of the faithful members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints say their church has “about the right amount of influence” on state lawmakers’ political decisions. But when you ask the same influence question of non-Mormons, you find super-majorities – 79 percent of Catholics, 84 percent of Protestants – say the Mormon Church has too much influence on Capitol Hill. Now,...

Kat Steed, left, and Dixie Allen hold hands in the Mormon church’s Temple Square, Jan. 14, 2015, in Salt Lake City. Steed, who escaped the FLDS in Colorado City, Arizona, calls polygamy “poisonous.” On a chilly winter morning at sunrise in Salt Lake City, the sun glints on the snowcapped mountains that surround Utah’s state capital and the dazzling white Mormon temple that dominates the downtown area. All is quiet. But change is in the air in this deeply religious, blood-red Republican state — upheaval, even. Same-sex marriage became legal in Utah last October, a dramatic cultural shift for many,...

PROVO — The Christian world is preparing for its biggest celebratory week of the year: Holy Week. To honor and testify of Jesus Christ and His life, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Saturday will launch an Easter initiative, “Because He Lives,” through social media and other tools. The initiative is expected to reach millions through social media, month-long displays in select LDS Church visitors’ centers, member and missionary tools, and online paid promotion on hundreds of Internet sites. The LDS Church has often been criticized for its less-than-visual participation in Holy Week activities. Throughout Christianity the...

Is the Book of Mormon too violent for children? Graphic Murder and TortureMoroni 9:8 8 And the husbands and fathers of those women and children they have slain; and they feed the women upon the flesh of their husbands, and the children upon the flesh of their fathers; and no water, save a little, do they give unto them. Bodily Mutilation and Killing by Jesus's Hero, AmmonAlma 17: 38 Now six of them had fallen by the sling, but he slew none save it were their leader with his sword; and he smote off as many of their arms as...

A devout Mormon and an evangelical street preacher exchange words near Temple Square. Next thing you know, they're dining together on roadkill In 2007, Bryan Hall was almost finished filming his documentary, Us and Them: Religious Rivalry in America. He still didn't know how to end the film. A devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the now-42-year-old from Orem, thought about the protesters on Temple Square. He finally said, "Let's go talk to those crazy street preachers." There he met the outspoken leader of the street preachers, Ruben Israel, a 53-year-old Whittier, Calif., native who...

(KUTV) A co-founder of genealogy company Ancestry.com has been arrested, accused of sexually abusing a teen. Prosecutors say 50-year-old Daniel Taggart gave his daughter and her 15-year-old friend alcohol and sex toys during an overnight party. Police say Taggart played cards with the girls and encouraged a twerking contest. The 15-year-old allegedly got shot glasses and sex toys as prizes. Eventually the alcohol, police say, took effect. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the victim told police once Taggart’s daughter feel asleep, he turned on a pornographic video and sexually assaulted her. She said the same thing happened at another...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and The Boy Scouts of America are facing a lawsuit from a former Boy Scout who over alleged sexual abuse at a church-sponsored Scouting trip.

SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) An LDS apostle reaffirmed recently that Mormons who support gay marriage are not in danger of losing their temple privileges or church memberships — even though the Utah-based faith opposes the practice.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Mormon-church-backed anti-discrimination bill that protects LGBT Utah residents and religious rights received final approval at the state's Republican-controlled Legislature on Wednesday. The House of Representatives voted 65-10 to pass the bill, which was only unveiled last week. The Senate passed it Friday. The bill earned a rare endorsement from the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which helped fast-track the measure through the Legislature. Gov. Gary Herbert, a Republican and member of the church, has said he'll sign the bill.

Constitutional Carry is currently available in five States.  Fourteen States have active legislation pending to move the State to a Constitutional Carry model, including Maine, New Hampshire and Colorado.  Idaho’s legislation (HB89) has been blocked and declared dead by an ad-hoc secret committee. This ad-hoc secret committee has no published members, no scheduled meetings, and no public hearings on bills being voted on.  This committee has handles all bills introduced that cover firearms in the State of Idaho.  It is rumored it is a joint House and Senate committee. Idaho’s multiple concealed carry levels Idaho currently has multiple levels of...

David Conley Nelson has spent years researching the LDS Church during the Third Reich, resulting in the new book Moroni and the Swastika: Mormons in Nazi Germany.Though it’s not officially out until February 26, the book will be launched Sam Weller’s in Trolley Square, Salt Lake City, tomorrow evening.It’s not right to say I “enjoyed” this book, because it was disturbing to discover how deeply some Mormons bought into Nazi ideology. But it’s required reading for anyone interested in Mormon history and the larger question of a religion’s responsibility to procure justice for the oppressed – even when it means...

LEHI — Officers booked a man Wednesday afternoon after a 10-year-old girl disclosed the suspect had sexually abused her last summer. During an interview at the Children’s Justice Center, the victim said she was swimming at a neighbor’s home in Lehi during the summer of 2014. During that time, the neighbor’s uncle, Jeff Hunt, came out and got in the pool with the victim and with her friends. They started to play a game of “shark,” but during the game, Hunt, 42, reportedly made the victim grab and squeeze his crotch underwater. She also stated he had reached up and...

About Me I am originally from Los Angeles, California and currently reside in Orem, Utah. I am an entrepreneur for Eklect Enterprises and a student at Utah Valley University majoring in Software Engineering. I have been a member of the church since 1991, and my parents were converts to the church in 1984. I served a full-time mission in the Colorado Denver North Mission from 2003-2005 where I earned multiple awards, including the Gold Award in the Gospel Scholarship Program. After my mission service, I have held different auxiliary positions and callings in the church, from Nursery to Bishopric; I...

On this episode, Richard, Sarah, and Jordan discuss different theories of the atonement, comparing mainstream Christian views to the Mormon view.

SALT LAKE CITY- A Mormon man who gained notoriety over the past decade for running a website that offers doubting Latter-day Saints a forum to chat has been kicked out of the religion. John Dehlin announced the decision from regional church leaders Tuesday. He becomes the second high-profile church member to be excommunicated in the past year in what Mormon scholars consider to be the Utah-based faith's way of keeping dissenters in line. Regional church leaders in North Logan told Dehlin in a letter that they made a unanimous decision to excommunicate him for apostasy. The church defines apostasy as...

Ezra Taft Benson, the only Mormon apostle ever to serve in a U.S. Cabinet, was known as a forceful foe of communism and a dedicated disciple of conservatism. Benson's most enduring religious legacy...may be his dramatic reordering of LDS scriptural priorities. In a word, Benson — during his 50-plus years as an LDS authority, including 8½ as president — elevated the faith's signature scripture, the Book of Mormon, to its pre-eminence in the LDS canon, so that leaders and members alike now quote and read it more often than the Bible. This year, as members of the 15 million-member Church...

SALT LAKE CITY — The founder of the Mormon Stories podcasts announced Tuesday that he has been excommunicated from the LDS Church for apostasy. John Dehlin, who had criticized senior leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and spread what his local church leader called "false concepts" about the faith, made the announcement in a press release Tuesday morning and on the KUER radio program, "RadioWest." North Logan Utah Stake President Bryan King convened a church disciplinary council for Dehlin on Sunday night after eight months of correspondence and meetings with Dehlin. King delivered a letter to...

<p>Matthew Aune and Derek Jones were...strolling through Main Street Plaza just east of the Salt Lake Temple, the holiest site in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.</p> <p>Aune bussed his partner on the cheek. Church security guards appeared. The twentysomething men said they were cuffed and forced to the ground. The church's official statement said the couple had been "engaged in passionate kissing, groping, profane and lewd language" on private church property, an account the two men vigorously contested.</p>